In various ways _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ is the most satisfactory record we have of the economy of the religious houses at the time of their dissolution, in spite of very serious drawbacks which we shall mention. It is, as a rule, plain and definite, and it is the only document we have which professes to give a statement of the monastic economy with any approach to completeness. In both of these respects it is superior to other sources of information. The “Particulars for Grants” relate, of course, only to such portions of the monastic lands as were desired by the applicant who supplied them, and the _Computi Ministrorum_ which are printed at the end of the information about many of the religious houses in _Monasticon_ are also incomplete. They are the first accounts of the possessions of the several monasteries as rendered to the Augmentation Office immediately after the Dissolution by the King’s Ministers and Receivers; but they show that already some of the property had changed hands. They supplement the particulars of _Valor Ecclesiasticus_, and afford a certain amount of basis for comparison and criticism, but they are drawn up on a different plan and with a different object, and so a complete comparison by means of them is difficult. It is also difficult in some places to understand the method of reckoning which is adopted in them. It is easy to point out the deficiencies of _Valor Ecclesiasticus_. That the Commissioners did not always succeed in ascertaining the whole income of the monasteries was by no means the fault of the Government. They kept in touch with their agents throughout the work; indeed, constant supervision and stimulus was wise, for the work was difficult and had to be done in a short time. It was ordered to be accomplished by the octave of Trinity following the issue of the Commissions, and it was actually finished soon afterwards. The Staffordshire Commissioners, under the guidance of the obsequious Bishop Lee, who was well experienced in official work, were the first, with a single exception, to send in their returns. Lee wrote to Cromwell on September 22nd (1535): “Your comfortable letters have made me strong and whole, and able to return to the King’s service. We delivered by Thomas Moreton, one of my assistants in the Commission, the taxation of the churches in Staffordshire in the course of last term, when there was not one except Kent that so did. The Court of Exchequer was well satisfied.”[63]