CH 6. RELIGION
THE CHURCH - Functions and Churchmen
Under VII, all people theoretically belonged to Catholic Church in jurisdiction of Rome
PARISH CHURCH - centre of community for worship (focus of religious experience), but also charity and fellowship
Many festivals tied to agricultural calender, guilds and confraternities (orgindary people giving money to the Church in return for prayers for their soul) offered charity, fellowship - Church = working for good of community! 😃
Instrument of social control! Encourages obedience and stresses importance of community = allows political elites to remain in control!
Politically significant - IR: rich, powerful, indy org loyal to Pope in Rome - VII did little to challenge independence of the Church
BUT 'erastian' state under VII, king in control! eg. VII chose bishops (BUT were officially appointed by the Pope), and made us of them in government (eg. Fox, Morton) - no different to previous reigns!
England had 2 provinences (C and Y), and 17 dioceses - some, eg. Winchester/Durham, very wealthy! - clergy have significant influence, generally highly competent professionals
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY/BELIEFS
Duffy: "Tudor period was age of the parish Church"
Church gives structue for community - medieval society was communal, focus was parish church! Believed collective prayers were more effective than individual
FUNCTIONS: Spreading/upholding Christian teachings, AND pffers ways by whych one can acquire 'grace' (pure state of soul needed to enter heaven) to avoid purgatory
7 SACRAMENTS - rituals to 'help' one get to heaven, priest is responsible
Baptism
Confirmation (transition to adulthood)
Marriage
Anointing of the sick
Penance (seeking forgiveness)
Holy Orders
Eucharist (body and blood)
Occured at MASS - priests performs Holy Communion - Catholics believe in TRANSUBSTANTIATION, important as priests performs on behalf of whole community
Rituals bring community together! Services conducted in LATIN - doubtful if peasants actually understood, BUT people valued the role of the church, no desire for change :)
SOCIAL ROLE
Wealthy people made INVESTMENTS into their parish church, to pay for rennovations (enhance beauty of worship), provide religious artefacts, reduce time in purgatory!
Benefactors also paid for CHANTRIES (chapels to say prayers for the couls of the dead) - out of genuine religious belief AND fear of purgatory
Duffy: "...function of a chantry priests was INTERCESSION (praying on behalf of another)" - this is why VIII's dissolution of chantries caused distress!
Poorer people joined CONFRATERNITIES and GUILDS - allowed them to have same social impact as the wealthy - collectively funded funerals, maintenence of church fabric etc
Popular - 7 in one small parish in Norfolk = implies genuine support for the church!
PILGRIMAGES also popular! Travelling to famous shries (Walsingham, Canterbury) = minimses time spent in purgatory
'Simpler' form of Pilgrimage, 'Regotion Sunday' in which community wwaked around parish boarders praying for the safety of the community - shows importance of the role of the parish church!
RELIGIOUS ORDERS
MONASTIC ORDERS
900 monasteries, housing 1% of adult male population that were monks
Benedictians - oldest order, Houses in Durham, also operated as catherdral churches in their diocese - other houses included Augustinians, Cistercians etc
Monasteries provided education, medical treatment and charity to the local community (and accommodation to those on pilgrimage)
FRIARS
3 main orders were Black Grey White
Not closed orders (unlike more exclusive monasteries), members worked among local community!
BOTH supported by large charitable donations (good way for the rich to ensure they spent less time in purgatory!) - monasteries estimated to own 1/3 all English land!
LOLLARDY AND ANTICLERICALISM
LOLLARDY - emerged in 14th century - Lollards stressed understanding of the Bible, wanted it translated into English! Sceptical about transubstatitation, believed Catholic Church to be corrupt!
Largely stamped out early in 15th century due to burnings/executions (it was a form of heresy), failed Lollard uprising in 1414 BUT some remained in Buckinghamshire under VII
Movement lacked cohereance and was geographically limited
ANTICLERICALISM
Assumed this was widespread, BUT this view has been challenged by Haige - argues anticlericalism was usualyl politically motivated, as exemplified by high number of candidates for the priesthood - showed priests retained support of LAITY
HUMANISM
HUMANISM: Development of the renaissance of the 14th century, rediscovery of Latin/Greek texts, demonstrating errors that had crept into translations of the Bible over the years! Humanists were Catholic
Scholars (Colet, More, Erasmus), critical of abuses of the Church, wanted to use New Learning to bring about reform!
Erasmus - managed to introduce new edition of the New Testament with errors removed
Humanism had little impact under VII - intellectual life dominated by traditional medieval philosphy
ARTS/LEARNING
EDUCATION
Increase in provisional education under VII - 53 grammer schoolds founded from 1460 to 1509!
New grammar schools introduced due to charitable donations, BUT only those who lived nearby benefitted = benefits middle class only!
UNIS: Oxbridge, classics education
Vii's mother Margaret Beufort expands Cambridge with establishment of 2 new colleges (Chirst's and St Johns)
DRAMA/MUSIC
Plays - popular forms of entertainment! Nobility sometimes sponsored = could tour the country
Mystery Plays at Corpus Christi - important festive occassions including churches, corporations and guilds, provided strong moral/religious messages
Music - Eton Choirbook, contained 93 compositions of the period - 2 composers (Brownse and Fayrfax) political figures, benefitted from patronage of Margaret Beaufort and VII himself!
Music was mainly religious, but some wealthy households had musicians perform secular music occassionally
ART/ARCHITECTURE
Gothic perpendicular style of northwestern Europe, seen in churches built at the time. Indication of large scale of investments!
NEW INDUSTRY: PRINTING - concentrated on producing traditional medieval texts , including chibalric romances/adaptions of saint's lives! BUT by end of VII's reign, HUMANIST literature becoming more readily available
SUMMARY...
Catholic Church was unchallenged under VII :) positive relations between the king and poped etc
Church fulfilled functions, little dissent (BUT some Lollardy)
"The institutions of the English church in the early 16th century DO NOT APPEAR to have been in urgent need of radical reform" - Harper-Bill
Slow cultural change, would not be felt until Henry VIII