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The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the formal process between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monastic communities in England, Wales and Ireland and confiscated their property. Henry VIII (28 June 1491 &ndash 28 January 1547 was King of England and Lord of Ireland, later King of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world He was given the authority to do this by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England, and by the First Suppression Act (1536) and the Second Suppression Act (1539). The first Act of Supremacy granted King Henry VIII of England Royal Supremacy which is still the legal authority of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom The Parliament of England was the Legislature of the Kingdom of England.

Context

The Dissolution of the Monasteries did not take place in political isolation. Other movements against the authority of the Catholic Church had been under way for some time, most of them related to the Protestant Reformation in Continental Europe; however, the religious changes in England were of a different nature than those taking place in Germany, Bohemia, France and Geneva. The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in Europe that began in 1517 though its roots lie further back in time Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the Continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Bohemia (Čechy; Bohemia Czechy is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking Henry VIII's dispute with the Holy See was motivated by politics, not theology.

The initial changes resulted in few modifications for England's churches - at least superficially. Protestant innovations seen in the Ten Articles were reversed when Henry VIII expressed his desire for continued orthodoxy with the Six Articles of 1539, which remained in effect until after his death. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were established in 1563 and are the historic defining statements of Anglican doctrine in relation to the controversies of the The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion were established in 1563 and are the historic defining statements of Anglican doctrine in relation to the controversies of the Cardinal Wolsey had obtained from the Pope a Papal Bull authorising some limited reforms in the English Church as early as 1518. Thomas Cardinal Wolsey (c1470–1471 – November 28 or November 29 1530 who was born in Ipswich Suffolk England was an English Statesman and a cardinal History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and A Papal bull is a particular type of Letters patent or charter issued by a Pope.

Under Henry, acts reforming alleged abuses in the Church were passed in November 1529. They set caps on fees for probating wills and mortuary expenses for burial in hallowed ground, tightened regulations covering rights of sanctuary for criminals, and reduced to four the number of church offices that could be held by one man. Sanctuary has multiple meanings A sanctuary is the consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar These were less "religious reformation" than a sidewise gambit for establishing royal jurisdiction over the Church.

The resulting changes were essentially a form of "State Catholicism". Nevertheless, resistance from loyal Catholics was stiff, and was spearheaded by Reginald Pole. Reginald Pole (1500 &ndash November 17, 1558) was an English prelate a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and the last Roman Henry VIII originally offered Pole the position of Archbishop of York or Bishop of Winchester if he would support his divorce from Catherine of Aragon; but Pole gave him no support at all and fled into exile in France and Italy in 1532, where he continued his studies in Padua and Paris. The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. See also List of bishops of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England Catherine of Aragon (16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536 also known as Catharine, Katherine or Katharine ( Castilian Infanta Catalina This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Padua ( Padova 'padova Latin: Patavium, Padoa) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

