dissolution of the monasteries

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dissolution of the monasteries of England and Wales occurred between 1536 and 1540. Profoundly controversial to contemporaries, this was an unparalleled secular spoliation of ecclesiastical property. By the 16th cent. most English monasteries were in decline. Numbers of religious were falling; the economy of the majority had been seriously disturbed by changes consequent upon 14th-cent. crises; few new communities were being founded, though there were exceptions such as Syon and Sheen; spiritual and literary life were generally insipid, and few new benefactions were being attracted from lay patrons. However, very few houses had been forced into ‘liquidation’ through religious or economic failure prior to the 1530s, and those that had, disappeared largely because they were ‘alien priories’, i.e. subject to monasteries in France and hence potentially disloyal. Their property was usually passed to another monastery or, as happened at Cardinal Wolsey's foundation of Cardinal College (later Christ Church, Oxford), used to finance educational establishments. Nor is there much evidence that lay society was hostile to the monasteries: indeed, following their dissolution there was considerable support for them, notably expressed in the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536) in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

But the monasteries remained wealthy communities, and hence tempting to Henry VIII and his chief adviser Thomas Cromwell. The full-scale valuation of ecclesiastical income, the Valor ecclesiasticus (1535), had revealed the extent of monastic revenues. The desire to appropriate these potently combined with the king's continuing onslaught on the ecclesiastical establishment. Royal visitations revealed convenient scandals and in 1536 all monasteries with an annual income of less than £200 were suppressed. This was followed by the gradual dissolution of individual larger houses and in 1539 all surviving greater monasteries were dissolved. Comparatively few monks raised more than token resistance, those most likely to object having in most cases already been executed for refusing to take the oath of supremacy. Monks were given annual pensions; a number became secular priests. Ex-nuns were more harshly treated and were not permitted to marry till the reign of Edward VI.

Monastic lands, administered through the Court of Augmentations, largely fell into the hands of the aristocracy and gentry, though some were used to endow new bishoprics; buildings were looted for their materials, though some churches were adapted to parochial use; the great artistic treasures accumulated over centuries were destroyed or dispersed.

Brian Golding

dissolution of the monasteries. On the eve of the Reformation, recruitment to the monasteries was in decline and secularization already in train, with gentry families intruding kinsmen as superiors who dilapidated the properties in their favour. The Palesmen, led by Patrick Barnewall, rejected an initial bill in 1536 to dissolve eight small Irish monasteries, fearing the loss of interest in estates they were already administering as lawyers or leasing as farmers. The bill passed in 1537, when an equitable distribution of property was agreed. Following the complete suppression of English monasteries in 1538, a commission was appointed in April 1539 which dissolved 42 monasteries and 51 friaries in the Pale and Ormond. The commissioners encountered few problems, despite the war of the Geraldine League. The last major dissolution was the Knights Hospitallers at Kilmainham, which Prior Rawson surrendered in November 1540 after being granted a life peerage and a pension of 500 marks. St Leger extended the policy to Desmond and Thomond, but in tune with the conciliatory policy of surrender and regrant allowed the earls to run the suppression commissions themselves.

The exchequer gained only £1,884 additional revenue from the dissolution. The main beneficiaries were Lord Deputies Grey and St Leger, and Treasurer Brabazon. Palesmen received lands to round off their estates. About 20 New English landowners arrived in the Pale and in Wexford. The marcher lords extended their holdings as did Ormond, Clanricard, Thomond, and Desmond.

Calculated on the annual income of their monasteries, superiors received pensions ranging from £6 to £50; ordinary monks received between 13s. 4d. and £3 6s. 8d. An act of parliament allowed them to work and trade but did not absolve them of their vows of chastity! Socially the dissolution was not a disaster: the monastic provision of poor relief, education, and medical care had all but ceased, and since the end of the 15th century secular charities and municipal bodies had established hospitals, almshouses, and schools. The growing wealth of the Palesmen, which the dissolution accelerated, facilitated further private philanthropy.

