SUPPRESSION OF THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES DURING THE Essays

SUPPRESSION OF THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES DURING THE Essays SUPPRESSION OF THE ENGLISH MONASTERIES DURING THE REIGN OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH An Essay Submitted to the Department of History of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts by Guy Fairweather - Director Department of History University of Notre Dame May 11, 1974 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION TO IMPORTANT PERSONAGES AND PREVALENT SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN THE 1520's AND 1530's In the years 1536 and 1539 A. D. there occurred two events in England that were destined to alter its whole religious character. In these two years the King of England, Henry VIII, forced through the English Parliament two acts that sealed the fate of the Catholic Church in England. They were the "Act for the Dissolution of the Smaller Monasteries" and the "Act for the Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries", respectively. In this paper I will explore the events and the reasons behind these events, which led to this complete and total break with a religion that had been embraced by England for centuries. Naturally, the most important of the people involved in these suppressions was King Henry VIII for it was during his reign that the monasteries were suppressed. When Henry's father died in 1509 Henry ascended a throne which his father had made remarkably secure, he inherited a fortune which probably no English king had ever been bequeathed, he came to a kingdom which was the best governed and most obedient in Christendom. 1 Upon taking the throne Henry married his brother's