The smaller houses identified for suppression were then visited during 1536 by a further set of local commissions , one for each county , charged with creating an inventory of assets and valuables , and empowered to obtain prompt co-operation from monastic superiors by the allocation to them of pensions and cash gratuities . It was envisaged that some houses might offer immediate surrender , but in practice few did ; consequently a two-stage procedure was applied , the commissions reporting back to Cromwell for a decision as to whether to proceed with dissolution . In a number of instances these commissioners supported the continuation of a house where they found no serious current cause for concern ; arguments that Cromwell , as vicegerent , appears often to have accepted . Around 80 houses were exempted , mostly offering a substantial fine . Where dissolution was determined on , a second visit would effect the arrangements for closure of the house , disposal of its assets and endowments and provisions for the future of the members of the house ; otherwise the second visit would collect the agreed fine . In general , the suppression commissioners were less inclined to report serious faults in monastic observance within the smaller houses than the visiting commissioners had been , although this may have been coloured by an awareness that monks and nuns with a bad reputation would be more difficult to place elsewhere . The 1536 Act established that , whatever the claims of founders or patrons , the property of the dissolved smaller houses reverted to the Crown ; and Cromwell established a new government agency , the Court of Augmentations , to manage it . However , although the property rights of lay founders and patrons were legally extinguished , the incomes of lay holders of monastic offices , pensions and annuities were generally preserved , as were the rights of tenants of monastic lands . Ordinary monks and nuns were given the choice of secularisation ( with a cash gratuity but no pension ) , or of transfer to a continuing larger house of the same order . The majority of those then remaining chose to continue in the religious life ; in some areas , the premises of a suppressed religious house was recycled into a new foundation to accommodate them , and in general , rehousing those seeking a transfer proved much more difficult and time-consuming than appears to have been anticipated . Two houses , Norton Priory in Cheshire and Hexham Abbey in Northumberland , attempted to resist the commissioners by force , actions which Henry interpreted as treason , resulting in his writing personally to demand the summary brutal punishment of those responsible . The prior and canons of Norton were imprisoned for several months , and were fortunate to escape with their lives ; the monks of Hexham , who made the further mistake of becoming involved in the Pilgrimage of Grace , were executed
Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
Dissolution of the Monasteries