The report of the commissioners was laid before Parliament in 1536.
As it declared that the smaller monasteries were more corrupt than the
larger ones, Parliament ordered the suppression of all those houses
whose revenues were less than two hundred pounds per annum. By this
act, three hundred and seventy-six houses were suppressed, whose
aggregate revenue was thirty-two thousand pounds yearly. Movable
property valued at about one hundred thousand pounds was also handed
over to the “Court of Augmentations of the King's Revenue,” which was
established to take care of the estates, revenues and other possessions
of the monasteries. It is claimed that ten thousand monks and nuns were
turned out into the world, to find bed and board as best they could. In
1538, two years later, the greater monasteries met a similar fate,
which was no doubt hastened by the rebellions that followed the
abolition of the smaller houses. Many of the abbots and monks were
suspected of aiding in the rebellion against the king's authority by
inciting the people to take up arms against him. Apprehending the
coming doom, many abbots resigned; others were overcome by threats and
yielded without a struggle. In many instances such monks received
pensions varying from fifty-three shillings and four pence to four
pounds a year. The investigations were constantly carried on, and all
the foul stories that could be gathered were given to the people, to
secure their approval of the king's action. With remorseless zeal the
king and his commissioners, supported by various acts of parliament,
persevered in their work of destruction, until even the monastic
hospitals, chantries, free chapels and collegiate churches, fell into
the king's hands. By the year 1545, the ruin was complete. The monastic
institution of England was no more. The total number of monasteries
suppressed is variously estimated, but the following figures are
approximately correct: monasteries, 616; colleges, 90; free chapels,
2,374; and hospitals, 110. The annual income was about one hundred and
fifty thousand pounds, which was a smaller sum than was then believed
to be in the control of the monks. Nearly fifty thousand persons were
driven from the houses, to foment the discontent and to arouse the pity
of the people. Such, in brief, was the extent of the suppression, but a
little reflection will show that these statements of cold facts convey
no conception of the confusion and sorrow that must have accompanied
this terrific and wholesale assault upon an institution that had been
accumulating its possessions for eight hundred years. At this distance
from those tragic events, it is impossible to realize the dismay of
those who stood aghast at this ruthless destruction of such venerable
establishments.