Henry VII Religion

Question 1

Function of church and churchmen

Answer 1

• maintained social control - catered for people’s spiritual needs
• provided employment and social advancement
• played an important political role
• 17 dioceses, each under control of a bishop
• senior churchmen held great political power and influence

Question 2

Religious community, belief and services

Answer 2

• essential part of daily life
• baptism, marriage and death
• threat of hell and purgatory influenced people’s behaviour
• reinforced allegiance to monarch
• encouraged seven sacraments, eucharist and pilgrimage

Question 3

Church’s social role

Answer 3

• donated towards rebuilding parish churches and paid for church objects
• left money to parish churches in their wills
• left money for foundation of chantries
• gathered in confraternity to provide for Masses or funerals
• beating the bounds, where they walked around parish boundaries praying for its protection
• individual religious experiences became increasingly important

Question 4

Monastic orders

Answer 4

• 1% of adult males were monks
• Benedictine Order had large houses; some operated cathedrals and members were more wealthy
• Cistercian and Carthusian monasteries in more rural areas

Question 5

Friars

Answer 5

• three main orders; dominicans, franciscans, and augustinians
• worked among lay people and supported by charitable donations
• recruited from lower down social scale than the larger monasteries
• declining in importance late 15th C

Question 6

Nunneries

Answer 6

• less prestige than monasteries
• relatively poor

Question 7

Lollards, heresy and anticlericalism

Answer 7

• small minority were lollards, which had emerged in late 14th C
• followed teachings of wycliffe
• emphasised importance of understanding bible and wanted it to be in english
• sceptical about transubstantiation and eucharist
• viewed catholic church as corrupt
• by late 15th C, lollardy in decline
• anticlericalism not widespread,few heretics had died being burnt (introduced 1401)

Question 8

Humanism

Answer 8

• developed 14-15th C
• retranslated latin and greek texts
• impact restricted to educated nobility and gentry
• influenced by dutch scholar Erasmus who came to England 1499
• Erasmus criticised church abuses
• sought to regenerate Christianity through education and rejection of traditional ceremonies
• Associated with Colet and More (boosted humanism)
• more grammar schools and universities e.g.by Lady Margaret Beaufort

Question 9

Printing press

Answer 9

• Caxton 1476
• printed everything, including Erasmus
• texts more available and literacy increased
• allowed new ideas to circulate
• 1509 humanism more influential

Question 10

Arts

Answer 10

• Drama popular with church festivals
• Troupes of players toured country
• towns and cities performed mystery plays at Corpus Christi
• Music ranged from local wind groups to choral performances
• composers benefitted from patronage of nobles and king
• building of parish churches occurred e.g. Lavenham
• 1502 Lady Chapel in Westminster built in gothic perpendicular style