popular piety and the church spiritual role

• Why was the church powerful spiritually?

  Provided link between God and Human beings who could only reach Heaven through membership in Church
• Who are churchwardens?


  chosen from members of the congregation- respected men who could read + write
• What is the liturgical year?

  the Church's calendar; it has its own seasons and special feast days=when community would not work but celebrate

  -Fitted well with life of agricultural community
• Why did people join lay religious guilds?


  Those who could not afford personal chantry chapels where a priest could say masses for individual/family joined lay religious guilds
• What are chantry chapels?


  memorial or even a complete building dedicated to the memory of a person or family.
• What did the guild provide?

  -chantry chapels

  -Priest=for all those who contributed to the common fund

  -Ensure prayers were regularly said for a dead person's soul (insurance for the afterlife)

  -Provided funerals with requiem mass

  -cared for the living= benefits to members who were in difficult financial times

  -Played an active part in religious festivals-importance of individual guild determined place in corpus christi procession
• What were the main spiritual beliefs?

  Many people thought they were sinners-born with original sin

  During lives-every time they would disobey God's laws they would acquire more sin

  Participating in rituals of the Church+receiving the sacraments+doing good works+prayers-all affect souls in afterlife

  Reaching Heaven was the sole aspiration of everyone- time on earth was preparation for eternal life
• What is heaven?


  Heaven= eternity spent in paradise+in company of God
• What is hell?


  Hell=spending eternity tormented by the Devil in an inferno with no escape
• What are masses?


  Most important service in Catholic Church + helped reduce time in purgatory

  -Chanted in Latin in Chantry chapels

  -Parishioners would light candles in chapels around statues to Virgin Mary+Local Saints

  -Sacrament of Eucharist: Priest blesses the bread and wine like Jesus

  -Transubstantiation=bread and wine become body and blood of Jesus
• What is purgatory?


  Place where souls of the dead suffered more a suitable time to make them suffer sufficiently pure to go to heaven

  -Judged before they go to Heaven

  -Time in purgatory could be reduced through earning indulgences=E.G. pilgrimages, praying to saints,t ouching relics of saints (saints would ask God to help a person on their behalf) + helping the poor
• What are pilgrimages?


  -demonstrates faith+penance

  -Visit Saint's tomb (Becket) or Shrine where Virgin Mary had been visited (Walsingham at Norfolk)

  -Wear pilgrim badge= visited shrine

  -Pilgrimage to relic=indulgence

  -Seek miraculous cure for illness/disease
• What are the seven sacraments?

  Baptism-children cleansed of original sin

  Confirmation-young people become members of the Church+take Mass

  Marriage-Two people joined by the Priest

  Ordination-Man becomes a Priest

  Confession-Person told their sins to a priest and was made to do penance (a formal release of guilt)

  Mass-Priest carried out a re-enactment of Last supper of Christ

  Last rites-When the dying were anointed with holy oil before they died
• Who is the priest? Why is he important?

  Representative of God on earth

  Central to the spiritual lives of the members of the Church
• What is the role of the priesthood?

  Only priests were allowed to adminster the sacraments e.g. mass/baptism/marriage/last rites-neccessary to attain everlasting life

  
  

  Priest central to forgiving of sins

  Priest would hear confessions of his parishioners- forgive the sins on completion of penances

  
  

  Priest granted absolution- able to attend mass and pass the pax (symbol of demonstrating peace) to neighbour

  
  

  People relied on the priest as they could read+write in Latin -Interpret word of God for congregration

  
  

  Priest reassured people that if they came to Church and did their best

  -God would be kind and forgiving

  
• Why did literacy rates increase in the 15th century?

  -Increase in grammar schools (county towns+London)= taught Latin grammar to sons of merchants/gentry/bright peasant boys

  -Growth of printing press (availability of books)
• What did the ability to read and write mean?

  Ability to read and write meant:

  -Entry into Oxbridge

  -Church

  -Legal profession

  -Career as merchants
• When was the printing press developed?

  Developed in Germany in 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg

  Moveable type
• How much did single press print?

  Single press-3600 pages a day=large scale production + distribution of books (formally only preserved for wealthy)
• What was the importance of the printing press?

  Impact of cheaper and more readily-available books were transformational

  Growing market for narrative tales e.g. Canterbury Tales, books about King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table= strong religious basis

  Books were imported from the continent

  Religious books (especially bible) in latin were popular
• What is a Lollard? Who were the type of people most likely to be lollard?

