Religion

• What was the function of the church and churchmen

  • Relationship between church and state was Erastian (state authority over church)
  • over 8000 churches which maintained social control through encouraging obedience
  • used wealth of church to reward church mane.g. Richard Fox and John Morton
  • Abbots meant to show spiritual necessities but not all did
• What was religious community, beliefs and service like

  • church framework for controlling individual though and centre for community life
  • 7 sacraments needed to reach heaven e.g. baptism and Eucharist
  • mass was sacred ritual where whole community participated
• What were the functions of the church

  • Uphold Christian teachings
  • teach ways to acquire grave
  • limit purgatory
• what was the churches social role

  • Benefactors gave donations to help benefit religious experience and dying would leave money to reduce time in purgatory
  • confraternities (guilds)- payed funeral costs and provided schools and bridges
  • Rogation Sunday- community carry banners to warn off spirits which established importance of parish in community
• What was becoming less popular

  Pilgrimages were loosing popularity and people were becoming critical of them

  E.g. visit tomb of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury
• Evidence of churches popularity

  • 60% of parish churches were renovated or rebuilt in 15th century
  • Louth, Lincolnshire raised £350 for a new parish church
• What is transubstantiation


  Believed bread and wine changed into christs body and blood during mass
• What were monastic ordered

  • Operated as cathedral churches of their dioces and many recruits from wealthy
  • by 1500 1% of male population were monks in monasteries or orders like Benedictines
• What were Friars 


  Worked among lay people and were recruited from lower down social scale

  • these became less popular
• What were nunnaries


  Mostly women deemed unsuitable for marriage and were relatively poor
• What were Lollards

  • Founded by John Wycliffe
  • stressed understanding bible and wanted English translation
  • sceptical of transubstantiation, Eucharist and saw catholic church as corrupt
  • criticism of church and anti clericalism widespread
  • failed pollard uprising -1414
  • burning of heretics law in 1401
• Who was executed for their support of Lollards

  Joan Boughton was burnt at the stake April 1494 for adhering to Wycliffe’s Lollard theology
• What topics would your write about in religion essay

  • Doctrine/theology (what they believed)
  • ceremony and practice (what they did)
  • structure and power (how it was organised)