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Ch. 13 and 14 Vocabulary

Terms in this set (68)

Middle Ages
The era in European history that followed the fall of the Roman Empire, lasting from about 500 to 1500; also called the medieval period.
Franks
A Germanic people who settles in the Roman province of Gaul and established a great empire during the middle ages.
Monastery
A religious community of men (called monks) who have given up their possessions to devote themselves to a life of prayer and worship.
Secular
Concerned with worldly rather than spiritual matters.
Carolingian Dynasty
A dynasty of Frankish rulers, lasting from AD 751-981.
Charlemagne
aka Charles the Great; was great and powerful.
Papacy
A pope's office
Major Domo
Mayor of the palace
Status
A social ranking
Lord
A person who controlled land and could therefore grant estates to vassals.
Fief
An estate granted to a vassal by a lord under the feudal system.
Vassal
A person who received a grant of land from a lord in exchange for a pledge of loyalty and services.
Knight
An armored warrior who fought on horseback.
Serf
A medieval peasant legally bound to live on a lords estate.
Manor
A lords estate
Tithe
a family's payment of 1/10 of its income to a church; church tax.
Feudalism
A political and economic system based on land-holding and protective alliances.
Chivalry
A code of behavior for knights in Medieval Europe, stressing ideals such as courage, loyalty, and devotion.
Tournament
a mock battle between a group of knights.
Troubador
A medieval poet and musician who traveled from place to place, entertaining people with songs of courtly love.
Knights
armored horsemen
Maim warhorses
enemy foot soldiers
Caltrops
iron spikes
Siege
A military blockade staged by enemy armies trying to capture a fortress.
Clergy
A body of religious officials who perform religious services- such as priests, ministers, or rabbis.
Sacraments
One of the Christian ceremonies in which God's grace is transmitted to people.
Canon Law
The body of laws governing the religious practices of a Christian church.
Holy Roman Empire
An empire established in Europe in the 10th century AD, originally consisting mainly of lands in what is now Germany and Italy.
Lay investiture
A ceremony in which kings and nobles appointed church officials.
Barbarossa
Red beard; Fredrick I was called this
Simony
The selling or buying of a position in a Christian Church.
Gothic
Relating to a style of church architecture that developed in medieval Europe, featuring ribbed vaults, stained glass windows, flying buttresses, pointed arches, and tall spires.
Crusade
One of the expeditions in which medieval Christian warriors ought to recover control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Reconquista
The effort by Christian leaders to drive the Muslims out of Spain, lasting from the 1100's until 1492.
Inquisition
A Roman Catholic tribunal for investigating and prosecuting charges of heresy-especially the one active in Spain during the 1400's.
Richard the Loin-Hearted
Joined the 3rd Crusade, leaving others to rule England in his place.
He was noted for his good looks, charm, courage, grace, and ruthlessness.
Saladin
Most famous Muslim leader of the 1100's.
Devout man; even Christians regarded him as honest and brave.
Urban II
Issued a call for a "holy war", a Crusade, to gain control of the Holy Land.
Papal Curial
Pope's group of advisers, acted as court.
Heretics
People whose religious beliefs differed from the teachings of the Church.
Letters of Credit
A letter issued by a bank allowing the bearer to withdraw a specific amount of money from the bank or its branches.
Three-field system
A system of farming in which farmland was divided into three fields of equal size and each of these was successively planted with a winter crop, planted with a spring crop, and left unplanted.
Guild
An organization of individuals in the same business or occupation working of its members.
Commercial Revolution
The expansion of trade and business that transformed European economies during the 16th and 17th centuries.
Burgher
Merchant-class town dweller.
Vernacular
The everyday language of their homeland.
Scholastics
Scholars who gathered and taught at universities; aka schoolmen.
Thomas Aquinas
A scholar who argued that the most basic religious truths could be proved by logical argument.
Usury
The illegal act of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest.
Borough
A self governing town
Common Law
A unified body of law formed from rulings of England's royal judges that serves as the basis for law in many English-speaking countries today, including the U.S.
Parliament
A body of representatives that makes laws for a nation; legislative group.
Estates-General
An assembly of representatives from all three of these estates, or social classes, in France.
Philip II
Greatly increased the territory of France; seized Normandy from King John; tripled the lands under his direct control; became the 1st French king who became more powerful than any of his vassals.
Hugh Capet
An undistinguished duke from middle France; began the Capetian dynasty of French kings that ruled France from 987 to 1328.
Magna Carta
"Great Charter"
A document guaranteeing basic political rights in England, drawn up by nobles and approved by King john in AD 1215.
Henry II
Married Eleanor of Aquitaine which brought him a large territory in France called Aquitaine; vassal to the French king but also a king at his own right.
William the Conqueror
Duke of Normandy; claimed the English crown and invaded England with a Norman army.
Jury
A group of loyal people who answered a royal judges questions about the facts of a case.
Burgesses
Citizens of wealth and property.
Bailiffs
Royal officials
Avignon
A city in France that popes moved into to live there for 69 years.
Great Schism
A division in the Roman Catholic Church, during which rival popes were established in Avignon and in Rome.
Bubonic plague
A deadly disease that spread across Asia and Europe in the mid-14th century, killing millions of people.
100 Years' War
A conflict in which England and France battled on French soil on and off (1337-1453)
Joan of Arc
A woman who was felt moved by God to rescue France from its English conquerors.
John Wycliffe
An Englishman who preached that Jesus Christ is the true head of the Church, not the pope.
Jan Hus
A professor in Bohemia taught that the authority of the Bible was higher than that of the pope.
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