Chapter 12: Religion, ideas and reform

Question 1

Why did renaissance ideas in intellectual life and culture began to flourish under HVIII ?

Answer 1

• flourished among some of the elite groups within English society although had made a tentative appearance during HVII’s reign
• to some extent it can be attributed to the king himself ➡️ encouraged thinkers such as More and Erasmus and some of his patronage
• particularly the commissioning of the effigies of his parents’ tomb, showed the influence of fashionable artistic trends which had arrived from Italy

Question 2

Who was John Colet ?

Answer 2

• the most significant humanist voice in English education
• refounded St Paul’s School
• appointed as the school’s governors members drawn from a city guild rather than choosing clergymen
• curriculum included some works by Erasmus + teaching methods derived from humanist principles
• appointed humanist head, William Lily

Question 3

Why were schools like St Paul’s and Magdalen College School (Oxford) significant ?

Answer 3

• they were at the forefront of educational reform + firmly adopted Platonist educational principles (main function of education was to produce ‘philosopher kings’ ➡️ pupils should have the ideal of public service instilled into them)
• taught many boys who would later become prominent religious/political figures in Tudor England whose influence would steadily grow
  ❗️ similar concepts influenced the foundation of Corpus Christi and Cardinal colleges in Oxford & St John’s College in Cambridge

Question 4

How did Wolsey contribute to education ?

Answer 4

• he was committed to educational improvement
• founded his college and school in Ipswich (his hometown)
• endowing a professorship in Greek at Oxford

Question 5

To what extent did humanist ideas influence education ?

Answer 5

• by the end of HVIII’s reign humanist influencers had gained a lasting hold on university curricula

Question 6

What is Erasmianism ?

Answer 6

• blend of humanism and reform and the joint manufacture of More and Erasmus, swayed undoubtedly by the fervent genius of John Colet ➡️ was characteristics of the whole English humanist community in the years before the royal divorce + its influence extended far beyond the Oxford reformers

Question 7

Who was Erasmus ?

Answer 7

• a well known figure in and around HVIII’s court
• visited England four times 🔔 most important on being 1509-14 when he was appointed to a professorship at Cambridge University ➡️ received with some enthusiasm in English intellectual circles + a fried of Fisher and More
• in 1516 he published a Greek New Testament complete with a new Latin translation

Question 8

How much influence did Erasmus/Erasmian humanism have ?

Answer 8

• had some influence on a younger generation of English humanists
• HOWEVER the scope was quite limited (should not be exaggerated) ➡️ much of the change that took place stemmed from the influence of new religious thinking rather than simply scholarly Renaissance humanism

Question 9

What signs was there of influence of Renaissance ideas on English culture during HVIII’s reign ?

Answer 9

• knowledge of classical learning increased amongst the elite in society
• a growing number of school became influenced by humanist approaches to education
• HVIII saw himself as a promoter of new ideas and humanism
• the Crown needed well educated diplomats who could communicate with their counterparts in other countries in a fashionably elegant style
• humanist writers emerged, with Thomas More being the most important ➡️ combined his intellectual interests with his work as a lawyer and statesman
• other writers such as Thomas Lupset and Thomas Starkey also demonstrated humanist influences

Question 10

What signs was there that renaissance ideas were having increasing influence on visual culture ?

Answer 10

• HVIII commissioned the Italian sculptor Pietro Torrigiano to produce the tombs of his parents and grandmother (Lady Margaret Beaufort) ➡️ both tombs produced in the Renaissance style
• another example of Renaissance style was the rood screen erected in the early 1930s in the chapel of King’s college, Cambridge (celebrates the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn)
• evident that Henry’s building tastes were more conservative than Wolsey’s ➡️ little remains of the massive building programme eg. Nonsuch Palace which H instituted BUT surviving evidence does show a continued tase for Gothic whereas Wolsey’s palace at Hampton Court clearly exhibited more classical influence
• both Henry and Wolsey were generous/noted patrons of music (H himself was an amateur composer) ➡️ however the most distinctive influence on the church music heard in the Chapel Royal and in cathedrals was Flemish

Question 11

To what extent did Renaissance ideas influence England’s visual culture ?

