Editing Dissolution of the monasteries (section)

===Religion===
It has been argued{{by whom|date=February 2014}} that the suppression of the English monasteries and nunneries contributed to the spreading decline of a contemplative spirituality which once thrived in Europe, with the occasional exception found only in groups such as the [[Religious Society of Friends|Society of Friends]] ("Quakers"). This may be set against the retained and newly established cathedrals of the daily singing of the [[Liturgy of the Hours|Divine Office]] by choristers and vicars choral, now undertaken as public worship, which had not been the case before the dissolution. The deans and prebends of the six new cathedrals were overwhelmingly former heads of religious houses. The secularised former monks and friars commonly looked for re-employment as parish clergy; and consequently, numbers of new ordinations dropped drastically in the ten years after the dissolution and ceased almost entirely in the reign of Edward VI. It was only in 1549, after Edward came to the throne, that former monks and nuns were permitted to marry. Within a year of permission being granted, only around a quarter had done so, only to find themselves forcibly separated (and denied their pensions) in the reign of Mary. On the succession of Elizabeth, these former monks and friars (reunited both with their wives and their pensions) formed a major part of the new Anglican church and may properly claim credit for maintaining the religious life of the country until a new generation of ordinands became available in the 1560s and 1570s.{{citation needed| date= October 2019}}

In the medieval church, there had been no [[seminary|seminaries]] or other institutions dedicated to training men as parish clergy. An aspiring candidate for [[ordination]], having acquired a grammar school education and appropriate experience, would have been presented to the bishop's commissary for examination. Candidates were sponsored by an ecclesiastical corporation which provided him with a 'title', a notional patrimony assuring the bishop of his financial security. By the 16th century, the sponsors were overwhelmingly religious houses, although monasteries provided no formal parochial training, and the financial 'title' was a legal fiction. With the rapid expansion of grammar school provision in the late medieval period, the numbers of men being presented each year for ordination greatly exceeded the number of [[benefices]] falling vacant through the death of the incumbent priest. Consequently most newly ordained parish clergy could only expect to succeed to a benefice after many years as a Mass priest of low social standing.{{citation needed| date= October 2019}}

In the knowledge that alternative arrangements for sponsorship and title would now need to be made, the dissolution legislation provided that the lay and ecclesiastical successors of the monks in former monastic endowments could provide valid title for ordinands. These new arrangements appear to have taken a considerable period to gain acceptance, and the circumstances of the church in the late 1530s may not have encouraged candidates to come forward. For 20 years afterwards (until the succession of Elizabeth I), the number of ordinands in every diocese in England and Wales fell drastically. At the same time, the restrictions on 'pluralism' introduced through legislation in 1529 prevented the accumulation of multiple benefices by individual clergy, and accordingly by 1559 some 10% of benefices were vacant and former reserve Mass priests had been absorbed into the ranks of beneficed clergy. Monastic successors preferred to sponsor university graduates as candidates for the priesthood; and, although the government failed to respond to the consequent need for expanded educational provision, individual benefactors stepped into the breach, with the refoundation as university colleges of five out of the six former monastic colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. [[Jesus College, Oxford]] and [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]] were newly founded with the express purpose of educating a Protestant parish clergy. One unintended long-term consequence of the dissolution was the transformation of the parish clergy in England and Wales into an educated professional class of secure, beneficed incumbents of distinctly higher social standing. Through intermarriage of one another's children, this social group became substantially self-perpetuating.{{citation needed| date= October 2019}}

[[File:1stLordRich.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Richard Rich]], first chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, established to manage the endowments of former monasteries and pay pensions]]
Even while it had been stated that King's increased riches would make it possible to build or better fund religious, philanthropic, and educational institutions, only around 15% of the monastic money was used this way. This included refounding eight out of nine previous monastic cathedrals (Coventry being the exception), as well as six completely new bishoprics (Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough, Westminster) with their associated cathedrals, chapters, choirs, and grammar schools; refounding monastic institutions at Brecon, Thornton, and Burton on Trent as secular colleges; endowing five Regius Professorships at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the endowment of the colleges of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], and Christ Church, Oxford; and the maritime charity of [[Trinity House]]. [[Thomas Cranmer]] objected to the provision of the new cathedrals with complete chapters of [[prebend]]aries at high stipends, but against pressure to ensure that well-paid posts would continue, his protests had no effect. On the other hand, Cranmer ensured that the new grammar schools attached both to 'New Foundation' and 'Old Foundation' cathedrals should be well funded, and accessible to boys from all walks of life. The Court of Augmentations retained around a third of the overall monastic income since it was necessary to continue making pension payments to former monks and nuns. Just over half of the remaining property was left to be offered for sale at market prices (Henry gave away very little property to favored staff, and what he did give away tended to return to the Crown after its beneficiaries fell out of favor and were charged with treason). The English and Welsh dissolutions produced a comparatively small amount of new educational endowments compared to the violent closure of monasteries elsewhere in Protestant Europe, but the treatment of former monks and nuns was more benevolent, and there was no analogue to the mechanisms established in England to maintain pension payments over successive decades.{{citation needed| date= October 2019}}