Why are monasteries in ruins?

Answer 1

There are still many many monasteries in the world, and especially Europe that are thriving communities. In the UK, famous monasteries such as those at Prinknash, Buckfast, Downside and Caldy Island are still thriving and maintaining a Christian haven of prayer and tranquility. However, in England and Wales there are many monasteries that are in ruins - Glastonbury, Tintern, Fountains Abbey, Bolton Abbey, Riveaux Abbey and so on. Most of these were ruined through one simple act - the Dissolution of the Monasteries by King Henry VIII. Part of the reason why Henry broke from the Roman Catholic Church was that the monasteries in England were becoming too powerful and corrupt. They held vast treasures - many bought by those wishing to 'buy' their way into heaven, or by paying vast sums for the priests to say masses for those of their relatives who had died so that their time in 'purgatory' could be shortened (or so the monks claimed). The priests in these monsteries held the right to say prayers on behalf of the 'common' man and were the only ones allowed (or able - as it was written in Latin) to read The Bible. The monasteries also claimed to hold sacred relics - like pieces of the 'true' cross, or bones of saints, so that people would flock to them and pay to see the relic. There was a saying that if all the pieces of the 'true' cross were collected, there would be enough to build Noah's Ark let alone a cross... There were at least three of Christ's foreskins kept in the abbeys (the skin removed at his circumcision - another miracle??) and enough thorns from the crown of thorns to cover Christ's head many times over. In Glastonbury, the monks even claimed to have found King Arthur's grave, and its supposed site can still be seen even today. All these scams Henry found obscene as his subjects, he felt, were being cheated by a corrupt organisation, and an organisation that did not have a place in the new Christian church - the Church of England, where the people themselves were allowed to read (or hear read) the Bible in their own language thanks to new translations written in English, say prayers in their own language thanks to the Prayer Book, and where relics and the adulation of inanimate objects was outlawed. Therefore Henry decided to get rid of the monasteries once and for all. As a result many were razed to the ground, their treasures seized and the people allowed, through the Book of Common Prayer, to worship in their own right. Some monasteries started up again many years later but these were far less powerful, but the remains of most - now in ruins - are still to be seen all across England.