The Role of the Laity in the Pre-Reformation Parish - Term Paper Example

The Role of the Laity in the Pre-Reformation Parish Introduction The separation of the Church of England from Rome in the sixteenth century as been the stuff of novels and Hollywood motion pictures. After all, it was the necessary consequence of the King’s desire to take a new queen despite being already legitimately married to one under religious rites, a topic of exquisite drama and intrigue no matter what the century. However, the matter of churches and religious association at the time was also a matter of foreign policy and the power structure and struggles in the Europe of the Middle Ages. Henry VIII was personally a loyal follower of the Catholic teaching, and married to Catherine of Aragon, Spanish and Catholic. On the other side of the dramatic plot is the Protestant circle, which included Thomas Cromwell, Archbishop Cranmer, Anne Boleyn and her family. Anne’s outspoken support for protestant reform and her open desire for a break with Rome to legitimize the annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine cast her in the center of a bitter contest between those who traditionally held power and those who craved to wrest it. Had Anne born Henry a son and heir the outcome may have been different; however, the deformed son was premature and stillborn, Anne was convicted of high treason and subsequently executed, and Jane Seymour became the new queen. However, though an effort was made, Henry had not been able to make amends with the French, was excommunicated by Rome, and faced the threat of invasion by the combined might of the new alliance between France and the Holy Roman Empire As a result of Henry’s excommunication, the pope absolved all Catholics from obedience to him. Henry thus faced at home a divided populace with the apparent legitimate right to disobey him, as well as threat from outside British shores. Realizing this, Cromwell moved into action. He formed alliances with the protestant German princes, and promoted Protestantism at home, with apparent force and cruelty, by the dissolution of monasteries and by the issuance of injunctions for regulating individual parish churches.1 The laity, thus caught the crux of a religious and political paradigm shift that was to have profound repercussions on the daily lives of ordinary citizens. This discussion seeks to describe the role of the laity before and on the eve of the Reformation, in order to gain a more enlightened understanding of the implications of the day’s political upheavals in the life of the common man. Community Worship, Lay Belief and Behavior During the period preceding the Reformation, community life, particularly parish life, was paramount, and deemed to supersede personal piety. The fact that one were a member of the Church as the body of Christ elevated a layman “above all corporate souls” as evidenced by the “visible expression in local structures.”2 In truth, while collective Christianity underwent its changes and the laity’s importance as a functional group in the parish community varied in the course of time due to contrasts and conflicts, the structures of the Church remained crucial because they provided a frame of reference the wielded power among the people. The social grid within which most people functioned was defined by parish, guild, chantry and household. Healy viewed the role of the parish as the central corporate body by which the faithful associated and related with one another and with their faith, by which they defined the milestones in their lives and upon whose liturgy and ceremonies provided the framework of their social lives. Healy describes the social order within the parish as “a social universe that was stratified and liable to division,” more than unifying.3 There was nevertheless also the importance of personal piety, of private devotions that are pursued in the confines of an isolated closet or oratory, or of chantries which are institutional chapels situated in private lands, the license for which could be applied for directly from the papacy.4 Households, in particular, were considered difficult to regulate by both Catholic and Protestant reformers, because they provided a focal point for worship which, while highly orthodox, was at times avant-garde, always sensitive to social hierarchy, presided in largely and bestowed the imprint of the woman of the household, and was closely associated with the routines of domesticity. The role of the households gained importance as the fertile ground for the heterodox alternative substitute to the established communal faith; for instance, it was a network of families which supported Lollardy on the eve of the Reformation, making available their chantries in the homes of the group’s leaders. “The liturgy lay at the heart of medieval religion, and the Mass lay at the heart of the liturgy.”5 During the centuries immediately prior to the Reformation, there was a resurgent intensity of devotion to the Eucharistic sacrifice. Daily Masses were the accepted standard of devoutness, and frequent partaking of the Holy Communion was common. Easter reception of the Eucharist was likewise accorded great importance, as was the observance of ritual and acceptance of the sacraments. However, the focus was largely upon the material and economic wealth of the elite, the social class which tended to adhere more to Catholic tradition. The Clergy and the Laity; the Emergence of Lollardy On the eve of the reformation, the Catholic Church propounded the tradition of regarding its priests as a privileged class in relation to the laity, as part of the natural order. Swanson6 attributed this to Gregory the Great, for whom the salvation of souls was the “supreme craft” (ars atrium cura animarum) which was commonly accepted during the Middle Ages. The recognition of the “long-term elevation of the dignity of priesthood” was thus a common fixture not only in England but throughout medieval Europe. However, contrary to some qualities of the clergy attributed by commentaries, the synodal legislations have established as early as 1281 the pastoral benchmark in the decree Ignarantia sacerdotum. While the emphasis on sin and penance therefore is strong, the text of the decree had also likewise underpinned a religion that was practical, that was active and communal rather than covert and cerebral, that focused on community harmony as well as the salvation of the individual.7 Apparently this was a generally accepted sentiment, because prior to the Reformation there had been strong lay participation even in religious affairs. For instance, the followers of the Lollardy movement, which was regarded with scepticism and suspicion by the clergy and later on declared a heresy, were a predominantly lay movements that proliferated during the Middle Ages. Lollardy was begun by a prominent theologian named John Wycliffe who later on called for church reform, believed and espoused a lay priesthood, practiced lay participation in