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
GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) is the centre of the British government's electronic surveillance operations, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. It monitors broadcasts of various kinds from all over the world. It was established during the Great War, and was successful in breaking the German Enigma code in 1940. Controversy arose in the 1980s when the Thatcher government banned employees at GCHQ from being members of a Trade Union, thereby implying that Union members were a threat to national security. Research GCHQ
Dimorphodon was a dinosaur of the family Dimorphodontidae, of the early Jurrasic period. Dimorphodon was the earliest known pterosaur of the Jurrasic period, and was about one metre long with a wing-span of anout 140 cm. Only a few remains of Dimorphodon have been found, these were in Dorset in England and a single partial specimen in Gloucestershire, England. The nature of the teeth, Dimorphodon had four or five large front teeth followed by a row of smaller teeth in the upper jaw and four or five large teeth followed by on each side by 30 or 40 small pointed teeth, indicate that Dimorphodon probably fed on fish or similar marine animals. The legs were long, and equipped with powerful claws. Research Dimorphodon
The ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) is a North American duck now established in Britain following escapes from the wildlife park at Slimbrige, Gloucestershire. It is a compact, dumpy, divingduck about 40 centimetres long with a short stiff tail which is often held cocked at an angle. The male has orange-chestnut body plumage with a white stern, white cheeks and a black cap. The bill is a striking turquoise colour. In the spring the male duck performs a curious chest-beating display which results in a froth of bubbles forming on the water. Research Ruddy Duck
Alexander de Hales also known as Alexander the Irrefragable Doctor was an English theologian. He was born at Hales in Gloucestershire and died in 1245, date unknown. He was celebrated among the controversialists of the 13th century. He studied at the universities of Oxford and Paris, became, in 1230, a professor in the latter city. His Summa Theologiae put the Sententiee of Peter Lombard into syllogistic form. He also commented on Aristotle, on the Psalms, and the Apocalypse. Research Alexander de Hales
Charles Robert Ashbee was an English architect and designer. He was born in 1863 and died in 1942. He was a leading advocate of the principles which inspired the Arts and Crafts Movement. As well as being the architect of some of the finest small houses of the time (good examples are in Cheyne Walk, London), Ashbee was also a designer of metalwork and jewellery, a poet, and essayist. In 1888 he founded the Guild of Handicraft, which moved from London to Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire in 1902, and in 1898 he founded the Essex House Press, one of the many private presses inspired by William Morris' Kelmscott Press. Ashbee published a pamphlet entitled 'Should We Stop Teaching Art?' in 1911 and in this he expressed a change in outlook that perhaps owed something to his meeting with FrankLloyd Wright in 1900. He abandoned his advocacy of the artist-craftsman, and argued that the machine is the vital instrument of contemporary civilization and that it is by the correct use of the machine that the ideals of the Arts and Crafts
Movement are to be promoted. Research Charles Ashbee
George Charles Grantley Pitzhardinge Berkeley was an English politician. He was born in 1800 and died in 1881. He was the sixth son of the fifth Earl of Berkeley, but the second son after the legally recognized marriage. From 1832 until 1852 he was Liberal member of parliament for West Gloucestershire. He became notorious in 1836 for his assault upon Eraser, the publisher (for which he had to pay damages), and his duel with Maginn for a hostile review in Fraser's Magazine of his first novel, Berkeley Castle. Besides other stories, poems, and works upon travel, sport, etc, he published in 1865 to 1866 his Life and Recollections in four volumes, and in 1867 a volume of reminiscences entitled Anecdotes of the Upper Ten Thousand. Both gave rise to a considerable amount of disapproval. Research George Charles Berkeley
John Biddle was an English Unitarian. He was born in 1615 at Wotton-under-Edge, in Gloucestershire and died in prison in 1662, having been imprisoned for his controversial writings. He was educated at Oxford, and became master of a free-school at Gloucester. He was repeatedly imprisoned for his anti-Trinitarian views, and the Westminster Assembly of Divines having got parliament to decree the punishment of death against those who should impugn the established opinions respecting the Trinity were eager for his punishment, but the act was not put in force.
A general act of oblivion in 1652 restored him to liberty, when he immediately disseminated his opinions both by preaching and by the publication of his Twofold Scripture Catechism. He was again imprisoned, and the law of 1648 was to be put in operation against him when, to save his life, Oliver Cromwell banished him to St Mary's Castle, Scilly, and assigned him a hundred crowns annually.
Here he remained three years, until the Protector liberated him in 1658. He then continued to preach his opinions until the death of Oliver Cromwell, and also after the Restoration, when he was committed to jail in 1662, and died a few months after. He wrote Twelve Arguments against the Deity of the Holy Spirit; Confession of Faith concerning the Holy Trinity; etc. Research John Biddle
John Henry Blunt was an English theological writer. He was born in 1823 and died in 1884. He held various curacies, and latterly was appointed to the living of Beverston, Gloucestershire. He wrote much, among his chief works being Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology; Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, etc; History of the English Reformation; Household Theology; Annotated Book of Common Prayer.
John James Blunt was an English divine. He was born in 1794 and died in 1855. From 1839 he was Lady Margaret professor of divinity at Cambridge. His works include Sketch of the Reformation in England; Undesigned Coincidences in the Old and New Testament, an Argument for their Veracity; On the Right Use of the Early Fathers; History of the Church during the First Three Centuries; Sermons; etc. Research John Blunt
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