The evidence gathered of the shocking disorders obtaining in the cloisters of both sexes is on the whole credible and well substantiated.

Nevertheless these disorders furnished rather the pretext than the real reason for the dissolutions that followed.
Cromwell boasted that he would make his king the richest in Christendom, and this was the shortest and most popular way to do it.
[Sidenote: 1536] Accordingly an act was passed for the dissolution of all small religious houses with an income of less than L200 a year.

The rights of the founders were safe-guarded, and pensions guaranteed to those inmates who did not find shelter in one of the larger establishments.
By this act 376 houses were dissolved with an aggregate revenue of L32,000, not counting plate and jewels confiscated.

Two thousand monks or nuns were affected in addition to about eight thousand retainers or servants.

The immediate effect was a large amount of misery, but the result in the long run was good.