| crucify | to put to death by nailing or tying to a cross |
| convert | to change someone's belief from one religon to another |
| apostle | one of the twelve early followers to Jesus |
| persecute | to harm or injure |
| bishop | a high ranking church officer |
| Pope | highest officialof the Roman Catholic Church |
| missionary | someone who goes or is sent on a special errand: often for the purpose of spreading a religion |
| paradise | heaven, or a place of lasting and perfect happiness |
| script | written letters and words |
| steppe | a large treeless plain, found especially in southeast Europe or Asia |
| bridle | a harness with a bit and reins for a horse |
| frontier | the area beyond the boarder of a country |
| ritual | a rigid set of rules tobe followed exactly |
| testimony | statement made for the purpose fo proving something |
| oath | a solemn promise, often carrying the threat of punishment if broken |
| ordeal | a difficult, perhaps even painful or dangerous test |
| unify | to bring together into one whole |
| raid | an attack |
| overland | across land rather then sea |
| duke | a noble of the highest hereditary rank |
| manor | a large medival estate with farmalands, village, and teh home of the owner, who collected goods and services from teh villagers |
| waterwheel | a large wheel turned by running water to provide power |
| feudal | the social and economic arrangement under which people are paid for protection and farming privleges by giving goods and services to an overlord |
| serf | a person legally tied to the land |
| blacksmith | one who works with iron, making and mending tools and horseshoes |
| miller | one who runs machinery for grinding grain into flour |
| scythe | a tool with a long curved blade and long handle used for cutting grass and grain |
| knight | a high-ranking solider of the Middle Ages who recieved this title from a sovereign |
| drought | a long period without rain orother precipitation |
| peasant | a small farmer, tenant, sharecropper, laborer: a country person |
| monarch | in medieval times, an all-powerful ruler of a nation or empire |
| plague | a seriouse disease, often causing death, that spreads rapidly among people |
| Jesus Christ | One whose teachings and life form teh basis of the Christian religion |
| Charlemagne | the king who was crowned emperor of the holy roman empire in 800 A.D. |
| Leif Ericson | an explorer who landed somewhere on the coast of north america |
| Paul | a religious leader who preached to gentiles as well as jews and helped to establish and strengthen the christian religon |
| Constantine | an emperor who allowed christianity to be preached freely among his people |
| Mohammed | the prophet and founder of the moselm religon |
| William the Conqueror | the duke who conqured england and became its king |
| Justinian | a great Byzantine emperor |
| icon | a painting of a saint or holy person |
| Constantinople | the capitol of the Byzantine empire |
| strait | narrow passage linking two bodies of water |
| patriarch | a religous leader of teh church of constantinople |