Chapter 1 - The political and social role of the Church

Question 1

What did archbishops provide?

Answer 1

Links to the wider Catholic Church.

Question 2

Why did the Monarch rely on the Church?

Answer 2

To give his position legitimacy by being anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury as God’s representative on earth, an act that took place during his coronation in Westminster Abbey.

He also turned to the Church to reinforce law and order though its beliefs and teachings.

Question 3

How did leading figures in the Church play a key role in advising the King?

Answer 3

As members of the Privy Council.

Question 4

Structure of the Church in England at the beginning of the 16th century

Answer 4

The papacy: office of the pope <– The secular clergy <– Roman curia <– Cardinals <– Archbishops <– Bishops <– Parish priests <– Other orders

Question 5

Role of the papacy?

Answer 5

Office of the pope - God’s representative on Earth

Question 6

Role of the secular clergy?

Answer 6

Clergy who provided religious services to the laity

Question 7

Role of the Roman curia?

Answer 7

Administered the church

Question 8

Role of Cardinals?

Answer 8

Senior churchmen, elected popes

Question 9

Role of Archbishops?

Answer 9

Senior churchmen in each country

Question 10

Role of Bishops?

Answer 10

Regional leaders of the church

Question 11

Role of Parish priests?

Answer 11

Ministered to each congregation, special rights kept them apart from the laity

Question 12

Role of Other orders?

Answer 12

Deacons regarded as clergy

Question 13

How did Henry VII demonstrate his allegiance to the Catholic Church?

Answer 13

The construction of the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey

Question 14

Where did abbots and bishops sit in the House of Lords?

Answer 14

Alongside the nobility. As well as deciding on legislation, they were instrumental in advising the king.

Question 15

What could Henry VIII use the wealth of the Church to do?

Answer 15

Reward his advisers and give them prestige

Question 16

How did Henry VIII’s Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, typify the links between the Church and the State?

Answer 16

• As the principal adviser to the king, he was responsible for the day to day government of the country.
• As Chancellor he had ultimate authority over the legal system.
• As a cardinal he had significant authority in the Church; cardinals elected the Pope.
• As Archbishop of York, he held the second most important position in the Church of England.
• As legatus a latere he had the right to act on behalf of the Pope though not in all things.

Question 17

From 1514 what position did Wolsey have?

Answer 17

Henry’s chief minister and the most important person in the government of England, apart from Henry VIII himself.

Question 18

How did Wolsey exploit his position as Henry’s first minister and his role in the Church?

Answer 18

To achieve outcomes that enhanced both Henry’s position and his own.

Question 19

What was Church law known as?

Answer 19

Canon law

Question 20

What did the canon law cover?

Answer 20

The beliefs of the Church, is teachings and its practices

Question 21

Who acted as the final arbiter in cases based on canon law?

Answer 21

The Pope

Question 22

What did the Pope have the power to do?

Answer 22

Excommunicate the King, should he be a heretic or a tyrant

Question 23

Who were the dioceses headed by?

Answer 23

Bishops

Question 24

How many parishes did England have?

Answer 24

9000

Question 25

Liturgy meaning?

Answer 25

The collective term for the practices of the Church; how the beliefs are put into practice in services held for the laity

Question 26

Significance of wall paintings?

Answer 26

They were a very visible threat of what might happen to those who sinned

Question 27

Ten Commandments?

Answer 27

Provided a clear statement of what of what the godly should and should not do

Question 28

How were social tensions eased?

Answer 28

With the importance of giving to the poor being constantly stressed

Question 29

How were many of the poor in a parish able to be supported in times of hardship?

Answer 29

By gifts of food and clothing from the wealthier members of a community

Question 30

Who were the Reformists?

Answer 30

Those who held new religious views (they believed that faith in Christ was sufficient, and that a soul would go directly to heaven)

Question 31

‘Sola fide’ meaning?

Answer 31

A person will be able to go to heaven when they die simply through their faith in the saving grace of Christ when he died on the Cross.