English precedents

Visitation of a monastery

By the time Henry VIII launched his campaign against the monasteries, royal confiscations of the property of religious houses had a history stretching back more than 200 years. The first case was that of the so-called 'Alien Priories'. As a result of the Norman Conquest some French religious orders held substantial property through their daughter monasteries in England. Some of these were merely agricultural estates with a single foreign monk in residence to supervise things, others were rich foundations in their own right (e. g. Lewes Priory which was a daughter of Cluny and answered to the abbot of that great French house). Lewes Priory ( St Pancras Priory Lewes) was a Cluniac Priory established in the valley of the river Ouse in the eleventh century The Abbey of Cluny (or Cluni, or Clugny, pronunciation klyˈni is an abbey in France. Due to the fairly constant state of war between England and France in the later middle ages successive English governments had objected to money going overseas to France from these Alien Priories ('trading with the enemy') from whence the French king might get hold of it, and to foreign prelates having jurisdiction over English monasteries. The king's officers first sequestrated the assets of the Alien Priories in 1295-1303 under Edward I, and the same thing happened repeatedly for long periods over the course of the Fourteenth Century, most particularly in the reign of Edward III. Edward I (17 June 1239 – 7 July 1307 popularly known as Longshanks, was a King of England who achieved historical fame by conquering large parts of Wales and almost Edward III (13 November 1312 &ndash 21 June 1377 was one of the most successful English monarchs of the Middle Ages. Those Alien Priories that had functioning communities were forced to pay large sums to the king, while those that were mere estates were confiscated and run by royal officers, the proceeds going to the king's pocket. Such estates were a valuable source of income for the crown. Some of the Alien Priories were allowed to become naturalised (for instance Castle Acre Priory), on payment of heavy fines and bribes, but for the rest their fates were sealed when Henry V dissolved them by act of Parliament in 1414. Castle Acre Priory, in the Village of Castle Acre, Norfolk, England, is thought to have been founded in 1089 by William de Warenne Henry V (16 September 1386 &ndash 31 August 1422 was one of the most significant English warrior kings of the 15th century The properties went to the crown; some were kept, some were subsequently given or sold to Henry's supporters, others went to his new monasteries of Syon Abbey and the Carthusians at Sheen Priory and yet others went to educational purposes, a trend Henry's son Henry VI continued with his donations to, for example, Eton College. Syon Abbey, (or Sion Abbey) was a major mediæval Monastery of the Bridgettine Order in the late Gothic or Perpendicular The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. Richmond Priory also known as the Priory of Sheen was a Carthusian Monastery, at Richmond, Surrey, England. Henry VI (6 December 1421 &ndash 21 May 1471 was King of England 1422–1461 (though with a Regent until 1437 and then 1470–1471 and a claimant to the kingdom Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI.

The royal transfer of monastic estates to educational foundations proved an inspiration to the bishops, and as the Fifteenth Century waned such moves became more and more common. The victims of these dissolutions were usually small and poor Benedictine or Augustinian men's houses or poor nunneries with few powerful friends, the great abbeys and orders exempt from diocesan supervision such as the Cistercians were unaffected. Benedictine refers to the Spirituality and Consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in The Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo (died AD 430) are several Catholic Monastic orders and congregations The beneficiaries were most often Oxford University and Cambridge University colleges, instances of this include John Alcock, Bishop of Ely dissolving the Benedictine nunnery of Saint Radegund to found Jesus College, Cambridge(1496), and William Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester acquiring Selborne Priory in 1484 for Magdalen College, Oxford. Oxford is currently bidding for the 2010 Wikimania Conference Oxford () is a city, and the County town of Oxfordshire, The city of Cambridge (ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England John Alcock may refer to John Alcock (aviator John Alcock (bishop John Alcock (behavioral ecologist The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in Radegund (also spelled Rhadegund) (c 520–587 was a 6th century Frankish princess who founded the Convent of Our Lady of Poitiers. Jesus College in the University of Cambridge was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely. William Waynflete (born William Patten) (c 1398 &ndash 11 August 1486) was Bishop of Winchester from 1447 to 1486 and Lord Chancellor See also List of bishops of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England Magdalen College redirects here see also Magdalene College Cambridge Magdalen College (ˈmɔːdlɨn "maudlin" is one of the constituent In the following century Lady Margaret Beaufort got hold of Creake Abbey (whose population had all died of Black Death in 1506) to fund her works at Oxford and Cambridge, an action she took on the advice of such a staunch traditionalist as John Fisher Bishop of Rochester. Lady Margaret Beaufort ( May 31, 1443 &ndash June 29, 1509) of the House of Lancaster was the mother of King Henry VII of The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the deadliest Pandemics in human history widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia John Cardinal Fisher (c1469 &ndash 22 June, 1535) from 1935 Saint John Fisher, was an English Catholic bishop cardinal and In 1522 Fisher himself is also found dissolving the nunneries of Bromhall and Higham to aid St John's College, Cambridge. St John's College, an institution known formally as The Master Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is a That same year Cardinal Wolsey dissolved St Frideswide's Priory (now Oxford Cathedral) to form the basis of his Christ Church, Oxford; in 1524 he secured a Papal bull to dissolve some 20 other monasteries to provide an endowment for his new college. The priory of St Frideswide Oxford was established as a Priory of Augustinian Regular canons, in 1122. Christ Church Cathedral is the Cathedral of the Diocese of Oxford, which includes the City of Oxford England, and the surrounding countryside as far Not to be confused with Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. Christ Church (Ædes Christi the temple or house of Christ and thus sometimes known as A Papal bull is a particular type of Letters patent or charter issued by a Pope. However, the friars, monks and nuns of these were always absorbed into other houses of their respective orders.

