The Dissolution of the Monateseries Flashcards
What happened in 1533?
.Act in restraint of Appeals to Rome was before Parliament.
.Wanted to unite Clergy land to the Crown.
.Increase Crown revenue by taking over lands owned by the Church.
What happened in 1534?
.Anonymous ecclesiastical land confiscation proposal.
.Crown to support Clergy with annual salaries from land proceedings.
.Cromwell - make Crown financially self-sufficient.
.Could avoid taxation and preserve position on throne.
What happened in 1535?
.Valor Ecclesiasticus - census of Church to assess wealth.
.Visitations - inspectors checking their Spiritual Health sent by Cromwell.
.See true extent of wealth.
.Put them in bad light to convince Parliament to dissolve them quickly.
.September - six visitors - mass evidence of corruption - fabricated/exaggerated.
What happened in 1536?
.Act of Dissolution of Monasteries.
.All under £200 dissolved.
.Heads offered pension and monks transferred/ secular priests.
.Larger ones praised.
.Could exempt any house.
.Reform not attack - restore standards.
.Delay of larger ones - gradualism/not supposed to.
.Pilgrimage of Grace - seized some houses taking part/refounded some e.g. Stixwould and Bisham.
What happened in 1537?
.Summer - larger ones voluntarily surrendered.
.Actually forced by commissioner pressure.
.December - great priory of Lewes surrendered, property to Cromwell.
.All monasteries now under attack.
What happened in 1538?
.Cromwell to dissolve larger ones.
.202 houses surrendered in 16 months.
What happened in 1539?
.2nd Dissolution Act.
.Legitimised previous voluntary surrenders - parliamentary sanction to Cromwell and agents.
.All property to Crown.
What happened in 1540?
.March - Waltham Abbey surrenders.
.563 houses dissolved.
.8000 monks pensioned off.
.Crown income doubled - £120,000 to £250,000.
.Monastic land resale at £1.3 million.
What were the long-term effects?
.Monastic buildings - loss of reliquaries, book, images, gothic building but education/cathedral grammar schools built.
.The poor - used to look after the poor.
.Profit - 1547 - over half still in possession, over £800,00 in sales in cash mostly, harsher taxation spared.
.Social change - squires, JPs, chief landowners gain patronage power, land to lawyers/younger sons of landowning families/men established in countryside, more men bought into politics.
What were the short-term effects?
.Monastic buildings - charged with cultural vandalism.
.Monks and friars - alternative paid employment, 6500/8000 moved on, many still in hardship though.
.Nuns - 2000 - couldn’t marry or become priests.
.Profit - charged with squandering the wealth, 1543 - rush to sell land for S and F wars, major money outlay of £2 million.
What caused the dissolution?
.Many opposed his Rome break.
.Happening in Scandinavia and Germany and humanist ideas gaining currency.
.1536 - laity greedy for land including Catholics.
.Catholic crusade possible, possible tax and fortification money needed.
.Xenophobia, wanted all allegiance to him and England, not elsewhere.
What was the Act of Suppression 1536?
Small monasteries with income £200 or less a year closed and went to Crown.
What was the Second Act of Suppression 1539?
Allowed dissolution of larger monasteries and religious houses.
What happened 1533-6?
.1533 - want to take over Church lands.
.1534 - Cromwell’s plan, confiscation and clergy salary proposal.
.1535 - Valor Ecclesiasticus, 6 visitors september, exaggerated evidence.
.1536 - Act of Dissolution of Monasteries - reform not attack, gradualism.
.Pilgrimage of Grace - seized partaking houses and refounded others.
What happened 1537-40?
.1537 - Large house voluntary surrenders - commissioner pressure, Lewes.
.1538 - Dissolved rest - 202 in 16 months.
.1539 - Second Act - voluntary already done, Parliamentary sanction to Cromwell/agents, property to Crown.
.1540 - March - Waltham surrendered. 563 dissolved, 8000 monks pension, income £120000 to £250000 resale at £1.3 million.
