Topic title: Did the Medieval Church ‘define English identity’?
Year group: 7
When taught: November to December
What are we learning?
• About the medieval Catholic church focusing on doom paintings and pilgrimages;
• The structure of the church including the importance of the Pope;
• Why people went on crusade;
• The groups that challenged the church;
• How important religion was in the lives of everyday people;
• Using a Book of Hours as evidence to learn about religion in the medieval period;
• How religion was changed by the Tudor monarchs.
Why is this important to know?
• An understanding of the importance of religion in medieval life is critical to understanding how people lived in the Middle Ages.
• An understanding of the medieval Catholic church is fundamental to assessing the significance of the Break with Rome under Henry VIII.
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
• We will consider the medieval Catholic church as a form of control which worked with the feudal system (studied in our last topic) to control the population.
• Our later topics in Year 7 build on the concepts covered – we will consider other monarchs and the concept of power and authority. We will also consider the theme of ‘power and the people’ in Year 8.
• The importance of religious beliefs in causing events will be considered in our Year 7 topic on the Silk Road, as well as our Year 8 topics on the English Civil War and the British Empire.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
• The end of topic assessment will be a ten minute knowledge test (including some multiple choice questions, some non multiple-choice questions, a chronology task and a key word task).
• Students will then write an extended response to: What is useful about Source A (the Map Psalter) for a historian studying medieval religion? Sentence starters will be provided to support the structure of student written work.
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
• PEEL paragraphs to explain the causes of Christians going on crusade;
• Linking learning from each lesson to the big topic question;
• Understanding the concepts of similarity and difference (between pilgrimages and crusades);
• Considering how different groups in medieval society may have experienced religion;
• Use of key words regularly (see below).
What key words are there in this topic?
Quizlet
• Pope: The head of the Catholic Church. He lived in Rome
• Jerusalem: A city in the Holy Land, important for different religious groups
• Crusade: A ‘holy war’ carried out by Christians to capture the Holy Land from Muslims
• Pilgrimage: A spiritual journey to a site of importance for that religion
• Relic: Holy object that is stored in a church or cathedral. Often the bone of a saint
• Martyr: Someone who dies for his or her beliefs
• Heretic: Someone medieval people thought did not follow the ‘right’ religion
• Purgatory: A place between heaven and hell where people believed you paid for sins
• Doom painting: A wall painting in a medieval church that showed Heaven and Hell.
• Archbishop: The chief bishop responsible for a large district.
• Monk: A member of a religious community of men.
• Tithe: One tenth of annual earnings, taken as a tax for the support of the Church.
• Manuscript: A book or document written by hand rather than typed or printed.
• Patron: A person who gives financial support to a person, organization, or cause.
• Scriptoria: Monks’ writing rooms.
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
• Study more about the medieval time period in other parts of the world – what comparisons and contrasts can you make between life in these different places?
• Read about other medieval religions in different countries – what similarities and differences do you notice?
What wider reading can be done on this topic?
• An Illustrated History of the Crusades and the Crusader Knights (available in the Aird library)
• Medieval Life (available in the Aird library)
• BBC Bitesize (the church’s role in medieval life)
• BBC bitesize (life in medieval society)
Supporting document/links:
• Knowledge organiser students will be given at the end of the topic to revise for the end of topic assessment.
