The 1536 Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries: Same Suppression ...

transfer the inmates to other monasteries. 66 Further bulls between 1524 and 1529, from Clement
VII, enabled him to close and seize the revenues of twenty-seven other houses – the majority of
them being either Augustinian Canons or Benedictine monks. However, in most of these houses
the numbers of monks had fallen to single figures, ―and the net income in all but six was less
than £200 a year,‖ with the revenue totalling approximately £2,300. 67 ―[The] King gave his
formal licence to the bulls and authorized the suppression of no fewer than twenty-one
monasteries.‖ 68 Some of the smallest priories who ―all but lost their raison d’être through
decrease of personnel or misconduct, were suppressed by Wolsey in 151 and in 1524-5, and their
revenues devoted chiefly to his educational schemes,‖ such as endowing Ipswich College. 69 At
the time, this was not seen as having great future implications by other monasteries because only
a few were suppressed among the approximately nine-hundred monasteries in the country.
Additionally, Knowles writes that no contemporary would have seen this as a future threat
because Wolsey‘s actions ―had no wide consequences and could point to parallels in the past.‖ 70
Bulls issued shortly before Wolsey‘s fall implied that he had intentions of further suppressions.
One empowered him to inquire into suppressing monasteries and establishing more cathedrals,
and another to suppress monasteries with fewer than twelve monks and unite them to other
religious houses. 71
Wolsey‘s suppressions were relatively minor and did not disturb religious affairs much.
With a few exceptions, the monasteries were small and near the brink of collapse due to poverty
66 Cook, 14. St. Frideswide was a small community with fifteen canons and a post-dissolution revenue estimated
at £220.
67
Cook, 14; O‘Sullivan, 238.
68
O‘Sullivan, 236.
69
Knowles and Hadcock, 51.
70
Ibid.
71
Baskerville, 107.
18