The Dissolution of the Monastic System in England, Yorkshire in Particular

Any work concerning the religious houses of Yorkshire, or elsewhere in England for that matter, cannot fail to describe their sudden and cataclysmic demise.  This was briefly touched upon earlier in Section 1, but demands closer inspection. 

In an act of pure self indulgence, king Henry VIII, by reason of his need for an heir; for his lust for another woman; and for his dire need to fill the exchequer; chose the religious institutions of the country to pay the price.  The whole procedure can be said to have officially begun with the Act of Supremacy, an Act of Parliament by which the monarch became the head of the Church in England in place of the Pope, but which in reality had been a festering sore for a while.  This Act was deemed necessary in order to legalise the King's desire to divorce his first wife and queen, Catherine of Aragon, in order that he might marry Anne Boleyn, for it is said that Anne refused to lie with him while he was still married.  Henry, by this time, had become desperate for an heir also, a task for which his first wife, some six years older than himself, was, at 40 years of age, too old [in their terms] for child bearing.  Queen Catherine had been pregnant for most of the first ten years of the marriage, from which all that had come was a single child, a girl they named Mary. 

Application had been made to the Pope (Clement VII) for divorce from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon on grounds of incest, she having been originally betrothed to Henry's older brother, Arthur.  Not convinced by many learned arguments, the application was denied, at which point Henry, likely under the persuasion of his advisors, chose a very radical and dangerous option.  He not only divorced his wife, but he divorced himself and England from the power and authority of the Roman church.  In a time of European upheaval, the pope was a virtual prisoner of Catherine's cousin, the Hapsburg Emperor Francis, and for Henry, well aware of this political situation, decided that as God's anointed, as were all kings, his authority was paramount to the Pope's in any case, because, in the teachings of the Bible, kings were named in it, while pope's were not.  This then meant that Henry, as the anointed king of England was superior in God's scrutiny than any Pope ever was.  This was, while logical to the needs of a man in desperate need of a son, the justification needed to make the break from Rome.  It also imbued the English monarchy from thence with, as it became known, the Divine Right of Kings, an ethos that would, in a further one hundred years, lead to the be-heading of a king.  To enforce this new monarchical philosophy, Henry and his ministers also required the assent of Parliament, but this, while in the spirit of Magna Carta was also in complete contravention to what was virtually the constitution of England, and by so breaking the charter, he became by definition of that charter, a despotic tyrant.  Clause 1 of the Charta states:
"First, that we have granted to God, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired.  The we wish this to be observed, appears from the fact that of our own free will, before the outbreak of the present dispute between us and our barons, we granted and confirmed by charter the freedom of the Church's elections - a right considered to be of the greatest necessity and importance to it - and caused this to be confirmed by Pope Innocent III.  This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity."   [My emphasis RGH]

It was this very freedom of the Church from royal intervention that Henry had seen fit to overthrow.  By doing so, he became not only the ruler of all things Temporal, but of all things Spiritual also.  This was by many considered an offensive outrage, to be frustrated by all legal means, but it was also a personal choice, which meant that all such dissenters had to face their choice alone. 

Those people for whom the usurpation of the Papal authority was an abomination, it was now a matter of conscience.  For some of them, it meant the very safety of their immortal souls and nothing, not even the threat of death was enough to sway them to any other belief, as can be gleaned from this, for in 1535 it was the year of the execution of some religious gentlemen on just such occasions.  

This account was written by the Tudor chronicler Edward Hall.

"This year on 11 June were arraigned in the king's bench at Westminster three monks of the Charterhouse of London, and there condemned of high treason against the king, and sentenced to be drawn, hanged, disemboweled, beheaded and quartered.  One of them was called Francis Nitigate, another Master Exmew, storekeeper of the same place, and the third was called Master Middlemore, vicar of the same place.  This year also on 17 June was arraigned at Westminster in the king's bench John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, for treason against the king, and he was condemned there by a jury of knights and esquires (the lord chancellor sitting as high judge), who passed this sentence on him - that the said John Fisher should go from thence to the place where he came from, which was the Tower of London, and from thence to be drawn through the City of London to Tyburn, there to be hanged, cut down alive, his bowels taken out of his body and burnt before him, his head cut off, and his body be divided into four parts and his head and body be set in such places as the king should assign.  The effect of the treason was denying the king to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, according to a statute, The Act of Supremacy, made in the last session of Parliament [my emphasis RGH].

On 19 June, a Saturday, the three monks of the Charterhouse, aforementioned, were drawn from the Tower to Tyburn, and there executed according to their sentence, and their heads and bodies hung at different gates around the city.

Also on 22 June, Tuesday, John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, was beheaded at Tower Hill, and the rest of his execution pardoned.  His body was buried in Barking churchyard, next to the Tower of London, and his head was set on London Bridge.

This year also on 1 July, being Thursday, Sir Thomas More, sometime chancellor of England, was arraigned at Westminster for high treason and there condemned, and the Tuesday after, being 6 July, he was beheaded at Tower Hill and his body was buried within the chapel in the Tower of London, and his head was set on London Bridge.  The effect of his death was for the same cause that the bishop of Rochester died for." 

The Act of Parliament (26 Henry VIII, cap. 1) confirms that the king is "the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England". He is recognised as having full power, both temporal and spiritual, over the Church - in fact, greater power than the Pope himself ever had or claimed to have.

