Wolsey and the Church

Question 1

Why was the Church so wealthy in early modern England?

Answer 1

Indulgences - paying for Masses to be said for you

Question 2

What was the religious doctrine?

Answer 2

Original sin

Purgatory

Church in Latin

Criticism of the church = heresy

Question 3

What are the seven sacraments?

Answer 3

Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, Last Rites, Penance, Mass

Question 4

What did Henry write and what title did he receive for it?

Answer 4

Assertio Septum Sacrementorium

Fidei Defensor

Question 5

What was the Hunne Affair?

Answer 5

Accused Church of praemunire, the crime of enforcing foreign law in England - direct challenge to the Church. Hunne died in custody while awaiting trial for heresy, causing uproar.

Question 6

What criticisms of the clergy was Wolsey guilty of?

Answer 6

Ecclesiastical extravagance

Pluralism (bishop of Bath, Wells, Lincoln and Durham)

Absenteeism (only visited his archbishopric of York after he fell from power)

Question 7

Attempt at reform in 1518?

Answer 7

‘York Convocation’ - did not actually change anything about quality of clergy

Question 8

Attempt at monastic reform?

Answer 8

Began visitations and started reporting that some abbots and monks were not observing a monastic lifestyle.

Personal gain involved? - dissolved 30 religious houses to pay for ‘Cardinal College, Oxford’

Question 9

Criticisms of the Church pre-1529?

Answer 9

Corruption was common (e.g. pluralism, simony etc…)

Anticlericalism - instances of clerical misconduct (e.g. 1514 Hunne affair) fuelled this

1529 attack on the clergy with Simon Fish’s ‘Supplication of the Beggars’