Key Concepts: Medieval History, Religion, and Renaissance
Key Concepts: Medieval History and Renaissance
- Orthodox Church: Marriage in Constantinople, the Pope was a bishop.
- Edicts of Ashoka: The goal was to create a rule based on Buddhist principles, a code of conduct.
- Four Noble Truths: Suffering, Cause, Cessation (reaching Nirvana), path to improvement.
- Ahimsa: Non-violence. Based in Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
- Clergy: Religious professionals, church officials.
- Theodora: The wife of Justinian I, helped him fight against the rebels.
- Cyrillic alphabet: Based upon the Greek alphabet.
- Rus: Helped the Slavic government.
- Alfred the Great: United England against the Viking army. Signed a treaty with the Vikings.
- Abbot: The leader of a monastery, elected by the monks.
- Missi dominici: Envoy of the king.
- Sagas: Epic poems that explained the Vikings’ heroes, customs, traditions, and travels.
- Fief: Land given to the vassal in exchange for loyalty and service to the king.
- Manorial system: Self-sufficient economic system.
Magna Carta
Contract between the lord and the vassal that limited the monarch’s power. It was the first step toward democracy.
Domesday Book
The record of wealth and land holdings, used as a base for taxation. It is one of the earliest surviving records in England.
Pope Gregory VII
The Pope who wanted to restore the authority of the church. He fought about Investiture.
Carolingian Minuscule
A style of writing in which manuscripts were written, allowing for lowercase letters.
Crusades
Religious wars to recover the Holy Land.
Saladin
A sultan who drove the Christians out of Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. He signed a treaty with Richard the Lionheart that allowed unarmed peasants entrance to Jerusalem.
Richard the Lion-Hearted
He was the leader of the Third Crusade.
Council of Clermont
Where Urban II called for the First Crusade in response to a request from Alexis I.
Hanseatic League
A group of cities that organized and controlled trade, mostly by ship.
Guild
An association of workmen and craftsmen working together to control quality, price, and limits.
Flying Buttress
An external architectural support that allows buildings to be taller, particularly in Gothic architecture.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Wrote Canterbury Tales in English, which promoted literacy.
Dante Alighieri
Wrote The Divine Comedy in Italian, which defined what is modern Italian.
Thomas Aquinas
A Dominican monk who lived and taught in Paris. He developed scholasticism.
Scholasticism
An educational and philosophical approach that uses reason and logic to prove anything, even the existence of God, to establish the truth.
Heresy
Any belief or practice that opposes the church or what the church believed was correct. It became a cause of the Reformation.
Inquisitions
A church institution used to combat heresy, involving trials.
Lay Investiture
Appointment to a religious position, often by buying one’s way into the church.
Simony
The sale of a religious position for money. Some bishops did this, so Pope Gregory excommunicated those bishops. It was a way for kings and nobles to get involved with the church.
Excommunication
To be kicked out of the church.
Friars
A monk who lived among the people instead of in a monastery to combat heresy through preaching and teaching.
Hundred Years’ War
A war between France and Britain that changed Europe and led to the emergence of France.
Wars of the Roses
A war between two English families (York and Lancaster) for control of the country and the throne.
The Black Death
Undermined the feudal system.
Humanism
A movement emphasizing human culture and potential based on Greek and Roman civilization.
Machiavelli
Wrote The Prince, a political document with a pragmatic approach to rule, using power rather than moral obligations.
The Medicis
A family that supported the arts.
Leonardo da Vinci
Inventor, artist, and genius.
Michaelangelo Buonarroti
Best sculptor and painter, painted the Sistine Chapel.
Johannes Gutenberg
Invented the printing press, which helped spread knowledge faster.
Desiderius Erasmus
Critiqued the corruption of the Catholic Church.
Sir Thomas More
Wrote Utopia, which described the perfect world. He was honest and opposed the king.
William Shakespeare
Albrecht Durer
German artist influenced by the Renaissance, using realism and perspective.
Jan van Eyck
Perfected the technique of oil painting, focusing on landscapes and domestic life.
Brunelleschi
Created linear perspective (3D) and the dome of the cathedral in Florence.
Heliocentric
The sun is in the middle of the solar system.
Geocentric
The Earth is the center of the universe, and the sun and planets revolve around the Earth.