A printed version of the act can be found on pages 243-244 of Documents Illustrative of English Church History, edited by Henry Gee and William John Hardy (London: Macmillan, 1914).  It states thus:

Albeit the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme head of the Church of England, and so is recognized by the clergy of this realm in their convocations, yet nevertheless for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same; be it enacted by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted and reputed the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia; and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all honours, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the said dignity of supreme head of the same Church belonging and appertaining; and that our said sovereign lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, corrected, restrained, or amended, most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquility of this realm; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding.

It is plain from this Act that any means were to be employed to justify a severe suppression of religious foundations.  Henry was also able to rationalise his attack on them because of contemporaneous developments in Continental Europe where radical reforms of the established Church were also being called for.  This REFORMATION lent weight to many of Henry's arguments with the established Church, but Henry wanted far more than reformation, he wanted the dissolution of the church establishment, its total destruction.  First however it was necessary for there to be a complete survey - a visitation - of all religious houses.  This visitation was in the north conducted in the main, by two commissioners named Richard Layton and Thomas Legh [both of whom were Doctors of Divinity], in the year 1535.  Initially, from this survey only those lesser houses with an income and assets of less than £200 were selected for closure.  To do this however required another Act of Parliament.  This Act dated November 1536, was the Act of Parliament (27 Henry VIII, cap. 28) in which it is stated that there was "manifest sin, [and] vicious, carnal and abominable living."   The property of all of these monasteries (including land, plate, jewels, and vestments) passed to the king.  The acquisition of the lands, rights, grants, plate, lead off the roofs and bronze from the bells, was not enough however to sate the king's avarice .  Consequently a second Act was enacted by Parliament for the suppression of the Greater monasteries.  For a complete view of this Act, click HERE which will open a new window.

In 1535, [Thomas Cromwell,] acting as the King's vice-regent, organized a visitation of all the monasteries. Such visitations were common, but they were normally organized either individually by monastery, if there was particular cause for concern about the religious life of the monastery; or by the governing body of the order to which the monastery belonged, if for some reason it was exempt from the royal visitations. The visitations were, however, cut short by the Valor Ecclesiasticus**, a study of all the wealth of the Church in England and Wales, which was carried out by Thomas Legh and Richard Layton, two of Cromwell's employees who pursued their job with ruthless efficiency, often spending only a couple of hours at each monastery they visited. Indeed, so brutal were they in their treatment of the monks and nuns that they were singled out for special punishment in the petition that was to be presented to the King by the members of the Pilgrimage of Grace.
[ http://www.coursework.info/i/28038.html ]

**Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Henr. VIII. Auctoritate regia institutus. [Valuation of property belonging to the Church made by order of King Henry VIII] 1535, was edited by J. Caley and J. Hunter into six volumes between 1810 and 1834, originally in Latin, and arranged by dioceses.

Doctors Layton and Legh, visited 121 religious houses in the North. They travelled over one thousand miles between spring 1535 and autumn 1536 to compile a report on the state of the religious life in the North, based on five pieces of information: the chastity of the monks, evidence of the veneration of relics, the financial state of the house, the name of the founder, whether any members of the community would agree to give up the religious life to take their place, once more, in secular life. During this grand tour of the North, Layton and Legh gained a reputation for their unpleasant manner and rigorous questioning.

These findings were recorded in the infamous 'Black Book' which was read out to Parliament in 1536 as evidence of the poor state of religious life. This paved the way for the first phase of the dissolution, the suppression of religious houses with an annual income under £200.
[ http://cistercians.shef.ac.uk/kirkstall/history/dissolution/ ]  

Holinshed describes these events thus: "In the month of October, doctor Lee [Legh] and other [Layton] were sent to visit the abbeys, priories, and nunneries in England, who set all those religious persons at liberty that would forsake their habit, and all that were under the age of four and twenty years, and the residue were closed up that would remain.  Further, they took order that no man should have access to the houses of women, not women to the houses of men, except it should be to hear their service.  The abbot or prior of the house, where any of the brethren were willing to depart, was appointed to give to every of them a priest's gown for his habit, and forty shillings in money, the nuns to have such apparel as secular women wear, and to go whither them liked best.."  The commissioners however, perhaps on more covert instruction from Thomas Cromwell, made more odious investigation; perhaps, it might be cited, with some justification.

The following, while predominantly containing those reports from the Compendium Compertorum or colloquially, the "Black Book", of the religious houses of Yorkshire, also contains some from without the county.  They have been included "in toto" as per "Letters and Papers" to provide the reader with comparisons, and to enable the reader to see how Layton and Legh recorded their findings, some rather less inflammatory than others it has to be said.  One cannot help but wonder what took place at those houses where so little was reported, and why - were they open to financial inducement perhaps?.  Time I fear will no longer supply the answers.  Some of the language of the time might seem today somewhat provocative, even after nearly 500 years.  This was without doubt the intention of the good Doctors.  For those of a delicate disposition, the following might be deemed unsuitable, but for the sake of history, this needs-must be presented as it was written, therefore the following abbreviations are hereby explained:  sod. [i.e. sodomites*],  incon. [i.e. incontinent = not celibate].   *Sodomite in this context to be taken as meaning those who found homosexual or personal gratification.  Where Latin phrases are included, it has been attempted to translate these into English - if any are palpably in error, please email me the correct translation that they may be amended.

