Dissolution of Monasteries

Question 1

When was the first act of dissolution of the monasteries?

Answer 1

1536

Question 2

What happened under the first act of dissolution of the monasteries?

Answer 2

• all houses under £200pa dissolved
• heads of houses offered pensions in return for retirement
• monks transferred to larger houses or became priests
• Henry had power to exempt any houses

Question 3

What happened under the second act of the dissolution of the monasteries?

Answer 3

• legitimised voluntary surrenders
• parliamentary sanction to work of Cromwell and agents
• all property of greater houses was transferred to the crown

Question 4

How many houses had been dissolved by 1540?

Answer 4

563

Question 5

How many monks had been pensioned off by 1540?

Answer 5

8,000

Question 6

Crown income had doubled by 1540. What from and too?

Answer 6

£120,000 to £250,000

Question 7

What was the resale value of the monastic land in 1540?

Answer 7

£1.3 million

Question 8

What did Cromwell and his agents embark on in 1538?

Answer 8

Dissolution of remaining larger monasteries

Question 9

How many houses had surrendered within 16 months from 1538?

Answer 9

202

Question 10

What took place during the summer of 1537?

Answer 10

“Voluntary” surrenders of larger houses

Question 11

Who put pressure on the larger houses to surrender in the summer of 1537?

Answer 11

Royal commissioners

Question 12

In what did Cromwell reveal his intention of enhancing the kings finances?

Answer 12

Valor Ecclesiaticus

Question 13

What was valor ecclesiaticus?

Answer 13

A census of the church to access its wealth

Question 14

What were Cromwells aims in his survey of the monasteries?

Answer 14

• to gauge the extent of the church’s wealth

* to cast monasteries in the worst possible light to persuade parliament that they should be dissolved

Question 15

Who were cromwells agents in 1536?

Answer 15

Six ‘visitors’ who carried out lightening your of religious houses

Question 16

What would taking the wealth of the church mean for Henry?

Answer 16

He would no longer have to impress taxes on his subjects

Question 17

How did Opposition cause the dissolution?

Answer 17

Some of the most vociferous opponents of Henrys recent legislation had come from monastic houses

Question 18

The social effects of the dissolution?

Answer 18

• some monks left in hardships
• 2000 mins not allowed to marry of become priests
• detrimental effect on poor

Question 19

How did international influences cause the dissolutions?

Answer 19

1. religious houses were being dissolved in Germany and Scandinavia, giving a model of what was possible in England
2. the ideas of Erasmus and Tynedale which critised monastic life were gain traction

Question 20

How did patronage cause the dissolutions?

Answer 20

1. after 1536 the laity gained an appitite for land
2. Catholics such as Norfolk were quick to cash in on the sale of monastic lands
3. many may have been unhappy with the turn of religion but the bitter pill wa easier to swallow with the wealth the dissolutions broughts

Question 21

How did finances cause the dissolutions?

Answer 21

1. cromwell promised to make henry the richest prince in christandom
2. the church had huge amount of wealth and resources
3. threat of catholic crusade meant that the crown would need money to defend itsself
4. henry did not have to impose taxes

Question 22

Economic impacts of the dissolutions?

Answer 22

1. profits financed wars
2. £800,000 raised by 1547
3. transfer of power intop the hands of the laity at a local level
4. detromental effects on the poor

Question 23

What were the political effects of the dissolutions?

Answer 23

1. men could by themselves into local politics

2. power tranfered to the laity