Y304: the Church and Medieval Heresy C.1100-1437 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y304: the Church and Medieval Heresy C.1100-1437

140 questions
13 subtopics
Thematic study and historical interpretations, one of twenty-one
Y301 to Y321

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. 140 recall questions across 13 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y304: the Church and Medieval Heresy C.1100-1437

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The causes and nature of the heretical movements: condition of the medieval Church

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

Show the 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.
The causes and nature of the heretical movements: strategy and organisation of the movements

Who were the Fraticelli?

Show the answer
They were rigorist Franciscans in Italy who refused to abandon the doctrine of the absolute poverty of Christ and the apostles after the papacy condemned it, and who were declared heretics for that refusal.
Support for heretical movements: leadership, contrasting aims and reasons for failure

What is the fundamental difference between the Cathars and the Waldensians?

Show the answer
The Cathars were dualists who rejected the material creation and the whole Catholic sacramental system, while the Waldensians were orthodox in doctrine and dissented over preaching, scripture and the moral authority of the clergy.
The impact of heretical movements upon the medieval Church: response of the medieval church

How did heresy change the structure of the Church's authority?

Show the answer
It produced a permanent apparatus of inquiry independent of the bishops, the systematic use of confiscation and the secular arm, and a body of papal legislation binding rulers to persecute, all of which strengthened the papacy relative to both bishops and princes.
Maintenance of church authority: popular support for the Catholic Church and Medieval Inquisition

How did the Franciscans strengthen the Church's hold on the laity?

Show the answer
By preaching in the vernacular in towns, hearing confessions and living conspicuously poor lives, they gave the laity the model of evangelical poverty they admired from within the Church rather than outside it.
Depth study: John Wycliffe and the Lollards to c.1420 — Wycliffe’s views and writings

What did the Blackfriars Council of 1382 do?

Show the answer
It condemned a list of conclusions drawn from Wycliffe's teaching as heretical or erroneous, and was followed by measures to purge his supporters from Oxford and to authorise the arrest of unlicensed preachers.
Depth study: The Mendicant Orders — St Dominic and his approach to the Cathars

How and when were the Dominicans founded as an order?

Show the answer
Dominic gathered a small community of preachers at Toulouse under the local bishop in 1215, and the order was confirmed by Honorius III in 1216 and given its title as the Order of Preachers.
Depth study: The Mendicant Orders — St Francis and impact of the Mendicant Orders on the towns

Why did the friars settle where they did in towns?

Show the answer
They chose suburbs, poor quarters and market districts where population was growing and parish provision was weakest, so their houses cluster in exactly the areas the older orders had neglected.

The 13 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The causes and nature of the heretical movements: condition of the medieval Church	Recall questions on the condition of the medieval Church.	9
The causes and nature of the heretical movements: strategy and organisation of the movements	Recall questions on the strategy and organisation of the movements.	11
Support for heretical movements: Nature of the support	Recall questions on nature of the support: gender, social class and age.	8
Support for heretical movements: leadership, contrasting aims and reasons for failure	Recall 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.	12
The impact of heretical movements upon the medieval Church: response of the medieval church	Recall questions on the response of the medieval church to the threat of heresy at the time.	20
Maintenance of church authority: Propaganda produced against heresy and punishments	Recall questions on propaganda produced against heresy, individual clerical responses, preaching tours, Church councils and punishments.	8
Maintenance of church authority: popular support for the Catholic Church and Medieval Inquisition	Recall questions on popular support for the Catholic Church, counter-movements, creation of spiritual orders and the Medieval Inquisition.	12
Depth study: John Wycliffe and the Lollards to c.1420 — Wycliffe’s views and writings	Recall 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.	10
Depth study: John Wycliffe and the Lollards to c.1420 — responses to Wycliffe’s writings and preaching	Recall 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.	10
Depth study: The Mendicant Orders — St Dominic and his approach to the Cathars	Recall questions on St Dominic and his approach to the Cathars, the founding of the Dominicans as a preaching order, the Dominicans and the universities.	8
Depth study: The Mendicant Orders — St Francis and impact of the Mendicant Orders on the towns	Recall 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.	12
Depth study: Huss and the Hussites 1400–1436 — Hus, the influence of Wycliffe and the Council of Constance	Recall 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.	8
Depth study: Huss and the Hussites 1400–1436 — the Hussite revolution, wars and settlement	Recall 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.	12

Y304: the Church and Medieval Heresy C.1100-1437 is 140 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.