These are the relevant passages from Layton and Legh's work, as later transcribed by James Gairdner.   My sincere thanks go to Jean Manco for sending me the copies, made at Bristol University Library, August, 2005. 

"Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII

Preserved in the Public Record Office, The British Museum, and elsewhere in England

Arranged and Catalogued by James Gairdner, Assistant Keeper of the Public Records, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls, and with the sanction of Her Majesty's Secretaries of State.

Volume X

1887"

From hence, the Compendium Compertorum moves north and west outside of the See of York, and thence to East Anglia, where they are particularly severe at Bury St. Edmunds.  For us however Layton and Legh had done their damning work, and as can be seen, they did not pull any punches.  Indeed, their view of those nuns and monks was as acerbic as those of Dante, where in his 'Divine Comedy' the 'Inferno' he places clerics in the forth level of sin described in canto VII:
"Thus we descended into the fourth hollow, taking more of the woeful bank that gathers in the evil of the whole universe. Ah, Justice of God! Who heapeth up so many new travails and penalties as I saw? And why doth our sin so waste us? As doth the wave, yonder upon Charybdis, which is broken on that which it encounters, so it behoves that here the people counterdance.

Here saw I people more than elsewhere many, and from one side and the other with great howls rolling weights by force of chest. They struck against each other, and then just there each turned, rolling backward, crying, "Why keepest thou?" and "Why flingest thou away?" Thus they turned through the dark circle on either hand to the opposite point, still crying out their opprobrious verse; then each, when he had come through his half circle, wheeled round to the other joust.

And I, who had my heart well-nigh pierced through, said, "My Master, now declare to me what folk is this, and if all these tonsured ones on our left were clerks."

And he to me, "All of these were so asquint in mind in the first life that they made no spending there with measure. Clearly enough their voices bay it out, when they come to the two points of the circle where the contrary sin divides them. These were clerks who have no hairy covering on their head, and Popes and Cardinals, in whom avarice practices its excess."

And I, "Master, among such as these I ought surely to recognize some who were polluted with these evils."

And he to me, "Vain thought thou harbourest; the undiscerning life that made them foul, to all recognition now makes them dim. Forever will they come to the two buttings; these will rise from the sepulchre with closed fist, and these with shorn hair. Ill-giving and ill-keeping have taken from them the fair world, and set them to this scuffle; such as it is, I adorn not words for it. Now canst thou, son, see the brief jest of the goods that are committed unto Fortune, for which the human race so scramble; for all the gold that is beneath the moon, or that ever was, of these weary souls could not make a single one repose."
http://pd.sparknotes.com/poetry/inferno/section8.html#

This massive upheaval of the status quo was not taken quietly by many of the ordinary people of the northern counties, and in early October 1536, the people of Louth in Lincolnshire rose up in protest over the destruction of their Church and other tax measures then being introduced by the Crown.  Holinshed described the events in his Chronicle of 1578 pp941, saying "In September, Thomas Cromwell, lord Privy Seal and vice-regent, sent abroad under the king's spiritual privy seal certain inivations(sic) [innovations?], commanding that the parsons and curates should teach their parishioners the Pater noster , the Ave & creed, with the ten Commandments, and articles of the faith in English.  These articles and inivations(sic) [innovations?] being established by authority of parliament, and now to the people delivered bred a great misliking in the hearts of the common people, which had been ever brought up and trained in contrary doctrine.  And herewith diverse of the clergy as monks, priests, and others, took occasion hereby to speak evil of the late proceedings of the king, touching matters of religion, affirming that is speedy remedy were not in time provided, the faith would shortly be utterly destroyed, and all prayer and divine service quite abolished and taken away.

"Many sinister reports, slanderous tales, and feigned fables, were blown abroad, and put into the people's ears, and diverse of the nobility did also what they could to stir the commons to rebellion, faithfully promising both aid and succour against the king.  The people thus provoked to mischief, and deceived through over light credence, incontinently as it were, to maintain that religion, which had for so many years continued, and been esteemed, they stiffly and stoutly conspired together, and in part of Lincolnshire they first assembled, and shortly after joined into an army, being (as it was supposed) of men apt for the wars, in number about twenty thousand." http://dewey.lib.upenn.edu/sceti/PrintedBooksnew/index.cfm?TextID=holinshed_chronicle&PagePosition=1

The insurrection of Lincolnshire men, though popular, was short lived, lasting but a fortnight.  Across the Humber Estuary northwards into Yorkshire however, the revolt spread far and wide.  History tends to record that a lawyer named Robert Aske, of Aughton [see Yorkshire Fortifications]  near Selby, was the leader, but it seems more likely that he was more the senior representative of the rebels, their spokesman, rather than the principal agent of rebellion.  The revolt spread far and wide across most northern counties, but there was little by way of out and out violence directly against the king and his interests [violence did occur, and that severe when it did, predominantly against individuals who had incurred the wrath of the rebels], for that was not the foremost aim of them, who misguidedly thought they could bring the king to the negotiating table by their mass demonstration of dissatisfaction. As part of their oath, the insurrectionists swore "for the love which they bore to Almighty God, his faith, the holy church, and the maintenance thereof; to the preservation of the king's person and his issue; to the purifying of the nobility; and to expulse all villein blood and evil counsellors from his grace and privy council; not for any private profit, nor to do displeasure to any private person, nor to slay or murder through envy, but for the restitution of the church, and the suppression of heretics and their opinions." [My emphasis RGH]  Furthermore, during his 'interrogation' soon after his capture, Robert Aske is reported to have said "First, to the statute of suppressions, he did grudge against the same and so did all the whole country, because the abbeys in the north parts gave great alms to poor men and laudably served God; in which parts of late days they had but small comfort by ghostly teaching. And by occasion of the said suppression the divine service of almighty God is much minished, great number of masses unsaid, and the blessed consecration of the sacrament now not used and showed in those places, to the distress of the faith and spiritual comfort to man's soul."  This 'admission' speaks volumes about the causes for the unrest; it is all that needs to be said here.

