Hello, and thanks for joining me today for another Oak Academy History lesson.

My name is Mrs. Knox, and today I'll be guiding you through all of the resources you need to be successful with this lesson.

So let's begin.

The lesson today is part of the AQA GCSE Historic Environment topic on Norman England.

In today's lesson, we'll be covering Norman monastic reform.

And by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to describe how monasteries were involved in Norman religious reforms. Our lesson today will use several keywords, so let's take a look at those now.

The first word we'll use in the lesson is the word order, which in this context refers to groups of monks or nuns who live together as a religious community, following a set of rules for that order.

We'll also use the term liturgy, which is the prayers and the rituals regularly carried out together by religious community or religious group.

We'll use the word celibate, which is not having sexual relationships usually for religious reasons.

Finally, we'll come across the word constitution, which is a set of principles and legal decisions which people agree to follow.

Now, our lesson today will be in three sections, so let's get started now on section one, which will cover monastic life in Norman England.

Most monks in 11th century Norman England lived according to the rules of St.

Benedict.

This meant committing to a life based on poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability.

Poverty meant no possessions.

Chastity meant giving up things that were based on pleasure, including sexual relations.

Obedience was submitting to the authority of God and the monastery.

And stability meant staying in the monastic community.

Here's a quick check of your understanding.

I'd like you to answer this question.

Monks in Norman England followed the rule of which Saint? Was it a, St.

Bede.

B, St.

Benedict.

Or C, St.

Bernard.

Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

Yes, you should have said the correct answer is B.

Monks in Norman England followed the rule of St.

Benedict.

Monastic life focused on worship and prayer.

Monks spent long periods chanting and singing the liturgy together.

The first prayers of the day, matins began at midnight.

The second prayers lauds were at 3:00 AM and the last prayers compline were at 9:00 PM, with five church services throughout the rest of the day.

At other times, monks were expected to be silent, and so they developed a type of sign language to communicate what they needed from each other while eating in the refractory, studying or working together.

There were two ways of becoming a monk in Norman England.

Men could decide to become monks.

They were known as conversi, which meant those who have turned away from the world.

Our parents could decide to send a child to be a monk.

These children were called oblates, which means offerings.

One of the most important chroniclers of Norman England, Orderic Vitalis was an oblate.

His Norman father sent him to be a monk when he was 10 years old.

Monestries used harsh discipline and the experience could be traumatising for young boys like Orderic.

When he was 52, he wrote that, "I have not seen my father since the time he drove me into exile, like a hated stepson.

I often think of these things." It's time for another quick question now.

True or false? Benedictine monks spent a lot of their time in prayer and in conducting religious services.

Press pause and then when you're ready to hear the answer, press play.

You should have said the correct answer was true.

I'd like you to pause the video once more and write an explanation about why the answer is true? You could have said as your explanation that "They attended five church services a day.

First prayers started with Matins at midnight.

Second prayers, Lauds, were at 3:00 AM.

And last prayers, Compline, were at 9:00 PM.

Finally, in this section, I'd like you to this task.

Laura has made five mistakes in her statement.

I'd like you to identify the mistakes and rewrite the passage.

Press pause to complete the task, and then press play to see what you should have written.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

Laura's statement should have read, "In the 11th century Norman England, some children were sent to monasteries by their parents.

They were called oblates, which means offerings.

Children often found life in a monastery traumatising as there was harsh discipline and their parents might never see them again.

We're now ready to move on to the second section of our lesson today.

In this section, we'll look at Lanfranc and religious reform.

In 1070, William I appointed Lanfranc as his Archbishop of Canterbury, with the remit backed by the Pope of reforming the English church.

Lanfranc loved and respected monastic life.

He had joined a monastery in Bec in Normandy in 1042.

He became an advisor to William of Normandy, who then made him abbot at Saint Stephen at Caen, Normandy.

