Essay - role of the Church

Question 1

Question

Answer 1

‘The Church’s main role in the early sixteenth century was religious.’ Assess the validity of this view.

Question 2

Factors

Answer 2

• Religious role
• Social role
• Political role

Question 3

Judgement

Answer 3

The main role of the Church was political

Question 4

Church’s main role being religious

Answer 4

→ 7 sacraments continually connecting people to God throughout their life – Baptism – last rites.
→ Religious guilds – pray for people once they are dead.
→ Mass is held every day – people are always in the Church.
→ None of the population is literate so they have to rely of the clergy to get religious messages.

Question 5

Limitations of the Church’s main role being religious

Answer 5

The religious elements of the Church was undermined by the emergence of new religious ideas e.g. the Lollards, Lutherans, Humanists.

Question 6

Church’s main role being social

Answer 6

→ Religious festivals (Corpus Christi Day, Advent, Christmastide), continually connecting people together in villages.
→ Church used as a market place.
→ Church used to shelter animals when there was poor weather.
→ Proximity of the church – there was a church everywhere in England - 9,500 parishes.

Question 7

Limitations of the Church’s main role being social

Answer 7

Abuses of the Church - absenteeism, pluralism, nepotism, mortuary fees.

Question 8

Church’s main role being political

Answer 8

→ Used to control people – use of excommunication/Hell/Purgatory as a threat.
→ The Case of Richard Hune – used him to demonstrate what happens when you challenge the Church.
→ Figures such as Wolsey having the role of Chancellor and Archbishop of York – intertwining religion and politics giving the Church more of a role politically in England.