This whole sorry episode has become known to history as the Pilgrimage of Grace.  It takes little appreciation of the machinations of Crown advisors to realise that the desires of the rebels were not met, nor ever were they intended to be met, and the uprising was put down severely, Aske paying the ultimate price for his perceived treason when he was hanged at York.  As for the fiscal mount raised by the destruction of the monasteries, the number of houses suppressed in England and Wales, amounted to 645, exclusive of 96 colleges, 2,374 chantries and free chapels, and 119 hospitals. The value of the property seized by the king has been variously estimated, but, according to the Liber Regis, it yielded annually £142,914 12s. 91/4d., which, taken at twenty years' purchase, would produce £2,858,290.  This amount in the year 2002, equates to £42,566,013.06 and £1,008,141,444.52 respectively.

 It seems particularly ironic that one of the principal causes of the entire English Reformation, Anne Boleyn, had also been executed in May the same year of 1535.  The story of the Pilgrimage of Grace is a long and sorry one, which deserves more space and time than I can devote here.  This might be remedied at some later date.

In 1539, there was played out the final act of this particular period, with the passing of the second Dissolution Act pertaining to the larger houses, and any other that might have previously escaped the Crown's agents.  In 1539, this Act of Parliament (31 Henry VIII, cap. 18) stated that the alienations which had taken place were valid in civil law, and that any future ones would be also. The Dissolution Act, 1536, had justified the suppression of smaller monasteries by a claim that the members were not living according to their vows. The Dissolution Act, 1539, on the other hand, provides no such reason for the further suppression. By April 1540 every single one of the religious houses in England had been dissolved.  It is a comparatively long act, which can be seen by clicking HERE.

A printed version of the Act can be found on pages 281-303 of Documents Illustrative of English Church History, edited by Henry Gee and William John Hardy (London: Macmillan, 1914).

There survives but a singular eye-witness account of the process of bringing down an abbey, its church and other principal offices.  It is by far the most important and interesting document relating to Dissolution times.  It is a graphic account of the despoiling of the monastic buildings, written in 1591.  No doubt it describes scenes which, with varying details, took place all over the country after the dissolution of the religious houses.  

Ellis: Original letters (series 3), iii, 32-4, from Miss Graham, St. Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertines, 199-202.
"So soon [the account reads] as the Visitors were entred within the gates, they called the Abbot and other officers of the House, and caused them to deliver up to them all their keys and took an inventory of all their goods both within doors and without; for all such beasts, horses, sheep, and such cattle as were abroad in pastures or grange places, the Visitors caused to be brought into their presence: and when they had done so, turned the Abbot with all his convent and household forth out of doors.
Which thing was not a little grief to the Convent, and all the servants of the House departing one from another, and especially such as with their conscience could not break their profession; for it would have made a heart of flint to have melted and wept to have seen the breaking up of the House, and their sorrowful departing, and the sudden spoil that fell the same day of their departure from the House. And every person had every good thing cheap, except the poor Monks, Friars, and Nuns, that had no money to bestow of anything: as it appeared by the suppression of an Abbey hard by me, called the Roche Abbey, a House of White Monks: a very fair builded House, all of freestone; and every house vaulted with freestone and covered with lead (as the Abbeys was in England as well as the Churches be). At the breaking up whereof an Uncle of mine was present, being well acquainted with certain of the monks there . . . But such persons as afterward bought their corn and hay or such like, found all the doors either open, or the locks and shackles plucked away, or the door itself taken away, went in and took what they found, filched it away. Some took the Service Books that lied in the Church, and laid them upon their wain coppes to piece the same: some took windows of the Hayleith and hid them in their hay; and likewise they did of many other things: for some pulled forth the iron hooks out of the walls that bought none, when the yeomen and the gentlemen of the country had bought the timber of the Church. For the Church was the first thing that was put to the spoil; and then the Abbot's lodging, Dorter, and Frater, with the cloister and all the buildings thereabout within the Abbey walls; for nothing was spared but the oxhouses and swinecoates, and such other house of office, that stood without the walls; which had more favour showed them than the very Church itself: which was done by the advice of Cromwell, as Fox reporteth in his Book of Acts and Monuments. It would have pitied any heart to see what tearing up of lead there was, and plucking up of boards, and throwing down of the sparres: when the lead was torn off and cast down into the Church, and the tombs in the Church all broken (for in most abbeys were divers noble men and women, yea and in some Abbeys, Kings, whose tombs were regarded no more than the tombs of all other inferior persons: for to what end should they stand, when the Church over them was not spared for their cause), and all things of price either spoiled, caryed away, or defaced to the uttermost.
The persons that cast the lead into the fodders, plucked up all the seats in the choir, wherein the monks sat when they said service, which were like to the seats in minsters, and burned them and melted the lead therewith all: although there was wood plenty within a flight shot of them; for the Abbey stood among the woods and the rocks of stone: in which rocks was pewter vessels that was conveyed away and there hid; that it seemeth that every person bent himself to filch and spoil what he could: yea, even such persons were content to spoil them, that seemed not two days before to allow their religion and do great worship and reverence at their Mattins, Masses, and other Service, and all other their doings: which is a strange thing to say, that they that could this day think it to be the House of God, and the next day the House of the Devil; or else they would not have been so ready to have spoiled it. For the better proof of my saying, I demanded of my father, thirty years after the Suppression, which had bought part of the timber of the Church, and all the timber in the steeple, with the bell-frame, with others his partners therein (in the which steeple hung viii, yea ix bells; whereof the least but, one could not be bought at this day for xxli, which bells I did see hang there myself more than a year after the Suppression), whether he thought well of the Religious persons and of the Religion then used? And he told me, Yea: for, said he, I did see no cause to the contrary. Well, said I, then how came it to pass that you was so ready to destroy and spoil the, thing that you thought well of? What should I do? said he. Might I not as well as others have some profit of the spoil of the Abbey? for I did see all would away; and therefore I did as others did."

