SUPPRESSION OF THE MONASTERIES AND THE FOUNDING OF GRAMMAR SCHOOLS. Between 1536 and 1539 the most striking result of the Reformation in England took place,--the dissolution of the monasteries. Their doubtful reputation enabled Henry and Parliament to confiscate their property, and "the dead hand of monasticism was removed from a third of the lands of England." There were precedents for this in pre-Reformation times, the church authorities themselves having converted several monastic foundations into grammar schools. At one blow Parliament now suppressed the monasteries of all England, some eight thousand monks and nuns were driven out, many of the monasteries, nunneries, and abbey churches were destroyed, and the monastic lands were forfeited to the Crown. It was a ruthless proceeding, though in the long course of history beneficial to the nation. Much of the land was given to influential followers of the king in return for their support, and a large part of the proceeds from sales was spent on coast defenses and a navy, though more than was formerly thought to be the case was used in refounding grammar schools. A number of the monasteries were converted into collegiate churches, with schools attached. Some of the alms-houses and hospitals confiscated at the same time were similarly used, and the cathedral churches in nine English cities were taken from the monks (R. 171), who had driven out the regular clergy during the tenth to the twelfth centuries, and were refounded as cathedral church schools. The cathedral church school at Canterbury, which Henry refounded in 1541 as a humanistic grammar school, with a song school attached, and for the government of which he made detailed provisions (R. 172), is typical of a school which had fallen into bad repute (R. 171), and was later refounded as a result of the confiscation of the monastic property. The College of Christ Church at Oxford, and Trinity College at Cambridge, were also richly endowed from the monastic proceeds. In 1546 another Act of Parliament vested the title of all chantry foundations, some two hundred in number, in the Crown that they might be "altered, changed, and amended to convert them to good and godly uses as in the erecting of grammar schools," but so pressing became the royal need for money that, after their sale, the intended endowments were never made. As the song schools had been established originally to train a few boys "to help a priest sing mass," and as the service was now to be read rather than sung, the need for choristers largely disappeared. Being regarded as nurseries of superstition, they were abandoned without regret.