the dissolution of monisteries

Question 1

1536 The Dissolution of
the Smaller monasteries

Answer 1

Small monasteries with an income of less than £200 a year were closed and their buildings, land and money
taken by the Crown. Three hundred religious houses fell within this category.

Question 2

1539 Dissolution of the
Greater monasteries

Answer 2

Allowed the dissolution of the larger monasteries and religious houses. Monastic land and buildings were
confiscated and sold off to families who sympathised with Henry's break from Rome. By 1540 monasteries
were being dismantled at a rate of fifty a month.
● Waltham Abbey, the final monastery, was closed in March 1540.

Question 3

1540

Answer 3

Over 800 monasteries had been dissolved. The dissolutions provided Henry VIII an extra
£140,000 a year between 1536 and 1547. Henry’s normal income was £100,000 a year.

Question 4

monasteries were corrupt as reasons for dissolvement

Answer 4

• some monasteries moral standards had indeed slipped. At Rivaulx Abbey in Yorkshire, the abbot (head of the abbey) slept in his own private quarters and every monk had his own servant.
  -At Hailes Abbey in Gloucestershire, they claimed to have one of the holiest relics in the World, a vial of the blood of Christ. When it was examined, this was just a vial of honey, coloured with saffron.
  HOWEVER
  The reaction to the dissolution in the North – the 1536 Pilgrimage of Grace rebellion was caused by anger at the dissolution of monasteries – suggests that monasteries were popular and effective in their roles before the Reformation.

Question 5

Religious opposition for dissolvement

Answer 5

• Monks and nuns devoted much of their time to prayer for the souls of the dead, a practice deemed unnecessary by Protestants.
• Protestants did not believe in the value of religious houses and all monasteries had been dissolved in Protestant areas of Germany and Scandinavia
  HOWEVER
• Henry did not subscribe to the Protestant critique of the monasteries. He even refounded two monasteries in the 1540s to say prayers for him and his family.

Question 6

monetary reasons for dissolvement

Answer 6

Henry took £1.3 million in wealth from the dissolution of the monasteries.
In 1536, Thomas Cromwell told Henry VIII he would make him the ‘richest prince in Christendom’ by dissolving the monasteries.

Question 7

preconditions for closing something down

Answer 7

Political decisions
Economic measures
Public order
Consolidation of power