The Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539 (31 Hen. 8. c. 13), sometimes referred to as the Second Act of Dissolution or as the Act for the Dissolution of the Greater Monasteries, was an act the Parliament of England that provided for the dissolution of 552 monasteries and houses remaining after the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 (27 Hen. 8. c. 28).
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👉 Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1539 in the context of Dissolution of the Monasteries
The dissolution of the monasteries, occasionally referred to as the suppression of the monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541, by which Henry VIII disbanded all Catholic monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland; seized their wealth; disposed of their assets; destroyed buildings and relics; dispersed or destroyed libraries; and provided for their former personnel and functions.
Though the policy was originally envisaged as a way to increase the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s. Henry did this under the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England. He had broken from Rome's papal authority the previous year. The monasteries were dissolved by two Acts of Parliament, those being the First Suppression Act in 1535 and the Second Suppression Act in 1539.