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{{Anglicanism}}
The '''dissolution of the monasteries''', occasionally referred to as the '''suppression of the monasteries''', was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541, by which [[Henry VIII]] disbanded [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Monastery|monasteries]], [[Priory|priories]], [[convent]]s, and [[friaries]] in [[Kingdom of England|England, Wales]], and [[Kingdom of Ireland|Ireland]]; seized their
Though the policy was originally envisioned as
While [[Thomas Cromwell]], vicar-general and [[vicegerent]] of England, is often considered the leader of the dissolution, he merely oversaw the project—he had hoped for reform of the monasteries, not their closure or seizure. The dissolution project was created by England's Lord Chancellor, [[Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden|Thomas Audley]], and Court of Augmentations head, [[Richard Rich]].
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At the time of their suppression, a small number of English and Welsh religious houses could trace their origins to [[Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon]] or [[Celtic Christianity|Celtic]] foundations before the [[Norman Conquest]]. The overwhelming majority of the 625 monastic communities dissolved by Henry VIII had developed in the wave of monastic enthusiasm that swept [[western Christendom]] in the 11th and 12th centuries. Few English houses had been founded later than the end of the 13th century; the most recent foundation of those suppressed was the [[Bridgettine]] nunnery of [[Syon Abbey]] founded in 1415.
Typically, 11th and 12th-century founders had endowed monastic houses with both temporal income in the form of revenues from landed estates, and spiritual income in the form of [[tithes]] [[Appropriation (law)|appropriated]] from parish churches under the founder's patronage.
The 200 houses of [[friar]]s in England and Wales constituted a second distinct wave of foundations, almost all occurring in the 13th century. [[Friaries]], for the most part, were concentrated in urban areas. Unlike monasteries, friaries had eschewed income-bearing endowments; the friars, as [[mendicants]], expected to be supported financially by offerings and donations from the faithful, while ideally being self-sufficient in producing their own basic foods from extensive urban kitchen gardens.{{citation needed|date=October 2019}}
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===Complaints===
Dissatisfaction with the general state of regular religious life, and with the gross extent of monastic wealth, was near
{{blockquote|text=widespread concern in the later 15th and early 16th centuries about the condition of the monasteries. A leading figure here is the scholar and theologian [[Desiderius Erasmus]] who satirized monasteries as lax, as comfortably worldly, as wasteful of scarce resources, and as superstitious; he also thought it would be better if monks were brought more directly under the authority of bishops. At that time, quite a few bishops across Europe had come to believe that resources expensively deployed on an unceasing round of services by men and women in theory set apart from the world [would] be better spent on endowing grammar schools and university colleges to train men who would then serve the laity as parish priests, and on reforming the antiquated structures of over-large dioceses such as that of [[Diocese of Lincoln|Lincoln]]. Pastoral care was seen as much more important and vital than the monastic focus on contemplation, prayer and performance of the daily office.{{sfn|Bernard|2011|p=390}}}}
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