"a particularly bad prioress". Power notes that such a situation was far more likely to arise in small, poor houses, which medievalist F. D. Logan suggests were often already "struggling for survival", than in houses with independent wealth. Spears agrees with Power on Wells's irresponsibility, suggesting that if her nuns subsequently behaved poorly, "it would be surprising" if this was not the result of observing, learning and copying her behaviour and approach. Spears notes that, as Wells utilised "erratic and aggressive" discipline, so the nuns seem to have behaved reciprocally towards her. Aftermath Historians do not know what, if any, action Atwater took regarding Littlemore following his visit, as subsequent records no longer exist and neither Littlemore or its inhabitants receives further mention in the bishop's Registrum. Nor do we know what, if any, measures Horde took while the priory was in his care. By 1525, the King's chief minister, Cardinal Wolsey, was in the process of founding his new school of humanist education Cardinal College, Oxford. He needed funds for the building. To raise what he needed he requested and acquired a papal bull authorising him to suppress several decayed monasteries of his choice. In Wolsey's eyes, this also had the benefit of helping repair the church's reputation in England, which decadent houses and their inhabitants had helped give it. Littlemore was one of the priories he chose for dissolution. Power argued the condition of the house and its reputation for scandal, on top of Wolsey's wish to expand the University, justified this decision. That Littlemore had proved itself intractable, unable to reform itself or to allow itself to be reformed, probably made it a likely candidate for dissolution, which Margaret Bowker says was "the only way to prevent its disobedience spreading". Hughes has described Littlemore as being, to Wolsey, simply a house "that would never be missed". At the time of its closure, Littlemore Priory was worth around £32 per annum. Over the next few years, its lands and revenues were given over to Wolsey's new college. The inhabitants received no further punishment. Indeed, as the last prioress, Katherine Wells was given an annual pension of £6 13s 4d, and those nuns who had been apostatised on account of their misbehaviour were absolved. When Wolsey fell from power in 1529, Littlemore Priory, along with the rest of his wealth and estates, escheated to the crown. Eileen Power has