The dissolution of the monasteries in England was carried out by Henry VIII between 1535 and 1539. This was an attack on Church property for three reasons. First, the monks were the main supporters of the Papal authority in England, and they were members of orders which were spread over Europe. It had proved possible to separate the English bishops and clergy from allegiance to the Pope; this was not possible with the monastic orders, which were international, not insular, institutions. The second reason was the wealth of the monasteries, which was the result of the pious bequest of many centuries. The cry against monastic wealth had been raised many times previously in English history, particularly by John Wycliffe and others from the time of Edward III and Richard II. The courtiers of Henry VIII and the rising middle class were greedy for land, and Henry VIII saw that by ministering to their greed he could make his new nobility and their new property a firm support of his Reformation. The third reason for ending the monasteries was
the reason given to Parliament: that the monks had outlived their day of usefulness and were abandoned to idleness and vice. There were over 600 religious houses in England, and no doubt there was some truth in this charge. Zealous churchmen had long known that all was not well with these ancient institutions. In Henry VII's reign the Oxford Reformers had rebuked monkish follies, and CardinalMorton had noted the 'incurable uselessness' of many of the smaller houses where the monks were idle and ignorant. CardinalWolsey had obtained a Papal Bull to visit the monasteries, and had begun to suppress some, intending to use their revenues for the benefit of education and the New Learning and to found new bishoprics. One of them, St. Frideswide's Priory at Oxford, he converted into Cardinal College (later Christ Church).
In 1535 Henry VIII made Thomas Cromwell his Vicar-General, 'with power to visit any monastery in England'. The character of Cromwell was sufficient guarantee that the visitation would not be conducted fairly. He knew what was expected of him; he was to be 'The Hammer of the Monks'. His agents hurried through England, visited some of the monasteries, and drew up an evil report. This report unfortunately no longer exists. Our only information is derived from Cromwell's note-books and from the letters of his agents, from which we may gather something of their methods. For example, Dr. Layton, vicar of Harrow-on-the-Hill, dashed through southern England from Gloucestershire to Rent between August and October 1535. He condemned monasteries wholesale, on insufficient evidence, although at the same time he did not scruple to accept bribes from some, or to help himself to plate and jewels from others.
However, Parliament was satisfied, and the country squires, anxious for the 'goods of the Church', shouted ' Down with them!' The Act dissolving 276 of the lesser monasteries of England in 1536 was the last important Act of the Reformation Parliament. In dissolving the smaller monasteries first, Henry VIII had cautiously tested his power. But his violent measures had by 1536 caused grave discontent, especially in the west and north, and in Parliament itself. His wholesale destruction of the smaller monasteries was followed by two popular uprisings. The first occurred in Lincolnshire, where the rebels were crushed by a military force under the Duke of Suffolk. The second rising, in Yorkshire in 1536, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was much more serious. The following year the famous shrine of Becket at Canterbury was attacked. Thomas Becket was declared in April 1538 'a false saint and a traitor to the Supreme Head of the Church'; his bones were burnt; his shrine pillaged and its offerings confiscated.
Then Henry VIII was ready to turn his attention to the greater monasteries, although Parliament had saved them earlier because of their good conduct. Cromwell and his agents in 1539 began a persecution of the abbots: many were induced to surrender their abbeys to the king; others could only be reduced by methods of terror. The Abbots of Reading and Colchester were tried for treason; the Abbot of Glastonbury for felony. All three were executed. The odious methods of Cromwell are well shown in some notes left in his own handwriting: 'To see that the evidence be well sorted and the indictments well drawn against the said abbots. The Abbot of Reading to be sent down to be tried and executed at Reading with his accomplices. The Abbot of Glaston to be tried at Glaston, and also executed there with his accomplices.' The last Abbot of Glastonbury, a pious, venerable man beloved in the countryside, was executed with two of his brethren on GlastonburyTor, after a mock trial in November 1539. These ferocities had the desired effect: many less brave spirits gave in, and soon there were no monasteries left. The dissolution of 616 religious houses was the greatest revolution in the ownership of land in England since the Norman Conquest. The monastic income has been variously estimated at between one-fifth and one-third of the total rental of England.
This newly acquired wealth the king might have used in developing public works, such as education. Some of it was spent in re-building the Navy; but the king's own greed and the greed of courtiers swallowed most of the spoil. A thousand newly enriched families became the nobility on which Henry in future relied for support. The 'Abbey' where the descendants or successors of these Tudor families now live is a name to be found in many an English village. But sad indeed was the fate of the original buildings. Some, like the great church at Tewkesbury, have been preserved in the form of parish churches; others have been partly preserved to form cathedrals. But the greater number were ruthlessly destroyed by their new possessors, their roofs despoiled for the valuable lead, their walls made quarries for new buildings, their treasures scattered, and their ruins left desolate. Whatever defence may be made for the suppression of the monastic orders, no excuse can be offered for this orgy of destruction, which deprived England of some of her noblest monuments.