  Originally term of abuse given to followers of John Wycliffe (Translated bible into english)- Suggested their tongues were too big for their mouths-regarded as heretics

  Majority- craftsmen and merchants ; literate
• What were the main beliefs about lollardy?

  -Christianity should be based on the bible not the interpretations of the priests

  -Emphasis on individual and the individual's relationship with God- central lollard belief

  -Everyone should be able to access an english bible and interpret it for themselves

  -Rejected idea that priest was needed to be a go-between with God

  -A man could directly confess his sins to God- no priest required (God could forgive him directly)

  -Did not believe in transubtuation- bread and wine would become the blood and body of Jesus Christ when Priest prayed over them

  -Believed in predestination-it had been decided before Adam and Eve had been banished from Garden of Eden who would go to heaven- 'the elect'

  -Those who rejected the beliefs of the Catholic Church could be considered one of the 'elect'- go to Heaven
• Why was it hard to assess impact of lollardy?

  Lollards were heretics-punishment was death

  Once established it was heresy- support decreased especially from nobility/gentry

  Those with radical views attended services in parish churches-place them above suspicion
• What evidence is there for evidence of lollardy?


  possible to identify small surviving groups of Lollards e.g Group in High Wycombe

  Possible to identify small radical groups amongst artisans- many could read/trade links gave access to ideas which were being discussed on the continent
• What is Lutheranism?


  based on the teachings of Martin Luther
• What are the main beliefs of Lutheranism?

  Believed the soul was benefited by faith alone, rather than good works-catholic church

  Questioned the relationship between the Church and the Monarch=believed in royal supremacy

  Luther-sought monarch who would serve true religion- power should come from people
• Who were some notable lutherans?

  Views of Luther taken up by English scholars such as William Tyndale and Simon Fish

  Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell were influenced by Luther's ideas
• What is royal supremacy?

  Royal supremacy- idea that monarch was responsible for the church in his own land rather than the pope
• What did tyndale believe about royal supremacy?

  Tyndale- religious change would come from a godly prince to whom subjects owned allegiance both in body and soul
• What is humanism?


  An intellectual movement which sought to return the original Greek texts of the Bible to further the understanding of the scripture.Sought to reform the Church from within
• What were the main beliefs about Humanism?

  Wanted to purify the ideas of religion from errors which had developed through translations- demystify primary texts+restore them to original state

  
  

  Believed in basic principles of catholicism- FREE WILL-did not challenge the beliefs of

  Catholicism but its practices

  
  

  Based on published texts rather than religious beliefs-conveyed orally/accepted without question

  
  

  Wanted harmonious new era of universal agreement- through more direct knowledge of the wisdom of antiquity (including the writings of the Church fathers)
• Who were some notable humanists?

  Henry+Catherine of Aragon= humanists

  Erasmus

  Thomas More

  Colet
• What were Henry's humanist ideals?

  purify the church+remove superstition (dismissive of pilgrimages

  Supported rewriting of the bible in Latin based on original Greek texts
• Who was and what were the beliefs of Desiderius Erasmus?

  Dutch humanist/theologian

  Prepared Latin/Greek editions of NT (using Humanist techniques)

  Committed to the Catholic notion of Church+Papal authority- critical of some practises
• Who was and what were the beliefs of Thomas More?

  Lawyer/Author/Adviser to Henry VIII

  Leading humanist scholar
• Who was and what were the beliefs of Thomas More?

  Leading theologian

  Dean of St Paul's Cathedral in London

  Studied Greek/Latin texts + writings of early Church fathers

  Highly critical of practices of Church

  Advocate that scripture should provide a guide for life
• What are the Canterbury Tales?

  Collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer

  Tales told by pilgrims on the way home from London to the Shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral-sought to lessen time in purgatory

  Group include all ranks of society:

  -monk

  -nun

  -pardoner

  Tales can be read as amusing account of life-shows contemporary views of courtly love/greed/treachery /abuses of the church

  Some of the tales can be read as criticisms of the abuses of church

  Chaucer ended the tales apologising for anything that might have been inappropriate
• How was the Church exploiting pilgrims?

  Desire not only to pray at the shrine of a holy relic but to own one, had a long tradition. The Church may have only exploited the devotion of pilgrims who visited the shrine-granting indulgences ∴ reduce a person's time in purgatory
• What is laity?


  believed to be motivated by the desire to increase the wealth of the Church + those relating to its property
• What is simony?


  Sale of ecclesiastical title (relating to the Church) and occurred most frequently when a priest enjoying the income of a rich parish sold his position to the person willing to pay the most, rather than to the most learned