Why were monasteries dissolved

However a great deal of the wealth Henry acquired through the Dissolution was spent on his wars with France and Scotland. The gentry and rich merchants who bought the land also prospered. One of the saddest legacies of the Dissolution was the loss and destruction of monastic libraries and their precious illuminated manuscripts.

Malmesbury Abbey, one of the last monasteries to be suppressed in Apparently during the journey Horner opened the pie and stole the deeds of the manor of Mells in Somerset. The manor properties included lead mines, and it is suggested that the plum in the rhyme is a pun on the Latin plumbum, for lead. Records confirm that a Thomas Horner did indeed become the owner of the manor, however this does not confirm the legend.

Fountains Abbey lies along the valley of the River Skell about two miles west of Ripon. The vandalism of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century resulted in an irrevocable loss of heritage, yet as you stroll among the ruins of these great monastic houses you cannot fail but be touched by their beauty and grace….

But Henry was also a complex man: intelligent, boisterous, flamboyant, extravagant. This act became known as the ' Dissolution of the Monasteries '. The Dissolution of the Monasteries lasted four years to The last monastery to be dissolved was Waltham Abbey in March Henry put Thomas Cromwell in charge of getting rid of the monasteries. Cromwell started by sending royal commissioners to all the monasteries in - to find out what they own, how much money they have coming in, and to report on what is happening inside the monasteries.

The royal commissioners report stated that the monks and nuns are seriously breaking the rules they should be living by. Titchfield Abbey was given to Thomas Wriothesley, one of Henry's closest friends in Henry Vlll took ownership of all the buildings, land, money and everything else. Some of the small monasteries stay open because they paid some money to the king. The Act of Suppression Another Act of Suppression sanctioned the transfer of further monastic possessions to the state.

The Pope will not let him. Boleyn had recently returned from the French royal court and was now a sparkling courtier , well-versed in the courtly game of love. Setting Cardinal Wolsey on the task, a number of challenging factors delayed the proceedings. Eventually Henry realised he was fighting a losing battle and in February , he declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England , meaning he now had jurisdiction on what exactly happened to its religious houses. The first step to the demise of the monasteries was set in motion.

The friars from the Greenwich house were imprisoned where many died of maltreatment for example, while a number of the Carthusian monks were executed for high treason. Simple obedience was not enough for Henry VIII however, as the monasteries also had something he was desperately in need of — vast wealth. After years of lavish spending and costly wars, Henry VIII had frittered away much of his inheritance — an inheritance painstakingly amassed by his frugal father Henry VII.

In , a valuation of the Church was commissioned by Thomas Cromwell known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus , which demanded all religious establishments give authorities an accurate inventory of their lands and revenues.

Open houses meant that the occupants worked with the local sick and provided, for example, teachers for boys in the local community. It was common for open religious houses to be poor as what money they raised was spent on the local community.

However, closed orders could be and many were very wealthy. In this way, some religious orders grew spectacularly rich. The thirty richest monasteries were as rich or richer than the wealthiest nobles in the land. For many the work of monks and nuns was an accepted and normal part of life — few knew any different.

The closing down of monasteries was not new. Cardinal Wolsey shut down a number of religious houses years before the attack by Cromwell and Henry.

When he closed them, Wolsey used the money raised from them for charitable purposes, including the building of a new grammar school in Ipswich. The man who did the legal work for this was Thomas Cromwell and the records indicate that what was done did not concern anyone of importance at the time. The whole approach to religious houses changed in Traditionally either a local bishop or a senior member of the order concerned had done these visits. Their task was to check on standards etc.

Now Cromwell ordered that his men should do them.