Editing Dissolution of the monasteries (section)

==Process==

===Declaration as Head of the Church===

On famously failing to receive from the Pope a declaration of nullity regarding his marriage, Henry had himself declared [[Supreme Head of the Church of England]] in February 1531, and instigated a programme of legislation to establish this Royal Supremacy in law. In April 1533, an [[Act in Restraint of Appeals]] eliminated the right of clergy to appeal to "foreign tribunals" (Rome) over the King's head in any matter. All ecclesiastical charges and levies that had previously been payable to Rome would now go to the King. By the [[Submission of the Clergy]], the English clergy and religious orders subscribed to the proposition that the King was, and had always been, the Supreme Head of the Church in England. Consequently, in Henry's view, any act of monastic resistance to royal authority would be more than just treasonable; it would also be a breach of the monastic [[vow of obedience]]. 

Under heavy threats, almost all religious houses joined the rest of the Church in acceding to the Royal Supremacy; and in swearing to uphold the validity of the King's divorce and remarriage. Opposition was concentrated in the houses of Carthusian monks, [[Observant Franciscan]] friars and Bridgettine monks and nuns. Great efforts were made to cajole, bribe, trick and threaten these houses into formal compliance, with those religious who continued in their resistance being liable to imprisonment until they submitted or if they persisted, to execution for treason. All the houses of the Observant Friars were handed over to the mainstream Franciscan order; the friars from the [[Greenwich]] house were imprisoned, where many died from ill-treatment. The Carthusians eventually submitted, other than the monks of the London house which was suppressed; some of the monks were executed for high treason in 1535, and others starved to death in prison. Also opposing the Supremacy and consequently imprisoned were Bridgettine monks from [[Syon Abbey]]. The Syon nuns, being strictly enclosed, escaped sanction at this stage, the personal compliance of the abbess being taken as sufficient for the government's purposes. {{ citation needed| date= October 2019}}

Historians, often Anglican, have downplayed the difficulties above, and the various [[Dissolution_of_the_monasteries#Politics|bloody rebellions]], and attributed compliance to native xenophobia or reserve rather than to real threats. For example, twentieth century author G. W. O. Woodward wrote {{quote|text=All but a very few took it without demur. They were, after all, Englishmen, and shared the common prejudice of their contemporaries against the pretensions of foreign Italian prelates.{{sfn|Woodward|1974|p=19}} }}

===Visitation of the monasteries===

In 1534, Cromwell undertook, on behalf of the King, an inventory of the endowments, liabilities and income of the entire ecclesiastical estate of England and Wales, including the monasteries (see {{lang|la|[[Valor Ecclesiasticus]]}}), for the purpose of assessing the Church's taxable value, through local commissioners who reported in May 1535. At the same time, Henry had [[Parliament of England|Parliament]] authorise Cromwell to "[[Canonical visitation|visit]]" all the [[monasteries]], including those like the Cistercians previously exempted from episcopal oversight by papal dispensation, to instruct them in their duty to obey the King and reject papal authority. Cromwell delegated his visitation authority to hand-picked commissioners, chiefly Richard Layton, Thomas Legh, [[John ap Rice]] and [[John Tregonwell]], for the purposes of ascertaining the quality of religious life being maintained in religious houses, of assessing the prevalence of 'superstitious' religious observances such as the veneration of [[Christian relic|relics]], and for inquiring into evidence of moral laxity (especially sexual). The chosen commissioners were mostly secular clergy, and appear to have been Erasmian, doubtful of the value of monastic life and universally dismissive of relics and miraculous tokens. By comparison with the valuation commissions, the timetable for these monastic visitations was tight, with some houses missed altogether, and inquiries appear to have concentrated on gross faults and laxity; consequently, where the reports of misbehaviour can be checked against other sources, they commonly appear to have been both rushed and greatly exaggerated, often recalling events from years before. The visitors interviewed each member of the house and selected servants, prompting individual confessions of wrongdoing and asking them to inform on one another. From their correspondence with Cromwell it can be seen that the visitors knew that findings of impropriety were both expected and desired; however, where no faults were revealed, none were reported. The visitors put the worst construction they could on whatever they were told, but they do not appear to have fabricated allegations of wrongdoing outright.{{sfn|Bernard|2011|p=397-399}}

