As part of Henry VIII's break with Rome, monasteries across England were suppressed. Monks and Nuns had a bad reputation: immoral, greedy and not focused on their correct lifestyle. Besides the monasteries had great wealth.
The extreme response to heresy was to burn the heretic at the stake. However the practise was patchy in application. The following table from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUDheretics.htm gives an estimate of executions by monarch.
Pictures of priest holes...
This is an eyewitness account of the execution of Lady Jane Grey from the “Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary". This anonymous work is believed to have been written by an insider to the Tower.