Answer 11

🔔 should not be assumed that Renaissance influences predominated during HVIII’s reign ➡️ Richard Mark argued Gothic remained the predominated cultural form
🔔 whilst Italian Renaissance influences were becoming more fashionable, England’s main cultural links reflected the close commercial ties between England and the Low Countries

Question 12

How was the church reformed between 1532 and 1540 ?

Answer 12

HVIII, assisted by Cromwell and Archbishop Cramner:
- withdrew the English Church from the jurisdiction of the papacy
- established the King as supreme head of the Church
- began altering the Church’s doctrine and practices
🔔 hugely significant process which could not have been foreseen in the early years of Henry’s reign when the Church appeared broadly popular and effective (though with weaknesses)

Question 13

How was the church corrupt ?

Answer 13

range of offences involving corruption were associated with the Church:
- pluralism ➡️ receiving the profits if a post but not being present to perform the duties associated with it)
- simony ➡️ the purchase of Church office
❗️Wolsey = best example of a corrupt clergyman but many others were guilty especially as the Crown used Church office as a way of rewarding those of its officials who were clergymen

Question 14

What was anticlericalism ?

Answer 14

• opposition to the political and social importance of the clergy 🔔 often cited as a weakness of the church
• some common lawyers objected to the influence of canon law + there were objections to the legal privileges of the church
• instances of clerical misconduct which caused considerable criticism ❗️eg. death of Richard Hunne (London merchant) in 1514, he was found dead in his cell in the Bishop of London’s prison (his murder was clumsily passed off as a suicide but was evident to the coroner’s jury that Hunne could not have killed himself but instead was murdered during an attempt of torture had gone wrong) ➡️ the case was disastrous for the reputation of the church in the short term before the break with Rome started

Question 15

How was the Crown capable of stirring up anticlerical passions ?

Answer 15

• 1529 attach on the clergy: Simon Fish’s ‘Supplication of the Beggars’ was a vicious and powerful attack on many aspects of the Catholic Church (Fish was an early English Protestant convert who was dedicated to HVIII)
• occasional disputes over tithes and other cause of concern BUT were relatively rare) 🔔 Christopher Hiag concluded that anticlericalism was less a cause but rather more a consequence of the Reformation

Question 16

Why was there a decline of monasticism ?

Answer 16

• has been argued that the operation of religious houses was open to CRITICISM
  ❗️Wolsey previously dissolved around 20 monasteries in the 1520’s to fund the establishment of Cardinal College, Oxford, so there were precedents for what happened in the 1530’s
• some historians have suggested that:
  ❌ monasticism was a relic of a bygone age
  ❌ the larger monasteries were more like businesses with huge resources in terms of land/buildings
  ❌ the ease and speed with which the monasteries were dissolved supports this argument
  ✅ although some orders such as the Observant Franciscans and Bridgettines were flourishing right up to the final days of the dissolution

Question 17

What evidence is there of early English Protestantism ?

Answer 17

• little evidence of a substantial movement towards Protestantism in the years following Martin Luther’s attack on the Catholic Church which started in 1517
• some Lollard beliefs survived + evidence of the influence of the German reformers in London and wast-coast ports in the 1520’s
• at an intellectual level, a nucleus of future reformers were based in Cambridge in 1520’s who met for religious discussions at the White Horse incl. Robert Barnes (leading figure) and Thomas Bilney (both whom were burned as heretics later in H’s reign) ➡️ most influential member of the group proved to be the future Archbishop Cranmer
  🔔 otherwise, evidence for committed evangelism in fairly thin

Question 18

Who was Martin Luther ?

