1. The Price of Freedom: Thomas Helwys
Adrian Gray
Bassetlaw Christian Heritage, River Education Services

2. Are any of thedse things illegal today??
Playing games or running around on Sunday.
Legal! Illegal in 1605.
Not believing in ‘God’.
Legal! Illegal in 1605
Not having your children christened.
Legal! Illegal in 1605
Start your lesson with a small group discussion on what is or is not illegal NOW.
Allow pupils to reach a decision, then ask them what they think was or was not illegal in 1605.
Press a key to reveal the answers. If you want to extend the learning, ask pupils WHY they think some things were illegal then and not now – and vice versa.
The RED answer gives you a chance t refer to British Values as they are now understood.
Saying nasty things about people because they are a different religion.
Illegal! Could be fined or imprisoned. Not illegal in 1605.
Going to any church except where you live.
Legal! Illegal in 1605

3. What are your most important rights as a human being?
The United Nations lists around 30 HUMAN RIGHTS. In your groups, see if you can guess what at least six of them are.
View the full list of 30:

4. Here are SEVEN of YOUR rights
Here are SEVEN of YOUR rights. As a group, decide on their order of importance to you:
a. Right not to be treated as a SLAVE
b. Right life and freedom
c. Right to have your own religion
d. Right not to be tortured
e. Right to a fair trial if you have been arrested
f. Freedom to travel around your own country
g. Right to marry only the person you agree to

5. The right to freedom of religion
We are going to look at number 18 on the United Nations list – the right to freedom of religion
This sets out that people should be able to choose their own religion, to change their beliefs if they want to, and to practice their religion in any reasonable way they choose
This connects closely to the BRITISH VALUE of tolerance – letting other people have that freedom
We are going to look at how a small number of British people from the 1600s started the work that led to the UN Declaration

6. In Tudor England there was a big argument over Religion:
I will burn people for being Protestant Christians and not Catholic
I’m going to burn some Protestant leaders so everyone will be Catholic again
I will burn Catholics and not Protestants who accept me as Head of the Church
I will burn some people for being too Protestant, but also Catholics
Do you think burning some people would make them change their Religion?

7. In 1559 Queen Elizabeth tried to have a law that people might accept:
I’m in charge of EVERYTHING, including religion.
Queen Elizabeth wanted a strong and united country with ONE Church. She wanted to create
a national Church that everyone would go to so she made this a Law. Everyone had to go to their local church on a Sunday – or they could be fined or imprisoned.
How would you feel if this law applied to YOU?

8. The Elizabethan Settlement……1559
Queen Elizabeth also wanted to control the church services, so priests had to wear what she said and were only allowed to worship God using the Book of Common Prayer.
People who did not like this were jokingly called ‘puritans.’ They were also called ‘nonconformists’.
In your groups discuss one of these then report back to the class:
Why do you think they were called ‘puritans’?
What does ‘nonconformist’ mean?
Do we still use insulting names to describe groups of people we don’t like?
Do all Christian churches worship God in the same way today?

9. Both Catholics and Puritans disliked the new law…..and each other.
I don’t like Catholics but I will tolerate puritans
I don’t like Catholics AND I don’t like puritans
In 1565, Elizabeth began to clamp down on ‘nonconformist’ puritans. Under Archbishop Grindal, puritans were tolerated. This changed as Archbishop Whitgift of Canterbury became more influential from 1583.

10. One man’s story: Thomas Helwys
Helwys was probably born here, in Nottinghamshire. His family built some homes for the poor which you can see behind the church
We are going to look at how one man, Thomas Helwys, born in about 1575,reacted to the strict laws about religion supported by Queen Elizabeth and the next ruler, King James I.

11. How would you feel if you saw this happen??
The First Separatists
Thomas went to London to study Law and in 1593 he probably saw some men executed because they refused to be in the Church of England. They wanted to be ‘separate.’
How would you feel if you saw this happen??

