Religion, Humanism, Arts and Learning

Question 1

What were the four key roles of the catholic church?

Answer 1

Means of maintaining social control
Catered for the population’s spiritual needs
Provided opportunities for employment and social advancement
Played an important political role (in both domestic and international affairs)

Question 2

How as the church administered in England?

Answer 2

Through two provinces (Canterbury and York) each undet the jurisdiction of an Archbishops- there were also 17 dioceses each under a bishop (some dioceses enjoyed considerable wealth e.g. Durham )
The pope was not expected to interfere in the running of the church so senior churchmen enjoyed positions of great political power and influence

Question 3

How significant was religious to everyday life?

Answer 3

Essential - the parish and church was central to personal religious experience and community life
Lives were governed religious festivals, and the ritual baptisms, marriage and death

Question 4

What religious belief had a major influence on behaviour?

Answer 4

The threat of hell and purgatory (the limbo state when a soul had to be cleansed of sins before entering heaven)

Question 5

What did the church do?

Answer 5

Provide a framework for controlling thinking and behaviour - reinforced allegiance to authority - particularly the monarch.
It spread and upheld Catholic Christian teachings
It offered a way by which a person could acquire Grace in order to reach heaven and minimise the time a soul would spend in purgatory

Question 6

What was the central religious experience known as mass?

Answer 6

The priests would perform the sacrament of Holy Communion (Eucharist). Catholics believed that at the time the priest consecrated the bread and wine they were transformed literally into the body and blood of Christ (known as transubstantiation)
The priests consumed both the bread and wine, lay members of the congregation, took the bread only

Question 7

What were some of the roles of lay people?

Answer 7

Donate towards rebuilding parish church buildings
Leave money to the parish church in their wills
Leave money for the foundation of chantries
Gather together in a confraternity to provide collectively for masses or funeral cost of members
Paid for the objects which accompanied services

Question 8

What were the main religious orders?

Answer 8

Monastic orders
Friars
Nunneries

Question 9

What were monastic orders?

Answer 9

Around 1% of male adults were monks living in 900 monasteries
The Benedictine order often had large houses - some operated cathedrals=important to community and their members came from wealthier parts of society
Cistercian and Carthusian monasteries were frequently situated in more remote/rural areas

Question 10

What were Friars?

Answer 10

There were three main orders (Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians)
They worked among lay people and were largely supported by charitable donations
They were recruited from lower down the social scale than the large monasteries
They were declining in importance by the late 15th century

Question 11

What were nunneries?

Answer 11

They usually enjoyed less prestige than the monasteries (they were often populated by women considered unsuitable for marriage)
They were often relatively poor (Syon in Middlesex was an exception to all of these)

Question 12

In what way was a small minority critical of the practices and beliefs of the church?

Answer 12

Lollardy (first emerged in the late 14th century) following the teachings of John Wycliffe continued in pockets around Britain
Lollardy emphasised the importance of understanding the bible and wanted it to be translated into English
They were sceptical about transubstantiation and viewed the Catholic Church as corrupt + denied the idea of the special status of the priesthood

Question 13

When had the burning of heretics been introduced into the English law and what happened to Lollard movement?

What was criticism of church like?

Answer 13

1401 but very few had died this way and by the late 15th century Lollardy was in decline and other forms of Heresy were rare - became fewer in number and became geographically restricted + lost intellectual coherence
Criticism of the church did exist but anti-clericalism was not widespread (and often politically motivated) - priests retained the support of most members of the laity (not priests or members of religious order)

Question 14

What was humanism?

Answer 14

A development of the 14th and 15th century Renaissance
An intellectual movement which affected religious teachings, politics and economics
Believers in the Catholic faith

Question 15

What was humanism concerned with?

Answer 15

Establishing the reliability of Latin and Greek translations by going back to the original texts

Question 16

Who was the impact of humanism largely restricted to?

Answer 16

The educated nobles and gentry so it only made a limited impact on England in Henry VII’s reign
Humanism and renaissance had made little impact on England and intellectual life remained dominated by traditional medieval scholastic philosophy which humanists considered old fashioned and too formal

Question 17

What was English humanism influenced by?

Answer 17

The visit of the Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus in 1499

Question 18

What did Erasmus do?

Answer 18

Criticised Church abuses and sought to regenerate Christianity through emphasis on education and rejection of some of the church’s traditional ceremonies
He associated with English humanists such as Colet and More - which would give a huge boost to humanist ideas in early years of Henry VII

Question 19

Who was William Grocyn?

Answer 19

Had discovered humanism in Florence and lectured on Plato and Aristotle in Oxford

Question 20

Who was Thomas Linacre?

