Tintern Abbey

The ruined Abbey of Tintern, which belonged to the Cistercian order, suffered from the plagues of 1348-1349 soon after it was completed. It also faced the mounting opposition which reproached these rich religious orders, while their numbers reached a peak. Gradually they were brought within the law. Edward I had begun the process by limiting gifts to monasteries, but they country, by the villein tenants of abbey lands demanding freedom. The loss of labor resulting from the plague, and the loss of authority by the popes, accentuated this process. Then, in 1414, those abbeys based in France were confiscated by the Crown; the first of a series of suppressive acts, which culminated in the dissolution of the monasteries, and broke the power of Rome in England.