7. henry vii- religion Humanism, arts and learning

Question 1

explain the function of the church?

Answer 1

• all english people belonged to the church and the spiritual leadership of the pope
• the catholic church:
  
  1. maintained social control
  2. catered for the people’s spiritual needs
  3. provided opportunities for employment and social advancement
  4. played an important political role in both domestic and international affairs

Question 2

explain the religious communities beliefs and services?

Answer 2

• religious experiences were an essential part of daily life
• lives were governed by religious festivals and the threat of hell and purgatory acted as a major influence on behaviour
• the church controlled thinking and behaviour reinforcing allegiance to authority and the monarch
• spread the catholic christian teaching
• offered ways in which a person could acquire grace in order to reach heaven
• catholics believed that when the priest consecrated the bread and wine that it actually transformed into the body and blood of christ

Question 3

explain the church’s social role?

Answer 3

-played an important role in the community
lay people may….
1.donate towards rebuilding parish church buildings
2. leave money to the parish in their wills
3. gather together and provide collectively masses/ funeral costs

Question 4

explain religious orders?

Answer 4

1. monastic orders:
   
   • 1% of adult males were monks living in monasteries
   • benedictine order had large houses
2. friars
   
   • 3 main orders = Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustians:
   • worked with lay people and were supported by charitable donations
   • recruited from lower down the social scale
   • declining in importance
3. Nunneries:
   
   • less prestige than monasteries
   • normally populated by women unsuitable for marriage
   • relatively poor

Question 5

explain the Lollardy?

Answer 5

• a small minority with critical beliefs
• they emphasised the importance of understanding the bible and wanted it translated into english
• sceptical about ‘transubstantiation’ (wine and bread= blood and body of christ)
• viewed the catholic church asa corrupt

Question 6

explain Humanism?

Answer 6

• developed during the 14th&15th cent renaissance.
• an intellectual movement that affected religious teaching, politics and economics
• impact was limited to a minority of educated nobility and gentry, made a limited impression of HVII’s reign
• Humanists patronised education= educational opportunities increased with the spread of grammar schools for wealthy and new colleges in Cambridge
• William Caxton brought printing to England= printing created an eventual link to Humanism, increased the spread of ideas to become widely circulated

Question 7

identify some key English humanists?

Answer 7

• John Colet: dean of st pauls cathedral, saw humanist scholarly approaches as a way to reform the church from within
• Thomas More: lawyer and humanist scholar, boosted humanist idea’s under HVIII