The Crown is undergoing financial difficulties, and…
May 1534 CE
The Crown is undergoing financial difficulties, and the wealth of the church, in contrast to its political weakness, makes appropriation of church property both tempting and feasible.
Suppression of monasteries to raise funds is not unknown previously.
Cromwell had done the same thing on the instructions of Cardinal Wolsey to raise funds for two proposed colleges at Ipswich and Oxford years before.
Cromwell in 1534 undertakes on behalf of the King an inventory of the endowments, liabilities and income of the entire ecclesiastical estate of England and Wales, including the monasteries, for the purpose of assessing the Church's taxable value, through local commissioners who are to report in May 1535.
At the same time, Henry has Parliament authorize Thomas Cromwell to "visit" all the monasteries, including those like the Cistercians previously exempted from episcopal oversight by Papal dispensation, to purify them in their religious life, and to instruct them in their duty to obey the King and reject Papal authority.
Cromwell delegates his visitation authority to hand-picked commissioners for the purposes of ascertaining the quality of religious life being maintained in religious houses; of assessing the prevalence of 'superstitious' religious observances such as the veneration of relics; and for inquiring into evidence of moral laxity (especially sexual).