The chosen English commissioners are mostly secular…
May 1535 CE
The chosen English commissioners are mostly secular clergy, and appear to have been Erasmian in their views, doubtful of the value of monastic life and universally dismissive of relics and miraculous tokens.
An objective assessment of the quality of monastic observance in England in the 1530s would almost certainly have been largely negative, but Cromwell has not left such matters to chance.
By comparison with the valuation commissions, the timetable for these monastic visitations is very tight, with some houses miss altogether, and inquiries appear to have concentrated on gross faults and laxity; consequently where the reports of misbehavior returned by the visitors can be checked against other sources, they commonly appear to have been both rushed and greatly exaggerated, often recalling events and scandals from years before.
The visitors interviewed individually each member of the house and selected servants; prompting each one, both to make individual confessions of wrongdoing, and also to inform on one another.
From their correspondence with Cromwell it can be seen that the visitors knew that findings of impropriety were both expected and desired; however it is also clear that, where no faults were revealed, none were reported.
The visitors put the worst construction they could on whatever they were told, but they do not appear to have fabricated allegations of wrongdoing outright.
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