===Reports and further visitations===
[[File:Altarpiece fragments late 1300 early 1400 destroyed during the English Dissolution mid 16th century.jpg|thumb|Altarpiece fragments (late 1300 – early 1400) destroyed during the dissolution, mid-16th century.]]
In the autumn of 1535, the visiting commissioners were sending back to Cromwell their written reports, enclosing with them bundles of purported miraculous wimples, girdles and mantles that monks and nuns had been lending out for cash to the sick, or to mothers in labour. The commissioners appear to have instructed houses to reintroduce the strict practice of common dining and cloistered living, urging that those unable to comply should be encouraged to leave; and many appear to have been released from their monastic vows. The visitors reported the number of professed religious persons continuing in each house. In the case of seven houses, impropriety or irreligion had been so great, or the numbers remaining so few, that the commissioners had felt compelled to suppress it on the spot; in others, the abbot, prior or noble patron was reported to be petitioning the King for a house to be dissolved. Such authority had formerly rested with the Pope, but now the King would need to establish a legal basis for dissolution in statutory law. Moreover, it was by no means clear that the property of a surrendered house would automatically be at the disposal of the Crown; a good case could be made for this property to revert to the heirs and descendants of the founder or other patron. 

Parliament enacted the [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535]] ("Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act") in early 1535, relying on the reports of "impropriety" Cromwell had received, establishing the power of the King to dissolve religious houses that were failing to maintain a religious life, consequently providing for the King to compulsorily dissolve monasteries with annual incomes declared in the {{lang|la|Valor Ecclesiasticus}} of less than £200 (of which there were potentially 419) but also giving the King the discretion to exempt any of these houses from dissolution at his pleasure. All property of the dissolved house would revert to the Crown. Many monasteries falling below the threshold forwarded a case for continuation, offering to pay substantial fines. Many such cases were accepted, so that only around 330 were referred to suppression commissions, and only 243 houses were actually dissolved at this time. The choice of a £200 threshold as the criterion for general dissolution under the legislation was suspect, as the preamble refers to numbers rather than income. Adopting a financial criterion was likely determined pragmatically; the Valor Ecclesiasticus data being both more reliable and more complete than those of Cromwell's visitors.{{citation needed| date= October 2019}}

[[File:DorchesterAbbey Interior Nave&EastWindow.JPG|thumb|left|upright|[[Dorchester Abbey]] in Oxfordshire; a smaller house with a net income below £200-year, dissolved in 1536 and purchased for a parish church]]
The smaller houses identified for suppression were visited during 1536 by more local commissions, one for each county, charged with creating an inventory of assets and valuables, and empowered to obtain co-operation from monastic superiors by granting pensions or bribes. In practice, few houses immediately surrendered. A two-stage procedure was applied, the commissions reporting back to Cromwell for a decision as to whether to proceed with dissolution. These commissioners often supported the continuation of a house where they found no serious problem; arguments that Cromwell appears to have accepted. Around 80 houses were exempted. Where dissolution was determined, a second visit would affect the arrangements for closure of the house, disposal of its assets and endowments and provisions for the future of its members. Otherwise, the second visit would collect a fine. In general, these commissioners were less inclined to report faults in monastic observance within the smaller houses than the earlier group had been, although this may have been coloured by an awareness that monks and nuns with a bad reputation would be difficult to place elsewhere. The 1536 Act established that, whatever the claims of founders or patrons, the property of the dissolved smaller houses reverted to the Crown. Cromwell established a new government agency, the [[Court of Augmentations]], to manage that. Although the property rights of lay founders and patrons were legally extinguished, the incomes of lay holders of monastic offices, pensions and annuities were generally preserved, as were the rights of tenants of monastic lands. 

Ordinary monks and nuns were given the choice of secularisation (with a cash gratuity but no pension), or of transfer to a continuing larger house of the same order.  However, former monks and nuns were still banned from marriage, having taken a vow, making their life precarious.<ref name=heritage>{{cite web |title=What Became of the Monks and Nuns at the Dissolution? |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/histories/dissolution/ |website=English Heritage}}</ref>  The majority of those then remaining chose to continue in the religious life. In some areas, the premises of a suppressed religious house were recycled into a new foundation to accommodate them, and rehousing those seeking a transfer proved much more difficult and time-consuming than appears to have been anticipated. 

