Religion - the Church's Social Role

Benefactors

Benefactors

• The dying would often leave money to the parish church to reduce the time the benefactor would spend in purgatory

• Would leave money for the foundation of chantries

• Chapels where Masses for the souls of the dead took place

Confraternity

• Groups of men who gathered together in association with the parish Church to provide money for funeral coasts, pay chaplains for Masses and to make charitable donations

• These religious guilds were extremely popular

• Wealthier guilds could be sources of local patronage and power

Pilgrimages

• A way an individual could gain relief from purgatory

• Could involve visiting the tomb of a saint

• However there were vast numbers of pilgrimage sites

• Rogation Sunday - pilgrimage to ward of evil spirits and reinforce the parish property

• This event emphasises the importance of the parish as the key focus of local community

Importance of individual religious experience

• Should not be underestimated despite religion being emphasised as a social activity

• Henry VII’s mother, Margaret Beaufort believed in the personal communication of the individual with God