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AQA A-LEVEL (7042)HIS2D – Religious Conflict and the Church in England, c1529–1570________________________________________________________________MODEL ESSAY: Section B (Essay)-8032752900320‘In the early sixteenth century, the Church was more important in the lives of the wealthy than those of the poor’. Assess the validity of this view.-8382007748730578421535179000The importance of the Church cannot be overestimated: as the vivid images of hell in stained-glass reminded its parishioners, the Church offered salvation and deliverance from evil. To answer this question, it is important to consider what the word ‘important’ means, for example in terms of importance to people’s physical wellbeing, spiritual wellbeing, financial wellbeing, and social life, for example, as the Church may be important in different ways for different social groups. It is my position that, on balance, the Church was more important in the lives of the poor than the rich, because their economic and social needs that the Church helped to fulfil were much greater.56942182727040582266322099640582856311539790-83820013974620The poor’s physical needs of shelter, healthcare, clothing and food could often be met through the Church. Such needs are basic to human survival, suggesting that the Church was very important indeed to poor people in the early 1500s. A parish church could provide shelter for people and animals in times of severe weather, a service invaluable to the poor, yet unnecessary for the rich in their more secure homes. Monks, friars, priors and nuns provided elementary healthcare for the sick in nearby communities; they were at the forefront of the fight against disease due to their medical knowledge, acquired from Greek texts. This care would have been fairly easily accessible, as most parishes were less than four miles from a monastery (there were more than 850 across the country). Some monasteries also provided employment for poor labourers, through their activities of sheep-farming and cultivating arable land. Consequently, in the absence of modern benefits or pensions systems, the Church was extremely important in the lives of the poor. The wealthy, on the other hand, could nearly always meet their needs elsewhere through their resources and assets. 578089712659230-82804010769600A lesser human need than shelter and food, although very important nonetheless, is the opportunity to socialise with other members of the community. First, the parish church would have been the most magnificent building that the vast majority of poor people would ever see: the opportunity to socialise in this space would have provided a welcome sense of richness in a life otherwise filled with hardship and toil. Furthermore, without having the funds to entertain at home, unlike the rich, the poor would also use the church as an opportunity to socialise. There were no pews in parish churches, allowing the congregation to move about and speak to one another, and markets and village meetings were conducted inside. Furthermore, some chaplains (including chantry chaplains) were involved in elementary education. As a result of these opportunities for socialisation and education, the Church was an important place for the poor to be involved with their local community. Unlike the wealthy, who could hold dinners in their lavish houses, or (for the higher nobility) meet at court, the poor were more in need of a space to come together. Indeed, the wealthy often had a private confessor, which again isolated them from the same space as the generality of Christians. -849507-1681320It is important to note, however, that the Church also held important opportunities to meet the needs of wealthy, despite the fact that those needs were arguably less desperate or critical than those of the poor. The Church offered the wealthy more, and arguably more ‘powerful’, ways of achieving salvation. They were able to afford indulgences and holy relics and do more ‘good works’. For example, the wealthy could afford to go on pilgrimages to holy places such as Canterbury, to visit shrine for Thomas Becket, or to Walsingham to visit the Virgin Mary. The very wealthy even asked others to go on pilgrimages for them. The wealthy also gave gold and silver, vestments, altar cloths, service books and processional banners to parish churches in order to impress other members of the community with their wealth and piety.5744210-124079005787267118837205781040123720-8280406330950Wealthy individuals were also able to donate land and gold to monasteries in order for monks to say prayers for the dead, hoping that this would allow their soul to move on from purgatory and ascend to heaven. Several wealthy families owned personal chantry chapels for masses to be said for their souls in perpetuity. Many chantries were grandiose affairs, centred on magnificent tombs, while others converted an entire parish church into a college of chantry priests, such as Richard, Duke of Gloucester, in 1478. Therefore, it is evident that the Church offered some valuable opportunities to meet the spiritual needs of the wealthy, although I would argue that this was less important than meeting the physical needs of the poor, since there were cheaper ways to attain salvation, such as through prayer.58050556681350-838200187040Another opportunity provided by the Church to the wealthy was that of promoting and assisting in education and learning. Monks were valued for providing education to the sons of the nobility and gentry, for example. I will concede that this was an important facility for the wealthy, yet the parish church was less important than monasteries in this regard. After the invention of the printing press in 1450, the wealthy could purchase a Bible or Book of Hours to read at home, rather than have to listen to a priest. Therefore, the opportunities for the Church to facilitate learning among the wealthy was arguably declining in the early sixteenth century, implying that the physical Church was less important in consequence. -817418112280058067471638300Finally, one could argue that, in terms of piety, the Church was equally important to both wealthy and poor in many aspects. Prayer costs nothing, and both poor and rich participated in receiving the seven sacraments of the Church. The Church provided the religious basis of the secular laws of the country, which had to be obeyed by all of the king’s subjects. Furthermore, the tithe was applied to everyone. Consequently, wealth and status are not relevant to the Church’s importance in several aspects of an individual’s religious life in the early 1500s.58580592225980-74097924005200In conclusion, there is more persuasive evidence to suggest that the Church was more important to the poor than the wealthy, due to the fact that their needs were greater and their means were poorer. It could be argued that the Church was not important to the lives of either, although this would be to overlook the way in which the liturgical year structured Early Modern rhythms of life. Whilst the wealthy were better able to afford to do ‘good works’, their motivation was mainly for personal salvation. The impact of the Church upon their social and economic life was minimal. The ‘lower orders’, who were more greatly in need of shelter, healthcare, food and clothing, were the more important beneficiaries of the early modern Church, which offered care for them in this life, not just the after-life. ................
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