Dissolution of the monasteries

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The dissolution of the monasteries, also known as the suppression of the monasteries, was a set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541, by which Henry VIII disbanded all Catholic monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland, seized their wealth, disposed of their assets, destroyed buildings and relics, dispersed or destroyed libraries and provided for their former personnel and functions. Though the policy was originally envisaged as a way to increase the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s. Henry did this under the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England. He had broken from Rome's papal authority the previous year. The monasteries were dissolved by two Acts of Parliament: the First Suppression Act in 1535 and the Second Suppression Act in 1539. It has been described as "the greatest dislocation...

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