It is probable that at least 15000 persons were cast adrift. These people went to swell the already large number of the unemployed, for whom Tudor statesmanship could find no better relief than the savage punishments inflicted on thieves and vagabonds. Some of the monks were given benefices or pensioned by the Government, but the pensions were not always paid; the occupants of the lesser houses fared worse than those of the greater. The hospitality which the monks had always given to the poor was now removed. There was nothing to take its place, and many monks and nuns joined the ranks of those who had formerly subsisted on their charity. Many gaps were left in national life, for the abbeys, said Aske 'were one of the beauties of this realm to all men and strangers passing through the same; all gentlemen much succoured in their needs with money, and in nunneries their daughters brought up in virtue. And such abbeys as were near the danger of seabanks were great maintainers of sea-walls and dykes, builders of bridges and highways, and such other things for the commonwealth.' Research Dissolution of the Monasteries
Archibald Percival Wavell was a British soldier. He was born in 1883 at Colchester and died in 1950. A British field marshall he was commander-in-chief of the Middle East during the Second World War from 1939 to 1941 and commander-inc-chief in India from 1941 to 1943 and viceroy of India from 1943 until 1947. Research Archibald Wavell
Lord Arthur Capel was a British soldier. He was born about 1600 and died in 1649. The son of Sir Henry Capel, he was raised to peerage by Charles I. During the English Civil War he fought bravely as one of the royalist generals in the west in the engagements at Bristol, Exeter, and Taunton. Having been at length forced to surrender at Colchester to General Fairfax he was imprisoned, and, after some vicissitudes, executed on March the 9th, 1649. His Daily Observations or Meditations was published posthumously with a memoir. Research Arthur Capel
Boadicea was Queen of the Iceni, in Britain during the reign of Nero. Following the death of her husband, the Romans broke their peace treaty with the Iceni, stolelands left to Boadicea, raped her two young daughters, and publicly flogged her to humiliate her. Boadicea, understandably outraged, rallied the Celtic tribes of Britain together and headed a general insurrection of the Britons, first attacking and destroying Colchester, and then burned London to the ground. She and her army was defeated by Suetonius and his troops, sent from Rome to put down the insurrection, in 62, and rather than be captured committed suicide with poison. Research Boadicea
Charles James Blomfield was Bishop of London. He was born in 1786 at Bury-St.-Edmunds and died in 1857. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took high honours and was elected fellow. He was ordained in 1810, and after filling successively several curacies, and acting for a time as chaplain to the Bishop of London, was presented to the rectory of St Botolph, Bishopsgate. In 1822 he became Archdeacon of Colchester, in 1824 he was made Bishop of Chester, and in 1828 Bishop of London. He was a distinguished classical scholar, and published editions of several of the dramas of AEschylus, and others of Callimachus and Euripides, writing also on kindred subjects for the Edinburgh and the Quarterly Review. He edited a translation of the Greek grammar of Matthias, executed by a younger brother, Edward Blomfield. His chief distinction was gained by his energy in the management of his diocese, and his success in the cause of churchextension in the metropolis. By his exertion many churches were built and schools started, and the colonies benefited by his efforts as well as London. In regard to the Tractarian movement, his attempts to lead his clergy to take a middle course gave rise to a good deal of discussion in his diocese. Research Charles Blomfield
Sir George Biddell Airy was a British astronomer. He was born in 1801 at Alnwick, Northumberland and died in 1892. Educated at Hereford, Colchester, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was senior wrangler in 1823. At Cambridge he was Lucasian professor of mathematics, and subsequently Plumian professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy, in the latter capacity having charge of the observatory. In 1835 he was appointed astronomer-royal, and as such his superintendence of the observatory at Greenwich was able and successful. He resigned this post with a pension in 1881. He wrote largely and made numerous valuable investigations on subjects connected with astronomy, physics, and mathematics. Among separate works published by him may be mentioned Popular Astronomy, On Sound and Atmospheric Vibrations, A Treatise on Magnetism, On the Vndulatory Theory of Optics, On Gravitation. Research George Airy
George Tierney was a British politician. He was born in 1761 at Gibraltar and died in 1830. Of Irish parentage, he was educated at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, and was afterwards called to the bar. In 1789 he entered parliament as member for Colchester, and with a short interval he remained a member of parliament until his death. A prominentWhig, George Tierney stayed in the house after 1798 when Charles Fox and other Whigs withdrew, but in 1803 he became treasurer of the navy, thus breaking for a time with his party. In 1806 he became president of the board of control for a few months. In 1827 he was master of the mint under Canning, and later under Goderich. He was leader of the Whig opposition from 1817 until 1827. George Tierney is best known, however, for his duel fought with William Pitt on Putney Heath in 1798. Research George Tierney
John Bastwick was an English physician and ecclesiastical controversialist. He was born in 1593 and died in 1654. He settled at Colchester, but instead of confining himself to his profession, entered keenly into theological controversy, and was condemned by the Star Chamber for his books against Prelacy: Elenchus Religionis Papisticse, Flagellum Pontificis, and The Letanie of Dr. J. Bastwick. With Prynne and Burton he was sentenced to lose his ears in the pillory, to pay a fine of 5000 pounds, and to be imprisoned for life. He was released by the Long Parliament, and entered London in triumph along with Prynne and Burton. He appears to have continued his controversies to the very last with the Independents and others. Research John Bastwick
The Trinobantes were an ancient British tribe which inhabited the modern counties of Essex and Suffolk. Their capital was Camalodunum (Colchester). They submitted to Caesar in 55 BC, but in 61 AD joined the revolt of the Iceni under Boadicea and were subdued by Suetonius Paulinus, after which nothing is known of them. Research Trinobantes
William Gilbert was an English physician and physicist. He was born in 1544 at Colchester and died in 1603. He coined the word electricity to describe the property of amber for attracting light objects. He also pioneered work into magnetism, being the first to suggest that the earth was a giantmagnet, and demonstrated magnetism to queen Elizabeth I. Research William Gilbert
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