Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson about the Reformation.

My name is Mrs. Goullee, and I will be teaching you for this topic.

As I said last lesson, this really is one of my favourite topics to teach.

So I really hope you will enjoy learning about it as much as I know I will enjoy teaching it.

For today's lesson, all you will need is a pen and paper or something to write on or with.

Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions.

If you're able to, turn off the notifications on any apps you've got running and find somewhere quiet where you can complete this lesson.

Well, when you're ready and I've got my PowerPoint open, we'll begin.

So now I've got the PowerPoint open.

I've minimised my webcam, so you can just focus on my slides.

With our first slide, we'll begin with our big question.

In what ways did the Reformation matter to ordinary people? You might remember that's the big question we ended last lesson with.

And this is the big question we're going to try and answer over the next few lessons.

We're trying to figure out how the Reformation, how this process of religious change of England going from Catholic to Protestant, to Catholic to Protestant, how did this process of change, how did it matter to ordinary people? Did it make a difference to their lives? And to answer that question, we're going to be focusing on one ordinary church, Morebath church.

And you can see here from pictures, the picture, it's very much an ordinary church, an ordinary stone church.

But by focusing on Morebath church, we're going to be able to find out how the Reformation, how it affected ordinary people's lives.

Now, like I said, Morebath church is an ordinary church, and it's located in a small village called Morebath.

That's why it's called Morebath church.

And it's found in Devon in the southwest of England.

If you look at the map on the slide, and you see that little red marker, that shows where Morebath church is, down in Devon in the southwest of England.

And the church was at the centre of this remote sheep-farming village.

There really wasn't much in Morebath.

There was a lot of farms and a few houses, and the church was at the very centre of the village.

And what we're going to do now is have a look inside the church, well, metaphorically, of course.

We're not actually going to go to Morebath church because well, if we did, that would be a very long journey.

And also, even if we did go to Morebath church, which is still there today, even if we did go to the church, we wouldn't be able to see what it was like 500 years ago before the Reformation.

So we're going to have to make do by going to my classroom instead.

Well, me showing you a picture of my classroom because I have set up my classroom to look like Morebath church.

I've set it up to look like Morebath church in the 1520s.

And you can see it there in that photo on the slide.

What can you see? Have a look.

What can you see? Just press pause on the video and have a look.

What can you see? Well, there's certainly a lot inside Morebath church.

You've probably noticed first of all the big old cross hanging from the ceiling with Jesus on it.

Now this cross with Jesus on it is known as a crucifix, okay, a crucifix.

A cross with Jesus on, that's what we mean by a crucifix.

And this large wooden crucifix was hanging from the ceiling of Morebath church.

And it was made by a guy called William Popell, who carved it out of wood.

And then after he carved it out of wood, it had gold layered on top of it.

And it was then hung up from the ceiling of Morebath church.

This was a giant crucifix.

Anyone who walked into Morebath church would have seen it.

And then you might have noticed these little pictures of people on the table in front of the crucifix.

And these are, meant to be anyway, statues of many different saints.

They're statues of saints.

Now, saints were special, holy individuals who people could ask for help by praying to them.

And there were lots of these statues of saints throughout Morebath church.

Let me just tell you about a few of them now.

We have St.

Mary, the mother of Jesus.

There were a lot of statues of her in Morebath church.

There were also statues of St.

George.

You might possibly have heard of St.

George, the patron saint of England, known for killing a dragon.

Well, Morebath church was actually dedicated, it was named after St.

George.

And there were a few statues of St.

George with his dragon inside of Morebath church.

So we've got St.

Mary.

We've got St.

George.

And we also have St.

Sidwell.

And I really doubt you'll have heard of St.

Sidwell.

And St.

Sidwell was a local saint.

She was a saint of Exeter, which was the nearest city to Morebath.

So she was a saint from Devon.

She'd lived there hundreds of years ago, and that's why she was special to the people of Morebath.

St.

Sidwell was actually loved by the villagers.

Just to give you an idea of how much St.

Sidwell was loved by the villagers, she had her own hive of bees that somebody gave her.

Now, just to be clear, I don't want you to picture a statue of St.

Sidwell with a little hive of bees buzzing around her.

No, someone donated a hive of bees to St.

Sidwell, and they kept that hive of bees in their field.

And they then used the wax from the bees to make candles for St.