From: 'Houses of Cistercian monks: Roche', A History of the County of York: Volume 3 (1974), pp. 153-56. URL:  http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36241&strquery=roche%20abbey . Date accessed: 24 September 2005.

The English Reformation continued under Henry's son, Edward VI, who ascended the throne in 1547, at the age of 9.  Edward continued his father's mission with enthusiastic zeal, seeing an end to all monastic houses and hospitals, except those few, such as Selby, where local people could afford to purchase their abbey church for use as the parish church.  Religious upheaval continued throughout the remainder of the Tudor dynasty, and into and beyond the Stuart's.

Another aspect of the closure and destruction of the abbeys was the consequential loss of their libraries "The related destruction of the monastic libraries was one of the greatest cultural losses caused by the reformation. The abbey at Worcester had 600 books at the time of the dissolution. Only six of them survived intact. At the abbey of the Augustinian Friars at York, a library of 646 volumes was destroyed, leaving only three surviving books. Some books were destroyed for their precious bindings; others were sold off by the cart-load, including irreplaceable early English works. It is believed that many of the earliest Anglo-Saxon manuscripts were lost at this time.

"A great nombre of them whych purchased those supertycyous mansyons, resrved of those lybrarye bokes, some to serve theyr jakes, some to scoure candelstyckes, and some to rubbe their bootes. Some they solde to the grossers and soapsellers..." John Bale 1549

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries

Added to this, came the lack of need for skilled masons, artists, and artisans who built and maintained all church structures, that led to a massive skill shortage.  As there was no longer much need for those skills, the people involved necessarily moved on to new ones that would feed their families.

With the premature death of Edward VI, and by the authority of the Act of Supremacy, his half sister, Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, an ardent catholic and her followers, soon dispatched Edward's chosen heir, the protestant Lady Jane Grey.  This was but the first act of a reign in which the epithet of Bloody Mary was acquired, as she viciously and mercilessly executed, usually by means of burning at the stake, those who by the Protestantism, opposed her.  A fruitless marriage to king Philip II of Spain once more evoked the power of the Act of Supremacy, allowing upon her death, her half sister, Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn to become queen.

The dichotomy between protestant England and the Catholic kingdoms of Europe culminated arguably in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when in 1588, king Philip II of Spain chose to attempt an invasion of

'This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in a silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm,
this England'

William Shakespeare, Richard II, John o'Gaunt's speech, Act II, scene I, lines 40-50

Amassing 130 ships of many shapes and sizes, and armed with the permission of the pope in Rome, the Spanish Armada sailed towards the English Channel.  The papal permission had been issued in 1570, as a Papal Bull, an edict, that "moreover (we declare) her to be deprived of her pretended title to the aforesaid crown and of all lordship, dignity and privilege whatsoever."  For the full version of this inflammatory document CLICK HERE.  Perhaps to repudiate the blatant threats contained within the Bull, Elizabeth's own Privy Council in 1584, produced an article called the Bond of Association.  In this article, undersigned by very many worthy Englishmen were laid out in no uncertain terms that her defence and protection was paramount, pledging themselves, their people, lands and funds to that cause. It states:
"Forasmuch as Almighty God hath ordained kings, queens, and princes to have dominion and rule over all their subjects, and to preserve them in the possession and observation of the true Christian religion, according to His holy Word and commandment; and in like sort, that all subjects should love, fear, and obey their sovereign princes, being kings or queens, to the utmost of their power; at all times to withstand, pursue, and suppress all manner of persons, that shall by any means intend and attempt any thing dangerous or hurtful to the honour, state, or persons of their sovereigns.