12. The First ‘Separatists’
These two men – and a third friend – deserved to die because they broke the laws of England. They said the Church of England was ‘wicked’ and this could have caused much trouble.
Why do you think they were called ‘Separatists’?
Why did Whitgift have these men executed?
Do you think he was right to do this?

13. Thomas went home to Nottinghamshire
The executions probably had a deep effect on Thomas
Thomas left London and moved to this house, then got married in 1595 to Joan at Bilborough
He managed some lands in the area, which probably included some coal mines
This is his house – a few years after he lived there. What can you infer about him from this picture?

14. Key Members of Helwys’s ‘Circle’ had early links to Separatism
Other ‘Separatists’ had gone to live in Holland, where there were no controls on religion.
Back in Nottinghamshire, Thomas Helwys began to meet people who knew about this – people like Rev. John Smyth.

15. John Smyth, of Sturton-le-Steeple
Although John Smyth was a clergyman in the Church of England, he had lost his job. He loved preaching God’s Word, but the Law stopped him doing this….so he broke the Law!
From he often stayed with Helwys and preached illegally at their local churches, for which he was fined in He earnt money by being a doctor or teacher.
What is ‘preaching’ and why do people do it?
You needed a LICENCE to preach – and could be fined for breaking this law. Do you think this was fair?

16. The friends faced a tough decision:
I’m Richard Bernard, the Vicar of Worksop in Nottinghamshire. I went to a meeting with my friends Helwys and Smyth to discuss what to do.
And I’m Lady Bowes. They met at my house as it was a safe place to talk.

17. Helwys in Crisis: what should Thomas do?
Thomas Helwys was accused of the ‘crime’ of not taking Communion at the correct church and fined for attending another church to hear Smyth preach – illegally! Then his wife Joan Helwys was arrested and imprisoned in the Archbishop’s prison at York. What would you advise Thomas to do? Click to see options then discuss in a group which is the best idea!
A. Stay in England, obey the Law and go to the correct Church of England church. After all, you have plenty of money, a good house, a wife and family. God doesn’t mind which church you attend.
B. Break the Law by escaping to Holland, where there are no laws about religion. You might lose all your money, but you will be able to do what you like without being sent to prison. And God will be pleased!
C. Stay in England but ‘separate’ from the Church of England and run your own Church with your own rules. Send a petition to the King asking for his tolerance.

18. Helwys in Crisis: what should Thomas do?
A. Stay in England, obey the Law and go to the correct Church of England church. After all, you have plenty of money, a good house, a wife and family. God doesn’t mind which church you attend.
B. Break the Law by escaping to Holland, where there are no laws about religion. You might lose all your money, but you will be able to do what you like without being sent to prison. And God will be pleased!
C. Stay in England but ‘separate’ from the Church of England and run your own Church with your own rules. Send a petition to the King asking for his tolerance.
Very risky, but you can live in safety AND have a clear conscience!
Nice easy life, but Helwys would have feared HELL for betraying what he believed to be Right!
Bad idea! King James does NOT tolerate separatists – prison for you!

19. The First Failed Attempt via Boston, 1607
Thomas Helwys and his friends tried to escape by illegally hiring a ship from Boston, but its captain took their money and told the local Justices. They were arrested and spent some weeks in the dungeons at Lincoln Castle.

20. The Second Attempt from Gainsborough, 1608
On 9 May 1608 the Francis took the women and Children down the River Trent – Helwys paid for the ship. The men walked to the coast.

21. Immingham 1608
Our map shows where they lived to start with, and where they travelled to.
The second plan worked and they escaped to Holland. The people who put up the memorial later got the wrong date!

22. New Ideas in Amsterdam
In Amsterdam, Smyth and Helwys met lots of new people with new ideas.
One of these ideas meant that they rejected the ‘christening’ they had had in the Church of England and baptised themselves. In future they taught that babies should never be ‘baptised’.

