Religion, Humanism, Arts And Learning Flashcards
What was the religious structure of England under Henry VII, and how central was religion to the lives of ordinary people?
During the reign of Henry VII all English people belonged, at least theoretically, to the Catholic Church and were under the jurisdiction of the Pope in Rome.
However, what truly mattered to people was their own religious experience, which was central to the lives of most people living in the fifteenth century.
Lives were lived and regulated according to the Church’s major ceremonies. The parish church, of which there were over 8000, was the focus of religious experience.
How did the Church contribute to social life, entertainment, and community values in Henry VII’s reign?
The Church provided the focus of popular entertainment.
Its festivals, which were closely linked to the agricultural year, provided muchneeded enjoyment and its guilds and confraternities offered charity, good fellowship and the chance for ordinary people to contribute to the good of their local community.
How did the church make it easier for social and political elites to maintain control? What els did the church provide ?
The Church made it easier for the social and political elites to maintain social control through its encouragement of good behaviour, obedience and stress on the values of community.
It also provided employment opportunities and, for a few like Cardinal Wolsey, the opportunity to advance themselves socially through the attainment of high office in Church and State.
What was the political role of the Church under Henry VII, and how did the Pope influence or interact with English affairs?
• The Church had significant political influence, both internationally and domestically.
• The Pope, while spiritually powerful and head of a state in northern Italy, rarely interfered directly in English Church affairs.
• Henry VII sought a dispensation from the Pope (through Thomas Morton) to marry Elizabeth of York, showing the Pope’s role in dynastic matters.
• The Church–State relationship was Erastian — the king had authority over the Church.
• Popes were generally compliant, granting favours and allowing Henry to use Church wealth to reward churchmen he appointed to high political office.
How was the Church structured in England, and what role did senior clergy play under Henry VII?
- The Church in England was administered through two provinces, Canterbury and York, each under the jurisdiction of an archbishop, and seventeen dioceses, each under the control of a bishop.
- Some of these dioceses, such as Winchester and Durham, enjoyed considerable wealth, and it was common in the late fifteenth century for senior churchmen to enjoy positions of significant influence and power within the kingdom. - It was common for senior clergy to participate at a high level in the political process.
- During much of the medieval period it was normal for the most senior figures within the Church in England to be drawn from the senior ranks of the aristocracy.
- Margaret Beaufort’s great uncle, for example, had been a cardinal and Bishop of Winchester.
- The two churchmen who exercised most power under Henry VII were John Morton and Richard Fox.
What role did clergymen play in English state offices, and how were they expected to perform their duties under Henry VII?
• Some State offices, especially that of the chancellor (the king’s highest adviser), were monopolised by clergymen.
• Senior clergymen were often highly competent and conscientious professionals, frequently with legal training, and performed their duties to both Church and State effectively.
• Abbots, the heads of the wealthiest religious houses, shared membership of the House of Lords with bishops.
• They needed management and administrative skills to run their organisations and spirituality to maintain the reputation of their houses.
• Not all heads of houses met these expectations, leading to criticisms of the monastic life.
What role did the parish church play in late-medieval religious life?
• The parish church was central to religious experience; historian Eamon Duffy described this period as “emphatically the age of the parish church and of those who worshipped there.”
• The Church provided the outward structures of community life—late-medieval society was fundamentally religious, believing in the power of collective prayer over individual prayer.
• It also served as a framework for controlling thought and behaviour, spreading Christian teaching and offering the means of acquiring grace to minimise time in purgatory and reach heaven.
• The Church offered seven sacraments, each marking key spiritual or social moments in life.
What were the seven sacraments of the Church, and what was their significance?
- Baptism – Welcomed infants into the Christian community.
- Confirmation – Marked the transition from childhood to adulthood.
- Marriage – United individuals before the community and God.
- Anointing of the Sick – Prepared the dying for passage to the afterlife.
- Penance – Allowed individuals to confess sins and seek forgiveness.
- Holy Orders – Empowered priests to perform sacred duties and deliver sacraments.
- Eucharist – Brought believers closer to God through receiving Christ’s body and blood in the form of bread and wine.
What was the central religious experience of the Catholic Church and what did it involve?
• The central religious experience of the Catholic Church was the Mass, during which the priest performed the sacrament of Holy Communion, also called the Eucharist (‘thanksgiving’).
• The climax of the Mass was the consecration of the bread and wine, when the priest declared them sacred.
• Catholics believed in transubstantiation—that the bread and wine were literally transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
• The priest consumed both bread and wine; lay members received bread only.
Why was the Mass important to a fifteenth-century Catholic community?
The Mass served two vital functions:
1. It was a sacrifice offered by the priest on behalf of the community.
2. It was a communal sacred ritual that involved the entire congregation.
• The consecrated bread held special significance, celebrated during the feast of Corpus Christi, one of the most important festivals in the fifteenth-century Church.
How did lay people contribute to the communal aspects of late-medieval religion?
• Lay people actively invested in their parish churches, reflecting the communal nature of religious life.
• They funded the lavish rebuilding of many churches and paid for religious objects used during services.