administration and the conduct of religious affairs, and the reading of the Bible by the laity which was regarded negatively not only by the clergy at the time, but also the subsequent Reformers who felt that empowerment of the laity tended to destabilize and endanger the proper belief in the doctrines of Protestantism.8 Lollardy and its juxtapositions with orthodox religion is discussed by Lutton9, who tended toward the opinion that the laity were far from leading a homogeneous existence. In fact, lack of fraternal cohesion has been a noted quality attributed to the group.10 He based his studies on written records of wealthier families from the Tenterden, a large parish in Kent which existed between 1480 and 1530. For the most part, the writings were composed of families’ pious petitions which largely consisted of requests for economic success for the family. Christocentricity (as against devotions to the saints, pilgrimage or mendicancy) became the innovation of the period, while largely maintaining orthodoxy.11 Reformation and the Advent of Change Duffy12 viewed the pre-reformation period as one in which the ordinary people were subjected to sudden, even coercive, religious change, when “the heart was ripped out of English popular religion by the measures introduced under Edward VI (r. 1547-53) and Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) when altars and images were destroyed and the Catholic mass was abolished.13 However, Finchman and Tyacke14 were of a contrary opinion, feeling that through a study of the same artefacts of material culture as the altars and images mentioned (together with communion tables, rails, chalices, and stained glass), one may discern a clearer indication of the disposition of the laity of the time, as that of the nature of a groundswell against papal rule and the trappings of Catholicism. The authors point to the growing body of evidence pointing to the likelihood that some eighteen London parishes demolished their altars even before the command to do so was issued in 1550. It was also plausible that the pattern was replicated in eleven other English counties, mainly on the initiative of “brewers, butchers, cloth workers, cooks, and grocers”. The authors feel that the demolition of altars was particularly telling because of its special significance to the sacrifice of the Mass: its drastic removal is an attempt to remove from the minds of “ignorant people and evil-persuaded peace” all recollection of what used to be their profound and committed devotion to the faith. Finchman and Tyacke also point out that the royal ban on all religious images and icons was issued in 1548, one year from the assumption of Edward VI of the throne. However, even months before the bank many of the churchwardens and the laity, without authorization removed all images and vestiges of Catholicism from their churches. They replaced the stone altars with wooden tables which they aligned lengthwise down the nave, to stress that it is not the same as that which it replaced, and chalices were substituted with cups. This is not to say, however, that the dissent was an action of the majority; however, a significant segment of the population had catalyzed the open “rebellion” against the traditional faith. In fact, Kaufman15 viewed the collective reference to “the people” as not the general population, but that segment of society that, while landed, false below the rank of gentry but above the poor. In modern parlance it is known as the middle class, and it was seen as the backbone of Protestantism against the attempts toward the re-Catholicizing of England which, after Edward VI, was pursued by Mary prior to Elizabeth’s accession to the throne. Conclusion From the foregoing literature survey, it is apparent that the laity of the pre-Reformation parish of England led lives that may be described as active and devoted in the faith, though class-structured and regimented by a code of rituals, ceremonies, and codes. Religious structure and dogma also dominated the structure and substance of peoples’ lives and relations. This was partly dictated by the religious hierarchy of the time, who were regarded highly and considered above the ordinary layman because of their salvific tasks. However, the regimentation is as much a creation of the nobles and gentry of the time, who favored the social distance they were accorded from the “people” (middle class) and the poor. This is also shown by the institutional chantries and private chapels, and private devotions of households that was usually dictated by the lady of the house. Because of this segmentation, the reforms introduced during the ascent of Protestant rule, while mandated by royal edicts, appears to have been as much due to a groundswell from the working class. Such groundswell was early on manifested by the emergence of Lollardy, which while considered a heresy by Catholics and a dangerous threat by the Protestants, nevertheless manifested the break-away of independent thought and an “ownership” of faith, once the exclusive domain of the priestly hierarchy. A “liberalization” of rules that thereafter allowed for the private reading of the Bible, demolition of altars and images, and other such initiatives that brought religion (and subsequent political empowerment) from the tabernacles of the elite to the ranks of the people, have created the paradigm shift that characterized laity participation during the Reformation. This understanding gives a greater appreciation of the development of a “popularization” of religion that was the hallmark of the Reformation. [WORDCOUNT=2000] BIBLIOGRAPHY Bucholz, R. O. & Key, N. (2004) Early Modern England, 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Blackwell Publishing. Carlson, E. J. (2003) Good Pastors or Careless Shepherds? Parish Ministers and the English Reformation. History, Jul2003, Vol. 88 Issue 291, p423-436 Fincham, K. & Tyacke, N. (2008) Religious Change and the Laity in England, History Today, vol. 58 issue 6 Forrest, I. (2006) Review of Lollardy and Orthodox Religion in Pre-Reformation England: Reconstructing Piety by Robert Ludlum. Early Modern, p. 573. Fritze, R. (2006) Review of Thinking of the Laity in Late Tudor England by Peter Iver Kaufman. Heal, F. (2005) Reformation in Britain and Ireland. Oxford History of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. Marshall, P. (2004) The Religious Orders in Pre-Reformation England, Studies in the History of Medieval (Book). Medieval Sermon Studies, 2004, Vol. 48, p92-94 Marshall, P. (1992) Thinking of the Laity in late Tudor England. Catholic Historical Review, Oct2006, Vol. 92 Issue 4, p676-677 Matheson, P. ed. (1992) Reformation Christianity. Thinking of the Laity in Late Tudor England. By Peter Iver Kaufman The Theology of William Tyndale. By Ralph S. Werrell. Stafford, J. K. (2005) Thinking of the Laity in Late Tudor England. Anglican Theological Review, Fall2005, Vol. 87 Issue 4, p701-703 Swanson, R. 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