1. Causes of the Dissolution
Megan, Aaishah, Kelsey
and Maariya

3. 1. What was happening within the monasteries?
The collection of money which the early monasteries had used to provide hospitals, shelter, charity and education with had led to corruption amongst the monks as it had caused many of the monks to become lazy within their work and had also caused them to become greedy. This caused Henry VIII to order the dissolution of the monasteries as the wealth collected to provide charity, education, etc. was no longer used effectively and in the correct way but was instead used to the personal benefits of many monks and for their own leisure.

4. 2. Why did henry begin to dissolve the Catholic monasteries?
The Pope refused to grant Henry his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. So, he decided to create his own church- The Church of England.
Henry breaking away from Rome will have caused him to order the dissolution of the monasteries as he could have developed a sudden hatred for Catholicism due to him not being granted the divorce he wanted from the Catholic Church. This would have also benefitted Henry as all the wealth collected by the monks will have come to Henry after ordering the dissolution of the monasteries.

5. Henry VIII had fallen out with the Pope over his divorce with Catherine of Aragon. Henry felt let down by the Pope. This was very frustrating for Henry as he needed to divorce Catherine in order to marry Anne Boleyn . The Pope was very influential and powerful to the rest of the people in England and Roman Catholic’s do not support divorce therefore he wouldn’t grant him a divorce because it went against his religious beliefs. However, the Pope was also a prisoner of Charles V, so he couldn’t have granted the divorce even if he had wanted to

6. The Church owned up to 30% of the land in England, and the monasteries took much of this up. They were enormously wealthy, and Henry believed he could put their wealth to better use. In terms of using the money for better use he wanted to use the money to fund his wars between France and Scotland. The king sent Thomas Cromwell to ‘evaluate’ the churches to see how much money was coming into the church and find the flaws in the church where the religious leaders were breaking the rules

7. The Pope’s control in England
The monasteries were a great strength of the Pope’s power in England. The Pope was seen as the head of the Church in England by the monks and nuns. This wasn’t tolerated by Henry as it was essential for him to be seen as an authoritative figure by the people. This will have caused Henry to order the dissolution of the monasteries because doing so would take away a great deal of the Pope’s power in England which was mainly given to him by the monks and nuns seeing the Pope as being the head of the Church in England.

8. Thomas Cromwell’s Influence
Thomas Cromwell had different motives. He was an Protestant and disliked monasteries. Because he was already a Protestant he was against catholic monks and would have influenced henry as much as he could to order the dissolution of the monasteries because it went against his belief and he wanted to benefit himself as well.

9. There were rumours that the nuns and monks were not following their vows of chastity. This had resulted in the popularity of the monasteries decreasing as they were not sticking to the ways in which they should have been living their lives. Decreased support for the monasteries will have made it easier for Henry to order the dissolution of the monasteries as there wouldn’t have been much opposition to his decision of ordering the dissolution.