Customer Reviews

Dissolution of the Monasteries (Pitkin Guides)

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G.W.O. Woodward's booklet "The Dissolution of the Monasteries" (1975 version) is 24 pages long with 44 beautiful photos/illustrations. There is a helpful list at the back of the book of abbeys and monasteries open to the public.

Woodward deals with the systematic and rapid suppression of monastic houses in 16th century England and Wales under the direct command of parliament and King Henry VIII. In 1536, there were about 800 monasteries, nunneries, and friaries involving about 10,000 monks, nuns, canons, and friars. By 1540, there were none. This startling turn of events, driven apparently by pure financial gain on the part of the King, is told in an informative and entertaining way, as well as being thought-provoking about modern day issues related to religious freedom and the relationship between church and state.

There are several strengths. Stylistically, the book is beautifully illustrated with 44 photos and drawings which make the story come alive. Each visual has a figure legend which gives further details about what one is looking at. The facts are laid out and arguments are presented dispassionately for what possibly drove the government to take such action: financial greed by taking over property and goods; further breaking ties with the Roman Church; rampant immorality in the religious houses; or initially just a pruning of the monasteries for the long-term benefit of monasticism itself. I did not feel that the author was trying to sway me to one point of view or another, but simply doing the best detective work possible with the available evidence. A nice touch was the inclusion of the names of people attached to the monasteries, though they be ordinary folks like Nigel who was in charge of provisions and hospitality, Osbert who was in charge of clothing, Odo who was in charge of discipline, etc, at the priory of Christ Church at Canterbury.

There are several weaknesses. The book does not include a table of contents, a subject index, or glossary of terms, which may have been a helpful "at one glance" tool. The font appears to be about 9 point, which may be much too small for many readers. The text could also have been spread out a little more (maybe 1.5 line spacing) for reader friendliness; it looks too cramped the way it is. I felt a major flaw was that there was little in the way of historical retelling of how and why monasticism was established in England and Wales in the first place, other than 1 page worth of material. Moreover, a fleshing out of the actual leading (or even ordinary) monastic personalities who were personally affected by the suppression would have helped the reader better understand the entire ordeal. Although the fate of many of the religious are explained in general terms, is there any record of their personal thoughts or opinions or experiences after the fact?

Overall, this was a very satisfying read. There are practical lessons from this book that I hope to carry over into my own current role in helping to catalyze, coach, and connect the modern-day house church movement, which is an international network of back-to-basics "monasteries" and "friaries."

RAD ZDERO, author of LETTERS TO THE HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT and THE GLOBAL HOUSE CHURCH MOVEMENT