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Article: The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.(Brief article)(Book review)
- Article from:
- Publishers Weekly
- Article date:
- March 2, 2009
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Geoffrey Moorhouse. BlueBridge (IPG, dist.), $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-1-9333-4618-2
In this rich study, British historian Moorhouse (Great Harry's Navy) portrays the destruction of England's 650 Catholic monasteries and nunneries in the 1530s as a brazen smash-and-grab by a cashstrapped King Henry and his crafty vicargeneral, Thomas Cromwell. After a beady-eyed inventory of assets by Cromwell's lawyer-accountants, Moorhouse notes, religious houses were seized or semivoluntarily "surrendered" to the Crown by terrified abbots, their occupants dispersed, their estates auctioned off, ...