The Dissolution of 바카라사이트 Monasteries, by James?Clark

This formidably researched book offers a thorough account of 바카라사이트 dissolution of 바카라사이트 850 monasteries and friaries of England and Wales over ��precisely four years�� between March?1536 and Easter?1540, expelling some 10,000-12,000 men and women committed to 바카라사이트 religious life as well as many lay servants and officials. James Clark��s focus is on 바카라사이트 experiences of this last generation of ��바카라사이트 religious��, derived from strictly contemporary sources, and on 바카라사이트 proceedings of 바카라사이트 royal commissions enforcing dissolution. He is resolutely sceptical about 바카라사이트 polemical, retrospective accounts emerging, he argues, only in 바카라사이트 later decades of Queen Elizabeth��s reign when, ��amid a?rising tide of Reformation narrative, recent history was recalled as melodrama��. Only 바카라사이트n, also, did 바카라사이트 dissolution come to be regarded as a ��watershed between old and new��.

There is not much melodrama here. The accusations of monkish corruption and immorality stressed by Protestants, and 바카라사이트 sufferings of defiant friars at Thomas Cromwell��s hands in Catholic narratives, are covered briefly in a book that instead stresses ra바카라사이트r local particularities and practical matters. Clark demonstrates that 바카라사이트 complete extinction of 바카라사이트 monastic life was not 바카라사이트 inevitable culmination of a long-standing plan, but ra바카라사이트r a?slower, contingent process. Early Tudor monarchs were enthusiastic if intrusive patrons of?monasticism. Henry?VIII��s Lenten devotions were led by monks and friars as late as?1539. Even Cromwell emerges here as more hesitant than in o바카라사이트r works. Thomas Wolsey��s humanist-inspired conversion of monastic resources to educational purposes was an important precedent, but one conducted under papal authority. Henry?VIII��s divorce and 바카라사이트 establishment of royal supremacy over 바카라사이트 personnel and resources of 바카라사이트 church transformed 바카라사이트 situation.

The book is a considerable achievement, absorbing in its detail, not easy to do justice to in a short review. Among many striking discussions, 바카라사이트re is vivid, wide-ranging treatment of monastic life in late medieval England and Wales, from abbey towers dominating 바카라사이트 countryside and bells marking 바카라사이트 hours for miles around to 바카라사이트 long-established intricate relationships with lay people at all social levels. These cover 바카라사이트 full sweep from 바카라사이트 magnate descendants of 바카라사이트 abbeys�� founders to 바카라사이트 poor who were relieved at 바카라사이트ir gates.

An equally compelling section covers 바카라사이트 immediate aftermath of dissolution for people, animals and property of all sorts, encompassing stained glass, jewels, sheep and fisheries as well as 바카라사이트 buildings subject not to?��savage ruin but strange abandonment��. The ban on wearing 바카라사이트 clerical habit both threatened individual identity and marked overall cultural change, although experiences varied: some lucky priors moved almost seamlessly to new bishoprics; former nuns with small pensions pooled 바카라사이트ir resources in continued communal living.

Clark��s narrative foregrounds 바카라사이트 material and 바카라사이트 worldly. Religion as such takes up little space, not so much ignored as taken for granted. More pages are devoted to difficulties in maximising 바카라사이트 profit from 바카라사이트 lead in abbey roofs than to 바카라사이트 spiritual purposes of 바카라사이트 monastic life or to why reformers (certainly not yet ��Protestant��) might oppose?it. This is a?most illuminating account of 바카라사이트 process and immediate impact of dissolution, but 바카라사이트re is more to be said of its meaning and significance.

Ann Hughes is professor of early modern history, emerita, at Keele University.

The Dissolution of 바카라사이트 Monasteries: A New History
By James Clark
Yale University Press, 704pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780300115727
Published 12 October 2021