Religious Conflict & the Church in England,
c1529–c1570
Comprehensive Evidence Bank — AQA 2D
How to use this: Each block has the evidence (statistics, dates, names, places) followed by PROVES: — what
arguments that evidence supports. Use it as flexible ammunition: most evidence can be turned multiple ways
depending on the essay angle.
---
PART 1 — THE CHURCH IN c1529
1A. The Church's role in government
• Wolsey held Archbishop of York (1515), Lord Chancellor (1515), Cardinal (1515), and legatus a latere —
meaning he could act on the Pope's behalf in England. Single most powerful royal adviser; controlled
domestic government and foreign policy through 1520s.
• Bishops sat in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual — the upper house of Parliament was structurally
dependent on senior clergy.
• Church courts handled wills/probate, tithes, moral offences (slander, adultery), and heresy. They could
fine, imprison, and (for heresy alone) burn. A parallel legal system to the Crown's.
• Church taxation streams flowed to Rome: Annates (first year's revenue of new bishop), Peter's Pence
(annual tax), First Fruits and Tenths.
• The coronation oath required anointing by the Archbishop of Canterbury — the monarch derived divine
legitimacy from the Church.
PROVES:
- Church and state were structurally interwoven — political role was substantial, not just spiritual.
- Useful for "Was the Church's role primarily political or social/spiritual c1529?" — argue it was both, but the
political dimension is undeniable given Wolsey's position.
- The infrastructure was so deep that breaking with Rome (1529–36) required dismantling parallel systems
of taxation and law, not just a doctrinal shift.
Page 1
,1B. The Church's wealth and economic role
• 850+ religious houses in England when Henry VIII acceded in 1509.
• Most parishes were within 4 miles of a monastery or priory.
• Monastic income examples (annual gross, Valor Ecclesiasticus 1535):
- Glastonbury (Benedictine): £3,912
- Canterbury (Benedictine): £3,642
- Syon (Bridgettine nuns): £1,943
- Fountains (Cistercian): £1,178
• Tithes = 10% of parish income paid to clergy annually.
• Mortuary fees charged on burial of a person.
• Monasteries were major producers of wool and iron, employed lay brothers, and gave education to gentry
sons.
PROVES:
- Church property was greater than any king's — explains the financial pull of Dissolution (1536–40).
- Economic dependency on the Church was deeply embedded in local communities — helps explain
northern resistance (Pilgrimage of Grace) where monasteries provided employment, hospitality, and care.
- Wealth itself was a source of criticism — fed anti-clerical complaints exploited by Cromwell from 1532
onward.
1C. Popular piety and the spiritual role
• The Mass and transubstantiation were central to lay belief: bread and wine became Christ's body and
blood at the priest's blessing.
• Seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, confession, the Mass, last rites.
• Purgatory, indulgences, prayers for the dead — wealthy laity funded chantry chapels to shorten time in
purgatory; less wealthy joined lay guilds to share in collective masses.
• Pilgrimages to Walsingham (Norfolk), Canterbury (Becket's tomb), Santiago de Compostela.
• Roger Martyn's account of Long Melford, Suffolk, 1530s: describes Corpus Christi processions, beating
the bounds at Rogation, bonfires at midsummer — daily life shaped by the liturgical calendar.
• Books of Hours widely owned by laity; printing made these affordable.
• Wills routinely left money to the parish church, candles for images, masses for the soul (e.g. Thomas
Foldyngton, 1530).
PROVES:
Page 2
, - Religion structured everyday life — explains why Edwardian iconoclasm (image removal, 1548) and the
dissolution of chantries (1547) sparked rebellion.
- The intensity of popular piety means that arguments claiming "England was already heading Protestant"
before 1529 (A.G. Dickens) are weak. Eamon Duffy's revisionism: traditional religion was vibrant, not
decayed.
- Useful counter to the view that religion was just a "veneer" — for the laity it was the medium for
understanding the entire world.
1D. The critics: Lollards, Humanists, Lutherans
#### Lollards
• Followers of John Wycliffe (1320–84). Believed in Bible in English, individual access to scripture, rejected
transubstantiation, predestination.
• By 1529: an underground movement, mostly literate craftsmen and merchants. Identified groups around
High Wycombe (wood-turning trade).
• John Pykas executed for Lollard beliefs, 1527 — confessed to using English-language Pauline epistles
given by his mother.
• Historian Richard Rex disputes continuity of an organised Lollard movement — likely scattered radical
individuals rather than a coherent network.
#### Humanists (the largest reform-minded group)
• Erasmus (Dutchman) — biblical scholarship, satirical critique of corruption, friend of More.
• Thomas More (1478–1535) — Utopia (1516); Lord Chancellor 1529–32.
• John Colet, Dean of St Paul's — preached the Convocation Sermon, February 1512, calling for clerical
reform: residence, anti-simony laws.
• Humanists wanted reform from within Catholicism, not separation. They challenged practices, not core
doctrine.
#### Lutherans
• Earliest Lutheran ideas in England: Oxford bookseller sold 12 Luther books in 1520; public burning of
Lutheran books in Cambridge, 1520.
• William Tyndale's English Bible printed 1526 (in Antwerp, smuggled in). Tyndale executed for heresy
1536.
• Simon Fish, A Supplication for the Beggars, 1529 — attacked Church wealth, called for Crown
supremacy.
• Henry VIII himself attacked Luther in Defence of the Seven Sacraments — granted title 'Defender of the
Faith' (1521) by Pope Leo X.
