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
Teak is the timber of the teak tree (Tectona grandis), and mainly comes from Myanmar (Burma). Teak is a moderately heavy, hard wood that is easily worked and tends not to shrink, warp or swell. Teak timber is resistant to termites and contains natural oils that retard decaying of the timber. Research Teak
Rhus (popularly known as Sumac) is a genus of trees and shrubs belonging to the family Anacardiaceae native to temperate regions. They have alternate leaves, which may be undivided, divided into three leaflets, or intricately divided by numerous leaflets being again deeply cut. The flowers are small and usually form dense clusters. They are mostly poisonous plants, and in some individuals the action is so emphatic that even touching plants of certain species causes the whole body to swell, and great pain to be experienced. Research Rhus
In Japanese mythology, Niniji was the grandson of Amaterasu, the sun. His task was to direct the suns rays from heaven to swell the celestial paddies which provided food for the gods. Research Ninigi
Platelets are tiny specialized cells that are activated whenever blood clotting or repair to a vessel is necessary. Although they are often called cells, they are really fragments of other cells. They are made in bonemarrow and are much smaller than red blood cells. A drop of blood contains some 15 million platelets. When a blood vessel is cut, platelets rush to the vessel and swell into odd, irregular shapes, grow sticky and clog at the cut, creating a plug. If the cut is too large for platelets, they send out signals to initiate clotting by releasing a hormone called serotonin, which stimulates blood vessels to contract thus reducing the flow of blood. Clotting is fundamentally a change of the soluble plasmaproteinfibrinogen into an insoluble, thread-like protein, called fibrin. More than a dozen factors are involved in this conversion. The fibrin strands mesh around the blood cells and then contract, squeezing a clear yellowish fluid called serum, and forming a solid clot. Clotting staunches bleeding and creates a scaffold on which to build new tissue. Research Platelets
In guns, the chase is the part of the gun bewteen the trunnions and the swell of the muzzle, or in more modern guns, in which the muzzle has no swell, the whole of that part of the gun which is in front of the trunnions. Research Chase
Borax or sodium tetraborate has long been obtained under the name of tincal, from India, the main source being not India but a series of lakes in Tibet. As imported it was in small pieces of a dirty yellowish colour, and was covered with a fatty or soapy matter. Tincal, which contains various impurities, was formerly the only source of borax; but besides Tuscany other sources of boric acid, more particularly in North and South America, and the salt mines at Stassfurt, etc, in Germany, were rendered available. North America yields large quantities, there being rich deposits of borax and boracic minerals on the Pacific slope. Pure borax forms large transparent six-sided prisms, which dissolve readily in water, effloresce in dry air, and when heated melt in their water of crystallization, swell up, and finally fuse to a transparentglass.
Borax has a variety of uses. In medicine it is employed in ulcerations and skin diseases, and its cleansing properties render it useful for various domestic purposes. It has valuable antiseptic and disinfecting properties, and is now much used for the preservation of meat, fish, and milk, especially meat. It is also employed in the soldering of metals, and in making fine glaze for porcelain, as it renders the materials more fusible. It is used as an ingredient of enamels, and in making beads, glass, and cement. It is also one of the mordants employed in calico-printing. Research Borax
Starch is a carbohydrate stored in plants. It is a white powder comprised of a large numbers of glucose molecules combined which appear as ovoid granules. When heated in water the granules swell enormously, and at the temperature of boiling water are ruptured forming a gelatinous paste. Research Starch
Borax (sodium tetraborate) is the sodiumsalt of pyroboric acid. It has the formulae Na2B4O710H2O and a relative hardness of 3. It forms large transparent six-sided prisms which have an alkaline reaction, effloresce in air, and when heated swell-up and melt to a transparentglass. Borax is used in the manufacture of enamel-ware, glass, as an antiseptic and is a food preservative. It is also useful in brazing and silver soldering as it dissolves metallic oxides, thus cleaning the surfaces of the metals to be united. Research Borax
During the 1920's the fashion for women was to conceal the swell of the bust, and the flattener brassiere while providing little or no support for the breasts did flatten them as required by the fashion of the day. Research Flattener Brassiere
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Dissolution of the Monasteries
