Henry VIII and the Reformation
The dissolution of the monasteries
From about the 5th
century onwards, monasticism had been an important part of
Christianity.
England itself was converted by monastic missionaries.
The Cistercian order was particularly influential in England in the
12th century.
But monasticism began
a slow decline in numbers and influence: the Black Death reduced the
number of monks, and the friars became more influential in lay circles.
When Henry VIII launched his attack on the English monasteries they
were poorly placed to defend themselves.
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Although the population of England was
increasing during the 16th century, the number of monks and nuns was
in decline. (The number of monks fell from about twelve to ten
thousand, and of nuns from 2,000 to 1,600). |
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Monastic houses varied greatly both in the
number of monks and in their revenues. The vast land holdings of the
monasteries, however, meant that in total they controlled about one half of
the church's annual income.
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Polemical literature accused monks of many
scandalous faults - Protestant tracts were particularly keen on
accusing nuns of murdering the infants that resulted from their
promiscuous lives. In fact, most religious were guilty of little
more than lacking any vocation and so living as comfortably as they
could. Only the three small orders of
Bridgettines, Franciscan Observants, and Carthusians were noted for
high standards. |
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The monasteries were major landlords and were
no better (but no worse) than their lay counterparts in the way they
treated their tenants. |
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Thomas Cromwell began to conceive of dissolving
the monasteries in about 1534, but the plan was not put into
practice until 1536. Henry's government needed money, but knew it
would be unpopular to demand new taxes from Parliament. |
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First, Thomas Cromwell orchestrated a publicity
campaign to make monasteries seem corrupt. Then, in 1536
Parliament passed an Act dissolving all monasteries with an income of
less than £200 per annum. The members of minor monasteries were
allowed to move to the larger ones. |
The Initial Impact of the 1536 Dissolution
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Because initially only the lesser religious
houses were dissolved (and even a few of these were able to
obtain licenses to continue), the impact of the 1536 Dissolution
varied in different parts of England. The impact on the South
West, for example, was far less than on the North. |
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In 1539, another Act was passed dissolving the
larger monasteries also. The last English monastery - Waltham Abbey
- was closed in 1540. |
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Some provision in the form of pensions was made
for the monks and nuns, especially for abbots.
The Court of Augmentations was created to administer the
monastic land, and it paid pensions even after most of this land had
been sold by crown; but by 1552 about half of pensions were in
arrears. |
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The immediate effect of the Dissolution was to
transfer vast tracts of land to the Crown. Monastic land was worth at
least three times as much as existing royal landholdings. Henry
also acquired vast amounts of gold and silver plate, worth as much as
one million pounds. |
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The Crown also acquired the monasteries' right to
collect tithes (support from the parish to its priest) which
had been taken over by the monasteries in exchange for them paying the
priest a wage instead. |
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Many monasteries had also held the right to choose
which person should become priest of a parish. This right of
presenting to a church living was known as an advowson, and
about two in five English advowsons were controlled by monasteries.
All these fell to the Crown making it an overwhelmingly powerful
patron.
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Before the Reformation, 25 abbots had
sat in the
House of Lords; - all of them lost their places leaving the
secular lords in a majority over the Bishops (who continued to sit). |
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The Dissolution of the monasteries involved a
certain amount of physical destruction: buildings decayed because the
lead was seized from the roofs; libraries were broken up and sold off.
Moreover, traditional charitable functions of feeding and housing travelers
ceased. |
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Henry VIII promised to found thirteen new
bishoprics on the proceeds from the dissolution, but only nine
(Peterborough, Gloucester, Chester, Oxford, Bristol and Westminster;
the last of these was suppressed by Edward VI in 1550) were actually
created.
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Henry VIII did found a
number of schools and Trinity College, Cambridge, but on balance
charity and education suffered. |
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Not only the Crown
gained by the Dissolution - many royal administrators and clients
lined their pockets with monastic money. |
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Little
Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said,
What a good boy am I!
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Jack Horner was the steward of the last Abbot
of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting. In 1543, as part of an attempt
to obtain Henry VIII's favor, Whiting sent Jack Horner to the
king with title deeds of a number of valuable properties. To
foil thieves, these deeds were concealed in a large pie. On the
journey, Jack Horner surreptitiously opened the pie and
extracted the deed of Mells Manor, Somerset.
Shortly after the Dissolution, the Horner
family moved into Mells Manor, and live there to this day.
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BUT,
- The steward's name was Thomas, not Jack (although it is
true that 'Jack' is a common English nickname for any amusing
rogue).
- There is no written source for this story before the 18th
century.
- The Horner family has always insisted that the manor was
perfectly legitimately purchased (along with some other
properties).
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The seizure of
monastic land gave the Crown the possibility of complete financial
independence. Had Henry VIII exploited it prudently, he and his
successors might never have needed to call Parliament again.
But from the very beginning, and particularly between 1543 and 1547,
Henry sold most of the land to pay for extravagant wars with France
and Scotland.
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The land was bought by merchants, by yeomen
syndicates, by noblemen, and - overwhelmingly - by neighboring gentry
families. |
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Nobles and gentlemen also bought the impropriated
tithes and advowsons, and so strengthened their hand in parish
affairs. |
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The enrichment of the gentry increased their
power and independence relative to both Church and Crown. It also
created a powerful pressure group with a vested interest in ensuring
that the old Roman Catholic church was never fully restored. |
The English Bible
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William
Tyndale's New Testament was published in part in Cologne in 1525, and in full at Worms in 1526; it was soon banned in
England as heretical. Tyndale produced a revised version in 1534. |
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But Thomas Cromwell
and Thomas Cranmer did persuade Henry VIII to allow the publication in
England of a vernacular Bible. This project came to fruition in
Matthew's Bible of 1537 (a version combining Tynadle's New Testament with Miles Coverdale's Old Testament, revised, annotated, and edited by John Rogers (who worked
under the assumed name of Thomas Matthew.) |
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In 1539, it was
revised and reissued as the Great Bible,
In May 1541, a Royal Proclamation ordered every
parish to comply Cromwell's instructions and have a copy for
public use before Ash Wednesday, 1541.
(The first Welsh
translation of the Bible was not printed until 1567). |
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Henry grew
increasingly concerned about the social and political consequences of
allowing the lower orders to read the Bible, but his attempts to limit
access were ineffectual. |
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In his speech to Parliament of
December 1545, Henry complained that he was
"sorry to know
and hear how unreverently that most precious jewel, the word of
God is disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every alehouse and
tavern". |
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