Causes of Poverty 8: Dissolution of the Monasteries

Question 1

What do contemporaries believe?

Answer 1

Contemporaries believe that many monks and nuns were forced to turn to vagrancy and that 80,000, including the families of the victims, were forced to look for work in the wake of the dissolution.

Question 2

What was lo longer available?

Answer 2

The hospitality of the monasteries was no longer available.

Question 3

However, in reality and contrary to contemporaries’ beliefs, what happened?

Answer 3

In reality, very few monks and nuns turned to vagrancy, and many received pensions.

Question 4

When would life be difficult?

Answer 4

Life would be difficult for anyone who depended entirely on their pensions.

Question 5

What did the increase in the cost of living mean?

Answer 5

That pensions lost their value as time went on.

Question 6

What did many monks succeed in doing?

Answer 6

Many succeeded in getting jobs within the church, as the crown was eager to help them so as to avoid having to pay them a pension.

Question 7

However what about nuns?

Answer 7

However the same can not be said about nuns who received far smaller pensions.

Question 8

What happened to house-servants?

Answer 8

House servants’ services were no longer required and they only received compensation for a small period of time, then they were forced to compete for work in a market that was already over-full. Many of these turned to vagrancy.

Question 9

In summary, who were the ones to suffer most in the wave of the dissolution? (4)

Answer 9

1. Monks who relied on their pensions.
2. Nuns who received far smaller pensions.
3. House-servants whose services were no longer required.
4. The poor who depended on monastic charity.