Religious Beliefs

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What is original sin?

The sin that everyone is born with as a result of disobedience of Adam and Eve. This meant that all people are sinners.

What is purgatory?

Unless a person had not committed any sins, purgatory was the place where the souls of the dead would be judged before going to heaven as a place of purification. Time spent in purgatory was dependent on prayers said for the dead and the good works they did whilst alive.

What were indulgences?

People could acquire indulgences to have their sins forgiven through confession and lessened through pardons.

e.g. Pilgrimages or touching the relics of a saint.

How would wealtheir people acquire indulgences?

Paid other people to go on the pilgrimages.

Who were prayers said to?

Saints when people where alive as it was said that the saint would ask God too help a person and their relatives on their behalf.

Masses for the souls of the dead were believed to reduce the time a person spent in purgatory.

Where did people want to go in the afterlife?

People wanted to reach heaven as it meant that eternity was spent in paradise with God and Christ.

People didn’t want to go to hell where they were tormented by the devil

What did people do to ensure they went to heaven?

Prayed, received sacraments, doing good works (saying prayers for the dead and gifts to the Church) and partcipation in the rituals of the Church helped them for the afterlife.

Helping the poor and going on pilgrimages

Faith and good works known as salvation could be earned through justification.

What was done to reduce time in purgatory?

Masses were chanted in chantry chapels, prayers were said for the souls of the dead, people could send gifts to the Church, join a guild, view holy relics, pilgrimages, indulgences and praying to saints.

Parishioners would light candles around statues for the Virgin Mary and local saints

What was mass?

The sacrament of the Eucharist where the priest blesses bread and wine and through prayers this bread and wine is transformed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ

What is a transubstantiation?

Implies that the substance of bread and wine is miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

What is justification?

An individual can go to heaven through faith and good works, the action of declaring our faith in God.

Pilgrimages

Pilgrimages were example of good works to reduce time spent in purgatory and demonstrated faith or penance.

Could visit the tomb of a saint e.g. Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury or to a shrine where they were reported visions of saints e.g. Virgin Mary at Walsingham in Norfolk

Wealthy would acquire relics of saints and prayed at the tombs

Pilgrimages to tombs were regarded as an indulgence and reduced the time a person spent in purgatory.

Some pilgrimages were made to seek a miraculous cure for an illness

What were sacraments?

These were religious ceremonies which were outward signs of God’s grace and inward signs of faith. They took place throughout a persons life from birth to death.

Mass - when the priest caried out a re-enactment of the Last Supper

Baptism - When children are cleansed of orignal sin

Confirmation - young people are confirmed members of the Church

Marriage - when 2 people were joined together by the priest

Ordination - When a man became a priest

Confession - When a person told their sins to a priest and told to do penance

Mass - when the priest caried out a re-enactment of the Last Supper and where transubstantiation occurred.

Last Rites - When the dying were anointed with holy oil

Were their changes in religious beliefs?

Looking at a range of materials from court records to churchwardens accounts to wills and artefacts, their were groups who supported the changes in religion such as additions to the will in Protestant views.

In East Anglia, there was great investment in churches and there was little opposition to religious change. This suggests that people support the Church but not the beliefs.

However, it could be argued there were great support for beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church.