At least two houses, [[Norton Priory]] in Cheshire and [[Hexham Abbey]] in Northumberland, attempted to resist the commissioners by force, actions which Henry interpreted as treason. He wrote personally to demand the brutal punishment of those responsible. The prior and canons of Norton were imprisoned for several months and were fortunate to escape with their lives; the canons of Hexham, who made the mistake of becoming involved in the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]], were executed.

===Initial round of suppressions===
{{Main|Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535}}
{{unsourced|section|date=July 2020}}
[[File:BridlingtonPriory.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Bridlington Priory]] in Yorkshire; dissolved in 1537 due to the [[attainder]] of the prior for treason following the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]]]] The first round of suppressions initially aroused popular discontent, especially in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire where many contributed to the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]] of 1536. This turn led to Henry increasingly associating monasticism with betrayal, as some of the spared religious houses in northern England (more or less willingly) sided with the rebels, while former monks resumed religious life in several of the suppressed houses. Clauses within the [[Treasons Act 1534]] provided that the property of those convicted of treason would automatically revert to the Crown, clauses that Cromwell had drafted with the intention of effecting the dissolution of religious houses, arguing that the superior of the house (abbot, abbess, prior or prioress) was the legal "owner" of all its monastic property. The wording of the First Suppression Act had been clear that reform, not outright abolition of monastic life, was being presented as the objective of the government. There has been continuing academic debate as to whether a universal dissolution was being covertly prepared at this point.

The predominant academic opinion is that the extensive care taken to provide for monks and nuns from the suppressed houses to transfer demonstrates that monastic reform was still, at least in the mind of the King, the guiding principle. Further large-scale action against substandard richer monasteries was always planned. The selection of poorer houses for dissolution in the First Act minimised the potential release of funds to other purposes. Once pensions had been committed to former superiors, cash rewards paid to those wishing to leave the religious life, and funding allocated for refounded houses, it is unlikely that the crown profited beyond the fines levied on exempted houses. During 1537 (possibly conditioned by concern not to re-ignite rebellious impulses) no further dissolutions were undertaken. Episcopal visitations were renewed, monasteries adapted their internal discipline in accordance with Cromwell's injunctions, and many houses undertook overdue programmes of repair and reconstruction.{{citation needed|date= October 2019}}

The remaining monasteries required funds, partly to pay fines for exemption. During 1537 and 1538, there was a large increase in monastic lands and endowments being leased out, and in the offer of fee-paying offices and annuities in return for cash. By establishing long-term liabilities, these actions diminished the eventual net return to the Crown from each house's endowments, but they were not officially discouraged. Cromwell obtained and solicited many such fees in his own personal favour. Crucially, having created the precedent that tenants and lay recipients of monastic incomes might expect to have their interests recognised by the Court of Augmentations following dissolution, the government's apparent acquiescence to the granting of additional such rights helped establish a predisposition towards dissolution amongst tenants. At the same time, and especially once the loss of income from shrines and pilgrimages was taken into account, the long-term financial sustainability of many remaining houses was fragile.{{citation needed| date= October 2019}}

[[File:Furness Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 42919.jpg|thumb|left|[[Furness Abbey]] in Cumbria; dissolved in 1537 and the first of the larger houses to be dissolved by voluntary surrender]]
Although Henry continued to maintain that his sole objective was monastic reform, in 1537 it became clear that official policy was the general extinction of monasticism in England and Wales. This extinction was now expected to be achieved through individual applications from superiors for voluntary surrender rather than through a systematic statutory dissolution. One Abbey whose monks had been implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace was [[Furness]] in Lancashire. The abbot, fearful of a treason charge, petitioned to make a voluntary surrender of his house, which Cromwell happily approved. From then on, all dissolutions that were not a consequence of convictions for treason were legally "voluntary" – a principle that was taken a stage further with the voluntary surrender of [[Lewes]] priory in November 1537 when the monks were not accorded the option of transfer to another house, but with the additional motivation that from then on, ordinary monks (but not friars)<ref name=scott/> were offered life pensions if they co-operated. Abbots and priors came under pressure from their communities to petition for voluntary surrender if they could obtain favourable terms for pensions; they also knew that if they refused to surrender, they might suffer the penalty for treason and their house would be dissolved anyway. Where the King had been able to establish himself as founder, he exploited his position to place compliant monks and nuns as the head of the house while non-royal patrons and founders also tended to press superiors for an early surrender, hoping to get preferential treatment in the disposal of monastic properties. From the beginning of 1538, Cromwell targeted the houses that he knew to be wavering in their resolve, cajoling and bullying their superiors to apply for surrender. Nevertheless, the public stance of the government was that the better-run houses could still expect to survive, and Cromwell dispatched a circular in March 1538 condemning false rumours of a general policy of dissolution while also warning superiors against asset-stripping or concealment of valuables, which could be construed as treasonable action.

