It has been pointed out in an earlier chapter that the state of the lesser monasteries was far from satisfactory in Cromwell’s time; but that in spite of this, when Wolsey’s agents suppressed a few of them in order to convert their revenues to the use of the Cardinal’s cherished colleges, a loud cry of indignation was immediately raised among the rural population. During his first few years in Wolsey’s service Cromwell had acquired sufficient experience to master at least the elementary principles of monastic confiscation, but before he had gone half as far as he had probably intended, his master’s attainder and his own consequent change of life had temporarily interrupted the work. We have seen that as soon as the King had arbitrarily assumed the Headship of the Church of England, Cromwell immediately cast about for means to secure him in his new position. To this end he had weakened the bishops and also the lesser clergy; the dissolution of the monasteries immediately presented itself to him as a consistent method of following up these measures. It all tended in the same direction of severing England’s connexion with Rome and of establishing the Royal Supremacy. The scheme of suppressing the monasteries also promised great things from a financial point of view; Cromwell could have hit upon no better plan than this to aid him to fulfil his promise to make Henry ‘the richest King that ever was in Christendom.’ If the idea of dissolving the religious houses in order to increase the wealth of the Crown, had occurred to Henry during Wolsey’s administration, he would hardly have dared to carry it out while there was any chance of avoiding a breach with the Pope; but now the course of events had converted the only objection to the plan into an argument in its favour. There was certainly nothing in the conscience of the King or of his minister to deter them from such a step, when so much advantage both political and financial promised to result from it.