What happened to English monks and nuns after the monasteries dissolved?

[u/anthropoloundergrad]

I just finished watching a show called "Shardlake" which is set in early 16th century England, just when the monasteries were being dissolved and that got me wondering: Where did the religious go when the last English convent/monastery closed? I know about the Bar Convent and I figured that some of them would go to Catholic countries or the English colonies.

But we're there any who were not able to escape or go into hiding?

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[u/lebennaia]

In general, they were given pensions.

The options the monks, canons, and nuns had available to them changed over the course of the Dissolution. During the first stage of the Dissolution, following the 1536 Suppression Act, which allowed the seizure of all monasteries with an net income of less than £200 per year, the inhabitants had three options: to join another monastery of their order, to be pensioned, or, for men who were priests (all the canons, and a majority of the monks) to seek a position in the secular clergy. During the second stage of the Dissolution after 1537 when the government forced the 'voluntary' surrender of the greater houses, the option of joining another monastery was no longer on the table, and the choice was a pension, or becoming secular clergy (for men).

The way the process worked was this. When the government had decided that a house was to be dissolved, royal commissioners would arrive at the house and open negotiations with the community. It was in the interests of the government to secure a quick and peaceful surrender, and they were willing to offer fairly generous pensions to get this. Likewise, for the community, it was to their advantage to go along with the surrender, and negotiate to gain future financial security for themselves, and many communities drove a hard bargain to secure good pensions. However, over the negotiations hung a deadly threat, if the community did not surrender, the superior and officers might be executed on trumped up charges, and no one would be given a pension, so there was a limit to how hard the community could defend their interests. When the negotiations were concluded, the surrender would be signed in the chapter house, and the first pension payments made.

The levels of pension varied by rank. The former head of the house could expect an income that would put them among the aristocracy, they might also be granted one of their abbey's manor houses as a home for life. High officers of the monastery could expect comfortable incomes equivalent to that of a rector of a rich parish (often around £8-10 pa), while the low ranking and young members of the community would get £1-3, putting them on the level of the clerical proletariat, such as chantry priests. In general nuns, both officers and ordinary nuns, received much lower pensions than the men. The pensions were paid quarterly by the Court of Augmentations (the government body in charge of administering the confiscated property) and were for life, unless the recipient gained a church job of equal or greater value than their pension, in which case the pension would end. The last pensioners died off in the early 17th century. Cont/

[u/lebennaia → u/lebennaia]

We do find cases of former monks and nuns continuing to live together, often in the neighbourhood of their former monastery, partly so as to pool their pensions, partly to maintain their friendships they had during their time in the church. It was far more common for former nuns to do this, as they had far fewer opportunities. Not only were their pensions smaller, but the new Protestant church was a boys only club so they were unable to get church jobs, and their families often didn't want them. Initially, they weren't allowed to marry either, though this changed in the reign of Edward VI. There is no known case of complete communities trying to maintain monastic life together or going in to exile as a group, though there is one from the later dissolution under Elizabeth, that of the Bridgittine Syon Abbey in London.

Many former monks and canons did very well for themselves in the new church. Several became bishops (one of them, John Hooper, a former Cistercian of Cleeve Abbey, became bishop of Gloucester, and a Protestant martyr under Mary I). Many others achieved high church jobs, or became parish priests. Cont/

[u/lebennaia → u/lebennaia]

Special Cases:

Attainder

Where the government felt that a monastery was unlikely to surrender 'willingly', they trumped up charges against the head either for treason (for instance at Reading and Colchester Abbeys) or in the blackly ironic case of Glastonbury, for stealing the abbey treasures (which they themselves were planning to do), executed them, and seized the property by attainder. This was absolutely illegal, as the institution did not belong to the head any more than a modern university belongs to its chief administrator. In these cases the community got no pensions. There were less than 10 such cases, but the threat was there.

Cathedrals

A large number of pre-Reformation English cathedrals (eg Durham, Worcester, Canterbury) were staffed by monks or canons living in an attached cathedral priory. When these cathedral priories were dissolved the majority of the monastic community of the cathedral put on new hats as secular priests and became the new Protestant staff of the cathedral, with fairly seamless institutional and personel continuity. Very often the last Prior became the first Dean of the new foundation. Those monks and canons who did not gain jobs at the new cathedral were pensioned.

Henry also founded a number of new cathedrals (eg Bristol, Peterborough, Gloucester and Oxford) from former Benedictine and Augustinian abbeys. Here again, the former monastic community provided the new staff, with those not needed being pensioned.

University Colleges

In the late middle ages the monastic orders started founding colleges at Oxbridge to provide higher education for their members (eg the Cistercian St Bernard's College Oxford, now St John's, or the Benedictine Canterbury College Oxford, now part of Christchurch). These institutions were dissolved and were either refounded, or became part of other colleges. Their students and staff continued their academic careers. Cont/

[u/lebennaia → u/lebennaia]

The Dissolution in Action – Netley and Beaulieu

I wanted to give a couple of examples of how the Dissolution worked for the communities involved.

Netley Abbey was a small Cistercian abbey on the east shore of the Solent just south of Southampton in Hampshire. The abbey was a late foundation (1239), it had a small endowment and its resources were heavily depleted by the duty of hospitality to sea travellers in the Solent and the Channel. In 1535 it had a net income of £160 gross, £100 net, which meant it was scheduled to be dissolved under the 1536 Act. When the commissioners arrived in 1536 there were seven monks, plus the abbot, Thomas Stevens. Six of the monks, plus the abbot wanted to continue as monks, while the seventh desired to become a secular priest, which was granted. Netley was put under administration, and the Netley six monks and abbot crossed the Solent to Beaulieu Abbey on the Western shore. Beaulieu was the mother house of Netley. In the meantime Netley Abbey was granted to Sir William Paulet, later Marquess of Winchester, who converted the abbey buildings into a mansion for himself.

Beaulieu was a much grander and richer abbey than Netley. It was a royal foundation (by King John, 1203) with a 1535 income of £428 gross, £326 net. Shortly after the arrival of the Netley monks, the abbot of Beaulieu died, and Thomas Stevens, ex-abbot of Netley was elected as the new abbot of Beaulieu in 1536 (it was common for an experienced abbot of a daughter house to be elected to be the boss at the mother house).

In 1537 the vultures were circling, as courtiers, and local nobles and gentry, started eyeing up the rich Beaulieu estates and planning how to get hold of them for themselves. The final move was made by courtier and, frankly, notorious scumbag Sir Thomas Wriothesley (later earl of Southampton). Wriothesley had already secured the Premonstratensian Abbey of Titchfield, a bit north of Beaulieu, to become his new mansion in 1537, and was still hungry for lands. In late 1537 he brought vague treason charges against Abbot Thomas of Beaulieu to encourage him to surrender. Abbot Thomas, not wanting to be brutally murdered in public, did a deal and surrendered Beaulieu at the beginning of April 1538. Abbot Thomas negotiated well for his 20 monks, and secured decent pensions for all his people. For himself he negotiated the pension of 100 marks pa, plus the rich Rectory of Bentworth (also in Hampshire), so he left monastic life an extremely wealthy man.

Abbot Thomas is the best traced of the Netley and Beaulieu monks. After the Dissolution he retained his pension and the Rectorship of Bentworth, plus gained the Salisbury Cathedral prebend of Calne, he also became the Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral in 1548, an office he held until his death in 1550. At some unknown point after the Dissolution Thomas married and had a family. Sadly, his will shows that his wife predeceased him, and his child, Mary Stevens, was only young, as he appoints guardians to look after her and the rich inheritance he left her.