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History Notes General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes

Popular Religion Notes

Updated Popular Religion Notes

General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes

General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform)

Approximately 43 pages

These notes provide comprehensive cover of the General III Preliminary paper. They were the sole resource that I used for my preliminary examination revision, in which I achieved a mark of 69%. They include a wealth of specific and detailed examples spanning across the whole of Europe, as well as discussion of a broad range of historiography, making them a complete resource for studying for the prelim in General III. They are often structured around key questions, meaning that they also come in u...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our General History III: 1400–1650 (Renaissance, Recovery and Reform) Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

GIII Revision Notes.

Popular Religion.

1. How ‘popular’ was the Church in the later middle ages?

  • Trad view = laity did not really participate in worship e.g. Clifford Flanigan spoke of ‘alienated liturgy’.

  • “It is all too easy to approach the pre-Ref laity with a patronising stance” (Swanson)

  • However, faith ultimately always going to include people. Such central part of life in later mid ages/had such power that it had to reflect and mirror people’s wishes.

  • Gavin Langmuir has talked of diff between religion and religiosity.

  • “The faith itself is essentially atomistic, dependent on individs creating their own relationships with the divinity” (R N Swanson).

  • “Pre-Ref Cath was… a ‘demand-led’ religion” (R N Swanson).

  • “The ‘elite’ and the ‘clerical’… were often a veneer over the ‘lay’ and ‘popular’” (R N Swanson).

  • How distanced were lay people from the clergy?

  • Background: ‘Gregorian reform’ of late C11th intended to make priesthood v distinct from laity.
    E.g. X family – cut ties to anyone outside of ecclesiastical authority.

  • Priests had central role in conducting mass:

  • Priests only ones w/ power to consecrate Host (‘eche prest hath of Cristis geft power forto make this sacrament’ [Festial]).

  • This “implied an enormously high doctrine of priesthood” (Eamon Duffy).

  • No layman/woman could touch the sacred vessels.

  • CA: Daily masses = conducted at low altars often within arm’s reach.
    E.g. Ranworth, Norfolk and Bramfield, Suffolk – use rood screen as backdrop to 2 smaller altars.

  • Some ev for AC/anti-pope:

  • Talks of “much anti-papal feeling” (R C Finucane) coming from papal rights to tax, apt fgn bishops to Eng sees.

  • CA: Pt about anticlericalism: disliking spec activities of spec priest = diff to opposing clericalism on all grounds.

  • “What is notable… is the general lack of complaints about the theological activities of the clergy” (Swanson).

  • The people had some power to demonstrate against/reform the Church:

  • Ev that local people could complain to higher church authorities e.g. through system of visitation.

  • Pressures on priests illustrated at Lichfield, 1470 – dean and chapter tried to inhibit masses in town church until those in Cathedral completed. Message passed to one of the guild, who threatened to make the chapter eat the inhibition and said that he would have ‘his’ mass, regardless of the cathedral.

  • ^ churchwardens/fabriques (France)/opera (Italy)/vitrici (Poland) (laity taking control of property).

  • Financial control:

  • Local populace oft funded new local churches e.g. esp in German Gemeinde, 1440-01 – new Church funded this way at Longirod, Geneva (could rep prist if negligent [not guarantee but still imp]).

  • Est of chantries (masses for the souls of founders) = way that people could use their patronage.

  • Were the people separated from access to real theological understanding?

  • John Delumeau spoke of ‘the “folklorisation” of Christianity’.

  • Limited access to literature/vocabulary:

  • Impact of technical vocab on lting laity’s access. E.g. instructional works tended to gloss over this type of theological speak.

  • E.g. Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury issued decree to limit access to vernacular relig books 1409. Req’d every preacher to have a licence, limited subject matter of sermons.

  • “Purely doctrinal theology was always elitist” (Swanson).

  • Sermons did not increase accessibility to theological doctrine:

  • Non-polemical sermons linked to confessional and penitential functions, defining sins, calling for repentance etc.
    “Discipline and devotion are to the fore, rather than theology” (Swanson).

  • Religion about more than theology: part of the general culture.

  • Instructional texts did exist:

  • Vernacular guidebooks existed for educative purposes – illustrated.
    Had been est since C13th.

  • E.g. ‘manual credencium’ (probably by Richard Rolle) – written ‘in englisch tongue for lewid men pat nought understond latyn ne frensch’.

  • E.g. Lay Folks’ Catechism – Latin statement of essentials of the faith, drawn up under Archbishop of York John Thoresby in 1357 –read out once weekly.

  • “The increasing use of the vernacular… drew more and more laymen into the life of the Church” (Finucane).

  • Importance of familial activities, cultural continuity, for creating and perpetuating lay religion. Reinforced through books like ‘The instructions for a devout and literate layman’ – father of fam to take leading role in this.

  • Images used in church to communicate ideas to laity – WERE NOT CLUELESS!

  • E.g. church of Kirton-in-Lindsay, Lincolnshire – north aisle shows scene of crucifixion with Mary and John the Evangelist, blood flows from seven points of body to link to sacraments.

  • M Rubin talks of “a symbolic system”.

  • People were interested:

  • Famed preachers could attract large crowds from wide areas. E.g. Grenoble 1523, Châlons-sur-Marne, 1467, local authorities...

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