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Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437

  • 13 subtopics
  • 29 things to know
  • Unit group 3
  • Thematic study and interpretations, one unit of twenty-one

What Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437 covers

The Church and Medieval Heresy C.1100–1437 is unit Y304 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-one options in unit group 3, the thematic study and historical interpretations; a student sits one of them. Its four key topics and three depth studies are the causes and nature of the heretical movements, support for heretical movements, the impact of heretical movements upon the medieval Church, maintenance of church authority, John Wycliffe and the Lollards to c.1420, the Mendicant Orders, Huss and the Hussites 1400–1436. 332 recall questions across 13 subtopics.

Where it is assessed

Unit group 3

Thematic study and historical interpretations, one unit of twenty-one.

Check the OCR specification ↗

The 13 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Describe the organisation of the Cathar church.

Evaluation

How far was Jan Hus simply a follower of Wycliffe?

Key term

Outline the intellectual developments that contributed to the emergence of heresy.

Who and when

Why did women feature prominently in several heretical movements?

Who and when

What part did age and family play in transmitting heresy?

Who and when

What forms did anti-heresy propaganda take, and what were they for?

Key term

What did the Fourth Lateran Council require of bishops and secular rulers concerning heresy?

Who and when

Who protected Wycliffe politically, and why?

Key term

How have historians disagreed about the institutionalisation of the Franciscans?

Who and when

How did Bohemia respond to the execution of Hus?

Key term

What happened at Domažlice in 1431?

Numbers

How did the Council of Basle bring the war to an end, and what were the Compacts of 1436?

Evaluation

Why did geography help some movements survive and doom others?

Numbers

Who led the crusade in Languedoc, and how did the war end?

Evaluation

Why did the crusade not by itself destroy Catharism?

Evaluation

Why does the strength of popular orthodoxy matter for explaining the failure of heresy?

Process

How did the papacy use counter-movements to absorb potential heretics?

Numbers

What was Oldcastle's revolt, and what did it change?

Key term

Which abuses in the condition of the medieval Church gave heretics their opening?

Key term

Which social groups supported Catharism in Languedoc?

Numbers

How and when were the Dominicans founded as an order?

Key term

Name two great Dominican scholars and their importance.

Key term

Distinguish the Spirituals from the Conventuals.

Key term

Give three signs of the growth of lay piety from the twelfth century.

Key term

Which social groups formed the backbone of Waldensianism?

Key term

Which groups supported the Hussites?

Key term

What happened at Béziers in 1209?

Key term

What pastoral reform of 1215 had the widest effect on ordinary laypeople?

Key term

Describe the forms taken by popular support for the Catholic Church.

Take Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • Waldensians vs Cathars

    Waldensians: the followers of a Lyon merchant who preached apostolic poverty and were condemned for unlicensed preaching. Cathars: the dualist believers of the Languedoc, organised under bishops with an elite of the perfect.

  • Fraticelli vs Lollard knights

    Fraticelli: the rigorist Franciscans who insisted on absolute poverty against papal rulings. Lollard knights: the courtiers suspected of protecting Wycliffite preachers under Richard II.

  • Utraquism vs Twelve Conclusions

    Utraquism: the demand that the laity receive the wine as well as the bread at communion. Twelve Conclusions: the manifesto presented to parliament in 1395 attacking clerical wealth, celibacy and images.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Define heresy as the medieval Church understood it.

    Model answer

    It was the obstinate holding of a belief contrary to defined Catholic doctrine by a baptised person who refused correction, which distinguished it from simple error or from the unbelief of Jews and Muslims.

  2. 2

    Which abuses in the condition of the medieval Church gave heretics their opening?

    Model answer

    The wealth and landholding of the higher clergy, simony, clerical concubinage, absenteeism and pluralism, and the ignorance and poverty of many parish priests.

  3. 3

    Explain the paradox by which Church reform helped to produce heresy.

    Model answer

    The reform movement taught the laity to expect a pure, celibate and unworldly clergy, so when reform stalled the laity used the Church's own standards to condemn it and to justify seeking the sacraments elsewhere.

  4. 4

    How did the geo-political structure of medieval Europe encourage heresy in some regions?

    Model answer

    Heresy took root where central authority was weak or divided, above all in Languedoc under counts who could not or would not coerce their vassals, and in the self-governing city communes of Lombardy, whose literate artisans, trade routes and weak parish provision made them ideal ground for preachers and texts.

  5. 5

    What is meant by the vita apostolica, and why was it so dangerous?

    Model answer

    It was the ideal of living as the apostles had lived, in voluntary poverty and itinerant preaching; it was dangerous because laymen who adopted it began preaching without licence and implicitly condemned the wealthy clergy who had not.

  6. 6

    Give three signs of the growth of lay piety from the twelfth century.

    Model answer

    The spread of confraternities and lay religious associations, growing demand for preaching and for scripture in the vernacular, and the popularity of voluntary poverty among urban laypeople.

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Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437 revision questions

What does Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437 cover in OCR A-Level History A?
13 subtopics: the causes and nature of the heretical movements: condition of the medieval church, the causes and nature of the heretical movements: strategy and organisation of the movements, support for heretical movements: nature of the support, support for heretical movements: leadership, contrasting aims and reasons for failure, the impact of heretical movements upon the medieval church: response of the medieval church, maintenance of church authority: propaganda produced against heresy and punishments, maintenance of church authority: popular support for the catholic church and medieval inquisition, depth study: john wycliffe and the lollards to c.1420 — wycliffe’s views and writings, depth study: john wycliffe and the lollards to c.1420 — responses to wycliffe’s writings and preaching, depth study: the mendicant orders — st dominic and his approach to the cathars, depth study: the mendicant orders — st francis and impact of the mendicant orders on the towns, depth study: huss and the hussites 1400–1436 — hus, the influence of wycliffe and the council of constance and depth study: huss and the hussites 1400–1436 — the hussite revolution, wars and settlement. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437 organised?
By the OCR H505 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437, on a schedule.

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