§ 26.
The decline in numbers after 1349 would
inevitably tend to the extinction of small and poor
houses. A few nunneries, such as Wothorpe, were
amalgamated with larger foundations. Various causes
also led to the suppression of small monasteries. An
example had been set as early as 1312 by the extermination
of the military order of knights Templars,
whose rule was founded upon the Cistercian
Carta
Caritatis. Their lands in great part went to enrich
the order of knights of St John of Jerusalem, whose
property at the general suppression was very large.
During the French wars, as we have seen, the smaller
possessions of foreign abbeys were gradually appropriated
to other religious foundations. Alien priories
also formed a large portion of the possessions of
Eton and King's college, Cambridge. For the purposes
of later colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, this
example was followed in the suppression of small
English houses: Jesus college at Cambridge in 1497
entered upon the buildings and possessions of the
nunnery of St Radegund. Wolsey founded Christ
Church at Oxford in place of the priory of St Frideswide,
and obtained the suppression of several small
monasteries for the endowment of his colleges at
Oxford and Ipswich. To Wolsey indeed the beginning
of the general suppression may be fairly attributed.
His measures, however, had reform for their end.
Later acts of suppression were prompted by far
different causes. Yet not even the financial advantages
of the step could lead to the destruction of the
monasteries at one blow. The act of 1536 put in the
king's hands only those houses whose revenues were
under £200 a year, and of these thirty-two, against
which even the commissioners could find no evidence,
were refounded. Such an act naturally produced
serious economic changes: the ringleaders of the
subsequent northern rebellion complained of the
damage incurred by the poor from the loss of convent
alms. The Pilgrimage of Grace brought disaster to
the abbeys which had lent it support. Other houses
made terms with the king by surrendering their
possessions: the rest fell in consequence of the act
of 1539, which extended the provisions of 1536 to all
the surviving foundations. It may be granted that
the dissolution of the monasteries was inevitable.
But for their arbitrary seizure by the state there was
only the shadow of a legitimate reason, and the
motives of the suppression are exposed by the traffic
in their property which followed. Pensions were
granted to monks and canons from the exchequer;
but the bulk of monastic property went to enrich
private owners for the temporary relief of the extravagance
of the Crown.