Question 32

Who was responsible for collecting Church taxes?

Answer 32

The Church of England

Question 33

Rome vs Henry VII’s income via taxes?

Answer 33

It has been estimated that in the 1520s Rome received approximately £4500 per year in taxation and religious fees from England, whereas Henry VII was amassing £12,500 per year from Church taxes

Question 34

Peter’s Pence?

Answer 34

From the eleventh century every house in England paid an annual tax of one penny to Rome known as Peter’s Pence after the first Bishop of Rome, Saint Peter.

Question 35

What was the tithe?

Answer 35

The most significant tax paid - the annual tithe (everyone, regardless of their wealth or income, was required to pay a tenth of what they had produced or earned in that year to the Church. This could include crops, wool or even hens’ eggs. The produce, which was stored in the tithe barn, was intended to support the priest and help the poor in the parish, but was often sold).

Question 36

How far were parishes from monasteries or priories?

Answer 36

Most parishes were less than four miles away from a monastery or a priory.

Question 37

Wealth, possessions and power of monasteries?

Answer 37

Monasteries, individually and even more as a group, were extremely wealthy and had great economic, as well as political, power.

The monasteries also had extensive possessions by the sixteenth century.

Question 38

What oath did monks have to swear?

Answer 38

Individual monks had to swear an oath of poverty

Question 39

Religion and properties?

Answer 39

Property of one kind or another was also given when a man or woman was accepted into a religious institution.

Question 40

The Church and fines?

Answer 40

The Church courts could fine an individual for non-attendance at Church and for breaking the Ten Commandments.

Question 41

Moral code and Church courts?

Answer 41

Infringements of society’s moral code, including cases of slander and adultery were brought before the Church courts.

Question 42

What happened if someone was found guilty in a Church court?

Answer 42

Those found guilty in a Church court could be fined or imprisoned but they could not be executed except for the charge of heresy.

Question 43

Christians and excommunication?

Answer 43

Every Christian feared excommunication

Question 44

Why could someone be burned in a public ceremony?

Answer 44

Those who refused to renounce their beliefs could be burned in a public ceremony.

Question 45

The Church and wills?

Answer 45

Church courts were also used for proving wills. Wills became more frequent by the sixteenth century as people had more possessions to leave. It was common for people to leave significant amounts to the Church. Wills were often dictated to a priest shortly before a person died.

Question 46

What did a parish church look like on the outside?

Answer 46

The parish church would have been the most magnificent building that the majority of people would ever see. Most were built of stone, unlike houses, which tended to be basic wooden structures.

Question 47

How was the church strictly divided?

Answer 47

By a screen into the areas where ordinary people, the laity could go and the area reserved for the choir and clergy.

Question 48

Main focus of the Church?

Answer 48

The high alter, which would be richly decorated with hangings ad lit with candles

Question 49

The reredos?

Answer 49

In many churches there would be a highly decorated screen behind the high alter

Question 50

What was the high alter used for?

Answer 50

Masses held on Sundays and holy days and the reserved sacrament was held there so that there was the continuous presence of the body of Christ.

Question 51

Use of side altars?

Answer 51

During the week side alters would be used for masses, often in chantry chapels.

Question 52

Who were Masses said for?

Answer 52

Masses were said for souls of the dead. Some chantry chapels were for the sole benefit of a particular person or family. In other cases individuals would join a chantry guild so that a mass would be aid for their soul at key times, often on the anniversary of their deaths. This was known as ‘year’s mind’.

Question 53

Church and parishes?

Answer 53

The Church was generally at the physical centre of the parish.

Question 54

Were there pews for the congregation to sit down?

Answer 54

Unlike modern churches there were no pews for the congregation to sit down. Those who were old or sick would ‘go to the wall’ where there were benches on which to sit.

Question 55

Was the parish church just used for religious services?

Answer 55

The open space of the parish church meant that it could be used for activities other than religious services. Churches could accommodate both people and animals in times of severe weather.

