[Sidenote: Dissolution of the monasteries] Like other acts tending towards the Reformation this was, on the whole, popular, and had been rehearsed on a small scale on several previous occasions in English history.

The pope and the king of France taught Edward II to dissolve the preceptories, to the number of twenty-three, belonging to the Templars; in 1410 the Commons petitioned for the confiscation of all church property; in 1414 the alien priories in England fell under the animadversion of the government; their property was handed over to the crown and they escaped only by the payment of heavy fines, by incorporation into English orders, and by partial confiscation of their land.

The idea prevailed that mortmain had failed of its object and that therefore the church might rightfully be relieved of her ill-gotten gains.

These were grossly exaggerated, a pamphleteer believing that the wealth of the church amounted to half the property of the realm.

In reality the total revenue of the spirituality amounted to only L320,000; that of the monasteries to only L140,000.
There had been few endowments in the fifteenth century; only eight new ones, in fact, in the whole period 1399-1509.