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3 reviews for:
The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Geoffrey Moorhouse
3.5 AVERAGE
3 reviews for:
The Last Divine Office: Henry VIII and the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Geoffrey Moorhouse
3.5 AVERAGE
Examines the effect of the Dissolution of the Monasteries on the church establishment at Durham, one of the most powerful and wealthy of England's cathedrals and home of the shrine of St. Cuthbert. It is one thing for Henry VIII to order seizure of property, but something else to actually make the legal framework for unpicking 500 years of charters, deeds, wills, disputed property lines, buried bodies and church furnishings with big honking emeralds in them. I am always torn between feeling badly for the lost medieval world of Katherine of Aragon and the pre-Tridentine Catholic church and admiration for the sheer bureaucratic oomph of Thomas Cromwell, who got shit done. The most important thing Elizabeth I probably learned from her father was to put some of God's Self-Appointed Elect in charge of the paperwork
Exhaustively researched, well written. A bit too verbose at times.
3.5/5
An interesting read. I was kind of hoping for an overview of the whole Dissolution of the Monasteries -- and it does go into that -- but it was primarily focused around one monastery: Durham. On one hand, I liked how it was more focused on this one place, which wasn't fully dissolved for a very long time. But, I also would have liked something a bit broader because I've never found a book that covered the topic as much as I'd want it to.
An interesting read. I was kind of hoping for an overview of the whole Dissolution of the Monasteries -- and it does go into that -- but it was primarily focused around one monastery: Durham. On one hand, I liked how it was more focused on this one place, which wasn't fully dissolved for a very long time. But, I also would have liked something a bit broader because I've never found a book that covered the topic as much as I'd want it to.