Editing Dissolution of the monasteries (section)

===Humanist criticisms of Late Medieval Western monasticism===
Dissatisfaction with regular religious life, and with the gross extent of monastic wealth, was common amongst late medieval secular and ecclesiastical (church) leaders in the Latin West. G. W. Bernard says there was:

{{blockquote|text=widespread concern in the later 15th and early 16th centuries about the condition of the monasteries.  A leading figure here is the scholar and theologian [[Desiderius Erasmus]] who satirized monasteries as lax, as comfortably worldly, as wasteful of scarce resources, and as superstitious; he also thought it would be better if monks were brought more directly under the authority of bishops. At that time, quite a few bishops across Europe had come to believe that resources expensively deployed on an unceasing round of services by men and women in theory set apart from the world [would] be better spent on endowing grammar schools and university colleges to train men who would then serve the laity as parish priests, and on reforming the antiquated structures of over-large dioceses such as that of [[Diocese of Lincoln|Lincoln]].  Pastoral care was seen as much more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation, prayer and performance of the daily office.{{sfn|Bernard|2011|p=390}}}}

[[File:Hans Holbein d. J. - Erasmus - Louvre.jpg|thumb|[[Desiderius Erasmus]] by [[Hans Holbein the Younger|Holbein]]; Renaissance humanist and influential critic of religious orders. [[Louvre]], Paris.]]
Erasmus had made a threefold criticism of the monks and nuns of his day, saying that:
# in withdrawing from the world into their own communal life, they elevated man-made monastic vows of [[poverty, chastity and obedience]] above the God-given vows of sacramental [[baptism]]; and elevated man-made monastic rules for religious life above the God-given teachings of the Gospels;{{sfn|Knowles|1959|p=150}}
# notwithstanding exceptional communities of genuine austere life and exemplary charity, many abbeys and priories were havens for idle drones, concerned only for their own existence, reserving for themselves an excessive share of the commonwealth's religious assets, and contributing little or nothing to the spiritual needs of ordinary people;{{sfn|Knowles|1959|p=150}}
# many monasteries were deeply involved in promoting and profiting from the veneration of [[Christian relic|relics]], in the form of [[pilgrimages]] and purported [[miracle|miraculous]] tokens. The cult of relics was by no means specific to monasteries, but Erasmus was scandalised by the extent to which well-educated and highly regarded monks and nuns would participate in fraud (as he thought it) against gullible lay believers.{{sfn|Marshall|2017|pp=29-30}}

Summarising the state of monastic life across Western Europe, Catholic historian [[David Knowles (scholar)|David Knowles]] said,

{{blockquote|text=The verdict of unprejudiced historians at the present day would probably be—abstracting from all ideological considerations for or against monasticism—that there were far too many religious houses in existence in view of the widespread decline of the fervent monastic vocation, and that in every country the monks possessed too much of wealth and of the sources of production both for their own well-being and for the material good of the economy.{{sfn|Knowles|1959}} }}