Sidwell.

So she would always have candles in front of her.

Another lady gave her wedding ring to St.

Sidwell, and she got her wedding ring melted down so that the silver could be turned into a tiny little shoe to go on St.

Sidwell's foot.

St.

Sidwell really was loved by the villagers, as was St.

Mary and St.

George.

And to show how much the villagers loved their statues of Mary and George and St.

Sidwell, there were candles burning in front of every single one of them.

And these candles were kept burning throughout the day to help the villagers go in and pray to these saints.

Oh, before I tell you any more, I've got a question for you.

What was inside Morebath church? Choose all the correct answers.

So what I'd like you to do now is just press pause on the video.

You don't need to write anything down.

Just have a look and figure out which of these answers were correct.

What was inside Morebath church? So, hopefully, you've figured out that option one, two, and four are all correct.

Morebath definitely had a giant crucifix, a big old cross with Jesus on it, hanging from the ceiling.

They definitely had statues of saints like St.

Mary, St.

George, and St.

Sidwell, like in option two.

And in option four, well, they definitely had lots of candles all throughout the church.

Now it might seem surprising to us today that option three isn't correct.

But at this time, churches didn't have lots of Bibles, and they certainly didn't have Bibles in English.

That would come later.

So inside Morebath church, you had a giant crucifix, a giant cross with Jesus on it.

Lots of statues of saints and lots of candles throughout the church make it beautiful and decorated and colourful.

So my next question for you, was Morebath church Catholic or Protestant? Think back to last lesson.

Was Morebath church Catholic or Protestant? So just press pause on the video and spend a few seconds thinking about that question.

Well, don't worry if you weren't sure.

You had to remember back from the last lesson.

Morebath church was Catholic because you might remember that Catholics like fancy decorated churches, whilst Protestants liked plain, simple churches.

And, well, this is certainly a fancy decorated church.

We've got lots of statues and lots of candles.

We've got a golden crucifix.

This is certainly fancy and decorated.

It's a Catholic church.

It's now time to complete your first little bit of writing.

All I'd like you to do is finish this sentence, inside Morebath church, there was dot, dot, dot.

See if you can write two or three bullet points underneath.

Now, just to help, I've put some spellings underneath, although don't just copy all those words down because not all of those things were inside Morebath church.

So, please pause the video now and finish off that sentence.

Inside Morebath church, there was dot, dot, dot.

So, hopefully on your list, you've included the three main things we've been speaking about, the crucifix, the big giant cross, the statues of saints.

You might even have included the names Mary, George, Sidwell.

And that third thing is lots of candles.

So, now we know what was inside Morebath church.

It is time to meet some of the people.

You are going to find out about seven people who actually lived in Morebath and went to the church.

And just to be really clear, I can't stress this point enough, these are real people who actually lived in Morebath and actually went to that church 500 years ago.

They are real people who we know about.

So let's find out about them.

Well, first of all, we have Sir Christopher Trychay.

He was the village priest, so he was the one in charge of the church.

He was the one who did all the church services.

We also have Lucy Scely.

She was a poor woman who helped look after the church.

Even though she was poor, she had an important role to play.

Then Thomas Norman, he was wealthy.

He was one of the four men, which meant he looked after the church's money.

We then have William Popell.

He was an expert carver.

He carved the crucifix for Morebath church.

It was him who carved that beautiful crucifix you looked at earlier.

And we have some more women of the church, too.

We have Elenor Nicholl, a poor woman who loved St.

Sidwell.

She loved praying to her, and she was the woman who gave St.

Sidwell her ring so it could be turned into a tiny silver shoe for St.

Sidwell's foot.

And we then have Margery Lake, who was another younger woman.

And she was part of a group called the Young Maiden's Store.

And she raised money for candles for St.

Mary and St.

Sidwell.

And John Timewell, well, he was a young man.

And he was there for part of the Young Men's Store, a group who raised money for candles.

And to do that, he organised ales for the church, special feasts, where people enjoyed drinking ale.

Now that's a very quick whiz-through introduction to the people of Morebath church.

You're now going to find out more about the people of Morebath, and record what you find out on this mind map.

So what I'd like you to do now is draw this mind map in the middle of a page.

So I'd like you to press pause and draw this mind map in the middle of a page.

If you've got an A4 page, you might draw it just in the top.