===Second round of dissolutions===
As 1538 proceeded, applications for surrender flooded in. Cromwell appointed a local commissioner in each case to ensure rapid compliance with the King's wishes, to supervise the orderly sale of monastic goods and buildings, to dispose of monastic endowments, and to ensure that the former monks and nuns were provided with pensions, cash gratuities and clothing. Existing tenants would have their tenancies continued, and lay office holders would continue to receive their incomes and fees (even without duties or obligations). Monks or nuns who were aged, handicapped or infirm were given more generous pensions, and care was taken throughout that there should be nobody cast out of their place unprovided for (who might otherwise have increased the burden of charity for local parishes). In a few instances, even monastic servants were provided with a year's wages on discharge.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

The endowments of landed property and appropriated parish [[tithes]] and [[glebe]] were transferred to the Court of Augmentations, who would pay out life pensions and fees at the agreed rate. Pensions averaged around £5 per annum before tax for monks, with those for superiors typically assessed at 10% of the net annual income of the house and were not reduced if the pensioner obtained other employment. If the pensioner accepted a royal appointment or benefice of greater annual value than their pension, the pension would be extinguished. In 1538, £5 compared with the annual wages of a skilled worker—and although the real value of such a fixed income would suffer through inflation—it remained a significant sum.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

To save money on pensions for former heads of monastic houses, at least twenty monks and canons were granted established or newly-created bishoprics within a decade of the dissolution.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGOVERN |first1=Jonathan |title=Newly Discovered Notes of a Sermon by Hugh Latimer |journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History |date=July 2020 |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=596–601 |doi=10.1017/S002204691900174X}}</ref>

Pensions granted to nuns were less generous, averaging £3 per annum. During Henry's reign, former nuns, like monks, continued to be forbidden to marry, therefore it is more possible that genuine hardship resulted, especially as former nuns had little access to opportunities for gainful employment. Where nuns came from well-born families, as many did, they seem commonly to have returned to live with their relatives. Otherwise, there were a number of instances where former nuns of a house clubbed together in a shared household. There were no retrospective pensions for those monks or nuns who had already sought secularisation following the 1535 visitation, nor for those members of the smaller houses dissolved in 1536 and 1537 who had not remained in the religious life, nor for those houses dissolved before 1538 due to the conviction for treason of their superior such as support for the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]], and no friars were pensioned.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

The future of the ten monastic cathedrals came into question. For two of these, [[Bath Abbey|Bath]] and [[St Mary's Priory and Cathedral|Coventry]], there was a second secular cathedral church in the same diocese, and both surrendered in 1539; but the other eight would necessarily need to continue in some form. It remained to determine what that form might be. A possible model was presented by the [[collegiate church]] of [[Stoke College|Stoke-by-Clare, Suffolk]], where, in 1535 the evangelically minded Dean, [[Matthew Parker]], had recast the college statutes away from the saying of [[chantry]] masses and towards preaching, observance of the [[Canonical hours|office]], and children's education.{{Sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=489}}

In May 1538, the monastic cathedral community of [[Norwich Cathedral|Norwich]] surrendered, adopting new collegiate statutes as secular priests along similar lines. The new foundation in Norwich provided for around half the number of clergies as had been monks in the former monastery, with a dean, five [[prebendaries]] and sixteen [[minor canon]]s. This change corresponded with ideas of a reformed future for monastic communities that had been a subject of debate and speculation amongst leading Benedictine abbots for decades, and sympathetic voices were being heard from a number of quarters in the late summer of 1538.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

