Dissolution of the Monasteries

 

Even at the time of Wolsey’s dismissal Henry clung to the belief that the matter could be resolved without a breach with Rome, so he appointed Thomas More, a man who opposed a breach with Rome, to succeed Wolsey. However, men such as Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, both of whom had been influenced by the writings Martin Luther, gained influence in court. By 1532 Thomas More was forced to resign and was succeeded by Thomas Cromwell, and the following year Cranmer became Archbishop of Canterbury. Cromwell set about preparing for the breach with Rome. In late 1532 Ann Boleyn became pregnant and was secretly married to Henry in January 1533. These events forced the pace of the break with Rome, and Cromwell drew up the Act of Supremacy, which made Henry supreme head of the Church of England and became law in 1534.

 

This left Henry with two profound problems: the first was that the Crown was short of money; the second was that the break with Rome was deeply unpopular. The eventual solution was to close down all the monasteries, seize all monastic property, and sell it off to the aristocracy. The Crown’s financial difficulties would be solved and the aristocracy would have a vested interest in the break with Rome. The process began in 1534 with The Visitation of the Monasteries whereby commissioners were appointed by Cromwell to both estimate the value of the possessions of all the religious houses in the land, and gather any evidence they could against them. The Dissolution itself began in 1536 when a law was passed forcing all religious houses with annual income of less than £200 to disband. By 1539 all surviving monasteries were forced to close.

 

 

Leicester Abbey was not prepared for the crisis of the 1530s. In 1521 it was £1,000 in debt. The abbot, Abbot Pescall, stood accused of not attending services and that when he did attend he was accompanied by his fool, who disturbed the services. The prior was also said to miss many services, and it appears that the canons followed the example of their superiors, by not attending services and roaming about outside the monastery. The Bishop of Lincoln had to appoint administrators to oversee the Abbey's finances and made efforts to depose Abbot Pescall.

 

Pescall was still abbot at the time of Cardinal Wolsey’s death, but resigned in 1533. He was replaced early in 1534 by John Bourchier. Later in that year Bourchier and 25 canons acknowledged the Henry’s supremacy over the Church. When Cromwell’s commissioners arrived they found the Abbey to have an income of £951-14s-5¾d (about £951.72), as a result of which the Abbey survived the first round of closures. After this, however, there was no escape. Bourchier tried to win over Cromwell by presenting him with money and livestock, but in 28th August 1538 Bourchier and the 19 remaining canons surrendered the Abbey to the Crown and were pensioned off.