Early Middle Ages · 529-910

Monasteries: living by the Rule of Benedict

Why would anyone give up family and property to live by a strict rule of prayer and work? Students explore the Rule of Benedict and discover how monasteries kept books, farming and learning alive in early medieval Europe.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 529 to AD 910
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Why would anyone give up family and property to live by a strict rule of prayer and work? Students explore the Rule of Benedict and discover how monasteries kept books, farming and learning alive in early medieval Europe.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe a day in a Benedictine monastery, with its hours of prayer, work and reading.
  • Explain three ways monasteries served people outside their walls.
  • Locate Monte Cassino and Cluny on the map and explain why each mattered.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 529

Benedict's mountain

Open the map in 529 and turn on Historical Events (Religious Events). Find the Founding of Monte Cassino between Rome and Naples. Why build a monastery on a mountain top?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 800

One rule for an empire

Jump to 800 and zoom out over the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne and his son wanted every monastery in their lands to follow Benedict's rule. Which present-day countries does the empire cover?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 910

Cluny

Set the year to 910 and find Cluny Abbey Founded in Burgundy. Cluny answered only to the pope, not to a local lord. Why would that matter to the monks?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Benedict wrote that idleness is the enemy of the soul. Why did he mix prayer with hard work?
  2. Monks and nuns copied books by hand. What might we have lost without them?
  3. Why would a king or a noble give land to a monastery?
  4. Monasteries took in travelers and cared for the sick. Who else did that work in early medieval Europe?
  5. Would you have chosen life in a monastery in the year 800? Why or why not?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Rule History as Charlemagne, who wanted schools in the monasteries of his empire. Afterwards, discuss: why did a king need monks and nuns to help run his kingdom?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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