religion, humanism, arts and learning

Question 1

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

Answer 1

The Catholic Church and were under jurisdiction of the Pope in Rome.

Question 2

What was central to the lives of most people in the 15th century?

Answer 2

Their own religious experiences.

Question 3

How many Parish churches were there?

Answer 3

Over 8000.

Question 4

What were the Church festivals closely linked to and what did they provide?

Answer 4

The agricultural year.
Provided much-needed enjoyment and entertainment.

Question 5

What did the Church’s guilds and confraternities offer?

Answer 5

Charity, good fellowship and the chance for ordinary people to contribute to the good of their local community.

Question 6

How did the Church make it easier for social and political elites to maintain social control?

Answer 6

Through its encouragement of good behaviour, obedience and stress on the values of community.

Question 7

What opportunities did the Church provide?

Answer 7

Employment opportunities, and for a few, the opportunity to advance themselves socially through the attainment of high office in Church and State.

Question 8

How was the political role of the Church significant?

Answer 8

In terms of both international relations and in domestic matters; the highest role of the Church was held by the Pope in Rome, who wielded substantial spiritual power and was the head of a state in northern Italy.

Question 9

Why did Henry seek a dispensation to marry Elizabeth of York?

Answer 9

Due to Henry’s own carefulness. The Pope had immense influence and he couldn’t risk doing something that upset him.

Question 10

What was the relationship between the Church and the State like?

Answer 10

It was Erastian, meaning it had the view that the State should have authority over the Church.
The King was in control and popes were eager to grant the favours demanded by the King.

Question 11

What two provinces was the Church in England administered through?

Answer 11

Canterbury and York.

Question 12

Who’s jurisdiction were the provinces under?

Answer 12

Under the control of an archbishop.

Question 13

How many diocese were there and who were they under the control of?

Answer 13

17, each of which were under the control of a bishop.

Question 14

What was common for late 15th century senior churchmen to have?

Answer 14

Positions of significant influence and power within the kingdom.

Question 15

Where were most senior figures of the Church in England drawn from?

Answer 15

The senior racks of the aristocracy - it was common for senior clergy to participate at a high level in the political process.

Question 16

Which two churchmen exercised most power during Henry VII’s reign?

Answer 16

John Morton and Richard Fox.

Question 17

What was the role of the chancellor?

Answer 17

The highest adviser to the king.

Question 18

What were most senior clergymen like?

Answer 18

Highly competent and conscientious professionals, most of which had legal training who performed their duties to both Church and State.

Question 19

Who were the abbots?

Answer 19

The heads of the wealthiest religious houses.

Question 20

What did the abbots share with the bishops?

Answer 20

Membership of the House of Lords.

Question 21

What skills did abbots have to possess and demonstrate?

Answer 21

A range of management and administrative skills to keep their complex organisations running effectively.
They had to demonstrate the spirituality necessary to maintain the reputation of their houses.

Question 22

What did the religious late-medieval community believe about prayers?

Answer 22

That praying together was more powerful than praying alone.

Question 23

What was the Church’s function?

Answer 23

To spread and uphold Christian teaching, and offer ways by which individuals could acquire grace in order to reach heaven, and minimise the time spent in purgatory.

Question 24

What were the 7 sacraments?

Answer 24

• Baptism, which welcomed the newly born infant into the community
• Confirmation, which marked the transition from childhood to adulthood
• Marriage, in which the community could witness two individuals pledging themselves to each other
• Anointing the sick, which prepared the dying for their passage to the next world
• Penance, during which the individual sought God’s forgiveness for the sins which they had committed
• Holy Orders, the process by which the priest himself became empowered to deliver the sacraments (rituals) to others
• Eucharist, in which church members received Christ’s body and blood in the form of bread and wine to be nourished physically and spiritually and brought closer to God

Question 25

Why did people have to observe as many of the 7 sacraments as possible?

Answer 25

In order to reach heaven.

Question 26

What happened during the Mass and what was the main event of it?

Answer 26

The priest would perform the sacrament of Holy Communion, also known as the Eucharist.
The peak of this ceremony was the point where the priest consecrated the bread and the wine (declaring it to be sacred).

Question 27

What did Catholics believe happened at the point of consecration?

Answer 27

That the bread and the wine were transformed figuratively and literally into the body and blood of Christ.

Question 28

Why was The Mass so important?

Answer 28

• It was a sacrifice performed by the priest on behalf of the community
• It was a sacred ritual in which the whole community participated

Question 29

What was one of the most important festivals of the fifteenth century and why?

Answer 29

Corpus Christi, it was where the importances of consecration was emphasised the most.

Question 30

What was the purpose of the money that the dying left to the church?

Answer 30

• To enhance the beauty of worship
• To ensure the memory of the benefactor
• To reduce the time that the benefactor spent in purgatory

Question 31

How were chantries usually financed?

Answer 31

Through property bequeathed in someone’s will for that purpose

Benefactors would often leave money for the foundation of chantries

Question 32

What was the confraternity?

Answer 32

Groups of men and sometimes women who gathered together, usually in association with the church to:
- provide for funeral costs of members
- pay chaplains for Masses
- help maintain church fabric
- make charitable donations
- to socialise

Question 33

What did some guilds run?

Answer 33

Schools and almhouses, as well as maintaining bridges, highways and sea walls.

Question 34

What could a pilgrimage involve?

Answer 34

• visiting the tomb of a saint, such as Thomas Becket of Canterbury
• visiting a shrine built where there had been a reported visitation of the Virgin Mary

Question 35

What was the oldest and most common religious order?

Answer 35

The Benedictines, named after founder St Benedict.

Question 36

What were Benedictine houses like?

Answer 36

Many were large, those that were would operate as the cathedral churches of their diocese

Question 37

What were some other religious orders and what were their monasteries like?

Answer 37

The Cistercians and Carthusians.
Their monasteries were frequently situated in more rural areas.

Question 38

Who were the three main orders of friars?

Answer 38

• The Dominicans (black friars)
• The Franciscans (grey friars)
• The Augustinians

Question 39

Where did the orders of friars recruit their members from?

Answer 39

Lower down the social scale in comparison to the larger monasteries.

Question 40

Why did Nunneries enjoy much less prestige than friars and monasteries?

Answer 40

As they were mostly populated by women who were deemed unsuitable for marriage

Question 41

When did Lollardy emerge in England?

Answer 41

In the second half of the fourteenth century.

Question 42

What did Lollards do?

Answer 42

They placed stress on the understanding of the Bible and therefore favoured its translation into English.

Question 43

What were Lollards sceptical of?

Answer 43

Transubstantiation and the principles of the Eucharist, considering the Catholic Church to be corrupt.

Question 44

What were Lollards views considered as?

Answer 44

Heresy.

Question 45

What were Humanists believers in?

Answer 45

The Catholic faith, particularly the notion of free will.

Question 46

How many new grammar schools were founded between 1460 and 1509?

Answer 46

53.

Question 47

What was central to the grammar school curriculum?

Answer 47

The study of Latin.

Question 48

How was there a ‘renaissance’ in music?

Answer 48

Single line chants gave way to more polyphonic melodies.

Question 49

What was the most important surviving source for music?

Answer 49

The Eton Choirbook, a collection of 93 separate musical compositions.

Question 50

What type of songs did Browne and Fayrfax compose?

Answer 50

Secular music.

Question 51

What style were the parish churches rebuilt in and what did this show?

Answer 51

Gothic perpendicular style.
It showed the indication of the scale of investment which took place.