Before the visitation was over, before any attempt could have been made to codify and weigh its findings, and while perhaps half of the monasteries of England still remained unvisited, Cromwell had decided how to act. He had recently considered an opinion of counsel that monasteries of the king's foundation that had failed in numbers or duty might be seized to the king's use, and had been informed that ‘this good law duly put in execution would bring back to the Crown lands worth £40,000 a year’. This opinion, which was an extension of the old feudal doctrine that land given for military service or sergeanty of any kind escheated when that service was not given through default either of will or of person, was not new, and had been put forward on behalf of lay owners of church property in the days of the Lollards and before. Such a scheme, however, was not comprehensive enough, and Cromwell is found reminding himself of ‘the abomination of religious houses throughout this realm and a reformation to be devised therein’. Early in 1536, while his visitors were still at work, he had begun the final process and had drafted the bill, and on 3 March a friend could write to Lord Lisle that it was ‘bruited that abbeys and priories under 300 marks by year, not having twelve in convent, shall down’.