§ 26. The decline in numbers after 1349 would inevitably tend to the extinction of small and poor houses. A few nunneries, such as Wothorpe, were amalgamated with larger foundations. Various causes also led to the suppression of small monasteries. An example had been set as early as 1312 by the extermination of the military order of knights Templars, whose rule was founded upon the Cistercian _Carta Caritatis_. Their lands in great part went to enrich the order of knights of St John of Jerusalem, whose property at the general suppression was very large. During the French wars, as we have seen, the smaller possessions of foreign abbeys were gradually appropriated to other religious foundations. Alien priories also formed a large portion of the possessions of Eton and King's college, Cambridge. For the purposes of later colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, this example was followed in the suppression of small English houses: Jesus college at Cambridge in 1497 entered upon the buildings and possessions of the nunnery of St Radegund. Wolsey founded Christ Church at Oxford in place of the priory of St Frideswide, and obtained the suppression of several small monasteries for the endowment of his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. To Wolsey indeed the beginning of the general suppression may be fairly attributed. His measures, however, had reform for their end. Later acts of suppression were prompted by far different causes. Yet not even the financial advantages of the step could lead to the destruction of the monasteries at one blow. The act of 1536 put in the king's hands only those houses whose revenues were under £200 a year, and of these thirty-two, against which even the commissioners could find no evidence, were refounded. Such an act naturally produced serious economic changes: the ringleaders of the subsequent northern rebellion complained of the damage incurred by the poor from the loss of convent alms. The Pilgrimage of Grace brought disaster to the abbeys which had lent it support. Other houses made terms with the king by surrendering their possessions: the rest fell in consequence of the act of 1539, which extended the provisions of 1536 to all the surviving foundations. It may be granted that the dissolution of the monasteries was inevitable. But for their arbitrary seizure by the state there was only the shadow of a legitimate reason, and the motives of the suppression are exposed by the traffic in their property which followed. Pensions were granted to monks and canons from the exchequer; but the bulk of monastic property went to enrich private owners for the temporary relief of the extravagance of the Crown.