If you've got a smaller page, you might draw it right in the middle.

And all you're going to do is draw a bubble and write people of Morebath church in the middle.

So, please pause the video now so you can draw your mind map.

So, hopefully you've now drawn your mind map of people of Morebath church in the middle.

And what you're going to do now as you read the information, you are going to write down each person's name and what they did for Morebath church on your mind map.

So let me just give you an example so you know exactly what you need to do.

The first person on the information sheets, the information slides, is Sir Christopher Trychay, the church priest.

So what I've written in my example is I've written his name, Sir Christopher Trychay.

And then I've just put a little dash and written the church priest because that was his job.

And then, I've just written one sentence summarising what he did for Morebath church.

He did the church services.

And that's all you need to write for each person in Morebath church.

You're just going to write their name on your mind map and what they did for Morebath church.

So now you know what you need to do.

You're going to pause the video.

You're going to read the slides on the next page and you use the information to complete your mind map.

Remember, all you need to do is write the name of the person and what they did for Morebath church.

So pause the video, read the slides on the next page, and use the information to complete your mind map.

Oh, well done, great work.

I'm really impressed that you've now completed your mind map.

Now, see, I can't see all my maps.

So what I'm going to do is just kind of talk you through the kind of things I would have written on my mind map.

Now, please, don't worry if you've written things that are slightly different.

That's only to be expected.

But what I would like you to do as I talk you through the answers is just to check that you've included the main points that I have.

It might be that if you think you've missed something, you just press pause, and that will give you time to jot down anything you've missed.

But please remember, if you've written things that mean the same thing in a slightly different way, you don't need to change it, okay? Just listen out for anything you think you've forgotten.

So, let's begin.

Sir Christopher Trychay, he was the church priest.

He did the church services.

He was the one who did the services on a Sunday.

Next up, Lucy Scely, she helped Sir Christopher look after the church.

You might have included that as part of looking after the church, she looked after the church belongings and helped Sir Christopher when he needed it.

If you have, great.

Next up, Thomas Norman, one of the four men.

Please do check you've got that term there, the four men.

He looked after the church's money.

Some of you might have written that, as one of the four men, he saved up, and he managed the money so it was spent carefully.

If you have, that's great, but all you really definitely need is that he looked after the church's money.

Next up, William Popell, a carver, he carved the church crucifix.

Elenor Nicholl, she donated her wedding ring to St.

Sidwell.

Some of you might have even included that she loved praying to St.

Sidwell and that her wedding ring was used to make a little shoe for St.

Sidwell.

Next up, Margery Lake, she helped raise money for candles for St.

Mary and St.

Sidwell.

That's what she did for the church.

She raised money for candles for St.

Mary and St.

Sidwell.

And this money that she raised or helped raise was called the Young Maiden's Store, the Young Maiden's Store.

Well, what do we mean? Well, when I say Young Maiden's Store, I don't want you to picture a shop.

When we say store, today, we picture a shop, but that's not what this Young Maiden's Store was.

The Young Maiden's Store was simply a pot of money.

That's what we mean by store for the people of Morebath.

It was a pot of money, and that pot of money was used to pay for candles for St.

Mary and St.

Sidwell.

And it was called the Young Maiden's Store because it was the young women at the church, young women like Margery Lake, who helped raise money for this pot of money for St.

Mary and St.

Sidwell.

John Timewell, he raised money for St.

George by organising ales.

And you might remember seeing on your sheet that he was part of the Young Men's Store, this pot of money raised by the young men that paid for candles for their saint they really loved, St.

George, because the young men really loved St.

George because he was a strong, fierce warrior, a great hero for them to look up to.

And John Timewell and the other young men raised money for St.

George by organising ales, by organising feasts where people would drink a lot of ale.

That's why they're called ales.

These are just some of the people of Morebath church.

They all, as we can see, do slightly different things for the church.

Some raise money.

Some make things, Some donate things.

Some look after the money.

So before we go any further, I would like you to choose your own character.

Which character would you like to be? This is your choice.

There is no right or wrong answer.

There is no character that is better or worse.

They're all fascinating people with fascinating stories.

So what I'd like you to do now is pause the video.

Decide which of these characters you would like to be just based on your own personal choice and put a star next to that character on your mind map, a nice big star to show that's your character.