When Lanfranc became head of English church in 1070, monasticism was at the centre of his reforms to return English life to a pure religious devotion.

For example, no more married clergy, and he wanted to see the removal of corruption in the church, and he also wanted to bring about the removal of corruption in the church such as simony, which is selling church jobs to rich nobles, nepotism and pluralism, which is having more than one leading role in the church.

Monasticism provided Lanfranc with some immediate solutions for church reforms. For example, monks were celibate, and so one way to tackle the issue of clerical marriage was to remove married clergy and replaced them with monks.

This is what William of Saint Carilef did with married church clerks at Durham, replacing them with monks from Jaro monastery in 1082.

Lanfranc also appointed foreign monks as bishops.

For instance, the first four bishops of Rochester after the conquest were all monks from France.

Lanfranc himself was a monk bishop.

These celibate men could be trusted to push through the forms and could be expected to avoid simony, pluralism and nepotism.

All right, let's have another check of your understanding now.

True or false? Lanfranc use ideas from monasticism to reform the English Church.

Press pause now and then press play to hear the correct answer.

You should have said the correct answer is true.

I'd like you to press pause now again to write your explanation as to why the answer is true? You might have said in your explanation that "Lanfranc had himself been a monk in Normandy and loved and respected monastic life.

To tackle the issue of clerical marriage, he replaced married clergy with celibate monks.

He felt that they could be better trusted to get rid of corruption within the English Church." Around 1077, Lanfranc issued his monastic constitutions.

These were regulations and guidelines for monastic life.

They included a new liturgy, instructions for how all the official positions in a monastery should be carried out, and guidance on a range of topics such as how novices, that's new monks, should be trained.

The constitutions were written for the monks at Canterbury Cathedral and the three abbeys in Canterbury over which Lanfranc had authority, but they were intended to be guidance for all English monasteries.

Lanfranc did accept that monasteries were not all the same and would do some things differently, but his main message was that they should all try as hard as they could to follow St.

Benedict's rules as closely as possible.

The fact that Lanfranc needy to write the monastic constitutions suggests that English monastic life had gone off track as Lanfranc saw it.

Here's another quick question for you now.

What did Lanfranc's constitutions provide the English Church with? Was it A, shorter versions of services and prayers? B, a list of rights and liberties for English monks? Or C, regulations and guidance for monastic life based on the Benedictine rule.

Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

Well done if you said the correct answer is C.

Lanfranc's constitutions provided the English Church with regulations and guidance for monastic life based on the Benedictine Rule.

Finally, in this section, I'd like you to complete this task.

You need to read Jacob's point of view.

And then provide three examples of corrupt practises to support his view.

Let's have a look at his point of view now.

Jacob says, "Lanfranc's reforms were necessary to make the mediaeval church more pious and respected as it become too corrupt." Press pause to think of your three examples and then press play to see what you might have written.

Welcome back.

Here are some of the examples you might have given.

"One corruption within the mediaeval English Church was simony where positions within the Church were bought and sold.

A second problem was pluralism where a person would hold more than one position within the Church.

Another issue was nepotism whereby people were appointed to positions because of people they knew within the Church.

And finally, some people believed that the Church had become impure due to the existence of married clerics." All right, let's move on now to the final section of today's lesson.

In this section we'll cover the impacts of Norman monastic reforms. There were 35 Benedictine monasteries in England in 1066.

According to some sources, this had increased to around 250 by 1135 with the number of monks increasing from around 1000 to 5,000 over the same period.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1087 states of England, the land was filled with monks living their lives after the rule of St.

Benedict.

Norman sponsored a large increase in the number of monasteries.

New orders of monks, such as the Cluniacs, were brought over to England from Normandy many by William's wealthy tenants and chief.

King William himself founded a new Abbey, later known as Battle Abbey, built by his orders on the site of the Battle of Hastings.

As well as new monasteries, the Norman rebuilt modest Anglo-Saxon monasteries, replacing them with awe-inspiring abbeys and monastic cathedrals.

These cathedrals in which an order of monks replaced the usual cathedral clergy were unique to the English Church.

Here's a quick question again.

What order of monks were brought over to England by wealthy Norman Nobleman? Was it A, the Carthusians.

B, the Franciscans.

Or C, the Cluniacs.

Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

You should have said the correct answer was C.

The Cluniacs were brought over to England by wealthy Norman Nobleman.

Across England, Norman abbots took the place of Anglo-Saxons so that by the end of Williams reign only three English abbots remained in office.

In 1075, there had been 13.

These new abbots were reformers and rebuilders and did not always have much respect for Anglo-Saxon traditions and customs. Relics of some Anglo-Saxon and Celtic saints were burned to test whether they were real saints or not, because real saints would not have burned, and according to the Normans, the relics of Saint Credan and Saint Wigstan at Evesham survived the test.

Here's another quick question again.

How many English abbots remained in office by the end of William I's reign? Was it A, three? B, 13? or C, 30? Press pause and then press play to hear the correct answer.

You should have said the correct answer was A, only three remained in office.

The Normans oversaw a massive transfer of wealth from English churches and monasteries to Normandy, while other monasteries were forced to sell their treasures to pay heavy gale taxes.

As landholders, monasteries were part of the funeral system too.

The Abbey at Peterborough, for example, had to provide 60 nights for military service.

The role of monasteries in English society changed as they began to cut themselves off again from the communities around them.

For instance, monks were no longer allowed to educate local children.

There was resistance to the changes.

In 1083, monks at Glastonbury resisted Lanfranc's changes to the liturgy.

This was unacceptable to their new Norman Abbot, Thurstan, who brought in soldiers to pressure his monks into following the reforms. The monks fled into the chapel.

The soldiers followed and fired owls at the monks from the choir loft killing at least two or three of them.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle blood came down from the altar onto the steps and from the steps to the floor.

Here's another true or false question.

Everyone in England supported the Norman monastic reforms. Press pause now and then press play to hear the correct answer.

That's right, you should have said the answer is false.

Press pause again to write an explanation as to why the answer is false.

You could have said that at Glastonbury in 1083, some English monks resisted the changes to the liturgy.

Their abbot had to bring in soldiers to put pressure on them to accept the reforms. Finally, in today's lesson, I'd like you to complete this task.

You need to write one paragraph describing the Norman monastic reforms introduced in 11th century England.

You need to use what you have learned today to provide specific details about the changes.

So press pause now to complete the task and then press play to see what you could have said.

Welcome back.

Let's see how you got on.

Your answer might have included some of the following.

"Under Norman rule, there were a number of reforms to the English Church.

For example, the Normans changed the leaders of the monasteries from Anglo-Saxon to Norman abbots and by 1086, only three Anglo-Saxon abbots remained.

Furthermore, Archbishop Lanfranc introduced a set of constitutions at Canterbury in 1077.

These were intended to enforce the Benedictine rules more strictly to make the monks more pious.

Lanfranc also included guidance about how novices should be trained and how official positions in a monastery should be carried out.

Moreover, Lanfranc also changed the wording of the liturgy, which raised some objections.

We've now reached the end of our lesson today, so let's have a summary of the things you should have learned.

As it was Europe, English monastic life was based on the rule of St Benedict, though not all monasteries followed the rules strictly.

Archbishop Lanfranc's reforms to the English Church were designed to make monks more pious and to increase respect for the church by encouraging all those who were responsible for people's Christian faith to live strictly religious lives.

Lanfranc and others used orders of monks to deliver these reforms in churches and cathedrals as well as in monasteries.

Foreign orders of monks such as the Cluniacs were also important in this.

Well done for all of your hard work in today's lesson.

I hope that you feel confident that you've understood the material and I hope that you'll join me in a future Oak Academy History lesson.