The wider impact of the Reformation and the visitations organised by Cromwell in 1535, the dissolutions of 1536, the extent of resistance and further dissolutions of 1539

4.

Describe the monasteries.

Comment on:

• Their importance in social and economic terms.

• They were very important
• They were reckoned to hold about 10% of the country's wealth
• They provided jobs
• They provided services for e.g. the poor and travellers.
• There were elements of corruption (like in Chaucer) but some clergy workers were commited, there were monks who carried out their religious obligation.
• Wealth = Cultural, material and land

4.

How did Henry find out about the wealth of the monasteries?

• What did he do
• Why were they closed down (smaller monasteries).

• Cromwell had been created Henry's vicergent in spirituals. This appointment enabled him to exercise the royal authority in the English Church.
• He sent out commissioners to find out all the property held by the church and the findings were brought together in the Valor Ecclesiasticus.  
• The visitations were nothing new but they had never been mainly concerned with reform.
• Cromwell's commissioners knew what they were looking for in their visitations (corruption, scandal and heresy).
• They presented reports to Cromwell with this information which were presented to Parliament.
• Henry was surprised at the wealth and the reports and King's intervention was enough to pass and Act supressing the smaller Monasteries (those worth under £200 a year).

4.

What happened to those people who lived in the smaller Monasteries?

• They were told that they could either transfer to another house.
• Join the secular clergy (clergy active in the world outside monasteries such as parish priests and bishops).

4.

Now that people became affected by the Reformation due to the The Dissolution of the Monsteries, opposition arose, in 1536.

What was this opposition?

The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536.

4.

Describe all about the Pilagramige of Grace 1536.

• Started in Yorkshire
• Lawyer Robert Aske became leader of the rebellion
• The Pilgrims advanced and met the Duke of Norfolk at the River Don.
• The royal army was heavily outnumbered and in order to buy time, Norfolk listened to the rebels complaints and said that they would be ammended by the king and that they would recieve a pardon but must go back home
• This satisfied the Pilgrims but neither Henry nor Norfolk intended on keeping this promise.
• When they gathered a greater force, the pilgrimage was crushed and the leaders executed.

4.

Why could it be argued, that there was a strong religious element to the Pilgrimage?

• Title - Pilgrimage
• The rebels held banners showing the 5 wounds of Christ
• The songs they sang
• Their demands (support for the old order of religion). 
• They feared for parish churches and their possessions. Support for the Pope's spiritual supremacy. Most wanted the dissolved monasteried to be restored.  

4.

What happened after the Pilgramige of Grace 1536, in terms of the monasteries?

Comment on 1539.

• Commissioners were now sent round the remaining monasteries to "invite" them to surrender to the crown. If they did not there would be bad consequences (e.g. Abbot of Glastonbury = hanged).

4.

Give the many reasons given for the Dissolution.

Comment on:

• Henry's reasons
• Obvious reasons
• Logical reasons

• Public reason - "Manifest sin, Vicious, carnal and abominable living" - official line expressed in 1536 first dissolution Act.
• Closing monasteries was not unheard of, Wolsey had closed some down for educational purposes.
• Cromwell and his supporters objected to monasticism as a misguided form of spiritual life and waste of resourecs and wanted an end to it in England.
• The reports of Cromwell's commisioners contained many references to bad practices; the exposure of fraudulent relics and the dismantling of shrines went hand in hand with the dissolution process.
• Monasteries were closely associated with the practice of praying for the dead and reformers were moving towards the denial of the existance of Purgatory.
• The education, mending of highways never happened with the money of the monasteries.
• Wealth - the monasteries gave an ultimate gain for a crown. In 1534 there was a plan which attempted to enable the Crown to profit from church wealth, but this was too much
• The fact that Henry failed to live up to any of his plans and his advice to the leaders of Scotland on disolving monasteries shows he never intended on doing this and that he was in the dissolution for the money.

4.

List some of the consequences of the dissolution.

• Many clergymen had to find alternative ways of life.
• Senior members did fairly well in their pensions given by the government.
• Nuns were especially bad off, they were expected to keep their vow of chastity meaning that they could not marry as a form of income support.
• Travellers had no where to go.
• The crown definately benefited.
• By 1547 about £800,000 was released into the Crown's hands and income was still being gained annully from the remaining lands
• A lot of medival art was lost, either lost, melted or destroyed for the value of the materials. Also libraries were lost, which caused for concern to scholarship.

4.

What were the Ten Articles?

• Produced against the background of him being afraid that Catholic countries would go against him.
• Henry requested them and they were drew up by Convocation.
• They were issued on his authority as Supreme head.
• The introduction to the Articles stated that they were necessary because the reformation had caused a variety of religious beliefs accross the country so there was "diversity of ideas".
• The Articles basically told people what to believe.
• Their wording was very ambiguos.
• It took into account some Lutheran ideas and some conservative ideas. It was ambiguous enough to satisfy both the Catholics and Reformers.
• A statement on the Eucharist could hae been interpreted in a Lutheran way, but could have also have been seen as supporting the catholic teaching of transubstantiation.
• There is no complete mention to the practices of both sides.
• Only 3 sacraments (the only 3 the lutherans are prepared to accept) were included: baptism, the eucharist, confession.

4.

What came after the Ten Articles?

What was included?

• The Bishop's Book
• Henry was allowed to publish this and reccomended members of the clergy to read it - although when Henry read it he made extensive cristicisms.
• All 7 sacraments were included
• It seemed to follow the general tone of the Ten Articles and cannot be judged as having either furthered or hindered the reformers' cause.

4.

What came after the Bishop's Book?

What did these include?