So, hopefully you've now picked your character.

Like I said, it really is your choice.

So if you're sitting they're now thinking you're really not sure you can pick, just pick any of them.

So, now we've met the people of Morebath church.

Let's come back to our lesson question.

Why did Morebath church matter? Why did this church matter? What I'd like you to do is write two to three sentences to answer this question.

And you could choose one of these statements to help you.

The people of Morebath loved the statues in their church.

Morebath church was a place of comfort for the villagers.

Morebath church gave people a role and a sense of responsibility within their village.

Morebath church was at the centre of the village community.

So what I'd like you to do now is write two to three sentences to explain why Morebath church mattered.

You might pick one of those statements I've just read, and you might, as I read them to you, be thinking, oh but, all of them are right.

And they all are, so it doesn't matter so much which one you pick.

Just pick one that you think really sums up why Morebath church mattered.

Or you might want to combine a couple of these statements.

Or you might actually want to write your own, and that's absolutely fine.

What I'd like you to do, okay, is sum up why Morebath church mattered.

Use a statement to get you going or write your own.

And then see if you can give an example to support it.

For example, you could say the people of Morebath loved the statues in their church.

For example, Elenor Nicholl gave her wedding ring to make a shoe for St.

Sidwell.

And that would be my point and my example.

So, please pause the video now and write two to three sentences to explain why Morebath church mattered.

So, as I'm sure you've written fantastically on your bits of paper, Morebath church really mattered to the people of Morebath.

They loved their statues.

They found comfort in their church, and they all had a role to play.

They all got involved and helped raise money for their church.

And so their church really was at the centre of the the village community, as every single person worked together to support and raise money for their church.

And one of the projects that they were involved in was a vestment project.

Let me explain.

As well as raising money for the statues, the villagers also raised money for a special set of vestments for Sir Christopher.

You're thinking what on Earth are vestments.

That's a good question.

Have a look at the picture on the slide.

Vestments were a special set of robes, okay, for a priest.

And Sir Christoper really wanted a nice fancy set of robes like the one on the slide so he could wear them for church services.

Now the vestments would cost 20 shillings and would require a lot of saving.

After all, Morebath only had two shillings and eight pence to begin.

And so it was going to take them a long time to save up, but they were determined.

So the people of Morebath started gradually, gradually, gradually saving their money for their vestments, their special set of robes for Sir Christopher.

But as the people of Morebath were happily loving their statues, happily raising money for their candles and their vestments, change was afoot.

Remember this man, maybe, from last lesson? Henry VIII.

And Henry VIII made a number of changes in the 1530s that every English church had to follow.

He made himself the head of the English church.

He put himself in charge.

He said that every church had to have a Bible in Latin and in English.

And he said no worshipping of saints.

He said people couldn't worship saints.

What's this going to mean for Morebath? What's this going to mean for the people of Morebath if they can't worship saints? What happened to Morebath church? Let's have a look.

Ah, you might be reassured to see that not really much has changed.

Very little actually has changed.

You might have noticed the two new books at the front there.

You've got the Bible in Latin and the Bible in English.

And the people of Morebath, like they were told to by Henry VIII, they bought these Bibles for their churches.

But what about worshipping the statues? I mean, Henry said they couldn't worship them.

Well, this is where the people of Morebath were very, very sneaky.

They thought, okay, so Henry says we can't worship the statues, but, really, we love them so much.

We don't want to get rid of them.

We don't want to stop praying to them.

And so what the people of Morebath did is they very, very sneakily just moved the candles that were in front of the statues beside the statues.

You might be able to see there, the candles were just moved to the side.

And that was how the people of Morebath made it look like they weren't worshipping the statue.

It made it look like they weren't praying to them, even though they really were.

So at the end of Henry VIII's reign, the people of Morebath carried on praying to their saints.

They carried on raising money for candles for the statues of the saints, but everything was about to change.

Everything was about to change.

And we will continue that story next lesson as we continue to answer our big question, in what ways did the Reformation matter to ordinary people? What will happen next to Morebath church? Well, that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Well done for all your hard work.

You've done an amazing job.

If you're able to, please take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher so they can see all the fantastic work you've done.

Please also take a moment to complete the final quiz at the end of the lesson to really show off all that you have learnt.

Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you.

Take care.

And I look forward to my next history lesson with you.