Sixty per cent of Irish monasteries and friaries, with a dwindling band of monks but many highly respected friars, remained undisturbed in the Gaelic and Gaelicized parts of Ireland, as potential targets for future land‐grabbers.

Bibliography

Bradshaw, Brendan , The Dissolution of the Religious Orders in Ireland (1974)

Hiram Morgan

Monasteries, Dissolution of the (1536–40) The systematic abolition of English monasticism and transfer of monastic property to the Tudor monarchy, part of the English REFORMATION. Thomas CROMWELL, HENRY VIII's vicar-general, pointed the way ahead by commissioning the Valor Ecclesiasticus (1535), a great survey of church wealth, and by sending agents to investigate standards within the religious houses. An Act of Parliament (1536) dissolved monasteries with annual revenues of under £200. This provoked an uprising, the PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE. In its aftermath, Cromwell forced certain abbots to surrender larger houses to the king. Another Act (1539) confirmed all surrenders that had been, and were to be, made, and monastic lands passed to the Court of Augmentations of the King's Revenue, a state department. Resistance was minimal. By 1540 all 800 or more English houses were closed. Eleven thousand monks, nuns, and their dependants were ejected from their communities, most with little or no compensation.

The Dissolution had a number of consequences apart from the immediate wholesale destruction of monastic buildings and the despoliation of their libraries and treasures. The nobility and gentry benefited financially from the distribution of former monastic lands, which were used to form the basis of new private estates, and the laity gained a monopoly of ecclesiastical patronage which survived for the next three centuries. The termination of monastic charity and the closure of monastery schools stimulated the introduction of the POOR LAW system and the foundation of grammar schools.

dissolution of the monasteries of England and Wales occurred between 1536 and 1540. Profoundly controversial to contemporaries, this was an unparalleled secular spoliation of ecclesiastical property. By the 16th cent. most English monasteries were in some decline, but remained wealthy, and hence tempting to Henry VIII. The full‐scale valuation of ecclesiastical income, the Valor ecclesiasticus (1535), had revealed the extent of monastic revenues. The desire to appropriate these potently combined with the king's continuing onslaught on the ecclesiastical establishment. Royal visitations revealed convenient scandals and in 1536 all monasteries with an annual income of less than £200 were suppressed. In 1539 all surviving greater monasteries were dissolved. Monks were given annual pensions; a number became secular priests. Ex‐nuns were more harshly treated and were not permitted to marry till the reign of Edward VI. Monastic lands, administered through the Court of Augmentations, largely fell into the hands of the aristocracy and gentry.

Dissolution of the Monasteries. Though there was some criticism of the monasteries in the later Middle Ages, Henry VIII abolished the system for personal motives, including the need to replenish his treasury. The Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 (passed in 1536) ordered the suppression of all religious houses having an annual value of less than £200; some 250 were involved. After the defeat of the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536–7), to which the popularity of the monasteries had contributed, royal agents toured the country to obtain individual surrenders of the remaining monasteries and nunneries. The remaining friaries were suppressed in 1538. The Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539 completed the process by vesting in the Crown all monasteries that had been or should be surrendered; the last house surrendered in 1540. Apart from the friars, most religious were pensioned. The bulk of the proceeds passed from the Crown to the nobility and gentry, though part was used to found six new dioceses.

Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–40) Abolition of English monasticism in the reign of Henry VIII. The operation, managed by Thomas Cromwell, was a result of the break with Rome, but also provided additional revenue, since the monasteries owned c.25% of the land in England, all of which passed to the Crown. The smaller religious houses were closed in 1536, larger ones in 1538–40. The Dissolution caused social hardship, resentment and revolt, while providing estates for upwardly mobile gentry.

dissolution of the monasteries the abolition of monasteries in England and Wales by Henry VIII under two Acts (1536, 1539), in order to replenish his treasury by vesting monastic assets in the Crown and to establish royal supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs.

Dissolution of the Monasteries See MONASTERIES, DISSOLUTION OF THE.