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HistoryThe English Reformation, 1509–160338 min★★ difficulty

Lesson 5: Reformation from above and below

Orders from the centre reached parishes through objects, words, rituals and resistance.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Britain 1066-1901: Understand the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745, including the English Reformation and its impact
  • Historical enquiry: Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance
  • Historical enquiry: Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources, and how and why historians have interpreted the past in different ways

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Explain how official religious change affected ordinary communities

Key learning points

  • • Seeing and hearing change
  • • Not one response
  • • Measuring change

This lesson at a glance

  • 38 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

officialreligiouschangeaffectedordinary

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Lesson 5: Reformation from above and below

An English teaching video on this topic from The Northern Historian. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Explain how official religious change affected ordinary communities

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know that royal supremacy and the dissolution changed the Church from the top, and that most people experienced religion in their parish.

Recap: Lesson 4: Dissolving the monasteries
3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

Inventory
A list of goods, here of the objects owned by a parish church.
Iconoclasm
The removal or destruction of religious images.
Pilgrimage of Grace
The large northern rising of 1536 against religious and political change.
Conformity
Outward obedience to official religion, whatever a person privately believed.
4

Your lesson plan

Part 4 of 19

Lesson brief

How much did ordinary life really change?

By the end, you will be able to

  • • Trace visible parish changes
  • • Compare obedience, adaptation and resistance
  • • Use local evidence to judge impact

Resources

  • • English Reformation document set (c.1527–1590)
  • • Lesson notes and marked knowledge check
4 minRecall the chronology and frame the enquiry
15 minRead the textbook explanation and build the argument
11 minInterrogate the archive evidence in context
8 minAnswer the checks and write a supported conclusion
5

Learning cycle

Part 5 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Change in the parish

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Seeing and hearing change

English Bibles, altered services, removed images and new preaching changed the sensory world of worship.

7

Explore the idea

Part 7 of 19

Learn

Not one response

Some welcomed reform; others conformed reluctantly or resisted. The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 mixed religious and political grievances.

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Which was a visible parish change?

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Quick check

Part 10 of 19

Quick check

What was the Pilgrimage of Grace?

11

Learning cycle

Part 11 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Measuring belief

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Measuring change

Inventories show objects disappearing; wills reveal changing religious language. Neither source gives direct access to private belief.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Why can inventories not prove belief?

14

Investigate evidence

Part 14 of 19

Evidence 1 of 1

primary

English Reformation document set

Tudor officials and subjects, c.1527–1590

Royal orders, inventories and petitions show official religion changing repeatedly across four reigns.

The collection places documents from Henry VIII through Elizabeth I side by side, allowing change and continuity to be tested rather than assumed.

Think like a historian

Which changes would an ordinary parishioner have seen, heard or lost?

Source: The National Archives, English Reformation c.1527–1590

View the archive record ↗
15

Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • People often assume everyone resisted or everyone accepted. Responses varied by region, age and status.
  • People often think inventories reveal belief. They record objects, not what worshippers thought.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 mixed ____ and political grievances.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Lesson 5: Reformation from above and below

3 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Conformity means…

  2. 2. Wills help historians because religious wording in them…

  3. 3. The fairest summary of parish responses is…

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Source

A factory inspector's notebook, 1842

"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."

"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."

"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."

Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
  2. What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
  3. How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.

Source for this lesson

Use this for the source work task below.

English Reformation document set

primary

Tudor officials and subjects, c.1527–1590

Royal orders, inventories and petitions show official religion changing repeatedly across four reigns.

The collection places documents from Henry VIII through Elizabeth I side by side, allowing change and continuity to be tested rather than assumed.

Source: The National Archives, English Reformation c.1527–1590

View the original record ↗

  • Source work

    Reading

    Read the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.

    2 paragraphs

  • Essay answer

    Writing

    Answer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.

    300–400 words

  • Timeline

    Diagram

    Draw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.

    6–8 events

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand the development of Church, state and society in Britain 1509-1745, including the English Reformation and its impact

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources, and how and why historians have interpreted the past in different ways

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