During the two and a half centuries preceding the Dissolution, monastic patronage of all religious orders changed in character as well as in scale. Only very few new religious houses came into existence after the year 1300, and the needs of existing, established communities of monks, canons and nuns differed in some respects from those of a new foundation. Consequently, the demands on lay patrons altered. Their function as protectors and supporters of their religious communities became increasingly important under the economic and political pressures of the late Middle Ages, at a time when many houses of monks and nuns complained about financial difficulties, even poverty. Thus patrons were regularly called upon to confirm, and thereby defend, a community's existing endowments, which had been donated to the monastery by their ancestors or predecessors. However, the custom of gift-giving also continued throughout this period, right up until the Dissolution, with religious houses being the recipients of bequests ranging from smaller, personal, usually religious items, to sums of money or, indeed, manors, estates, or rents. Of particular importance, in many cases, was the appropriation to religious houses of churches, together with their advowsons. During the later Middle Ages this was especially common for houses of Augustinian canons.

And then, of course, there were other types of contact, too. Theoretically at least, the patron of a monastery was involved in the election of a new abbot or prior (abbess or prioress) to his house, to which his assent was required and which he – normally – confirmed. Patrons also still had the unwritten right to be received as visitors at their monasteries and to spend any length of time there, enjoying the hospitality of the religious community, and staying, eating and drinking at their expense.