It was a sort of cause and affect. Henry had war with france, he then had no money, church lost vote in parliamentparliament become secular

European precedents

While these transactions were going on in England, elsewhere in Europe events were taking place which presaged a storm. In 1521, Martin Luther had published 'De votis monasticis' (Latin: 'On the monastic vows'), a treatise which declared that the monastic life had no scriptural basis, was pointless and also actively immoral in that it was not compatible with the true spirit of Christianity. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Luther also declared that monastic vows were meaningless and that no one should feel bound by them. Luther, a one time monk, found some comfort when these views had a dramatic effect: a special meeting of German members of the Augustinian Friars, (of which Luther was part) held the same year accepted them and voted that henceforth every member of the regular clergy should be free to renounce their vows, resign their offices and to get married. The Augustinians, named after Saint Augustine of Hippo (died AD 430) are several Catholic Monastic orders and congregations At Luther's home monastery in Wittenberg all the monks save one did so. Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a Town in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the Elbe

News of these events did not take long to spread among Protestant-minded (and acquisitive) rulers across Europe, and some, particularly in Scandinavia, moved very quickly. In Sweden in 1527 King Gustavus Vasa secured an edict of the Diet allowing him to confiscate any monastic lands he deemed necessary to increase royal revenues; and to force the return of donated properties to the descendants of those who had donated them. "Sverige" redirects here For other uses see Sweden (disambiguation and Sverige (disambiguation. Gustav I, born Gustav Eriksson (Colloquial 15th century Upplandic Gösta Jerksson) and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496 – 29 September In one fell swoop, Gustav gained large estates and a company of diehard supporters. The Swedish monasteries and convents were simultaneously deprived of their livelihoods, with the result that some collapsed immediately, while others lingered on for a few decades before persecution and further confiscations finally caused them all to disappear by 1580. In Denmark, King Frederick I of Denmark made his grab in 1528, confiscating 15 of the houses of the wealthiest monasteries and convents. The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Frederick I of Denmark and Norway ( October 7 1471 &ndash April 10 1533) was the son of the first Oldenburg King Christian Further laws under his successor over the course of the 1530s banned the friars, and forced monks and nuns to transfer title to their houses to the crown, which parsed them out to supportive nobles, who were soon found enjoying the fruits of former monastic lands. Danish monastic life was to vanish in a way identical to that of Sweden.

In Switzerland, too, monasteries came under threat. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation In 1523 the government of the city-state of Zurich pressured nuns to leave their convents and marry, and followed up the next year by dissolving all monasteries in its territory, under the pretext of using their revenues to fund education and help the poor. Zürich (, Zürich German: Züri, Zurich, Zurigo; in English generally Zurich) is the largest city in Switzerland and capital of the The former religious who cooperated with the scheme were offered help with learning a trade for their new secular lives, and in some cases were granted pensions. The city of Basel followed suit in 1529 and Geneva adopted the same policy in 1530. "Basilia" redirects here For the Fly Genus, see Basilia (fly. Geneva (Genève is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and is the most populous city of Romandy (the French -speaking An attempt was also made in 1530 to dissolve the famous Abbey of St. Gall, which was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in its own right, but this failed, and St. The Abbey of St Gall (Sankt Gallen was for many centuries one of the chief Benedictine Abbeys in Europe The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in Gall has survived.

