Hello, historians, my name is Ms. Krijnauw and welcome to this lesson about Christianity in Western Europe.

This lesson is part of a series entitled the Romans: what is the story of Christianity's rise? It is my job to support you with the learning materials and resources so that by the end of this lesson, you can describe some of the features of the Western Christian Church.

Before we start the lesson, I'd like to introduce you to some key words.

These are words that will come up during the lesson and understanding their meaning will help you make sense of the learning in this lesson.

You might wanna take a note of these words so that you can refer back to your notes when we encounter them in the lesson.

The words are counsel, Constantinople, supremacy, monk, nun.

Let's find out what these words mean.

A council is a group of people that meet to give advice or make decisions.

Constantinople was the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

To have supremacy is to have ultimate power and authority.

A monk is a man who devotes his life to a religion and gives up regular, worldly life.

And a nun is a woman who devotes her life to a religion and gives up regular, worldly life.

You could pause the video here to make a note of these words and when you are ready to continue with the lesson, press play.

This lesson about Christianity in Western Europe is divided into three learning cycles.

The first learning cycle is entitled Early Church Organisation.

In the early days of the Christian Church, people gathered together in groups to pray and learn about the teachings of Jesus Christ, but they didn't have a strict way of organising their groups.

When Emperor Constantine came into power and made it legal for people to be Christians in the Roman Empire, the early church became more organised and this made a huge impact on the Christian community.

The early church was organised with leaders in charge of different groups.

These leaders were called bishops, presbyters, and deacons, and each had special roles.

They made sure that the church was organised and that everything ran smoothly.

The bishop was the leader of the Christians and he was in charge of the Christian presbyters and the deacons.

He organised the activities of the church and looked after all the priests in his area.

Presbyters were priests who were in charge of their own churches and their own congregations.

Congregations were groups of people who gathered together to learn and pray.

Presbyters helped teach and interpret the teachings of Jesus Christ to ensure that the members of the community understood and followed the Christian faith.

Presbyters led the church services, talked about Christianity in their sermons and explained all about the Christian faith to new people who wanted to join.

The deacon's main job was to help the presbyters to make sure that the church ran smoothly.

They also helped the people in the congregation by doing charitable work, such as helping the sick and giving food to the poor.

Deacons were expected to show everyone how to be good Christians.

They were supposed to act in a way that followed the teachings of Jesus and to be kind and helpful to others.

By doing this, they wanted to inspire people and show them what it meant to live like a true Christian.

Let's check our understanding of what we have just learned.

Rank the early Christian Church leaders according to importance, with one being the most important.

So they are presbyter, deacon, bishop.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answers, press play.

Let's investigate the answer.

The most important leader in the Christian Church was the bishop followed by the presbyter, and lastly, the deacon.

Well done if have you got that right? We are now ready for the first learning task of this lesson.

It says, match the church leader to their job description by ticking the correct column.

Assist the presbyter and do charitable work.

Lead the Christians, the presbyters and the deacons.

Lead the church services and sermons.

So tick these statements according to whether they are the just job description for bishop, presbyter or deacon.

Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

Let's find out what the correct job description for each leader is.

It was the deacon's job to assist the presbyter and to do charitable work.

The bishop led the Christians, the presbyters and the deacons.

And lastly, the presbyter's job was to lead the church services and sermons.

Well done if you've got those correct.

We can now move on to the second learning cycle of this lesson, which is entitled Councils and Core Beliefs.

In the early years of Christianity, the church leaders gathered in councils to discuss Christianity and decide what they would teach and how it would be taught.

These meetings were important because they provided a space for church leaders to discuss and make decisions about the beliefs and teachings of Christianity.

Let's check our understanding.

A group of people that meet to give advice or make decisions is called a? A, congregation, B, Party or C, Council.

Pause the video here and when you're ready for the answer, press play.

A group of people that meet to give advice or make decisions is called a council.

Well done if you got that correct.

The goal of the council meetings was to agree on what Christians should believe.

Other words, their core beliefs.

These included the belief that there is only one God, but that he is a trinity.

In other words, a three and one.

Combining the Father, the Son who is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

By agreeing on the core beliefs of Christianity, the councils were trying to make sure that all the Christian churches would teach and believe the same thing, so that they would be peace and understanding in the Christian community.

Let's consolidate our learning.

The goal of the early Christian Councils was to decide which books to keep in the Bible.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

Well, that statement is false.

Let's give a reason why we say it's false.

In other words, let's justify our answer.

Is it because the council's me to agree on a set of core Christian beliefs or that they meet to choose bishops, presbyters, and deacons? Pause the video here and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

The goal of the early Christian councils was not to decide which books to keep in the Bible, but rather to meet to agree on a set of core Christian beliefs.

Well done if you got that correct.

And with that, we are ready for the second learning task of this lesson.

It says, solve the puzzle by filling in the missing words.

Clue number one, the church leaders gathered in meetings called, hmm.

Their goal was to agree a course set of, hmm.

For example, that God is a hmm, which means three in one.

This help keep peace and hmm in the Christian community.

Pause the video here, and when you have sold the puzzle, press play to check the answers.

Are you ready to check your answers? The first clue said the church leaders gathered in meetings called councils.

Number two, their goal was to agree a core set of beliefs.

Three, for example, that God is a trinity or three in one.

And number four, this helped keep peace and unity in the Christian community.

Well done if you got those statements correct.

In the third learning cycle of this lesson, we are going to learn about the Roman Catholic church.

After the Roman Empire split in two, the Christian Church continued to develop as in two main different areas.

In the Eastern Roman Empire with Constantinople as its capital, the Eastern Orthodox Church grew.

In the Western Roman Empire with Rome as its capital, the Roman Catholic Church developed because they now had different leaders, these different branches of Christianity developed their own traditions, beliefs, and practises over time.

In the West, the bishop of Rome, who was also known as the Pope, became the most important person in the church.

He had supremacy over the entire Christian Church in the west, meaning that he was in charge of all the other Christians in the Roman Catholic Church.

The main language of the Roman Catholic Church was Latin.

Let's check our understanding of what we have just learned.

Fill in the missing word.

The Pope had hmm, over the entire Christian Church because he had ultimate power and authority.

Pause the video here and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

The Pope had supremacy over the entire Christian Church.

Well done if you got that right.

In the western part of the Christian world, some groups of people chose to spend their entire lives serving and worshipping God.

These groups were known as monastic orders.

These monastic orders were made up of both men called monks and women who were called nuns.

The monks and nuns lived in communities in special places, separate from other people.

These places were called monasteries for monks and convents for nuns.

The monks and nuns showed how much they loved God by promising to live in a convent or monastery for the rest of their lives, and they gave up everything they owned to devote their lives to God.

Monks and nuns spent much of their time praying and learning about God.

Monks were some of the few people at this time who could read and write.

They used these skills to do important jobs like copying religious manuscripts and recording historical events.

They also helped to feed people who did not have enough food.

They looked after the sick and they taught boys who lived in the local community.

The way they lived their lives had a lasting impact on culture, education, and charity.

And there are still monks and nuns in Christianity today.

Let's consolidate what we have just learned.

Is this statement true or false? The monks of the Western Christian Church left a lasting impact on Western society.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

That statement, of course is true.

Let's justify our answer.

Is it true because without them, Christianity would not have survived as long as it has? Or B, they could read and write and recorded the historical events of the day? Pause the video here, and when you are ready for the answer, press play.

Well, the monks of the Western Christian Church left a lasting impact on Western society because they could read and write, and they recorded the historical events of the time.

Well done if you got that correct.

We have now come to the final learning task of this lesson.

It says, write one short paragraph to describe some features of the Western Christian Church.

Some useful words to include are Pope, supremacy, monastic orders, monks and nuns, monasteries and convents.

Now pause the video here to give yourself enough time to write one short paragraph.

When you are ready to reflect on the answer, press play.

Here is an example of an answer that you could have given.

In the Western Christian Church, the bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope, had supremacy over the entire Christian Church.

In addition, different monastic orders developed.

These monastic orders were made up of both monks and nuns who lived in monasteries and convents.

Monks and nuns gave up everything they own to devote their lives to God.

Well done if your answer is similar to this one and an extra well done if you manage to use all the words highlighted in blue.

We have now come to the end of this lesson about Christianity in Western Europe.

But before we go, let's summarise what we have learned.

The early Christian Church, allowed by Emperor Constantine, was organised into bishops, presbyters, and deacons.

Various councils of church leaders were held over the years to agree on core beliefs like the belief that God is a trinity.

After the establishment of Constantinople, Christianity in the Western Roman Empire developed in its own way.

The bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope, was believed to have supremacy over the Christian Church as a whole.

In the West, various monastic orders developed, made up of monks and nuns who devoted their lives to God.

Thank you for joining me on this learning adventure as we travelled back in time to learn more about Christianity in Western Europe.

I've really enjoyed supporting you with this lesson, and I hope to see you again very soon.