Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part One The Tudor Scene
- Part Two The Gathering Storm
- Chap. XI Erasmus
- Chap. XII Reform and suppression under Wolsey
- Chap. XIII European precedents
- Chap. XIV Acceptance of the royal supremacy
- Chap. XV Elizabeth Barton
- Part Three Suppression and Dissolution
- Part Four Reaction and Survival
- Appendix I Sir Thomas More's letter ‘to a monk’
- Appendix II Religious houses suppressed by Cardinal Wolsey
- Appendix III The witness of the Carthusians
- Appendix IV Houses with incomes exceeding £1000 in the Valor Ecclesiasticus
- Appendix V The sacrist of Beauvale
- Appendix VI Itinerary of the visitors, 1535–6
- Appendix VII The commissioners for the survey of the Lesser Houses in 1536
- Appendix VIII The conflict of evidence on the monasteries
- Appendix IX The last abbots of Colchester, Reading and Glastonbury
- Appendix X Regulars as bishops
- Bibliography
- Index
Chap. XII - Reform and suppression under Wolsey
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part One The Tudor Scene
- Part Two The Gathering Storm
- Chap. XI Erasmus
- Chap. XII Reform and suppression under Wolsey
- Chap. XIII European precedents
- Chap. XIV Acceptance of the royal supremacy
- Chap. XV Elizabeth Barton
- Part Three Suppression and Dissolution
- Part Four Reaction and Survival
- Appendix I Sir Thomas More's letter ‘to a monk’
- Appendix II Religious houses suppressed by Cardinal Wolsey
- Appendix III The witness of the Carthusians
- Appendix IV Houses with incomes exceeding £1000 in the Valor Ecclesiasticus
- Appendix V The sacrist of Beauvale
- Appendix VI Itinerary of the visitors, 1535–6
- Appendix VII The commissioners for the survey of the Lesser Houses in 1536
- Appendix VIII The conflict of evidence on the monasteries
- Appendix IX The last abbots of Colchester, Reading and Glastonbury
- Appendix X Regulars as bishops
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The suppression of the alien priories, which had been preceded by demands on the part of a small but fanatical minority for confiscations of a more comprehensive character, did not in the event point the way towards a more general dissolution. Such an end would not have appeared desirable, even if practically attainable, to Henry V or his son. It did, however, set a precedent of another kind by making lands and endowments available for royal and other colleges. Henceforward, prelates or kings who contemplated founding academic colleges or collegiate churches looked about for decayed monasteries within their jurisdiction whose revenues and lands might be transferred to what appeared to be more useful purposes, and it is not surprising, in view of the multitude of religious houses and the vicissitudes of the times, that they seldom looked in vain. The second half of the fifteenth century did not lack munificent bishops interested in foundations at Oxford and Cambridge: thus Waynflete of Winchester acquired for Magdalen College the decayed or derelict priory of Selborne in Hampshire and the whilom alien house of Sele in Sussex; at the end of the century Alcock of Ely suppressed the vanishing nunnery of St Radegund's at Cambridge, and converted it into Jesus College, while Smith of Lincoln transferred Cold Norton to his college of Brasenose at Oxford. At almost the same time Henry VII obtained bulls suppressing Mottisfont for the benefit of Windsor, and by uniting the priory of Luffield, a royal foundation, with Westminster rendered most of its revenues available for the same purpose.
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- The Religious Orders in England , pp. 157 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979