The Lord Chancellor, [[Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden|Thomas Audley]], proposed [[St Osyth's Priory|Colchester and St Osyth's Priory]] as a possible future college. [[Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk]] and Lord Treasurer proposed [[Thetford Priory]], making extensive preparations to adopt statutes similar to those from Stoke-by-Clare, and expending substantial sums into moving shrines, relics and architectural fittings from the dissolved Castle Acre Priory into Thetford priory church. Cromwell himself proposed [[Walsingham Priory|Little Walsingham]] (once purged of its "superstitious" shrine), and [[Hugh Latimer]], the evangelical bishop of Worcester, wrote to Cromwell in 1538 to plead for the continuation of [[Great Malvern Priory]], and of "two or three in every shire of such remedy".{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=490}} By early 1539, the continuation of select great monasteries as collegiate refoundations had become an expectation. When the [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539|Second Suppression Act]] was presented to Parliament in May 1539, it was accompanied by an Act giving the King authority to establish new bishoprics and collegiate cathedral foundations. While the principle had been established, the numbers of successor colleges and cathedrals remained unspecified.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

King Henry's enthusiasm for creating new bishoprics was second to his passion for building fortifications. When an apparent alliance of France and the Holy Roman Empire against England was agreed at Toledo in January 1539, this precipitated a major invasion scare. Even though by midsummer the immediate danger had passed, Henry still demanded from Cromwell unprecedented sums for the [[Device Forts|coastal defence works]] from [[St Michael's Mount]] to [[Lowestoft]]. The scale of the proposed new foundations was drastically cut back.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=490}} In the end, six abbeys were raised to be cathedrals of new dioceses, and only two more major abbeys, [[Burton Abbey|Burton-on-Trent]] and [[Thornton Abbey|Thornton]], were re-founded as non-cathedral colleges. To the intense displeasure of Thomas Howard, Thetford was not spared, and was amongst the last houses to be dissolved in February 1540, while the Duke was out of the country on a hastily arranged embassy to France.{{Sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=511}}

Even late in 1538, Cromwell himself appears to have hoped that a select group of nunneries might be spared, where they were able to demonstrate both a high quality of regular observance and a commitment to the principles of religious reform. One was [[Godstow|Godstow Abbey]] near [[Oxford]], whose abbess, Lady Katherine Bulkeley, was one whom Cromwell had personally promoted. Godstow was invaded by [[John London (priest)|Dr John London]], Cromwell's commissioner, in October 1538, demanding the surrender of the abbey; but following a direct appeal to Cromwell himself, the house was assured that it could continue. Lady Katherine assured Cromwell that "there is neither pope nor purgatory, image nor pilgrimage nor praying to dead saints used or regarded amongst us".{{sfn|Erler|2013|pages=60–72}} Godstow Abbey was providing highly regarded boarding and schooling for girls of notable families. This was the case for several other nunneries, a factor which may have accounted for their surviving so long. Diarmaid MacCulloch further suggests that "customary male cowardice" was also a factor in the reluctance of the government to confront the heads of female religious houses.{{sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=463}} But the stay of execution for Godstow Abbey lasted just over a year: the abbey was suppressed in November 1539 along with all other nunnery survivors, as Henry was determined that none should continue.{{Sfn|MacCulloch|2018|p=491}}

===Later dissolutions===
None of the same legislation and visitation had applied to the houses of the friars. At the beginning of the 14th century there had been around 5,000 friars in England, occupying extensive complexes. There were still around 200 friaries in England at the dissolution. Except for the Observant Franciscans, by the 16th century the friars' income from donations had collapsed, their numbers had shrunk to less than 1,000 and their buildings were often ruinous or leased out commercially. No longer self-sufficient in food and with their cloistered spaces invaded by secular tenants, almost all friars were now living in rented lodgings outside their friaries and meeting for divine service in the friary church. Many friars now supported themselves through paid employment and held personal property.{{citation needed|date= October 2019}}

By early 1538, suppression of the friaries was widely being anticipated. In some houses, all friars save the prior had already left, and assets (standing timber, chalices, vestments) were being sold off. Cromwell deputed [[Richard Yngworth]], suffragan [[Bishop of Dover]] and former Provincial of the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], to obtain the friars' surrender, which he achieved rapidly by drafting new injunctions that enforced each order's rules and required friars to resume a strict conventual life within their walls. Failure to accept voluntary surrender would then result in enforced homelessness and starvation. Once the friars agreed to surrender, Yngworth reported to Cromwell. He noted on his actions for each friary, who was the current tenant of each of the gardens, what was the general state of the buildings, and whether any church had valuable lead on roofs and gutters. Most of the friaries were in disrepair, with leased-out gardens as the only valuable asset.<ref name="salter"/>

