There were some advantages connected with this independent municipal action, which is thus characteristic of the relief of the poor before 1569. It was possible for the central Government to estimate the practical effect of their measures before they became law, because they were already probably adopted in some towns. Another advantage that belonged to the municipal organisation of the times was the close connection that existed between the authorities who administered poor relief and those who administered charities. Most of the London charities seem to have belonged either to the parishes or to the Companies. The parochial charities were administered by authorities closely connected with those responsible for the public system of poor relief in the parishes, and the City charities were administered by authorities closely connected with the public system of poor relief in the City. Moreover the work of all the parishes was controlled by the same central authority. [Sidenote: 3. Connection between the municipal organisation of poor relief and the dissolution of the monasteries.] The connection between the municipal organisation of poor relief and the dissolution of the monasteries is not altogether clear. Long before 1536 the difficulty of repressing beggars was serious, and the alms of the townsfolk were wasted upon unworthy recipients. Between 1514 and 1533 London had already taken measures both to restrain and license its beggars and to collect alms for the poor. It is probable, that had the monasteries continued to exist, these measures must have extended. But the existence of the doles of the monasteries was in itself an obstacle to the better government of beggars, because the relief given by them was in no way controlled by the same authorities. In London the hospital of Savoy preserved during the reign of Mary an independent existence, side by side with the hospitals under central management, and we find that the City authorities complained of even this one hospital, and said the beggars there relieved were a cause of disorder, and a hindrance to the good government of the City. Had all the old monasteries and hospitals maintained an independent existence it is difficult to see how the regulations of the town rulers could have had much effect, unless the religious endowments also had been subject to municipal control. Moreover the monasteries had relieved many poor at their gates, and among the monks and nuns themselves were probably many who were unfit for the battle of life. These people had to be provided for as well as the unrelieved poor of former days. The immediate need was therefore greater after 1536 than it had been before. At the same time responsibility in the matter fell more directly on the citizens. While the old religious foundations existed, it was supposed that they ought to provide for the poor; now they were destroyed, the responsibility must be fixed elsewhere. It was