It is impossible that these moves went unnoticed by the English government and particularly by Thomas Cromwell, shortly to become Henry VIII's chief minister, who promised to make his king wealthier than any previous English monarch.

Process

On failing famously to receive his desired annulment from the Pope, Henry had himself declared Supreme Head of the Church in England in February 1531. Supreme Head of the Church of England was a title held by King Henry VIII of England signifying his leadership of the Church of England. In April 1533 an Act in Restraint of Appeals eliminated the right of clergy to appeal to "foreign tribunals" (Rome) over the King's head in any spiritual or financial matter. The Statute in Restraint of Appeals – Short title Ecclesiastical Appeals Act 1532 – (citation 24 Henry VIII

In 1534 Henry had Parliament authorise Thomas Cromwell, to "visit" all the monasteries (which included all abbeys, priories and convents), ostensibly to make sure their members were instructed in the new rules for their supervision by the King instead of the Pope, but actually to inventory their assets (see Valor Ecclesiasticus). The Parliament of England was the Legislature of the Kingdom of England. Thomas Cromwell 1st Earl of Essex (c 1485 &ndash 28 July 1540) was an English statesman who served as King Henry VIII 's chief minister A canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view of maintaining faith and discipline and of correcting This article concerns the buildings occupied by monastics. For the life inside monasteries and its historical roots see Monasticism. An abbey (from Latin abbatia derived from Syriac abba "father" is a Christian Monastery or A priory is a House of men or women under religious vows headed by a Prior or prioress A convent is a community of Priests religious brothers religious sisters or Nuns or the building used by the community particularly in the Roman Catholic Church History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and The Valor Ecclesiasticus ( Latin: "church valuation" was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts A few months later, in January 1535 when the consternation at having a lay visitation instead of a bishop's had settled down, Cromwell's visitation authority was delegated to a commission of laymen including Layton, Pollard and Moyle, for the purpose of ascertaining what wealth the monasteries held and find pretexts for the plunder that was about to ensue. This phase is termed the "Visitation of the Monasteries. "

In the summer of that year, the visitors started their work, and "preachers" and "railers" were sent out to deliver sermons from the pulpits of the churches on three themes:

• The monks and nuns in the monasteries were called sinful "hypocrites", "sorcerers" and "idle drones", who were living lives of luxury and engaging in every kind of sin;
• Those monks and nuns were living off the working people and giving nothing back, being a serious drain on England's economy. MONK is a Monte Carlo software package for simulating nuclear processes particularly for the purpose of determining the neutron multiplication factor or k-effective A Nun is a Woman who has taken special vows committing her to a religious life Hypocrisy (or the state of being a hypocrite) is the act of preaching a certain belief religion or way of life but not in fact holding these same virtues oneself A magician is a person skilled in the mysterious and hidden art of magic, the ability to attain objectives acquire knowledge or perform works of wonder using Supernatural
• If the King received all the property of the monasteries, he would never again need taxes from the people.

Meanwhile, during the autumn of 1535, the visiting commissioners were sending back to Cromwell written reports of all the lurid doings they claimed to be discovering, sexual as well as financial. A "horrified" Parliament enacted laws in early 1536, relying in large part on the reports of "impropriety" Cromwell had received, provided for the King to seize all the monasteries with annual incomes of less than £200. This was speedily done. The smaller, less influential houses were emptied, their properties confiscated, and those monks and nuns who cooperated given preferments or pensioned off. Those who resisted were imprisoned. Those who remained adamant were killed. Monastic life had been in decline for some time. By 1536, the thirteen Cistercian houses in Wales held only 85 monks amongst them. However, the claims of misbehaviour were greatly exaggerated.

