The position of the Church in the EMA and LMA

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

Cultura y Civilización de los Pueblos de Habla Inglesa I

FL - UNC​

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

​Decide whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE.

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

Multiple Choice

During the Early Middle Ages, the English monarchs and the Church had several confrontations in which the Church was overall the winning side. 

• TRUE

• FALSE

Multiple Choice

Even though, in the Early Middle Ages, the Church was an economically powerful institution because its members were among the largest landholders, it was not powerful in the social, political, cultural, spiritual, or legal fields.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Multiple Choice

In the Late Middle Ages, as a consequence of the introduction of the printing press, many laymen developed a critical attitude and were in a position to question the word, teachings, and other aspects of the Church.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Multiple Choice

John Wycliffe - an English clergyman and theologian - was one of the first to question the theory of transubstantiation, one of the main dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. 

• TRUE

• FALSE

Multiple Choice

The Hundred Years´ War (1338-1453) brought about strong feelings of nationalism in England, together with feelings in favour of the figure of the Pope. 

• TRUE

• FALSE

Multiple Choice

In the Late Middle Ages, the strong attacks against the Church as an institution mostly challenged the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, the faith dogmas and central religious tenets.

• TRUE

• FALSE

1. Which factors leading to the deterioration of the power of the Church are mentioned in these extracts? 

   ​

2. According to the authors, who was to blame for the deterioration of the power of the Church in the Late Middle Ages?

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

Source analysis

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

​SOURCE A

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries witnessed the failure of the Church of the Middle Ages to meet any longer the conscious requirements of the nation. It may be questioned how far the loss of moral and intellectual leadership by the Church was due to greater corruption or inefficiency than of old. It was not so much that the clergy had sunk as that the laity had risen. […] In the Late Middle Ages, though neither laity nor clergy led very reputable lives, there was a more widely diffused standard of civilized conduct, much more learning and a more intellectual outlook. It was a sign less of clerical decadence than of general progress that a new generation of laymen were alienated by abuses in the Church that were not new.

(Adapted from Trevelyan, 1959, p. 244)

​SOURCE B

The danger from Lollardy was both too great and not great enough; it was not great enough to force the Church to set her house in order, but was enough to scare most of the clergy into a defence of the established order. The result was a strengthening of the status quo, with all its abuses, for the ecclesiastical authorities believed that if one began to tamper with the fabric of the Church, however convincing the arguments for such action, the whole edifice might eventually crash. It is easier for us than for them to see that such a die-hard attitude might produce the very revolution which was feared.

(Adapted from Myers, 1963, p. 174)

The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries witnessed the failure of the Church of the Middle Ages to meet any longer the conscious requirements of the nation. It may be questioned how far the loss of moral and intellectual leadership by the Church was due to greater corruption or inefficiency than of old. It was not so much that the clergy had sunk as that the laity had risen. […] In the Late Middle Ages, though neither laity nor clergy led very reputable lives, there was a more widely diffused standard of civilized conduct, much more learning and a more intellectual outlook. It was a sign less of clerical decadence than of general progress that a new generation of laymen were alienated by abuses in the Church that were not new.

(Adapted from Trevelyan, 1959, p. 244)

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

The danger from Lollardy was both too great and not great enough; it was not great enough to force the Church to set her house in order, but was enough to scare most of the clergy into a defence of the established order. The result was a strengthening of the status quo, with all its abuses, for the ecclesiastical authorities believed that if one began to tamper with the fabric of the Church, however convincing the arguments for such action, the whole edifice might eventually crash. It is easier for us than for them to see that such a die-hard attitude might produce the very revolution which was feared.

(Adapted from Myers, 1963, p. 174)

The position of the Church in the Early and Late Middle Ages

To what extent did the Church hold the monopoly over education in the

Early and Late Middle Ages?​

Education in the Early and Late Middle Ages

Education in the Early and Late Middle Ages

Education in the Early and Late Middle Ages

​Bibliography:

Gaunt, W. A Concise History of English Painting. Introduction. Chapter I.

Penoyre, J. and M. Ryan. The Observer’s Book of Architecture. Introduction. Part I, Chapters I,  II, III, IV, V.

Plummer, R. Illuminated Manuscripts​

Stokstad, M. Art History.

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