Page 3
c1529–c1570
Comprehensive Evidence Bank — AQA 2D
How to use this: Each block has the evidence (statistics, dates, names, places) followed by PROVES: — what
arguments that evidence supports. Use it as flexible ammunition: most evidence can be turned multiple ways
depending on the essay angle.
---
PART 1 — THE CHURCH IN c1529
1A. The Church's role in government
• Wolsey held Archbishop of York (1515), Lord Chancellor (1515), Cardinal (1515), and legatus a latere —
meaning he could act on the Pope's behalf in England. Single most powerful royal adviser; controlled
domestic government and foreign policy through 1520s.
• Bishops sat in the House of Lords as Lords Spiritual — the upper house of Parliament was structurally
dependent on senior clergy.
• Church courts handled wills/probate, tithes, moral offences (slander, adultery), and heresy. They could
fine, imprison, and (for heresy alone) burn. A parallel legal system to the Crown's.
• Church taxation streams flowed to Rome: Annates (first year's revenue of new bishop), Peter's Pence
(annual tax), First Fruits and Tenths.
• The coronation oath required anointing by the Archbishop of Canterbury — the monarch derived divine
legitimacy from the Church.
PROVES:
- Church and state were structurally interwoven — political role was substantial, not just spiritual.
- Useful for "Was the Church's role primarily political or social/spiritual c1529?" — argue it was both, but the
political dimension is undeniable given Wolsey's position.
- The infrastructure was so deep that breaking with Rome (1529–36) required dismantling parallel systems
of taxation and law, not just a doctrinal shift.
Page 1
,1B. The Church's wealth and economic role
• 850+ religious houses in England when Henry VIII acceded in 1509.
• Most parishes were within 4 miles of a monastery or priory.
• Monastic income examples (annual gross, Valor Ecclesiasticus 1535):
- Glastonbury (Benedictine): £3,912
- Canterbury (Benedictine): £3,642
- Syon (Bridgettine nuns): £1,943
- Fountains (Cistercian): £1,178
• Tithes = 10% of parish income paid to clergy annually.
• Mortuary fees charged on burial of a person.
• Monasteries were major producers of wool and iron, employed lay brothers, and gave education to gentry
sons.
PROVES:
- Church property was greater than any king's — explains the financial pull of Dissolution (1536–40).
- Economic dependency on the Church was deeply embedded in local communities — helps explain
northern resistance (Pilgrimage of Grace) where monasteries provided employment, hospitality, and care.
- Wealth itself was a source of criticism — fed anti-clerical complaints exploited by Cromwell from 1532
onward.
1C. Popular piety and the spiritual role
• The Mass and transubstantiation were central to lay belief: bread and wine became Christ's body and
blood at the priest's blessing.
• Seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, marriage, ordination, confession, the Mass, last rites.
• Purgatory, indulgences, prayers for the dead — wealthy laity funded chantry chapels to shorten time in
purgatory; less wealthy joined lay guilds to share in collective masses.
• Pilgrimages to Walsingham (Norfolk), Canterbury (Becket's tomb), Santiago de Compostela.
• Roger Martyn's account of Long Melford, Suffolk, 1530s: describes Corpus Christi processions, beating
the bounds at Rogation, bonfires at midsummer — daily life shaped by the liturgical calendar.
• Books of Hours widely owned by laity; printing made these affordable.
• Wills routinely left money to the parish church, candles for images, masses for the soul (e.g. Thomas
Foldyngton, 1530).
PROVES:
Page 2
, - Religion structured everyday life — explains why Edwardian iconoclasm (image removal, 1548) and the
dissolution of chantries (1547) sparked rebellion.
- The intensity of popular piety means that arguments claiming "England was already heading Protestant"
before 1529 (A.G. Dickens) are weak. Eamon Duffy's revisionism: traditional religion was vibrant, not
decayed.
- Useful counter to the view that religion was just a "veneer" — for the laity it was the medium for
understanding the entire world.
1D. The critics: Lollards, Humanists, Lutherans
#### Lollards
• Followers of John Wycliffe (1320–84). Believed in Bible in English, individual access to scripture, rejected
transubstantiation, predestination.
• By 1529: an underground movement, mostly literate craftsmen and merchants. Identified groups around
High Wycombe (wood-turning trade).
• John Pykas executed for Lollard beliefs, 1527 — confessed to using English-language Pauline epistles
given by his mother.
• Historian Richard Rex disputes continuity of an organised Lollard movement — likely scattered radical
individuals rather than a coherent network.
#### Humanists (the largest reform-minded group)
• Erasmus (Dutchman) — biblical scholarship, satirical critique of corruption, friend of More.
• Thomas More (1478–1535) — Utopia (1516); Lord Chancellor 1529–32.
• John Colet, Dean of St Paul's — preached the Convocation Sermon, February 1512, calling for clerical
reform: residence, anti-simony laws.
• Humanists wanted reform from within Catholicism, not separation. They challenged practices, not core
doctrine.
#### Lutherans
• Earliest Lutheran ideas in England: Oxford bookseller sold 12 Luther books in 1520; public burning of
Lutheran books in Cambridge, 1520.
• William Tyndale's English Bible printed 1526 (in Antwerp, smuggled in). Tyndale executed for heresy
1536.
• Simon Fish, A Supplication for the Beggars, 1529 — attacked Church wealth, called for Crown
supremacy.
• Henry VIII himself attacked Luther in Defence of the Seven Sacraments — granted title 'Defender of the
Faith' (1521) by Pope Leo X.
Page 3