Answer 20

Had also discovered humanism in Florence
Influenced by scientific thinking and took medical degree in Padua
Particularly influenced by the scientific thinking he acquired in Italy

Question 21

Who was Thomas More?

Answer 21

Distinguished lawyer and humanist scholar

His friendship with Erasmus boosted humanist ideas under Henry VIII

Question 22

Who was John Colet?

Answer 22

Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral
Refounded St Paul’s school in 1512
Saw humanist scholarly approaches as a way to reform the church from within

Question 23

What did humanists patronising education lead to?

Answer 23

Increased educational opportunities with the spread of grammar schools for the wealthy and the founding of new university colleges at Cambridge e.g.. by Lady Margaret Beaufort

Question 24

What were the impacts of William Caxton bringing printing to England in 1476?

Answer 24

More texts became available, the language became more standardised, literacy increasing
Henry also used the press for propaganda purposes
Although initially there was no direct connection between printing and humanism - printing allowed new ideas (e.g. the ideas of Erasmus) to be more widely circulated so by 1509 the works of humanist scholar has become more popular

Question 25

Was drama popular?

Answer 25

It was popular with church-ale festivals and troupes of players toured the country
The guilds of certain towns and cities performed mystery plays at the feasts of Corpus Christi setting out simple moral and religious messages
Performances were important festive occasions in which churches, corporations and guilds combined in public celebrations which gave simple messages

Question 26

What was music like?

Answer 26

Enjoyed at various levels
It ranged from local wind groups that entertained the crowns on saints’ days to the great choral performances in the cathedrals
Underwent the beginnings of a ‘renaissance’
Composers benefited from the patronage of important nobles and even the king

Question 27

What did a lot of building and rebuilding of take place at this time?

Answer 27

Parish churches - these included major wool churches of East Anglia, such as Lavenham, these were built in the Gothic Perpendicular style which Henry approved in 1502 for the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey

Question 28

What is the most important source of music?

Answer 28

Eton Choirbook compiled around 1505, a collection of 93 separate musical compositions
The two most important composers in the Choirbook each had very close links with the political establishment of Henry’s VII reign - Thomas Browne employed in the household of the Earl of Oxford and Robert Fayrfax benefitted regularly from the patronage of Margaret Beaufort as well as the king

Question 29

What was the new industry of printing concerned with and how did this change ?

Answer 29

Traditional medieval culture
William Caxton who established the printing press in 1478 printed works such as Chaucer’s Canterbury tales and other traditional medieval works, including chivalric romances
Tastes began to change by 1509, humanist influences had reached England so people like Erasmus, and Englishmen like Thomas More and John Colet became more fashionable and the works o Caxton became unfashionable

Question 30

Where was music performed?

Answer 30

At court or in the homes of the wealthy
Browne and Fayrfax also composed secular songs used for entertainment
Carols (not only associated with Christmas) were popular

Question 31

Were there changes in education?

Answer 31

Period of widening educational opportunity
‘Song schools’ and ‘reading schools’ provided education for the very young
53 new grammar schools founded 1460-1509 but majority access to education depended on where you lived

Question 32

What was central to the grammar school curriculum and what changed?

Answer 32

Study of Latin - most schools continued to teach it in a traditional way but the 1480’s saw the beginnings of a humanistic approach, particularly at Magdalen college school at Oxford
Teaching of English remained a by-product of the teaching of Latin

Question 33

Where did university education take place and what changed?

Answer 33

Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
Oxford had experienced substantial expansion with the foundations of new colleges in the first half of the 15th century - but this came to a halt
Cambridge had several new colleges during this period benefitting from generosity from Margaret Beaufort, who founded Christ’s college and St John’s college

Question 34

Define Renaissance?

Answer 34

A cultural and intellectual movement which, beginning in Italy, emphasised a revival of interest in classical learning and the arts

Question 35

What did all English people belong to (at least theoretically) during the reign of Henry VII?

Answer 35

The Catholic Church and were under the jurisdiction of the pope and although prayers in mass were always said for the pope, what mattered to ordinary people was their religious experience

Question 36

In what ways were lives lived/regulated in accordance to the church and its ceremonies?

Answer 36

Parish churches (of which there were 8000) was the focus of religious experience 
It provided the focus of popular entertainment 
It's guilds and confraternities offered charity, good fellowship and the chance for ordinary people to contribute to the local community

Question 37

What did the church make it easier for?

Answer 37

The social and political elite to maintain social control through it’s encouragement of good behaviour, obedience and community values
Also provided employment opportunities e.g. Cardinal Wolsey with opportunity to advance through church and state

Question 38

What was the relation between Henry and the papacy like?

