Maintenance 2 - Role of Church

Question 1

Why did the church have an important role in maintaining stability?

Answer 1

• It was a a central influence in peoples lives.
• Also centre of local communities - carrying out baptisms, marriages and burials - as well as being the focus for most social life (with everyone expected to attend Sunday services).

Question 2

How did the Church play an important role in supporting the crown in national life?

Answer 2

• Bishops were crown appointees, even before the Reformation.
• Bishops anointed monarchs with holy oil at the coronation.
• Clerics were used as advisors, for example William Warham and Richard Fox, who advised both Henry VII and VIII and Cuthbert Tunstall, Thomas Wolsey and Rowland Lee who advised Henry VIII. Henry VIII later appointed Lee to run the Council of Wales. However, their importance did decline under Elizabeth.
• The Church leaders supported the crown against rebels; even the pope threatened with excommunication any who fought Henry VII at Stoke, when Lambert Simnel had invaded, or Blackheath, when the Cornish rebels reach London.

Question 3

How did the link with Church and state strengthen after the Reformation?

Answer 3

• Church came under the Crown’s jurisdictional control.

- Bishops owed loyalty solely to the crown rather than the pope.

Question 4

How did the parish clergy play a role in local politics?

Answer 4

• Important as they had power to stabilise or destabilise the country.
• Attendance at Sunday service allowed priests to instruct and remind people of their duties and obligations, or to encourage resistance.
• Clergy were encouraged to inform bishops of any rumours of trouble.
• The parish clergy also became important in the administration of the Poor Law and helped to control other social problems.

Question 5

How did the Church reinforce obedience?

Answer 5

• By preaching.
• Sermons allowed government to keep country informed of their policies.
• In the 1530s, priests were given detailed instructions on the content of their sermons and instructed to preach at least 4 times per year on obedience.
• Under Edward VI, Thomas Cramner wrote a series of homilies, including one on obedience, which were read out during the unrest in 1549.
• In the 1590s, bishops reminded their congregations of the government efforts to tackle social and economic problems.

Question 6

How did the Church cause disobedience in the Tudor period?

Answer 6

• Theories of disobedience developed when some writers argued it was God, rather than the monarch, who should be obeyed.
• Clergymen such as John Fisher, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cramner all adopted passive resistance: Fisher refused to acknowledge Henry VIII as Head of the Church and Latimer, Ridley and Cramner refused to accept Mary’s restoration of papal authority.
• These theories developed further under Mary’s reign: writers, such as John Ponet in 1556, argued that rulers had to be just and if they acted against God, rebellion could be justified, provided it was led by a noble, JP or mayor.
• However, once protestant Mary came to the throne these ideas declined among Protestants, although some Catholics took them up, supported by papal sanction after 1570.
• Clergy also encouraged social justice, with men such as Latimer arguing that obedience must be matched by the proper exercise of duty by those in authority.