Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Part One The Tudor Scene
- Part Two The Gathering Storm
- Part Three Suppression and Dissolution
- Chap. XVI Before the Dissolution
- Chap. XVII The end of the Observants
- Chap. XVIII Syon
- Chap. XIX The London Charterhouse and its sister houses
- Chap. XX The economy of the monasteries in 1535
- Chap. XXI Servants, almsgiving and corrodians
- Chap. XXII The visitation of 1535–6
- Chap. XXIII The Act of Suppression and the case for the defence
- Chap. XXIV The dissolution of the lesser houses
- Chap. XXV The Northern Rising
- Chap. XXVI The last phase
- Chap. XXVII The attack on the greater houses
- Chap. XXVIII The suppression of the friars
- Chap. XXIX The cankered hearts
- Chap. XXX The transformation of the buildings
- Chap. XXXI The new cathedrals and colleges
- Chap. XXXII The disposal of the lands
- Chap. XXXIII The treatment of the dispossessed
- 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. XXIV - The dissolution of the lesser houses
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
- Part Three Suppression and Dissolution
- Chap. XVI Before the Dissolution
- Chap. XVII The end of the Observants
- Chap. XVIII Syon
- Chap. XIX The London Charterhouse and its sister houses
- Chap. XX The economy of the monasteries in 1535
- Chap. XXI Servants, almsgiving and corrodians
- Chap. XXII The visitation of 1535–6
- Chap. XXIII The Act of Suppression and the case for the defence
- Chap. XXIV The dissolution of the lesser houses
- Chap. XXV The Northern Rising
- Chap. XXVI The last phase
- Chap. XXVII The attack on the greater houses
- Chap. XXVIII The suppression of the friars
- Chap. XXIX The cankered hearts
- Chap. XXX The transformation of the buildings
- Chap. XXXI The new cathedrals and colleges
- Chap. XXXII The disposal of the lands
- Chap. XXXIII The treatment of the dispossessed
- 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
In the Act of Suppression as it was passed the preamble made mention of the corruption prevailing in communities less than a dozen strong, but the enacting clause adopted as a yardstick for good and evil the sum of £200 net income. The number twelve had been for centuries the traditional number of a perfect community, with the abbot as thirteenth; the Cistercians had given statutory force to it by making it the essential number for a new foundation, and the papal bull of 1528 to Wolsey had specified that the houses suppressed by him should contain less than twelve inmates. The sum of £200 may have been the notional dower for a community of thirteen, but it was more probably taken as a convenient round figure which would include a large number of houses, and the number twelve does not appear in the body of the act. In 1536 the two criteria were far from coincident: thus of the thirty-five Yorkshire houses seventeen had less than twelve inmates, but twenty-four had less than £200 of income. It was further enacted that those religious who might elect to persevere in their vocation were to be allotted to such of the greater monasteries as were observant; the rest could be dismissed with a dispensation and a small gratuity. The act reserved to the king the right of staying the suppression of any house he might choose to except from the list.
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- The Religious Orders in England , pp. 304 - 319Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1979