Henry VII - Religion, Humanism, Arts, and Learning

Question 1

What did all people belong to during the reign of Henry VII?

Answer 1

The Catholic Church under the jurisdiction of the Pope in Rome

Question 2

What was central to the lives of people?

Answer 2

Their own religious experience

Lives were lived and regulated according to the Church’s major ceremonies

Question 3

How many parish churches were there and what were they the focus of?

Answer 3

Over 8000

Religious experience

Question 4

What did the church provide?

Answer 4

Popular entertainment
Festivals
Guild and confraternities

Question 5

What did the church make easier?

Answer 5

Made it easier for the social and political elites to maintain social control through encouragement of good behaviour, obedience, and stress on the values of community

Question 6

What did the church provide employment wise?

Answer 6

Employment opportunities and for some the opportunity to advance through attainment of high office in Church and State

Question 7

What was the relationship between the church and the state?

Answer 7

Erastian - the view that the state should have authority over the church

Question 8

How was the church in England administered?

Answer 8

Through two provinces, Canterbury and York - each under the jurisdiction of an archbishop
17 dioceses - each under control of a bishop

Question 9

What two churchmen exercises the most power under Henry VII?

Answer 9

John Morton and Richard Fox

Question 10

What were the seven sacraments?

Answer 10

Baptism
Confirmation
Marriage
Anointing of the sick
Penance
Holy orders
Eucharist

Question 11

What was the central religious experience of the Catholic Church?

Answer 11

Mass, where the priest would perform Holy Communion (Eucharist)
Sacrifice performed by the priest on behalf of the community
Sacred ritual in which the whole community participated

Question 12

Where did a lot of investment in the church come from and where did this money go to?

Answer 12

Many lay people invested in their parish churches
Rebuilding, objects which accompanied services, foundation of chantries
Saw as a way of benefiting the religious experience for themselves and for their community

Question 13

What was a confraternity?

Answer 13

Groups of men who gathered together to provide collectively for the funeral costs of members, to pay chaplains for Masses for members, to help maintain church fabric, to make charitable donations, to socialise
Varied in size and wealth
Some ran schools and almshouses, maintained bridges etc

Question 14

Monastic orders

Answer 14

One per cent of adult males by c1500 were monks living in monasteries
Oldest and most common religious order was Benedictines

Question 15

Friars

Answer 15

Worked among lay people and largely supported by charitable donations
Three main orders: Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians
Recruited from lower down social scale than larger monasteries

Question 16

Nunneries

Answer 16

Much less prestige
Mostly populated by women who were deemed unsuitable for marriage
Most poor
Syon was an exception

Question 17

What was Lollardy?

Answer 17

Critical of beliefs and practices of church
Placed stress on understanding of the Bible and favoured it’s translation into English
Sceptical about transubstantiation and principles of the Eucharist
Considered Catholic Church corrupt

Question 18

What were Lollards views considered?

Answer 18

Heresy - denial of validity of the key doctrines of the Church

Question 19

What happened with Lollards in 1414?

Answer 19

Failed uprising then became fewer in number

Question 20

Who were the earliest humanist scholars of significant in England?

Answer 20

William Grocyn and Thomas Linacre

Question 21

What did Grocyn do?

Answer 21

Began to lecture at Oxford the ideas of Plato and Aristotle

Question 22

What did Linacre do?

Answer 22

Influenced by scientific thinking he acquired in Italy and took a medical degree at the University of Padua

Question 23

Who was an influential educator?

Answer 23

John Colet

Saw humanist scholarly approaches as a means of reforming the Church from within

Question 24

Who was Colets important ally?

Answer 24

Desiderius Erasmus
Dutch scholar
First visit to England in 1499
Epitomised the spirit of the new leaning
Friendship with Thomas More would give huge boost to humanist ideas in early years of Henry VIII

Question 25

Did humanism make a big impact of England?

Answer 25

Little impression
English intellectual life continues to be dominated by traditional medieval scholastic philosophy which humanists considered to be too formal and old fashioned

Question 26

What were developments in education?

Answer 26

Song schools and reading schools provided elementary education for the very young
Secondary education took place in grammar schools
Some had already been in existence but the number increased - 53 new grammar schools between 1460 and 1509
Access still depended on where you lived
Central was study of latin
1480s saw development of humanistic approach to teaching
University education stayed with Oxford and Cambridge

Question 27

What was drama like at the time?

Answer 27

Most important art form
Plays sometimes in association with Church ale festivals
Set out moral and religious messages

Question 28

What was music like at the time?

Answer 28

Enjoyed at various levels

Underwent beginnings of a renaissance

Question 29

What was art and architecture like at the time?

Answer 29

A lot of building and rebuilding of prism churches
Vast number of churches built in gothic perpendicular style
English culture still followed the gothic traditions of northwestern Europe
New industry of printing still limited
By 1509 humanist scholars became more fashionable