Therefore we whose names are or shall be subscribed to this writing, being natural-born subjects of this realm of England; and having so gracious a lady, our sovereign Elizabeth, by the ordinance of God, our most rightful Queen, reigning over us these many years with great felicity, to our inestimable comfort, and finding lately by divers depositions, confessions, and sundry advertisements out of foreign parts, from credible persons well known to Her Majesty's Council, and to divers others, that for the furtherance and advancement of some pretended title to the crown, it hath been manifested, that the life of our gracious sovereign Queen Elizabeth hath been most dangerously designed against, to the peril of her person, if Almighty God, her perpetual Defender, of His Mercy had not revealed and withstood the same; by whose life, we, and all other Her Majesty's true and loyal subjects, do enjoy all inestimable benefit of peace in this land: do for these reasons and causes before alleged, not only acknowledge ourselves most justly bound with our lives and goods for her defence, and in her safety to prosecute, suppress and withstand all such intenders, and all other her enemies, of what nation, condition or degree soever they shall be, or by what counsel or title they shall pretend to be her enemies, or to attempt any harm upon her person; but do further think it our bounden duties, for the great benefit of peace, wealth, and godly government, we have more plentifully received these many years under Her Majesty's government, than any of our forefathers have done in any longer time of any of her progenitors, kings of this realm; to declare, and by this writing make manifest our bounden duties to our sovereign lady for her safety.

And to that end, we and every of us, first calling to witness the Name of Almighty God, do voluntarily and most willingly bind our selves, every one of us to the other, jointly and severally in the band of one firm and loyal society; and do hereby vow and promise by the Majesty of Almighty God, that with our whole powers, bodies, lives and goods, and with our children and servants, we and every of us will faithfully serve, and humbly obey our said sovereign lady Queen Elizabeth, against all states, dignities and earthly powers whatsoever; and will as well with our joint and particular forces during our lives withstand, pursue and offend, as well by force of arms, as by all other means of revenge, all manner of persons, of whatsoever state they shall be, and their abettors, that shall attempt any act, or counsel or consent to any thing that shall tend to the harm of Her Majesty's royal person; and will never desist from all manner of forcible pursuit against such persons, to the utter extermination of them, their counsellors, aiders and abettors.

And if any such wicked attempt against her most royal person shall be taken in hand, or procured, whereby any that have, may or shall pretend title to come to this crown by the untimely death of Her Majesty so wickedly procured (which God of His Mercy forbid!) that the same may be avenged, we do not only bind our selves both jointly and severally never to allow, accept or favour any such pretended successor, by whom or for whom any such detestable act shall be attempted or committed, as unworthy of all government in any Christian realm or civil state:

But do also further vow and protest, as we are most bound, and that in the Presence of the eternal and everlasting God, to prosecute such person or persons to death, with our joint and several forces, and to act the utmost revenge upon them, that by any means we or any of us can devise and do, or cause to be devised and done for their utter overthrow and extirpation.

And to the better corroboration of this our Loyal Bond and Association, we do also testify by this writing, that we do confirm the contents hereof by our oaths corporally taken upon the Holy Evangelists, with this express condition, that no one of us shall for any respect of person or causes, or for fear or reward, separate ourselves from this Association, or fail in the prosecution thereof during our lives, upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjured persons, and as public enemies to God, our Queen, and to our native country; to which punishment and pains we do voluntarily submit ourselves, and every of us, without benefit of colour and pretence.

In witness of all which premises to be inviolably kept, we do to this writing put our hands and seals; and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter to this Society and Association."
http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Documents/the_bond_of%20_association.htm

It was at about this time that the queen, visiting her troops at Tilbury, by the river Thames, just east of London voiced her iconic speech, here related in full for the pure pleasure of it:
"My loving people,
We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear, I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you in the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over those enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people."

[Added emphasis to show some of the most famous words ever recorded in the English language, they of themselves are nothing short of magical - they are also, it has to be said, highly reminiscent of the Shakespearian style of writing such things (just a thought! RGH)]

This attempted invasion perhaps above all else, symbolises the reason for the mistrust in England of all things Catholic and Popish.  The very thought that the pope should encourage the invasion of England; however the subsequent defeat of the same by war like means and meteorological intervention, was seen to be arguably both, the culmination of Papal ambitions in England, and justification of the protestant crown and cause.  Also during the reign of Elizabeth, was first published John Fox's "A History of the Lives, Sufferings and Triumphant Deaths of the Early Christian and Protestant Martyrs", a book so influential it has been said that "after the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs.  Even in our times it is a living force.  It is more than a record of persecution.  It is an arsenal of controversy .." James Millar Dodds.  It also contains probably some of the most graphic woodcut illustrations of execution by fire anywhere.  The whole can be best viewed at: http://remnantprophecy.sdaglobal.org/Librarypdf/Children's/Foxes-Martyrs.PDF

It can also be argued with justification that the English Civil War was a result of the perceived threat of Catholic ideology being imposed upon the fundamentalist protestant sections of the Church of England by king Charles I and his Catholic queen, Henrietta Maria.  The threat that imposed, by extension, would, it was feared by many, have diminished the role of Parliament, and thereby the very governance of this nation.  Prior to the break between king and Parliament, there had been persecution of those fundamentalists, called today Puritans, whose number included Oliver Cromwell and his family.  Many, in the face of ever increasing sanctions and royal edicts decided to remove them selves to the new colonies in Virginia in order to pursue their beliefs. Such was the vigour of those beliefs that at the very first opportunity, they were enshrined in the new United States Constitution as the First Amendment " Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Needless to say, the Cromwell family were a little late in their going, therefore by which matters is the course of history changed.  Cromwell, Fairfax, and the New Model Army defeated the royal forces, first at Marston Moor outside York in 1644, making the whole of the north Parliamentarian (apart from a few isolated garrisons such as Pontefract castle), then at Naseby in Northamptonshire, 1645, which saw the virtual decimation of the remaining royal army.  The subsequential trial and beheading of king Charles I brought forth the Republican Commonwealth, which lasted in principal only as long as Cromwell lived, and Charles' son, Charles II was then invited to return to his kingdom in 1660, but only on the conditions laid down by Parliament.    