23. Can the Law be Wrong?
Smyth and Helwys also picked up ideas about the Law. They decided that it was wrong for Judges, Magistrates and even the Government to set laws about religion. This was the start of a very important idea in British life – but one that MOST people disagreed with at the time. After all, the English law still said that people could be BURNT for their beliefs. This is what Smyth wrote, just before he died:
“The magistrate is not by virtue of his office to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, to force or compel men to this or that form of religion, or doctrine.”
John Smyth, c
Why do you think Smyth decided it was WRONG to FORCE someone to follow a particular religion? Do you agree?

24. In 1612 Helwys moved to London: Why?
No one knows for certain why Helwys swapped a safe life in Holland for a dangerous one in London. What do you think?
Historians mostly think he felt it his duty as a Christian to take his new beliefs back to his own country. But his wife stayed behind.

25. A Message to the King (Not Gratefully Received…..)
Helwys wrote a book and sent a letter to the King, telling him that people should be left free WHATEVER their religion. No English person had ever suggested this before.
‘For our Lord the king is but an earthly king, and he has no authority as a king but in earthly causes….Men’s religion to God is between God and themselves…..Let them be heretics, Turks (Muslims), Jews, or whatsoever, it appertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure.’

26. King James was NOT amused…….
What rubbish! I am King because XXX chose me. So of course I control religion. Send this Helwys man to XXXXXX.
Can you work out what the missing words are?
Do you agree with King James?

27. Helwys never seen again!
In Britain today it is ILLEGAL for someone to be kept in prison without a trial.
Helwys probably died in Newgate Prison in , by which time Joan was referred to as a ‘widow’. His friend John Murton, from Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, was also put in prison but lived longer.

28. John Murton carried on writing – even though he was in Prison too…….
To the King: ‘It is not in your power to compel the heart; you may compel men to be hypocrites, as a great many are, who are false-hearted towards God and the state, which is sin both in you and them.’
John Murton of Gainsborough, c.1620
John Murton argued that making laws about religion is basically stupid – because it just makes people say what they don’t actually believe to be true. If we passed a law saying that all people who DON’T love Chelsea will be fined £1000, quite a few people would pretend to ‘love’ Chelsea……..
How did Murton manage to write a book while in prison – and get others to print it? Can you do this yourself?

29. Try your own Secret Writing…….
Milk was delivered to the prison in large jugs. Paper was screwed and stuck in the neck as a ‘stopper.’ John Murton kept these bits of paper and wrote his book on them in milk – which dried out and was invisible. His friends took the paper home and heated it – so the writing appeared. In this way he wrote a book about RELIGIOUS TOLERATION whilst in prison.

30. The idea of Religious Tolerance travelled to America…….
Thirty years later, ROGER WILLIAMS copied out Murton’s book and published his own – arguing for complete freedom of religion.
In America, he set up the State of Rhode Island as a place where ALL RELIGIONS could be free. He said there must be no ‘State Religion.’ He was one of the first Englishmen to be close friends with native Americans.

31. The First Amendment reflects the Helwys-Murton-Williams Writings
More than 150 years after Helwys and Murton had died, their ‘Great Idea’ was included in the Constitution of the USA.
It took another hundred years for it to become accepted in the United Kingdom. For example, Jewish people could not become MPs until 1858.

32. The Helwys-Murton-Williams Ideas reached the United Nations in 1948:
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Carefully read the Article 18. ‘Religious Tolerance’ is said to be a ‘British Value’. Do you think we can say this happens in Britain today?
Do you agree that this is what happens in your school?

33. Is religious tolerance normal nowadays?
Use the internet to find out how religious freedom is blocked in some countries – North Korea is a good example.
Pupils may not realise how much more tolerant Britain is than other places. This map provides an index of intolerance.
Look up the ‘black’ countries and find out what happens there.

34. In the World today…..
Here are some recent headlines. The idea that ‘Father Christmas’ is banned in some countries may come as a surprise…….sadly, you can easily update this slide with more recent examples.

35. Other research sites
The national group from Parliament with a focus on religious liberty: