OCR A-Level History A H505
Y101: Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016Unit group 1
Y102: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035–1107Unit group 1
Y103: England 1199–1272Unit group 1
Y104: England 1377–1455Unit group 1
Y105: England 1445–1509: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VIIUnit group 1
Y106: England 1485–1558: The Early TudorsUnit group 1
Y107: England 1547–1603: The Later TudorsUnit group 1
Y108: The Early Stuarts and the Origins of the Civil War 1603–1660Unit group 1
Y109: The Making of Georgian Britain 1678–c.1760Unit group 1
Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783–1853Unit group 1
Y111: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour 1846–1918Unit group 1
Y112: Britain 1900–1951Unit group 1
Y113: Britain 1930–1997Unit group 1
Y201: The Rise of Islam c.550–750Unit group 2
Y202: Charlemagne 768–814Unit group 2
Y203: The Crusades and the Crusader States 1095–1192Unit group 2
Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405Unit group 2
Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445–1570Unit group 2
Y206: Spain 1469–1556Unit group 2
Y207: The German Reformation and the Rule of Charles v 1500–1559Unit group 2
Y208: Philip II 1556–1598Unit group 2
Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: Four Case StudiesUnit group 2
Y210: Russia 1645–1741Unit group 2
Y211: The Rise and Decline of the Mughal Empire in India 1526–1739Unit group 2
Y212: The American Revolution 1740–1796Unit group 2
Y213: The French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774–1815Unit group 2
Y214: France 1814–1870Unit group 2
Y215: Italy and Unification 1789–1896Unit group 2
Y216: The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890Unit group 2
Y217: Japan 1853–1937Unit group 2
Y218: International Relations 1890–1941Unit group 2
Y219: Russia 1894–1941Unit group 2
Y220: Italy 1896–1943Unit group 2
Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963Unit group 2
Y222: The Cold War in Asia 1945–1993Unit group 2
Y223: The Cold War in Europe 1941–1995Unit group 2
Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999Unit group 2
Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800Unit group 3
Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066Unit group 3
Y303: English Government and the Church 1066–1216Unit group 3
Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437Unit group 3
Y305: The Renaissance c.1400–c.1600Unit group 3
Y306: Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y307: Tudor Foreign Policy 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y308: The Catholic Reformation 1492–1610Unit group 3
Y309: The Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453–1606Unit group 3
Y310: The Development of the Nation State: France 1498–1610Unit group 3
Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783Unit group 3
Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th CenturiesUnit group 3
Y313: The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715Unit group 3
Y314: The Challenge of German Nationalism 1789–1919Unit group 3
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945Unit group 3
Y316: Britain and Ireland 1791–1921Unit group 3
Y317: China and Its Rulers 1839–1989Unit group 3
Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964Unit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992Unit group 3
Y320: From Colonialism to Independence: The British Empire 1857–1965Unit group 3
Y321: The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab SpringUnit group 3
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.
- The causes and nature of the heretical movements: condition of the medieval ChurchRecall questions on the condition of the medieval Church.Open →
- The causes and nature of the heretical movements: strategy and organisation of the movementsRecall questions on the strategy and organisation of the movements.Open →
- Support for heretical movements: Nature of the supportRecall questions on nature of the support: gender, social class and age.Open →
- Support for heretical movements: leadership, contrasting aims and reasons for failureRecall questions on Hussite support, age and family, how heretical leadership was organised, leading heretics, the differences between Cathars, Waldensians, Lollards and Hussites, and why most heresies failed.Open →
- The impact of heretical movements upon the medieval Church: response of the medieval churchRecall questions on the response of the medieval church to the threat of heresy at the time.Open →
- Maintenance of church authority: Propaganda produced against heresy and punishmentsRecall questions on propaganda produced against heresy, individual clerical responses, preaching tours, Church councils and punishments.Open →
- Maintenance of church authority: popular support for the Catholic Church and Medieval InquisitionRecall questions on popular support for the Catholic Church, counter-movements, creation of spiritual orders and the Medieval Inquisition.Open →
- Depth study: John Wycliffe and the Lollards to c.1420 — Wycliffe’s views and writingsRecall questions on Wycliffe’s views and writings, Wycliffe’s attacks on the Papacy and monasticism, political support for Wycliffe and the reasons for this support.Open →
- Depth study: John Wycliffe and the Lollards to c.1420 — responses to Wycliffe’s writings and preachingRecall questions on responses to Wycliffe’s writings and preaching, Lollardy, the beliefs of Lollards, reasons for and the extent of support, nature, geography and social composition of the support, duration of the movement.Open →
- Depth study: The Mendicant Orders — St Dominic and his approach to the CatharsRecall questions on St Dominic and his approach to the Cathars, the founding of the Dominicans as a preaching order, the Dominicans and the universities.Open →
- Depth study: The Mendicant Orders — St Francis and impact of the Mendicant Orders on the townsRecall questions on St Francis, poverty and the founding of the Franciscans and Poor Clares, the split between Spirituals and Conventionals, the impact of the Mendicant Orders on the towns.Open →
- Depth study: Huss and the Hussites 1400–1436 — Hus, the influence of Wycliffe and the Council of ConstanceRecall questions on Jan Hus, how Wycliffe’s writings took root in Bohemia, Hus’s attack on the Church, the Decree of Kutná Hora, interpretations of Hussitism, Hus’s fate at Constance and utraquism.Open →
- Depth study: Huss and the Hussites 1400–1436 — the Hussite revolution, wars and settlementRecall questions on Bohemia’s response to Hus’s death, the Defenestration, the Four Articles, Tabor, Žižka and the Hussite armies, papal and imperial hostility, Domažlice, Lipany, the Compacts of 1436 and whether the movement was a revolution.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
How far was Jan Hus simply a follower of Wycliffe?
Outline the intellectual developments that contributed to the emergence of heresy.
Why did women feature prominently in several heretical movements?
What part did age and family play in transmitting heresy?
What forms did anti-heresy propaganda take, and what were they for?
What did the Fourth Lateran Council require of bishops and secular rulers concerning heresy?
Who protected Wycliffe politically, and why?
How have historians disagreed about the institutionalisation of the Franciscans?
How did Bohemia respond to the execution of Hus?
What happened at Domažlice in 1431?
How did the Council of Basle bring the war to an end, and what were the Compacts of 1436?
Why did geography help some movements survive and doom others?
Who led the crusade in Languedoc, and how did the war end?
Why did the crusade not by itself destroy Catharism?
Why does the strength of popular orthodoxy matter for explaining the failure of heresy?
How did the papacy use counter-movements to absorb potential heretics?
What was Oldcastle's revolt, and what did it change?
Which abuses in the condition of the medieval Church gave heretics their opening?
Which social groups supported Catharism in Languedoc?
How and when were the Dominicans founded as an order?
Name two great Dominican scholars and their importance.
Distinguish the Spirituals from the Conventuals.
Give three signs of the growth of lay piety from the twelfth century.
Which social groups formed the backbone of Waldensianism?
Which groups supported the Hussites?
What happened at Béziers in 1209?
What pastoral reform of 1215 had the widest effect on ordinary laypeople?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
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.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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