The matter was finally thought resolved in 1688, when the sister of Catholic king James II [brother and heir of the protestant king Charles II], Mary, also a protestant and married to the protestant William of Orange, a Dutch nobleman, were both invited to replace James II, in what was even then titled the Glorious Revolution.  They ascended the throne as William and Mary.  In 1689, an Act was passed called the English Bill of Rights, this Act defined very certainly amongst other things that no Catholic was to be allowed to ascend the throne again. CLICK HERE for the relevant parts of this Act.

It was not however until 1829 however, and the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Bill that Catholics were once again legally accepted as virtual equals in Law in the United Kingdom.  The Act states :

II.            ... from and after the Commencement of this Act it shall be lawful for any Person professing the Roman Catholic Religion, being a Peer, or who shall after the Commencement of this Act be returned as a Member of the House of Commons, to sit and vote in either House of Parliament respectively, being in all other respects duly qualified to sit and vote therein, upon taking and subscribing the following Oath, instead of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration**:
I A.B. do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to his Majesty King George the Fourth, and will defend him to the utmost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatever, which shall be made against his Person, Crown, or Dignity; and I will do my utmost Endeavour to disclose and make known to His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which may be formed against Him or Them:
And I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my Power, the Succession of the Crown, which Succession, by an Act, intituled An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and the Heirs of her Body, being Protestants; hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto any other Person claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of this Realm: And I do further declare, That it is not an Article of my Faith, and that I do renounce, reject, and abjure the Opinion, that Princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, or any other Authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their Subjects, or by any Person whatsoever: And I do declare, That I do not believe that the Pope of Rome, or any other Foreign Prince, Prelate, Person, State, or Potentate, hash or ought to have any Temporal or Civil Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, or Pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this Realm. I do swear, That I will defend to the utmost of my Power the Settlement of Property within this Realm, as established by the Laws; And I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any Intention to subvert the present Church Establishment, as settled by Law within this Realm: And I do solemnly swear, That I never will exercise any Privilege to which I am or may become entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant Religion or Protestant Government in the United Kingdom: And I do solemnly, in the Presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, That I do make this Declaration, and every Part thereof, in the plain and ordinary Sense of the Words of this Oath, without any Evasion, Equivocation, or mental Reservation whatsoever. So help me GOD.?/p>
V.            ... it shall be lawful for Persons professing the Roman Catholic Religion to vote at Elections of Members to serve in Parliament for England and for Ireland, and also to vote at the Elections of Representative Peers of Scotland and of Ireland, and to be elected such Representative Peers, being in all other respects duly qualified, upon taking and subscribing the Oath herein-before appointed.
X.            it shall be lawful for any of His Majesty's Subjects professing the Roman Catholic Religion to hold, exercise, and enjoy all Civil and Military Offices and Places of Trust or Profit under His Majesty, His Heirs or Successors, and to exercise any other Franchise or Civil Right, except as herein-after excepted, upon taking and subscribing, at the Times and in the Manner herein-after mentioned, the Oath herein-before appointed.
XII.            nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to enable any Person or Persons professing the Roman Catholic Religion to hold or exercise the Office of Guardians and Justices of the United Kingdom, or of Regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever Name, Style, or Title such Office may be constituted; nor to enable any Person, otherwise than as he is now by Law enabled, to hold or enjoy the Office of Lord High Chancellor, Lord Keeper or Lord Commissioner of the great Seal of Great Britain or Ireland; or the Office of Lord Lieutenant, or Lord Deputy, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland; or His Majesty's High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
XIII.                        [Anglican titles of provinces, sees etc. not to be assumed by Roman Catholics.]
XXVIII.            - XXXVII. [Clauses aimed at suppression of Jesuit and other religious orders other than female orders. Existing members of such orders and native members returning from abroad to register; no foreign members to be allowed into U.K. except under licence and for maximum of six months; no new members to be admitted into religious orders.]
Statutes (10 Geo. III cap. 7)
[ http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/ireland/catheman.htm ] 

