Religion in Early 15th Century England

Battlefield Church, Shrewsbury

Henry IV

Dr. Jennifer Paxton

Wales – Lancastrian Penal Code

Forbade (1401)• Owning land outside Wales• Fortification• Bearing arms

Sycharth CastleHome of Glendower

Wales – Long Term Consequences

• Destruction of agricultural land• Prevented integration of Wales• Increased nationalism

Religion in Early 15th Century England

Battlefield Church, Shrewsbury

Lollards

Henry IV, Part II, Epilogue Quarto (1600)

Two Popes

Heresy in England

• 1382 Considered the date when heresy was conceived of as a social problem rather than just an academic one

“Poor Priests” John Aston

1382 Convicted but reconciled1397 Again tried by Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury

Convicted and dies in prison

Thomas Arundel

Images

• Condemnation of worship of images in themselves

• Wyclif accepted use of images as educational tools

• Lollards condemned rich ornamentation– Veneration of Christian images a heathen survival– Images had no power

1395 Twelve Conclusions

1. Church has strayed by pursuing wealth2. Current priesthood has strayed from original

intentions3. Law of continence has brought sodomy into

the church4. The sacrament of bread induces all men but a

few to idolatry

5. Exorcisms and hallowings, . . . be the very practice of necromancy rather than of the holy theology

6. Clerics should not hold secular office7. Special prayers for dead men's souls made in

our church, preferring one by name more than another, this is the false ground of alms deeds

8. Pilgrimages, prayers, and offerings made to blind crosses or roods, and to deaf images of wood or stone, are akin to idolatry

9. Confession gives priests special powers10. Condemn manslaughter in war and Crusades11. Vow of continence in women has brought

abortion and infanticide12. Crafts used in the churches are wasteful

1401 De Heretico Comburendo

. . . divers false and perverse people of a certain new sect, . . . do perversely and maliciously in divers places within the said realm, under the color of dissembled holiness, preach and teach these days openly and privily divers new doctrines, and wicked heretical and erroneous opinions contrary to the same faith and blessed determinations of the Holy Church,

The church cannot stop these abuses and with the Commons Parliament, have prayed our sovereign lord the king that his royal highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient remedy.

• [No one] shall preach, hold, teach, or instruct openly or privily, or make or write any book contrary to the catholic faith or determination of the Holy Church, . . . , or in any wise hold or exercise schools

• [Everyone] having such books . . . shall . . .t deliver or cause to be delivered all such books and writings to the diocesan of the same place within forty days

• Violators shall be arrested and imprisoned until they give up these false doctrines

• If they don’t or elapse then they are left to the secular court and sentenced and the authorities. . . before the people in an high place cause to be burnt, that such punishment may strike fear into the minds of others,

1401 William Sawtrey

Declared– would rather venerate a living monarch, or the

bodies of the saints, or a confessed and contrite man, than any crucifix;

– that priests should preach or teach rather than say canonical services; and that money used for pilgrimages would be better spent on the poor.

• Denied reality of transubstantiation• First victim of new law

1407-9 Constitutions of Arundel

1. No preaching without a license5. Teachers of the arts and grammar should not teach

the sacraments6. Wyclif’s books not be read unless first examined7. No English translations of the Scripture9. No one to question articles of the Church11. Inquisition to be held at Oxford

Lollard Bills

Disendowment billsRequested seizure by the king of wealth from “worldly clerks, bishops, abbots and priors” who do not perform their offices, help the poor, live in penance or work as they should. Rather, they live in ease and “take profits that should come to true men”

Vernacular Teaching

Permit and encourage teachingThe Creed, the Ten Commandments ,the Lord's Prayer, the names of the deadly sins, the virtues

1410 John Badby

1414 Fire and Faggot Parliament

Suppression of Heresy Act whoever should read the Scriptures in English should forfeit land, cattle, goods, and life, and be condemned as heretics . . . if they continued obstinate, or relapsed after pardon, they should first be hanged for treason against the king, and then burned for heresy against God.

Set up system to examine books

Sir John Oldcastle

• Knight from Hereford• Advanced for participation in war against

Glendower• Marries (2nd) to Joan Cobham (4th of 5)• Protector of Lollards; correspondence with

Hus• First influential layman to be tried• Escape, capture and execution

From John Foxe Book of Martyrs

1414-15 Council of Constance

• Condemn Hus• Condemn Wyclif• Select a Pope

Posthumous Burning of WyclifFoxe’s Book of Martyrs

15th Century English View of Purgatory

Chapels

• Private chapel or oratory for the owner's immediate household

• Chapel of ease served a community distant from the parish church

• Pilgrimage chapels

Roles of Chapels

• Stops in processions• Some at odds with local parish church• Separation of social classes• Members hire their own chaplains

A Chantry Chapel

St. Mary Magdalene's Battlefield, Shrewsbury• 1409 Roger Ive, the rector

of Albright Hussey to sing masses for the souls of those killed in the battle

• 1410 royal charter as a college of priests to pray for the souls of the king, Richard Hussey, his wife, and for those killed in the battle

St. Michael Roche, Cornwall

Guild Chapel, Stratford on Avon

Indulgences

A remission of worldly punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has already been absolved during Confession. • Background• Finances• The Bridport harbor: A pardoner’s tale

“Some Pardoners' Tales: The Earliest English Indulgences”Nicholas Vincent Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Sixth Series, Vol. 12 (2002), pp. 23-58

Next Week

Henry V and the resurgence of England on the Continent