Yngworth had no authority to dispose of lands and property and could not negotiate pensions. Therefore, the friars appear to have been released and dismissed with a gratuity of around 40 shillings each. Yngworth took this payout from whatever cash resources were in hand. He listed by name the friars remaining in each house at surrender so that Cromwell could provide them with legal permission to pursue careers as a secular priests. Furthermore, Yngworth had no discretion to maintain friary churches, even though many had continued to attract congregations. They were disposed of rapidly by the Court of Augmentations. Of all the friary churches in England and Wales, only [[St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich]], [[Atherstone Priory]] (Warwickshire), the [[Chichester Guildhall]], and [[Greyfriars Church, Reading]] remain standing (although the London church of the [[Austin Friars, London|Austin Friars]] continued in use by the [[Dutch Church, Austin Friars|Dutch Church]] until destroyed in the [[London Blitz]]). Almost all other friaries have disappeared with few visible traces.<ref name="salter">{{harvnb|Salter|2010}}</ref>

[[File:visitation monasteries.JPG|thumb|The suppression of [[St John's Abbey, Colchester]], with the execution of the abbot shown in the background]]
In April 1539, Parliament passed a [[Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539|new law]] retrospectively legalising acts of voluntary surrender and assuring tenants of their continued rights, but by then the vast majority of monasteries in England and Wales had already been dissolved or marked out for a future as a collegiate foundation. Some still resisted, and that autumn the [[abbot]]s of [[St John's Abbey, Colchester|Colchester]], Glastonbury, and [[Reading Abbey|Reading]] were [[hanged, drawn and quartered]] for [[treason]], their houses being dissolved and their monks receiving a basic pension of £4 per year.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

[[St Benet's Abbey]] in Norfolk was the only abbey in England which escaped formal dissolution. As the last abbot had been appointed to the see of [[Norwich]], the abbey endowments were transferred alongside him directly into those of the bishops. The last two abbeys to be dissolved were [[Shap Abbey]], in January 1540, and [[Waltham Abbey Church|Waltham Abbey]], on 23 March 1540, and several priories also survived into 1540, including [[Bolton Priory]] in Yorkshire (dissolved 29 January 1540) and [[Thetford Priory]] in Norfolk (dissolved 16 February 1540). It was not until April 1540 that the cathedral priories of [[Canterbury Cathedral|Canterbury]] and [[Rochester Cathedral|Rochester]] were transformed into secular cathedral chapters.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

===Effects on public life===
{{main|List of English abbeys, priories and friaries serving as parish churches}}
The surrender of monastic endowments was recognised automatically as terminating all regular religious observance by its members, except in the case of a few communities, such as Syon, who went into exile. There are several recorded instances where groups of former members of a house set up residence together, but no cases where an entire community did so, and there is no indication that any continued to pray the Divine Office. The dissolution Acts were concerned solely with the disposal of endowed property, and never explicitly forbade the continuance of a regular life. Given Henry's attitude to those religious who resumed their houses during the Pilgrimage of Grace, it would have been seen as unwise for any former community to maintain covert monastic observance.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}

[[File:Selby Abbey Nave.jpg|thumb|left|[[Selby Abbey]] in Yorkshire, Benedictine abbey, purchased by the town as a parish church]]
The local commissioners were instructed to ensure that, where portions of abbey churches were also used by local parishes or congregations, this use should continue. Parts of [[List of English abbeys, priories and friaries serving as parish churches|117 former monasteries]] (of over 800) survived (and mostly still remain) in use for parochial worship, in addition to the fourteen former monastic churches that survived in their entirety as cathedrals. In around a dozen instances, wealthy benefactors purchased a complete former monastic church from the commissioners and presented it to their local community. Many other parishes bought and installed former monastic woodwork, choir stalls and stained-glass windows. As it was commonly the case by the late medieval period that the abbot's lodging had been expanded, these properties were frequently converted into country houses by lay purchasers. In other cases, such as [[Lacock Abbey]] and [[Forde Abbey]], the conventual buildings themselves were converted to form the core of a Tudor great mansion. 