Answer 38

Successive popes at this time did little to interfere directly with the running of the Church in England, the relationship between Church and State was Erastian (the view the state should have authority over the church)
The King was firmly in control and popes were often eager to grant favours demanded by the king
The papacy had no objection to the way in which Henry used the wealth of the church to reward churchmen to whom he had given high political office

Question 39

How powerful was the pope?

Answer 39

The Pope was extremely powerful (both spiritual and as he was head of a substantial state in Italy)
Typical of Henry’s carefulness and the pope’s influence that he sought, through Thomas Morton, a dispensation to marry Elizabeth

Question 40

What was it common in the late 15th century for senior churchmen to enjoy?

Answer 40

Positions of significant influence/ power
Common for senior clergy to participate at a high level in the political progress. Normal for senior churchmen to be drawn from senior aristocracy
Two churchmen who exercised most power under Henry = John Morton and Richard Fox

Question 41

What happened to some offices of state (especially that of chancellor - highest adviser of the King)?

Answer 41

Were monopolised by clergymen

Question 42

Were senior clergymen effective?

Answer 42

On the whole they were highly competent, conscientious professionals, often with legal training, who performed their duties to both Church and State effectively

Question 43

Who were Abbots and what did they share / have to possess?

Answer 43

Heads of the wealthiest religious houses, they shared membership of the HoL with the bishops
Had to possess management and administrative skills to keep their complex organisations running effectively, as well as demonstrating the spirituality necessary to maintain the reputation of their houses but not all heads of house lived up to these demands, criticisms of monastic houses were increasing

Question 44

In order to reach heaven which seven sacraments was it necessary to observe as many as, as possible?

Answer 44

Baptism
Confirmation
Marriage
Anointing of the sick (prepared dying for their passage into next world)
Penance (sought God’s forgiveness for sins)
Holy orders (Priest himself delivers sacraments to others)
Eucharist (bread and wine)

Question 45

For what two reasons was mass important?

Answer 45

It was a sacrifice performed by the priests on behalf of the community
It was a sacred ritual in which the whole community participated
Importance of the consecrated bread was emphasised at the feast of Corpus Christi (a feast of the catholic church, celebrating the blessed sacrament)

Question 46

Why did dying lay people often leave money to Parish churches?

Answer 46

To enhance the beauty of worship
To ensure the remembrance of the benefactor
To reduce the time the benefactor would spend in purgatory
Benefactors saw their donations as a way of benefitting the religious experience of themselves and their community (important for understanding uproar at dissolution of monasteries under Henry VIII

Question 47

What is a chantry?

Answer 47

Chapels where Masses for the souls of the dead took place

Question 48

What was another significant expression of communal religious influences and what did they do ?

Answer 48

The confraternity (also known as a religious guild or brotherhood) - these were groups of men who gathered together, usually in association with the parish church to provide collectively for the funeral costs of members, to pay chaplains for Masses for their members, to help maintain church fabric, to make charitable donations and to socialise 
Varied in size and wealth

Question 49

Were guilds popular and why?

Answer 49

Extremely popular - wealthier guilds could be sources of local patronage and power.
Some of them ran schools and almshouses (for the poor), maintained bridges, highways and seawalls or paid for expensive projects e.g. in Lincolnshire, building of the spire at the Parish church

Question 50

How did many Parishes in the south and midlands raise money?

Answer 50

Through church-ale festivals

Question 51

How else was religions social role evident?

Answer 51

Going on a pilgrimage to gain relief from purgatory - pilgrimages could involve visiting the tomb of a saint e.g. Thomas Becket (evidence to suggest it was losing its popularity + criticisms of pilgrimages)
Simpler form of pilgrimage happened on Rogation Sunday, when the whole community would walk around the parish boundaries to pray for its protection, carrying banners and the parish cross to ward off evil spirits - this event emphasised the importance of the parish to the ordinary people
Pilgrimage = journey to place of religious devotion

Question 52

What to do with religion should not be underestimated and who demonstrated it?

Answer 52

The importance of individual religious experience - it became more important as 15th century progressed and was emphasised in the writings of mystics who believed in the personal communication of an individual with God - this reflect shown by Henry’s mother whose piety was reflected in her widespread donations (particularly to Cambridge)

Question 53

Despite monastic recruits coming from a wide range of social background what is evident?

Answer 53

That a large proportion of monks in the larger houses were drawn from the wealthier parts of society
Many monasteries also recruited predominantly from their own localities

Question 54

Despite Lollard views being considered heresy what happened?

Answer 54

They persisted in parts of southern England (particularly Buckinghamshire)
Although the movement appeared widespread late 14th/early 15th, its popularity declined after a failed Lollard uprising of 1414