The next few years saw his titles change rapidly, from Principal Secretary and Master of the Rolls (1534) to Lord Privy Seal (1536), where he also gained a peerage. He was made earl of Essex in 1540. Cromwell's popularity with the king was strong, but weak with the general populace.
During the period 1536-39, it was he who supervised the complete suppression of the monasteries and confiscation of their land, in an often ruthless manner. Cromwell had little sympathy with the disobedience of monastic houses, which had long ago ceased to embody the ascetic ideal. In January 1535 Cromwell was appointed Vicegerent, Vicar general and Special Commissary to exercise all jurisdiction inherent in the Supreme Head of the English Church. In the same year in August, Cromwell sent a team of officials, including Cromwell, to find out what was going on in the monasteries. Cromwell had boasted that he would make Henry VIII the richest prince in Christendom; and the monasteries, with their direct dependence on the pope and their cosmopolitan organizations, were obstacles to that absolute authority of the national state. His powers over the clergy included deprivation, suspension or sequestration. During to visitations of the monasteries began monks and nuns were confined to their precincts and were forbidden visitors. Cromwell gave a distorted picture of monastic life, reporting that two thirds of the monasteries were filled with depravity An evil report was necessarily required by Cromwell to persuade Parliament to accept a dissolution bill. After reading their reports Henry VIII decided to close down 376 monasteries. Monastery land was seized and sold off cheaply to nobles and merchants. They in turn sold some of the lands to smaller farmers. The Act of 1536 dissolved religious houses with an income of less than 200 pounds. .
In 1538 Cromwell turned his attention to religious shrines in England. For hundreds of years pilgrims had visited shrines that contained important religious relics.