Political, social and economic significance of the dissolution of the monasteries

How many religious houses were there in England and Wales in the early sixteenth century?

At least 825 religious houses in England and Wales - 500 of these were monasteries

How did monasteries play an important role in local life? (2 points)

* They were places of shelter and sanctuary for travellers, sources of medicine and food for the needy and centres of education for the wealthy
* Monasteries often employed many labourers, therefore providing livelihood for those in villages nearby

Why had the high regard in which monasteries had been held almost completely vanish by the sixteenth century? (2 points)

• The number of regular clergy had declined to about 10,000 and some monasteries housed fewer than a dozen monks

• Over time, monasteries had acquired servants to manage the day-to-day running of their houses and had accumulated luxuries by spending the money they received from renting out some of their lands

What did the decline of the monasteries give Henry and Cromwell?

Their first reason for closing the monasteries

When was a survey on the monasteries carried out on Cromwell’s orders?

1535

What did Cromwell’s survey discover?

It discovered that corruption and abuses were said to be common throughout the smaller monasteries of England and Wales, giving Henry the excuse he needed to close them.

Why was the wealth of the monasteries a big cause of the dissolution? (3 points)

* Monasteries were very wealthy institutions.
* In 1535, Cromwell, on Henry’s instructions commissioned a survey of the property and value of smaller monasteries, the *Valor Ecclesiasticus.* The survey revealed that these monasteries had the potential to double the Crown’s annual income.
* At a time when Henry needed money to further his ambitions abroad, seizing the assets of the monasteries was an extremely tempting prospect

List 3 factors that historians believe were some of the causes of the dissolution of the monasteries.

* Seizure of monastic lands would give the Crown additional property to distribute as a way of buying support from the nobility and gentry at a difficult time.
* Monasteries were permanent reminders of the Catholic Church. Although monks and nuns had been forced to swear an oath recognising Henry as head of the Church, they were potential centres of resistance to the royal supremacy.
* The primary role of monasteries - to pray for the salvation of souls - was not in keeping with the new Protestant theology of individual faith in God. For those critics of the Church who wanted genuine reform along Protestant lines, the monasteries were outdated and irrelevant institutions.

Explain Cromwell’s three-part approach to ridding the country of its monastic traditions

* First, he gathered evidence to show that religious houses were unfit to continue
* Second, he began to dissolve smaller monasteries
* Finally, he moved to abolish the rest

What did the Act for the Dissolution of the Smaller monasteries do?

It closed all religious houses with lands valued at under £200 a year

What did the Act for the Dissolution of the Larger Monasteries do?

This closed all religious houses except chantries

List the dates of the dissolution of the monasteries Acts. (2)

* The Act for the Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries; 1536
* The Act for the Dissolution of the Larger Monasteries; 1539

Who were the main beneficiaries of the dissolution?

The King and the nobility

What did the total value of the dissolution amount to?

About 10% of the entire wealth of the kingdom

What was the impact of the money Henry gained from the dissolution of the monasteries? (2 points)

• For the next half century or so it was used to finance the kind of ambitious foreign policy which Henry had dreamed about at the start of his reign.

• In the longer term, it did little to help the monarchy’s financial independence.