• This financial and material support demonstrated both personal devotion and communal participation in the religious life of the parish.
Why did the dying often leave money to their parish church in late-medieval England?
• The dying frequently left money to the parish church for three key reasons:
- To enhance the beauty of worship through the improvement of church services and surroundings.
- To ensure the remembrance of the benefactor within the community.
- To help reduce the benefactor’s time in purgatory, supporting the belief that charitable giving aided the soul’s passage to heaven.
What were chantries, and why were they significant to benefactors and their communities?
• Chantries (chapels where Masses for the souls of the dead took place) were foundations funded by benefactors, usually through property left in wills, to pay for priests to say masses for the souls of the dead, particularly the soul of the benefactor.
• According to Eamon Duffy, “the central function of a chantry priest was intercession for the soul of his patron.”
intercession: the action of saying a prayer on behalf of another; in traditional Catholic thinking it was the role of the priest to intervene with God on behalf of an individual
• Benefactors (a person who makes a charitable donation) saw these donations as a means of enhancing both their own religious experience and that of their community, ensuring remembrance and aiding their soul’s journey to heaven.
• This helps explain the widespread distress caused by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the chantries, as it disrupted deeply personal and communal spiritual practices.
What was a confraternity and what roles did it play in late-medieval religious life?
A confraternity (also called a religious guild or lay brotherhood) was a group of men (sometimes women) associated with a parish church, formed to:
• Pay for funeral costs of members
• Hire chaplains to say Masses for their souls
• Maintain the fabric of the church
• Offer charity and social support
• They reflect the deeply communal and practical nature of religious expression in this period.
How widespread and influential were confraternities in England under Henry VII?
• Confraternities were hugely popular; for example, the small rural parish of Salle in Norfolk had seven.
• Their size and wealth varied, with some becoming sources of local patronage and power.
• Wealthier guilds funded schools, almshouses, infrastructure (bridges, highways, sea walls), and major church building projects, like the spire at Louth.
How did parishes raise funds for religious and community purposes, and what role did church-ales play?
• Many southern and south Midland parishes held church-ale festivals, involving drinking and entertainment.
• Ale was made and donated for the event, serving as the chief drink.
• These events were key for fundraising and building community bonds in support of the parish church.
How did pilgrimage reflect the social role of religion in late-medieval England?
• Pilgrimage was a way for individuals to gain relief from purgatory and demonstrate religious devotion.
• Popular destinations included:
1. Tomb of Thomas Becket at Canterbury
2. Shrines such as Walsingham in Norfolk, linked to Marian apparitions
• While some writers like Thomas à Kempis were critical and Canterbury’s popularity was declining, the large number of local sites made pilgrimage easily accessible.
• According to Eamon Duffy, pilgrimage remained an “exuberant” practice.
What was Rogation Sunday and what did it reveal about community and religion?
• Rogation Sunday involved a community ritual where people would “beat the bounds” of the parish, walking the boundaries while praying for protection.
• Participants carried banners and the parish cross to ward off evil spirits.
• This tradition reinforced the importance of the parish as a central unit of both religious and community life in late-medieval England.
How did individual religious experience develop in late fifteenth-century England, and who exemplified this trend?
• While religion was largely communal, individual religious experience grew in importance during the late fifteenth century.
• This was reflected in the writings of mystics, who emphasised personal communication with God.
• A key example was Lady Margaret Beaufort, Henry VII’s mother, whose deep personal piety was demonstrated through widespread religious donations, particularly to Cambridge University.
Religious order: What were the main monastic orders in England by c1500, and what role did they play?
• By c1500, around one per cent of adult males in England were monks, living in monasteries across the country.
• Benedictines were the oldest and most common order, following the monastic rule devised by St Benedict. Many Benedictine houses, such as Durham, also served as cathedrals for their dioceses, fulfilling a key community role.
• Other orders included the Cistercians and Carthusians, founded in the late eleventh century due to a perceived lack of zeal among Benedictines. Their monasteries were often located in more remote, rural areas, such as Fountains and Mount Grace in Yorkshire.
• While monastic recruits came from various social backgrounds, wealthier individuals made up a
significant portion of monks in larger houses. Many monasteries also recruited locally.
Religious order: Who were the friars in late medieval England, and what role did they play by the late fifteenth century?
Friars were members of religious orders who worked among lay people and were largely supported by charitable donations.
They originated in the thirteenth century, with the three main orders being:
1. Dominicans (black friars) – a preaching order
2. Franciscans (grey friars)
3. Augustinians
Friars typically recruited from lower social ranks than the larger monasteries.
By the late fifteenth century, their influence had declined, though they still received significant bequests in wills, as noted by historian Christopher Harper-Bill.
Religious order: What was the status and condition of nunneries in late-medieval England under Henry VII?
• Nunneries generally enjoyed much less prestige than male monastic houses, largely because they were mostly populated by women considered unsuitable for marriage.
• A major exception was the Bridgettine foundation at Syon, near Isleworth in Middlesex, which was both wealthy and respected.
• Most nunneries were relatively poor, and the quality of novices was often inadequate, as many women entered convents as a last resort rather than a genuine religious calling.