Answer 18

• a German monk who challenged the Catholic Church’s teachings of salvation in 1517
• his challenged broadened into an attack on papal supremacy
• gained the support if many secular rulers in Germany who withdrew their territories from allegiance to Catholicism

Question 19

How strong was humanism during HVIII’s reign /

Answer 19

• some key reformers of the period certainly had humanist connections eg. Cranmer HOWEVER not all reformers were humanist and many humanists equally weren’t reformers at all or like Bishop Gardiner and Tunstall they went along with reformers they did not believe in order to maintain their lives and positions
• James McConica argued that the years from 1529 showed a groups of humanists with shared ideals based on the ideas of Erasmus helped to shape royal policy ➡️ evidence for this seems slender given that the two most influencial humanists in royal circles (More and Fisher) paid with their lives for their opposition to the religious changes
• HOWEVER it looks like a humanist approach to reform persisted during the final years of H’s reign ➡️ Cranmer continued to enjoy the King’s favour despite being subjected to attacks by enemies such as the Duke of Norfolk + both Edward (John Cheke) and Elizabeth (Roger Ascham) were educated by humanists and Katherine Parr herself had a humanist education (unusual for a woman at this time) + she had a humanist circle around her

Question 20

What changes were there to the Church’s structure and how are they significant ?

Answer 20

• king becomes supreme head of the church:❗️ confirmed by the Act of Supremacy in 1534 (the act did not confer the supremacy on the king)
• king appoints Cromwell Vicegerent in Spirituals (1534): Cromwell was second only to the king and outranked archbishops and bishops ➡️ gave Cromwell considerable power over the church (the post died with him)
• six new dioceses (areas under the jurisdiction of a bishop) were created, though one was soon abolished: an attempt to improve the Church’s administration
• no other changes were made to the structure of the church + spititual jurisdiction remained in the hands of archbishops and bishops ➡️ in this way the church of England differed from reformed churches in continental Europe

Question 21

What was the Valor Ecclesiasticus survey and the start of ‘visitations’ to the monasteries ?

Answer 21

• a survey in 1535 set up by Cromwell to discover exactly how wealthy the church was ➡️ gave Cromwell a broadly accurate indication of the resources available for the Crown to plunder
• four visitors were sent round to amass evidence that could be used to justify the dissolutions ➡️ inevitably they found much to criticise in terms of weakness and corruption (although the most fair minded of the visitors, Tregonwell, mixed his criticism with praise for the holiness/conscientious of those whom he was inspecting)

Question 22

What act dissolved smaller monastaries ?

Answer 22

• act of parliament in 1536
• evidenced found by the visitors provided enough evidence to justify to pass an act which dissolved the smaller monasteries (defined as those with an income of under £200 per annum or less) on the basis that the smaller religious houses had allowed standards to slip
• the measures were presented as a mechanism for preserving and improving the quality

Question 23

How the remaining monasteries dissolved ?

Answer 23

• in 1539 an act dissolving the remaining monasteries was passed
• probably been Cromwell’s intention all along once the softening up process had taken effect, but the scope of the dissolution was widened after the Pilgrimage of Grace as the heads of the religious houses that had been implicated in the rebellion voluntarily
• by March 1540 all the remaining religious houses had been dissolved

Question 24

How was there an attack on traditional religious practices ?

Answer 24

• 1536: the first set of royal injunctions marked the beginning of the process of attacking traditional religious practices, as well as encouraging more moral conduct, the injunctions restricted the number of holy days to be observed and discouraged pilgrimages
• 1538: the second act of royal in junctions took things much further ➡️ pilgrimages and the veneration of relics and images were condemned, whilst any clergy who upheld the virtues of pilgrimages, relics and images were required publicly to recant
• the implications of the 1538 injunctions for traditional worship were undoubtedly radical

Question 25

What did the royal injunctions passed in 1536 do ?

Answer 25

• the first set of royal injunctions marked the beginning of the process of attacking traditional religious practices
• as well as encouraging more moral conduct, the injunctions also restricted the number of holy days to be observed and discouraged pilgrimages

Question 26

What did the royal injunctions 1538 do ?