More commonly the main body of the church was used to hold markets and social activities. Important village meetings could also be held there.

Question 56

For the wealthy, was the church just a place to worship?

Answer 56

For wealthy people, the church was not only a place to worship; it provided an opportunity for people to impress other members of the community with their wealth and piety.

Question 57

Gifts for the parish churches?

Answer 57

Parish churches were always willing to receive gifts of gold and silver, vestments, alter cloths, service books and processional banners. All would be given in the name of the donor and this would be recorded as an indication of their generosity. A very large gift could even have the giver’s name recorded in stone. In some cases communities would join together to donate a gift.

Question 58

What was a monastery?

Answer 58

Monastery is a term commonly used today to describe religious houses. In the sixteenth century people would have been much more familiar with the use of ‘abbey’ or ‘priory’ or ‘nunnery’.

Question 59

How many monasteries / abbeys / priories / nunneries were there in England when Henry VIII became king?

Answer 59

When Henry VIII became king in 1509 there were more than 850 such institutions in England.

Question 60

Abbeys vs priories?

Answer 60

Large, rural, monastic house were known as abbeys, and settlements which were made by the larger abbeys, often in towns, were most commonly known as priories.

Question 61

Where were abbeys and priories located?

Answer 61

In many ways the locations of institutions were determined by the type of role they undertook.

Question 62

Rural abbeys vs towns?

Answer 62

The rural abbeys were places of prayer and learning, often with large hand-holdings, whereas monks who lived in the towns in priories worked within the community; in addition to their prayers they would help the poor and the sick.

Question 63

Monasteries and diseases?

Answer 63

Monasteries were at the forefront of the fight against disease because of the monks’ medical knowledge (much of which was acquired from Greek texts) and they were able to provide some elementary health care.

Question 64

Why else were monks valued?

Answer 64

Monks were valued also for their contribution to learning and provided education to the sons of the nobility and gentry.

Question 65

Importance of monastic lands?

Answer 65

The importance of the monastic lands to the individual communities and the wider economy of England cannot be overstated. Monasteries had large hand-holdings throughout the country, much of which had been given to the monastic orders when sons of the nobility had become monks.

Question 66

Why was land given to the monasteries?

Answer 66

Land was also given to the monasteries to provide funding for monks to say prayer for the dead.

Question 67

Who did arable land and farms produce food for?

Answer 67

Arable land and farms produced food not just for the monasteries but for the wider market and provided employment for labourers.

Question 68

What did monasteries produce?

Answer 68

Not only were the monasteries major producers of wool, they were also renowned for the selective breeding of sheep to improve productivity.

Question 69

What did abbeys also produce?

Answer 69

The abbeys were also producers of iron and by the sixteenth century were experimenting with different methods of production to increase output and improve quality.

Question 70

Roche Abbey, Yorkshire - case study

Answer 70

Roche Abbey, Yorkshire, was part of the Catholic religious order of the Cistercians who had originally sought to live simply by the fruits of their own labour.

The abbey had acquired a variety of possessions, such as arable and pastoral land, woodland, mills and fisheries, to sustain a self-sufficient community and give help to the neighbourhood.

Roche was a medium-sized house.

The abbey’s holdings stretched across the five counties of Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Lancashire.

Most of Roche’s possessions were concentrated within a 15 mile radius of the abbey, and a number of these lay within five miles of the house.

Question 71

How did the Church play a significant role in the sixteenth century?

Answer 71

In sixteenth-century England, the Church played a significant role in matters of state. The Church’s taxation structures and legal systems, including the Church courts, were necessary for the king as for Rome.

Question 72

Who was the king dependent on?

Answer 72

The king was dependent on senior religious figures, such as Cardinal Wolsey, to provide advice on government.

Question 73

What did the Church provide (economically and socially)?

Answer 73

The Church provided key economic and social functions in local communities and the country as a whole.

Question 74

What did the Church provide (religiously and secularly)?

Answer 74

The Church provided the religious basis of the secular laws of the country, which had to be obeyed by all the king’s subjects.