The Royal Injunctions 1536 (First set issued by Cromwell)

They stated:

• It was the clergy's duty to preach regularly in support of Royal Supremacy.
• The clergy was told not to encourage devotion to particular images or saints.
• Clergy told to dissuade people from going on Pilagimages
• Everyone should learn the Lord's prayer, creed and ten commandments in English (had always been in Latin).
• The rest of the injunctions concerned clerical behaviour, attention to duty, providing money for chartiable and educational purposes, maintanence of church fabric.

1538 Second set of injunctions - went further:

• priests had to discourage people from devoting to particular images or relics
• The English translation of the Bible would be put in ever church and everyone would be encouraged to read it (this before would have been considered heresy).

4.

Give a bit of information on the English Bible

• Latin version called the Vulgate
• Protestants believed that the Bible should be their sole belief rather than the tradition of the Catholic Church. They therefore wanted it in English so that people could learn and understand from it.
• William Tyndale was preiously executed (1535) for smuggling in English copies into England.
• In 1539 the Great Bible  was published and authorised in England.
• Henry was on the cover showing that he was supreme head of the church.
• In 1543 and Act of Parliament attempted to limit the Bible reading to the clergy, nobility, gentry and merchant classes only. Henry feared that people were treating the Bible too lightly and might choose to interpret it for themselves. This could cause resistance to his own authority to determine what his subjects should believe.
• This act ended the printing of the English Bible and limited its use to the more wealthy in society.

4.

What was one of the reasons, for Henry trying to show that England was still rather Catholic (minus his own faith)?

He wanted to show that even though he had quarrled with the Pope there qould be no religious justification for Catholic countries (e.g. Charles V, to attack him).

4.

The Six Articles formed the basis of a new Act of Parliament. What did they state?

• Transubstantiation exists
• Clerical celibacy
• Vows of Chastidy had to be kept.
• Confession
• Communication under one kind only
• Private masses were to continue

The articles were extremely conservatie, accompanying the articles came clear punnishments should someone go against them.

Some bishops resigned after this, Cranmer remained in office but sent his wife back to Germany. His belief in royal supremancy overrode any doubts he must hae had about the Six Articles.

4.

What was included in the King's Book?

• 1543
• All 7 Sacraments were of equal weight
• Transubstantiation existed
• prayers and masses for the dead were accepted
• The Lutheran teaching of 'justification by faith alone' was rejected
• Prayers and masses for the dead were accepted.
• Financial abuses arising from belief in Purgatory was condemed.

4.

(2 parts to this question!! )

Part 1

Why did Cromwell fall from office in 1540?

(i) Give details in terms of problems he had with factions.

• Historians find it difficult to answer this question as Cromwell had not failed the King in the way that Wolsey had over the divorce. To kill such an outstanding servant who had achieved so much seems remarkable and difficult to explain.
• Court faction of his more conservative opponents such as Gardiner and the Duke of Norfolk seem to be the simplest reason behind his fall. 
• They played on the suspicions of Henry, making him rush through the disposal process before Henry quite realised what was happening.
• Cromwell made a mistake in being part of the process which led to the arrival in England of Anne of Cleves, nevertheless, Henry should have kept him to get rid of her, as Cromwell had proved so useful in the past at disposing wives.
• The King had become infactuated with Catherine Howard, (niece of Norfolk). Henry's experience with Anne Boleyn indicates that infactuation led to influence.
• Henry, ageing and becoming ill readily believed the pack of lies presented to him by Cromwell's enemies. They put charges of heresy against Cromwell.  
• An Act of Arrainder was rushed through, and Cromwell was duly executed.
• He had become too close to religious reforming pressures so the mud could stick, although there was no evidence to link him with extreme Protestant doctrines. It seems illogical that the priest who was actually married and who was known to have radical religious ideas - Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury - was left alone.

4.

(2 parts to this question!! )

Part 2

Why did Cromwell fall  from office in 1540?

(i) Give details in terms of Foreign Policy issues.

• Foreign policy issues may have played a part in Cromwell's fall.
• This was an area in which he had never involved himself much, but he certainly took some responsibility for the attempt to gain Protestant friends in Germany as possible allies against a massed Roman Catholic attack.
• The marriage to Anne of Cleves was part of this process - she came from a Protestant German ruling family, and when she arrived in England she was not nearly do physically attractive as her portrait had made her out.
• Henry could not stand the sight of her, and as the French and Charles V had gone back to war, the marriage was not necessary strategically. Cromwell may have been the scapegoat here.
• Perhaps the courtiers who envied Cromwell's power and achievement feared that Cranmer was harmless without Cromwell who could put through the ideas.
• He cannot have been too much surprised at what happened to him.
• After all, he had seen what had happened to both More and Wolsey and was a fairly skilled participator in the game of court politics and faction fighting himself.
• Cromwell had gained many of the benefits which went with the job - earldom of Essex, and an income - he could also see real achievements of his work, which he knew would last.
• He knew the stakes of the game and was unduly surprised when he lost. He would be pleased to have known how much he was missed by his master, and Henry's anger at way he was hoodwinked into killing the outstanding minister of his reign. 

Was England more Protestant or Catholic at the end of Henry's reign?

Give:

• Protestant things
• Catholic things

Protestant

• Dissolution of the monasteries and the English Bible
• No Pope (Royal Supremacy)
• Encourage people not to go on Pilgrimages, no worship paintings or relics

Catholic

• Belief in transubstantiation and Clerical celibacy
• Belief in 7 Sacraments (all equal weighting)
• Practice into purgatory
• Justification by faith alone - Rejected
• Communion under both kinds was dismissed
• Confession
• Private masses

There is no clear answer to this question. The King was very inconsistant and in terms of the people, different countys followed different beliefs. E.G. Kent = Protestant and Licolnshire = Catholic