These moves did not raise as much capital as Henry had expected. Even after re-chartering some of the monasteries he confiscated them a second time. In April 1539 a sufficiently terrorized Parliament passed a new law giving the King the remaining monasteries in England, Ireland and Wales. Some resisted, and that autumn the abbots of Colchester, Glastonbury, and Reading were hanged, drawn and quartered for treason. The word abbot, meaning Father, is a title given to the head of a Monastery in various traditions including Christianity. Colchester ( /ˈkəʊltʃɛstə/ is a town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester, in Essex, England. Glastonbury Abbey, founded in the seventh century was a rich and powerful monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Reading Abbey is a large ruined Abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. To be hanged drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for the crime of High treason. In Law, treason is the Crime that covers some of the more serious acts of disloyalty to one's sovereign or Nation. (The Carthusian priors of Beauvale, London, and Axholme, were executed in 1535 for refusal to recognise Henry's Act of Supremacy. Beauvale Charterhouse (also known as Beauvale Priory) was a Carthusian monastery in Beauvale, Nottinghamshire. The London Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in London, England, to the north of what is now Charterhouse Square. The Isle of Axholme is part of North Lincolnshire, England. It is the only part of Lincolnshire west of the River Trent. ) St. Benet's Abbey in Norfolk was the only abbey in England which escaped dissolution. St Benet's Abbey is a ruined Abbey situated on the River Bure within The Broads in Norfolk England. Norfolk (ˈnɔrfək is a low-lying county in East Anglia, England, United Kingdom.

The other abbots signed their abbeys over to the King. Some of the confiscated church buildings were destroyed for the valuable lead in them; their stones and slate roofs sold off to the highest bidder. Many were turned into graineries, barns and stables. Some of the smaller Benedictine houses were taken over as churches, and were even bought for the purpose by wealthy parishes. Benedictine refers to the Spirituality and Consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in Saints, and even English kings, were dragged out of their graves; their relics burned and ancient pilgrimages forbidden. A relic is an object or a personal item of religious significance carefully preserved with an air of Veneration as a tangible memorial In Religion and Spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or Search of great Moral significance Great abbeys and priories like Glastonbury, Walsingham, Bury St Edmunds, Shaftesbury and Canterbury, which had flourished as pilgrimage sites for centuries became ruins. Glastonbury is a small town in Somerset, England, situated at a Dry point on the Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. This refers to the English village for other uses see Walsingham (disambiguation Walsingham is a Village (actually two conjoined Bury St Edmunds is a town in the county of Suffolk, England and formerly the County town of West Suffolk. Shaftesbury is a Town in North Dorset, England, situated on the A30 road near the Wiltshire border 20 Miles west of Canterbury ( ˈkæntəbɹ̩i is a City in eastern Kent in the South East region of England. However, the tradition that there was widespread destruction and iconoclasm, that altars and windows were smashed, partly confuses the looting spree of the 1530s with the vandalism wrought by the Puritans in the next century. Iconoclasm, Greek for "image-breaking" is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious Icons and other symbols or monuments An altar is any structure upon which Sacrifices or other offerings are made for religious purposes or some other sacred place where ceremonies take place GlassWindowjpg|thumb|right|190px|A stained glass panel depicting Biblical scenes at a historic church in Scotland]] A window is an opening A Puritan of 16th and 17th century England was an associate of any number of religious groups advocating for more "purity" of Worship and Doctrine,

Still, Henry needed more money; so many of the abbeys now in his possession were resold to the new Tudor gentry, binding them as a class most firmly to the new, Protestant establishment. Social and economic revolution Following the Black Death Plagues and the agricultural depression of the late 14th century population growth Protestantism refers to the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

Consequences

Ruins of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire

The abbeys of England, Wales and Ireland had been among the greatest landowners and the largest institutions in the kingdom. Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire, England, is a Ruined Cistercian Monastery, founded in 1132 Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Particularly in areas far from London, the abbeys, convents and priories were the principal centres of hospitality, learning, patronage of artists and craftsmen and sources of charity and medical care. The removal of over eight hundred such institutions, virtually overnight, rent vast gaps in the social fabric.