**The so-called oath of Abjuration, from the reign of Queen Anne is as follows:
"2 Ann c.6 (1703):
An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery
Sec. 15. Cont. OATH OF ABJURATION
I, A.B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, profess, testify and declare in my conscience, before God and the world, that our sovereign lady Queen Anne is lawful and rightful queen of this realm, and of all other her Majesty's dominions and countries thereunto belonging. And I do solemnly and sincerely declare, that I do believe in my conscience, that the person pretending to be Prince of Wales, during the life of the late King James, and since his decease pretending to be and taking upon himself the style and title of King of England by the name of James III, hath not any right or title whatsoever to the crown of this realm, or any other the dominions thereto belonging, and I do renounce, refuse, and abjure any allegiance or obedience to him. And I do swear that I will bear faith and true allegiance to her majesty Queen Anne, and her will defend to the utmost of my power against all traitorous conspiracies and attempts whatsoever, which shall be made against her person, crown, or dignity. And I will do my best endeavour to disclose and make known to her majesty, and her successors, all treasons and traitorous conspiracies, which I shall know to be against her and any of them. And I do faithfully promise to the utmost of my power to support, maintain, and defend the limitation and succession of the crown against him the said James, and all other persons whatsoever, as the same is and stands limited by [those acts settling the protestant succession of the crown]. And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to the express words by me spoken, and according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words, without any equivocation, mental evasion or secret reservation whatsoever. And I do make this recognition, acknowledgement, abjuration, renunciation and promise, heartily, willingly, and truly, upon the true faith of a Christian. So help me God." 
The James III above referred to was James Stuart, the Old Pretender, so called, father of Charles Edward Stuart, the Young Pretender, also known as 'Bonny Prince Charlie', they  were the last throw of the dice for a Catholic monarchy in England and by then, Scotland too.  The final defeat of Charles Edward Stuart at the Battle of Culloden, in the campaign known as simply 'the '45', resulted also in the demise of the clan system in Scotland. 

There remains yet a single facet of the Reformation and the break with Roman Catholicism still on the statute books, it is the still enforced Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Wm 3 c.2) [1701] which precludes any and all Catholics from ascending the throne of Great Britain.  The relevant extract is as follows:

II. Provided always, and be it hereby enacted, that all and every person and persons, who shall or may take or inherit the said Crown, by virtue of the limitation of this present act, and is, are or shall be reconciled to, or shall hold communion with, the See or Church of Rome, or shall profess the popish religion, or shall marry a papist, shall be subject to such incapacities, as in such case or cases are by the said recited act provided, enacted, and established; and that every King and Queen of this Realm, who shall come to and succeed in the imperial Crown of this Kingdom, by virtue of this act, shall have the coronation oath administered to him, her or them, at their respective coronations, according to the act of Parliament made in the first year of the reign of His Majesty, and the said late Queen Mary, intituled, An act for establishing the coronation oath, and shall make, subscribe, and repeat the declaration in the act first above recited mentioned or referred to, in the manner and form thereby prescribed.

[ http://www.guardian.co.uk/monarchy/story/0,2763,407239,00.html#article_continue ]

The so called Glorious Revolution however was not welcomed unanimously across the whole of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and (then) Ireland.  What has happened in that country since, as a result of, and in the name of religion, be it Catholic or Protestant, all dates back to the 1530's and the destruction of the Catholic church and its churches by Henry VIII.  This legacy lives with both countries even today.  So entrenched are many people's convictions that the schism might never be fully repaired.  Hopefully however, in the light of recent events [Aug and Sept. 2005], at long last, after 470 years of upheaval, violence, hatred and sadness, there is hope that the differences can be, universally between the UK and Ireland, resolved.

It can hopefully be seen from this rather extended prohemium cum finitionis, that the story of Yorkshire's [and the nation's by extention] abbeys is not simply one of a list of evocative ruins and handsome imagery.   It is indeed the story of the very fabric of the nation of Great Britain since the reign of King Henry VIII and before.  The abbeys, together with the lesser houses, in their time, tended the ill and infirm, provided for the poor, and provided spiritual support and stability to the people both noble and base, all as part of their raison d'etre.  The almost instant removal of these social buttresses de-stabilised the nation for centuries to come.  Such was the impact of one man's greed and lust combined with revolutionary philosophical and theological expressionism.

I said at the beginning that all temptation to include modern photographic images would be resisted.  However, since this article has progressed, I have been granted permission to use some images by Alan Radley, taken this summer (2005), they are wonderful images of both Whitby and St. Agatha's, Easby.  My sincere thanks go to Alan for being allowed to show them here.

Abbey ruins St. Agatha's, Easby, 2005

Abbey ruins St. Peter's Whitby, 2005  

LIST OF SOME ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS APPERTAINING TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES AND THE SUBSEQUENT CONSEQUENCES 

Many of the following can be found at
http://tudorhistory.org/ and at
http://englishhistory.net/tudor/primary.html
to whom go my sincere thanks.

¨       1535 Holinshed's Chronicle recording the execution of some religious gentlemen

View in full .......................                   HERE

¨       1536 Act of Suppression Parliament met Feb 4, it received a digest of the report of the monastic visitors, and soon after passed the first Act of Suppression, dealing with the lesser monasteries, and covering, retrospectively, previous suppressions.

[Transc. Statutes of the Realm, III, 575.] View in full......                   HERE

¨       1539 Act of Suppression, this Act of Parliament (31 Henry VIII, cap. 18) stated that the alienations which had taken place were valid in civil law, and that any future ones would be also. The Dissolution Act, 1536, had justified the suppression of smaller monasteries by a claim that the members were not living according to their vows. The Dissolution Act, 1539, on the other hand, provides no such reason for the further suppression. By April 1540 every single one of the religious houses in England had been dissolved.  

View in full                                                                                              HERE

 ¨      1570 Papal Bull denouncing Queen Elizabeth I.  View in full....                HERE

¨       1689: The English Bill of Rights.  View in full.........                 HERE

¨       1689 Act establishing the Coronation Oath.  View in full....                  HERE

¨       1701 Act of Settlement.  View in full............                 HERE

¨       1707 An Act for the Security of Her Majesties and Government and of the Succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line.  View in full                                                 HERE

Richard Hayton © 2005