7.1.2

The Church

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The Church

The Church was very important in the way the country was run. It was powerful due to the involvement of churchmen in politics, education and land ownership.

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Bishops

  • All of the bishops in England also sat in the House of Lords, and therefore influence which laws could be passed.
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Land

  • The Church owned about 1/3 of the land in England. This made it incredibly powerful and influential.
  • This land would produce goods and taxes for the King, as well as giving jobs to the peasants who worked on it.
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King's advisors

  • Many of the top churchmen worked in government to advise the King.
  • Lower down, it would be Church-trained clerks who would do all of the paperwork necessary to run the country. For example, the Treasury and law courts.
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Education

  • Churches were often the only place of education available to the public.
  • The Church could teach boys how to read and write in Latin, to train them to become priests.
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Libraries

  • The Church also ran the majority of libraries and was the main place where books could be produced, carefully copied out by hand by the monks.
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The Pope

  • The Head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, had the final say on who became an Archbishop in each country.
  • They also sent special representatives, called cardinals, to make sure everything was running as it should, or to hear special law cases.
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Power of the Pope

  • The Pope was seen as having power over all of the monarchs of Europe because he was appointed by God to lead the Church.
  • We can see this power when the Holy Roman Emperors (rulers of roughly modern-day Germany) had to be approved and anointed by the Pope.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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