Otherwise, the most marketable fabric in monastic buildings was likely to be the lead on roofs, gutters and plumbing, and buildings were burned down as the easiest way to extract this. Building stone and slate were sold off to the highest bidder. Many monastic outbuildings were turned into granaries, barns and stables. Thomas Cromwell had already instigated a campaign against "superstitions": pilgrimages and veneration of saints, during which ancient and precious valuables were grabbed and melted down, the tombs of saints and kings ransacked for whatever profit could be got from them, and their [[Christian relic|relics]] destroyed or dispersed. Even the crypt of King [[Alfred the Great]] was not spared. Great abbeys and priories like Glastonbury, [[Walsingham Priory|Walsingham]], [[Bury St Edmunds Abbey|Bury St Edmunds]], and [[Shaftesbury Abbey|Shaftesbury]], which had flourished as pilgrimage sites for many centuries, were soon reduced to ruins. However, the tales of widespread mob action resulting in destruction and [[iconoclasm]] partly confuses the looting spree of the 1530s with the vandalism wrought by the [[Puritans]] in the next century against the Anglican privileges. 

Despite this, writer G.W.O. Woodward claimed:
{{quote|text=There was no general policy of destruction, except in [[Lincolnshire]] where the local government agent was so determined that the monasteries should never be restored that he razed as many as he could to the ground. More often, the buildings have simply suffered from unroofing and neglect, or by quarrying.{{sfn|Woodward|1974|p=23}}}}

[[File:Cloisters at Laycock Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 1427064.jpg|thumb|right|[[Lacock Abbey]] in Wiltshire, an Augustinian nunnery converted into an aristocratic mansion and country estate]]
Once the new and re-founded cathedrals and other endowments had been provided for, the Crown became richer to the extent of around £150,000 ({{Inflation|UK|150000|1538|r=-2|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} per year, although around £50,000 ({{Inflation|UK|50000|1538|r=-2|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}){{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} of this was initially committed to fund monastic pensions. Cromwell had intended that the bulk of this wealth should serve as regular income. After Cromwell's fall in 1540, Henry needed money quickly to fund his military ambitions in France and Scotland. Monastic property was sold off, representing by 1547 an annual value of £90,000 ({{Inflation|UK|90000|1547|r=-3|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} Lands and endowments were not offered for sale, let alone auctioned. Instead, the government responded to the flood of applications for purchase. Many applicants had been founders or patrons of the relevant houses and could expect to be successful. Purchasers were predominantly leading nobles, local magnates and gentry, people with no discernible religious tendency, other than a determination to maintain and extend their family's local status. The landed property of the former monasteries included large numbers of manorial estates, each carrying the right and duty to hold a court for tenants and others. Acquiring such feudal rights was regarded as essential to establish a family in the late medieval gentry. For a long period, freehold manorial estates had been very rare in the market, and families seized on the opportunity now offered to entrench their positions. Nothing would subsequently induce them to surrender their new acquisitions. The Court of Augmentations retained income sufficient to meet its continuing obligations to pay annual pensions; but as pensioners died off, or as pensions were extinguished when their holders accepted a royal appointment of higher value, then surplus property became available each year for further disposal. The last surviving monks continued to draw their pensions into the reign of [[James VI and I|James I]] (1603–1625), more than 60 years after the dissolution.{{citation needed|date= October 2019}}

[[File:Kite aerial photo of Bolton Abbey.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bolton Abbey]] in Yorkshire, surviving parochial nave and ruined monastic choir]]
The dissolution did not greatly affect English parish church activity. Parishes that had formerly paid their tithes to a religious house now paid them to a lay impropriator, but rectors, vicars, and other incumbents remained in place. Congregations that had shared monastic churches continued to do so, with former monastic parts now walled off and derelict. Most parish churches had been endowed with [[chantries]], each maintaining a [[stipend]]ed priest to say [[mass (liturgy)|Mass]], and these were unaffected. In addition, there remained over a hundred collegiate churches in England, whose endowments maintained regular choral worship through a corporate body of [[canon (priest)|canons]], [[prebend]]s or priests. All these survived the reign of Henry VIII largely intact, only to be dissolved under the [[Chantry#Abolition of Chantries Acts, 1545 and 1547|Chantries Act 1547]], by Henry's son Edward VI, their property being absorbed into the Court of Augmentations and their members being added to the pensions list. Since many former monks had found employment as chantry priests, the consequence for these clerics was a double experience of dissolution, perhaps mitigated by the promise of a double pension.{{citation needed|date= October 2019}}{{-}}