The dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 and 1539 abolished a great source of charity for the needy, and increased the social disorder.

Finally, in 1547, came the confiscation by the Crown of the property of the guilds and brotherhoods, and the result of this enactment can only be realised by supposing the funds of friendly societies, trade unions, and co-operative societies taken by Government to-day without compensation.
All that Parliament would do in the face of the starvation and unemployment that brooded over many parts of England, was to pass penal legislation for the homeless and workless--so that it seemed to many that Government had got rid of Papal authority only to bring back slavery.

The agrarian misery, the violent changes in the order of church services and social customs, the confiscation of the funds of the guilds, and the wanton spoiling of the parish churches[46]--all these things drove the people to revolt.
Early in 1549 the men of Devon and Cornwall took up arms for "the old religion," and were hanged by scores.

In Norfolk that same year the rising under Ket was social, and unconcerned with religion.

Lesser agrarian disturbances took place in Somerset, Lincoln, Essex, Kent, Oxford, Wilts, and Buckingham.