It is unlikely that the monastic system could have been broken simply by royal action had there not been the overwhelming bait of personal enrichment for gentry large and small, and the convictions of the small but determined Protestant faction. Gentry generally refers to people of high Social class, especially in the past Anti-clericalism was a familiar feature of late-medieval Europe, producing its own strain of satiric literature that was aimed at a literate middle class. Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes Religious (generally Catholic institutional power and influence real or alleged in all aspects of public and political ^[1]

Along with the destruction of the monasteries, some many hundreds of years old, the related destruction of the monastic libraries was perhaps the greatest cultural loss caused by the English Reformation. A library is a collection of information sources resources and services and the structure in which it is housed it is organized for use and maintained by a public body an institution Worcester Priory (now Worcester Cathedral) had 600 books at the time of the dissolution. Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican Cathedral in Worcester, England situated on a bank overlooking the River Severn. Only six of them have survived intact to the present day. At the abbey of the Augustinian Friars at York, a library of 646 volumes was destroyed, leaving only three surviving books. Some books were destroyed for their precious bindings, others were sold off by the cartload, including irreplaceable early English works. It is believed that many of the earliest Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were lost at this time. Anglo-Saxon literature (or Old English literature) encompasses Literature written in Anglo-Saxon (Old English during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon

Monastic hospitals were also lost, with devastating consequences for the locals. Monasteries had also supplied free food and alms for the poor and destitute. The removal of this resource was one of the factors in the creation of the army of "sturdy beggars" that plagued late Tudor England, causing the social instability that led to the Edwardian and Elizabethan Poor Laws. This article deals chiefly with the English Poor Laws covering England and Wales On the eve of the overthrow, the various monasteries owned approximately 2,000,000 acres, over 16 percent of England, with tens of thousands of tenant farmers working those lands. The monastic landlords were appreciated for their lenient terms; and some of their tenant families had lived on monastic lands for many generations. The aristocrats who displaced them soon demanded higher rents, immediate payment and greater productivity from their tenants.

Furthermore, the suppression of the English monasteries and nunneries contributed as well to the spreading decline of that contemplative spirituality which once thrived in Europe; with the occasional exception found only in groups such as the Society of Friends ("Quakers").

Many of the monasteries and friaries were dismantled, their stones, wood, books, stained glass windows and lead sold to aristocrats and local merchants. Some of the seized lands the King gave outright to his supporters; there were also pensions paid out to cooperative clerics, many of whom moved on to serve as priests in the new, Anglican churches. Although the total annual value of the confiscated property has been calculated to have been £200,000 at the time, the actual amount of income King Henry received from it from 1536 through 1547 averaged only £37,000 per year, about one fifth of what the monks had derived from it.

The dissolution and destruction of the monasteries and shrines was very unpopular in many areas. In the north of England, centering on Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the suppression of the monasteries led to a popular rising, the Pilgrimage of Grace, that threatened the crown for some weeks. Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536 in protest against England 's break with Rome and The demand for the restoration of some monasteries resurfaced later, in the West Country Prayer Book Rebellion of 1549. The Prayer Book Rebellion, Western Rising or Western Rebellion was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon, in 1549 In 1536 there were major, popular uprisings in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and, a further rising in Norfolk the following year. Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs) is a county in the east of England. Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Norfolk (ˈnɔrfək is a low-lying county in East Anglia, England, United Kingdom. Rumours were spread that the King was going to strip the parish churches too, and even tax cattle and sheep. The rebels called for an end to the dissolution of the monasteries, for the removal of Cromwell, and for Henry's daughter, and eldest child, the Catholic Mary to be named as successor in place of his younger son, Edward. Thomas Cromwell 1st Earl of Essex (c 1485 &ndash 28 July 1540) was an English statesman who served as King Henry VIII 's chief minister Catholic is an Adjective derived from the Greek adjective '' / 'katholikos' meaning "whole" or "complete". Mary I (18 February 1516 &ndash 17 November 1558 was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death Edward VI (12 October 1537 &ndash 6 July 1553 became King of England and Ireland on 28 January 1547 and was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine Henry defused the movement with solemn promises, all of which went unkept, and then summarily executed the leaders.

