A+-+THE+CHURCH+ON+THE+EVE+OF+THE+REFORMATION,+1529

__**BACKGROUND TO THE 16th CENTURY ENGLAND **__ England was controlled by the Tudor Royal family from 1485 to 1603, as a direct consequence of the Tudor succession the Wars of the Roses came to an end, with the marriage of Henry Tudor to Elizabeth of York. However a threat still existed within the English realm to the royal succession meaning that the Tudor monarchs always had to secure their dynasty with whatever means necessary. Whilst the birth of the early modern era can be seen to have occured sometime in the Tudor period we should investigate this most specifically through the context of Henry VIII. Along with the discussion pages, please look through the information and links below to inform your opinions and get you thinking. You should never be without any work to do, if you think you are, look on here and think again! Keep adding to the discussion because History will never die.

__**THE TUDOR STATE DISCUSSION **__ What was the Tudor period like? What control did the State (the Goverment and the Monarch) have over the lives of the ordinary people of England? Listen to the Podcast below to hear what the experts have to say:

__//**SYNOPSIS OF DISCUSSION**//__ //Melvyn Bragg and guests discusses the Tudor State. In 1485 Henry Tudor slew Richard III and routed his army at The Battle of Bosworth Field. It was a decisive victory which founded a bold new dynasty; and this date like 1789 and 1066 has been taken by historians to be one of the great ‘year zeros’ of history: Suddenly the muddled Medieval World with its robber barons, feudal barbarism and bloody Wars of the Roses was banished, and the modern age of centralised government and King’s Justice was ushered in. But were the Tudors as instrumental in reshaping the British state as historians have liked to make out, and did their reign throughout the 16th century really lay the political foundations of our own age? With John Guy, Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews; Christopher Haigh, Tutor of Modern History at Christ Church College, Cambridge; Christine Carpenter, Fellow in History at New Hall, Cambridge.//

= The Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England  = media type="youtube" key="ZfuMn617dEc" width="560" height="315" align="center" media type="youtube" key="As8JLv0hhx0" width="560" height="315" media type="youtube" key="glFjtaGoHd0" width="560" height="315"

__** SECTION A: The Church on the Eve of the Reformation, c.1529 **__  "These priests are not shepherds, but hungry wolves going about in sheep’s clothing, devouring their flock ... and what do these greedy, idle,  holy thieves do with all these yearly demands that they take from the people? Nothing, but suck all rule, power, authority and obedience from you (Henry VIII) to themselves!"   **<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Simon Fish **//<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> **-** A Supplication for the Beggars //**<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">(1529) **

<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">The Church as an institution, had come under fire over the last few centuries for religious, political, economic and social reasons. The most famous of these groups who led a criticism in medieval times were the Lollards, led by John Wycliffe. Shortly following the Black Death (1349), the disaster of the deaths of between a third and a half of the known world's population led many to believe that the had upset God - the Church must be to blame for failing to lead people properly. Even after Wycliffe's death, his movement was popular on and off over the next few centuries in small pockets across the realm. The Lollards essentially believed that the organised religion that the Roman Catholic Church offered was manipulated and meant that there was a "middle man" between the average believer and God. They recognised that if the middle man were to be removed from the scenario, then people would have a better level of control over their own lives and their own spirituality, this involved translating the Bible into the local language, English, so that anyone and everyone was able to access the word of God for themselves without needing a priest to translate Latin for them. The Bible was therefore essentially a key to their salvation - but it was locked and for the time being this key was too expensive for the average person, as this was before the printing press was introduced to England which meant to every book had to be hand written, taking around a year for any scribe to copy out the Bible, this would therefore be too expensive for most people. The word of God was still therefore out of the reach of people.

<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"> <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Times changed and technology advanced, even with Caxton's printing press of the late 15th century it was illegal for the Bible to be printed in English - this would remove the power of the priest and therefore also change the status quo of society - essentially a religious change of this scale could lead to a social revolution - dangerous and damaging for the elite - this is why the government and the monarchy were keen to maintain its Latin version as the only one.

