ABSTRACT
Moving to the fate of church resources in the period, there is widespread acknowledgement of an enormous transfer of wealth out of a variety of motives (ranging from sheer greed to pious conviction) and with consequences which changed landholding patterns beyond recognition.18 It is clear, however, that lay control over church property could be very extensive well before the sixteenth century, and even confiscations were not unheard of in the late Middle Ages. 19 Nevertheless, the Reformation dissolutions reached an unprecedented scale, and the proceeds were put to variable uses: the English and Danish monarchs sold most of it to their nobility and gentry, some German Protestant princes reallocated parts to educational or charitable purposes, while others used it to enhance their own territorial possessions.20
