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250 YORK.
Tlie suppression of the smaller monasteries speedily
followed the report given in by the visitors. The Act
of Parliament for this dissolution was passed in 1536
(27 Hen. VIII., c. 28.) Three hundred and seventysix
of these religious foundations fell under this
enactment, and their possessions Avere vested in the
Crown. The yearly revenue from their estates was
estimated at ^^32,000, and their goods and chattels
were valued at about ^100,000.
It was an act which provoked a deep feeling of
indignation amongst the people generally, but most
especially in the north of England. The number of
religious persons whom it sent adrift in the world was
very large. Monks and nuns wandered about the
country in all directions, seeking food and shelter
from those who sympathized with the pitiful stories
they had to tell of being forced out of the home
where they had fondly hoped to end their days. The
jDCople witnessed also, in many neighbourhoods, the
desecration of the churches attached to the monastic
houses, sometimes their absolute destruction ;
and,
where this did not take place, their application to the
meanest and most ignoble uses. It issued ere long
in an insurrection of a very serious character.