Answer 26

• 1538: the second act of royal in junctions took things much further ➡️ pilgrimages and the veneration of relics and images were condemned as ‘works devised by men’s fantasies’
• any clergy who upheld the virtues of pilgrimages, relics and images were required publicly to recant
  🔔 the implications of the 1538 injunctions for traditional worship were undoubtedly radical

Question 27

Why was every parish church required to acquire an English bible ?

Answer 27

• the injunctions of 1538 required this and encouraged ‘every person’ to read ‘lively word of God’ ➡️ in reality very few would have actually been able to read it (for the majority, religious messages still came primarily from visual images)

Question 28

When did the first edition of the Great Bible appear and what did it include ?

Answer 28

• appeared in 1539
• completed with a title page showing HVIII graciously ‘offering’ the word of God on the one hand to Cranmer and his bishops and on the other to Cromwell and other politicians

Question 29

What was the Act for the Advancement of True Religion of 1543 ?

Answer 29

• Henry had become fearful of allowing the wrong sorts of people to read the wrong parts of the Bible therefore the act restricted the reading of the Bible to upper-class males ➡️ whilst the word of God was all very well, the bonds of social control on which good order depended had to be maintained

Question 30

How do the changes in doctrine reflect Henry’s conflicting views ?

Answer 30

• no consistent pattern of doctrinal change, reflecting H’s inability to definitely make up his mind
  🔔 REMEMBER the Break with Rome was driven not by a religious transformation in Henry but by the necessity of securing a divorce in order to produce a male heir ➡️ H had previously always been a good son of the Catholic church (even earning himself the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ in 1521, when he defended the Roman Catholic faith against the teachings of Martin Luther)

Question 31

What changes to doctrine occurred during HVIII’s reign ?

Answer 31

❗️1536 Ten Articles:
- Lutheran: only three sacraments (baptism, penance and Eucharist) were seen as necessary to salvation but the definition of Eucharist was ambitious + praying to saints for remission of sins was rejected
- Catholic: confession was praised + praying to saints for purpose other than the remission of sins was deemed ‘laudable’
➡️ was an ambiguous document which showed both Lutheran and Catholic influences on the development of doctrine
❗️1537 Bishops’ Book: restored the four sacraments omitted from the Ten Articles, but were given lower status ➡️ was more conservative document than the Ten Articles
❗️1539 Six Articles Act: reasserted Catholic doctrine + denial of transubstantiation was deemed heretical ➡️ a triumph for the conservatives, which was founded on the assumption that religious controversy was undermining the good ordering of society (two reforming bishops resigned their posts) 🔔 Henry back tracking (radical shift in doctrine as still a good son of God)
❗️1543 King’s Book: revised the Bishop’s Book ➡️ the emphasis was largely conservative, but with some Lutheran hints

Question 32

What changes were there in religion and culture by 1547 ?

Answer 32

• the jurisdiction of the Pope had been destroyed ➡️ the King was a much more visible authority figure than the Pope (whose grip on the English Church had been remarkably loose much of time time)
• monasteries had been dissolved and many monastic buildings were falling into ruin
• there had been a massive transfer of resources from the Church to the Crown through the dissolution
• parish churches were required to possess Bibles in English (though may did not)
• religious culture had been influenced by Humanism ➡️ contributed to undermining of the traditional church and at the end of the reign humanisms looked posed to achieve even greater influence (however undoubted humanists of Catholic martyrs like More and Fisher show how diverse humanist influence had become)
• wider Renaissance culture had become firmly entrenched at court and in the circles of the wealthy/well educated + would retain its cultural prominence for the rest of the reign

Question 33

What continuity was there in religion and culture by 1547 ?

Answer 33

• hierarchy of the church remained largely intact
• the interior of the churches remained largely the same
• services continued to be held in Latin and music continued to play an important role in services
• the passing of the Six Articles Act in 1539 and the fall of Cromwell had seriously weakened the cause of reform
• there was no consistent pattern of doctrinal change ➡️ demonstrating both continuity and change