<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">So for those who could not read or understand the service as delivered by their priest, there was a form of education in the architecture of the churches that they attended. powerful lessons in knowing what was expected of them. This education through the art and architecture is best explained through the TV series: Churches - how to read them. When you watch this video do remember that this is all about the Church before the Break from Rome. The most important factors in why the Church was safe from Reformation in England was the lack of widespread media - in the form of there being no Printing Press, and perhaps just as importantly was the fact that the Church and King were too powerful - preventing anyone from openly criticising it. Perhaps though the ordinary English person was happy to oblige in what the Church offered, though corruptions may have been widespread, they might have accepted these as everyday occurances. Did the Church offer people enough for them to willingly turn a blind eye to the disease that existed within it? Or were they too worried about their temporal and or spiritual lives?

<span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">__**BBC - CHURCHES: HOW TO READ THEM - EPISODE 2**__ <span style="color: #000080; display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"> media type="youtube" key="XEmSREQxHlY" height="360" width="640" align="center"

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<span style="color: #000080; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Whilst the Church was under attack from different directions in England and on the continent (as you will be learning in your **Unit 1 - European Reformation** studies) there were on-going political developments in England too. In 1509 Prince Harry, became King Henry VIII and soon married his sister-in-law Catherine, Princess of Aragon and widow of his dead brother Arthur. In order to be allowed to get married to Catherine, the Pope gave special **dispensation** allowing the marriage to be recognised by the Church and therefore by God. This would come back to haunt him in the late 1520s when trying to get an annulment. But for now, Henry and Catherine had been friends for years since her marriage to Arthur in 1502, their relationship was one of mutual respect and genuine love, between them they had several children but only one, Mary survived more than a few months. **Princess Mary** was therefore Henry's only heir, but born in 1516 he believed that he would have many mroe children. The issue of his succession will be discussed later on, but for now Henry's youthful nature was played out as a show prince for all to see. He was not a politically active king and essentially handed over his powers to his closest advisor - **Cardinal Wolsey**, a man who was **Papal Legate** (spoke on behalf the Pope) and had ambitions of becoming Pope himself one day. Henry at this time was not the stereotyped bloated monster that Henry VIII would become later in life. For now he was young, athletic and handsome, sporting competitionwas something that was always on his agenda. He had an on-going rivalry with the King of France, Francis I - both of them had a belief in the **Divine Right** - that God had chosen them to be kings, so they respected each other and whilst Henry clung onto a medieval claim that he was the King of France because the English controlled Calais, he wanted to live through his Arthurian legends of his upbringing. Both kings met in France for a poltical and social competition, this was called the **Field of the Cloth of Gold** - though you do not need to know this for the exam, it will give you a nice background to Henry's personality and character, which will become important in the next section.

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<span style="display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">SYNOPSIS OF DISCUSSION <span style="display: block; font-family: 'trebuchet ms',helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Field of the Cloth of Gold, an extraordinary international party. In the spring of 1520 six thousand Englishmen and women packed their bags and followed their King across the sea to France. They weren't part of an invasion force but were attendants to King Henry VIII and travelling to take part in the greatest and most conspicuous display of wealth and culture that Europe had ever seen. They were met by Francis I of France and six thousand French noblemen and servants on English soil in Northern France and erected their temporary palaces, elaborate tents, jousting pavilions and golden fountains spewing forth red, white and claret wine in the Val D'Or. For just over two weeks they created a temporary town the size of Norwich, England's second city, on the 'Camp du Drap D'Or', or Field of the Cloth of Gold. What drove the French and the English to create such an extraordinary event? What did the two sides do when they got there, and what - if anything - was achieved? With Steven Gunn, Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford University; John Guy, Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge; Penny Roberts, Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick.