Compendium Compertorum


The 1536 Compendium Compertorum is a title of a handwritten document listing clerical abuses by the Roman [Catholicism in England and Wales|Roman Catholic Church] in England and Wales. It was used by Henry [VIII of England] to give religious justification to the dissolution of the monasteries during the English Reformation.
There are actually two documents under this title that both list "comperts", summaries of the results of visits to monasteries and nunneries of England made by a royal commission in the second half of 1535 and early 1536:
  • the first document contains 16 pages of the commissioners' findings from Northern England and is usually the one for which the historians use the brief name "Compendium Compertorum". The author is unknown ;
  • the second document covers only the Norwich diocese, consists of just four pages, and has a brief title Compendium compertorum. It was written by John ap Rhys, another commissioner.
Most historians assume that the Compendium Compertorum documents contain text that was actually read in the Parliament in 1536, but some are suggesting that there was yet another, comprehensive, and now lost, account of the visits.