See also

• The earlier dissolution of the Knights Templar
• List of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England
• Little Jack Horner, a children's rhyme allegedly based on the episode. The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici commonly known as the Knights Templar or the Order These monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII of England in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Little Jack Horner is a Nursery rhyme. It has the Roud Folk Song Index number of 13027
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• The Servile State by Hilaire Belloc
• Cestui que
• English Reformation
• Henry VIII of England
• Holy Jesus Hospital

References

1. ^ Chaucer's Pardoner and other Chaucerian anticlerical satire are too familiar to need instancing; the general background is in John Peter, Complaint and Satire in Early English Literature. This article is about the development of religion in the United Kingdom (UK since its formation in 1707 The Servile State is a book written by Hilaire Belloc in 1912 about Economics. Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (27 July 1870 &ndash 16 July 1953 was a French -born Writer who became a Naturalised British subject Cestui que, Cestuy que, is an Anglo-French phrase of medieval English invention which appears in the legal phrases cestui que trust, cestui que use The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th century England by which the Church of England first broke away from the authority of the Pope Henry VIII (28 June 1491 &ndash 28 January 1547 was King of England and Lord of Ireland, later King of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of The Holy Jesus Hospital is a museum and tourist attraction in Newcastle upon Tyne, England in the care of the National Trust. Geoffrey Chaucer (c 1343 – 25 October 1400? was an English author poet Philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and Diplomat. (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 1956.

• Geoffrey Baskerville, English Monks and the Suppression of the Monasteries (1937)
• Brendan Bradshaw, The Dissolution of the Religious Orders in Ireland under Henry VIII (1974)
• Howard Colvin, The History of the King's Works
• J. For the character on the HBO television series The Wire see Howard "Bunny" Colvin. C. K. Cornwall, Wealth and Society in Early Sixteenth-Century England (Cambridge 1988)
• A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation ((2nd ed. Arthur Geoffrey Dickens ( 6 July[[ 910]] &ndash 31 July 2001) was an English Academic and Author. London 1989)
• Eamon Duffy (1992). Eamon Duffy is an Irish Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Cambridge, and former President of Magdalene The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400–1580. The Stripping of the Altars Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580 is a work of history written by Eamon Duffy and published in 1992 by Yale University Press Yale University Press ISBN 0-300-06076-9. An interpretation radically different from that contained in this article. Duffy maintains that Henry VIII's reformation was in many ways a radical Protestant reformation, that Mary I's attempt to restore Catholicism was a Counter-Reformation effort and that her form of Catholicism was considerably different from that which Henry VIII had swept away.
• F. A. Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monasteries (8th ed. Francis Aidan Gasquet, OSB ( 5 October, 1846 at Somers Town, England &ndash 5 April 1929 in Rome was an English Benedictine monk London 1925)
• C. Haigh, The Last Days of the Lancashire Monasteries and the Pilgrimage of Grace (1969)
• ——, Reformation and Resistance in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge 1975)
• David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, vol III (1959)
• H. F. M. Prescott (1952). David Knowles ( Studley, Warwickshire 1896-1974 was an English Benedictine monk of Downside Abbey and historian Hilda Francis Margaret Prescott, more usually known as H F M Prescott ( 22 February 1896 &ndash 1972 was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Man on a Donkey. A finely researched novel, set in the form of a chronicle, of Henry VIII's dissolution of monasteries and the answering rebellion in the North, the Pilgrimage of Grace
• A. The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536 in protest against England 's break with Rome and Savine, English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution (Oxford 1909)
• J. Youings, The Dissolution of the Monasteries (1971)

External links

• Dissolution of the Monasteries
• BBC Timeline: Tudors
• BBC History: English Reformation
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Suppression of English Monasteries