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The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries

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This book serves as a companion to Geoffrey Moorhouse's history of the Pilgrimage of Grace, the northern reaction to the Dissolution. There is much to admire in this narrative of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, told through the story of Durham Cathedral and its Benedictine Priory. At the very end of the book, however, Moorhouse adopts a strange attitude about the changes that took place at Durham Cathedral because of the English Reformation, as though they really don't matter. I still give the book four stars, because he provides such an excellent overview of the monastic life, the dissolution of the monasteries, and the Henrician reformation.

The first chapter is evocative, describing the Last Divine Office chanted by the monks of Durham before their way of life is drastically changed, their number reduced, and their monastery surrendered to Henry VIII.

Moorhouse continues, examining the importance of St. Cuthbert, the honor paid to the Venerable Bede, and the beauty and order of the Benedictine Rule. Moorhouse introduces the last Roman Catholic Prince Bishop of Durham, Cuthbert Tunstall, and the last Roman Catholic Lord Prior of the Monastery, Hugh Whitehead, and describes their respective roles.

Moorhouse also very effectively describes how Henry VIII became the Supreme Head and Governor of the Church in England, displacing the Pope from that role by bullying the Convocation of Bishops with fines and other punishments. He describes how Henry's conservative approach, maintaining Catholicism without the Pope, conflicted with Thomas Cromwell's and Thomas Cranmer's Lutheran reforming tendencies (guess who won?). He also demonstrates Henry's demand that his subjects obey him absolutely in the matters of his marriage to Anne Boleyn and his sovereignty over the Church, recounting the executions of the Holy Maid of Kent, the Observant Franciscans, the Carthusians of the Charterhouse in London, Richard Reynolds, and of course, Bishop John Fisher of Rochester and Sir Thomas More.

When discussing the process of the Visitation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Moorhouse is certainly willing to point out the duplicity of Henry and Cromwell, and the self-serving efforts of the visitors, all of whom soon saw the financial benefits of closing down the monasteries, selling the land and keeping the riches, to themselves and the Crown.

He also explains why the government closed down the friaries of the mendicant Dominicans and Franciscans--there was no money there because the friars were indeed living in poverty according to their rules--since the friars were preachers and teachers, urging the people to devotion and tradition. They had to go, whether or not Henry made any money in the process.

Turning to how Visitation and plans for Dissolution affected Durham, Moorhouse notes that Tunstall and Whitehead did all they could to stay on the good side of Henry and Cromwell. The inevitable finally occurred, however, and the Benedictines at Durham surrendered their monastery to the Crown in 1540. The Lord Prior became Dean of the Cathedral, and several of the former monks took up new roles, but a tremendous cycle of change had only begun.

The shrines of St. Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede were desecrated and further iconoclasm would take place during the reign of Edward VI. Mary I restored some aspects of the old order, but her short reign did not have time to address the restoration of the monasteries. With the accession of Elizabeth I, new changes in religious worship, practice, and doctrine were legislated in Parliament. During another Northern rebellion in 1569, however, Catholics briefly took over the Cathedral, destroyed the Lord's Table, erected a stone Altar, and the erstwhile priests of the Abbey celebrated Catholic High Mass, with Latin chant and traditional vestments.

Moorhouse commends Tunstall and Whitehead for their acquiescence to the Tudor demands for religious conformity and uniformity. Their flexibility saved their lives and the Cathedral. They still struggled with the cycle of changes; Tunstall died under house arrest by the Archbishop of Canterbury and Whitehead died facing charges of not conforming completely to government commands. As Thomas More noted to one who remonstrated with him for risking his life to obey his conscience, the other's death was just as certain as his--his was just coming sooner and would be on an official schedule!

At the end, Moorhouse is just happy that Durham Cathedral survived (and I am too!), but he almost seems just as happy with the grounds of the compromise that saved the Norman monument--that men were willing to change not just their allegiance to a church hierarchy, but their very way of worshipping God. They didn't just pray the Last Divine Office; they also offered the Last Catholic Mass. The peace and the majesty of Durham have been preserved, but at what cost?

This is a thorough and extremely detailed account of the history of Durham Cathedral and its monastic community--almost too detailed as it was (is) impossible for me to absorb the extensive recounting of persons associated with the monastic community and its dismemberment. However, the thoroughness also lent the volume an immediacy that is intriguing. Some of the author's biases are obvious, but that is natural with a biography, which this is, albeit of a place rather than a person.

British historian Moorhouse offers a detailed "play by play" account of the terrible years for British monasticism in the late 1530's with the dissolution by Henry VIII. One of the focal points for this study is Durham Cathedral/Monastery, which was left intact and continues today as an Anglican house of worship. Durham Cathedral today also offers one weekend per year for anyone willing to reserve their place, to come and celebrate the past by learning about the way of St. Benedict and Benedictine spiritual life of the Durham monastery prior to when Henry VIII took power. Anyone who has visited the great ruined skeletal abbeys of England, such as Fountains Abbey, Rievaulx Abbey and Whitby Abbey in northern England, knows the travesty of the English "reformation" under Henry VIII's leadership. I was told by a tour guide on an historical tour of York, England, that it took 200 years after the dissolution of the monasteries in late 1530's for England to recoup/replace the hospital beds lost in those fateful three years under Henry VIII. The monastery was a place of societal stability, hospitality, free health-care, literacy and spirituality. Sure, many of the abbey's had become glutted with power, wealth and centuries of spiritual treasures. Sure, English Benedictine spirituality had wandered away from the original vision and practice of their founder, St. Benedict. Yet, there is something haunting in those cloister bones laying out in the parks and heaths of the English countryside, as though dinosaurs once roamed the landscape of the shire, but were struck down by some St. George seeking treasure and lasting fame. The true lasting treasure of Benedictine life could not be taken from England or from the French after the troubles and closing of many French monasteries during the French revolution. The true treasure of Benedictine spirituality is found in daily intimacy with God through walking along ancient paths of spiritual formation such as communal prayer, ora et labora, lectio divina, and radical hospitality. If you want to read more about such ways of Benedictine spiritual formation, look into the following recently published books: Ancient Paths: Discover Christian Formation the Benedictine Way, and The Busy Family's Guide to Spirituality: Practical Lessons for Modern Living From the Monastic Tradition.

Henry VIII's formation of the Anglican church had many consequences. "The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries" tells the story of the last days of English monasteries, as the King had ordered England's severance from Rome as a Catholic power to embrace Protestantism. This split was not an entirely religious move; Henry also sought to obtain more funds for the kingdom rather than let money be siphoned away by the church. "The Last Divine Office" is an intriguing story of the decline and fall of the English monastery, highly recommended.

Yes, the description of the monastery, of the cathedral and of the traditional rites, which were performed there, is charming. But to describe the dissolution of monasteries only through the lens of greed is blatantly superficial. Everywhere, at the time, in the intellectual circles, the question was asked about the relevance of the monks'life, of the monks'vows for christianity. Read Erasmus or Rabelais to give non protestant names. Furthermore, in the same circles, the luxury of the church was criticized; this very luxury, Mr. Moorhouse describes in Durham, with some apparent nostalgy. Greed, violence, yes but also an authentic will of some to create a new church they wanted or believed closer to the church of the first times. It is good to remember that reformation was often imposed on the common man but it doesn't mean that the reformers were only brutal crooks.

I enjoyed this book very much and it was great about England and Henry VIII