The Last Office: 1539 and the Dissolution of a Monastery - Hardcover

Moorhouse, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 029785089X ISBN 13: 9780297850892

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008

Synopsis

What happened to the monks, their orders and the communities they served after Henry VIII's break with Rome in 1536? In THE LAST OFFICE Geoffrey Moorhouse reveals how the Dissolution of the Monasteries affected the great Benedictine priory at Durham, drawing for his sources on material that has lain forgotten in the recesses of one of our great cathedrals.

The quarrel between Henry VIII and the papacy not only gave birth to the Church of England but heralded the destruction of the 650 or so religious houses that played a central role in the spiritual and economic life of the nation. Durham proved to be the exception. On New Year's Eve 1539, the monks sang the last compline. Next morning the priory and its community were surrendered into the hands of the King's commissioners. But then nothing happened. An interregnum lasted 16 months before the priory was reborn as the new cathedral church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin, part of the new Church of England. The Prior became the Dean and 12 monks were retained as prebendaries.

In Geofrey Moorhouse's original and absorbing study, one of the great catalytic events of our past comes alive through the personalities and events at one key monastery.

About this title

Review:

an intriguing sequel to THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE, his judicious and highly readable history... Master of the telling detail, Moorhouse illuminates and humanises the process [of the dissolution of the monasteries]... Moorhouse has wide sympathies, keen judgment, and fine command of a sentence. His absorbing book is charged with the power of time and place; he shows us how to love and value the past - stones and bones, ledgers and law books - without being sentimental, condescending and trite. (HILARY MANTEL THE GUARDIAN)

Geoffrey Moorhouse's highly readable and often surprising book is a kind of historical love-letter to Durham Cathedral... Moorhouse knows his way around the sixteenth-century and elegantly recounts the background tot he dissolution and its immediate consequences. (LITERARY REVIEW)

one of the most lucid and graphic accounts I have read of the opening stages of the English Reformation¿ admirable clarity. (CLARE ASQUITH THE SPECTATOR)

an absorbing, detailed and scrupulously fair account of this English revolution... No one who reads this book will be able to accept without question the traditional Protestant version of the work of the most revolutionary government in England's history. (ALLAN MASSIE THE DAILY TELEGRAPH)

enthusiastic... In the first part of the book, the reader will learn much about medieval monastic living... Better yet, he offers a series of context-providing discussions. (BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE)

Book Description:

Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, through the never-before-told story of how one priory was saved and become Durham's mighty cathedral

About this edition

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 029785089X
• ISBN 13: 9780297850892
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 283