Ch. 15 Vocabulary Terms Medieval Europe

1. fjord – Steep-sided valley that is an inlet of the sea. 2. missionary – A person who travels to carry the ideas of a religion to others. 3. excommunicate – To declare that a person or group no longer belongs to a church. 4. concordat – An agreement between the pope and the ruler of a country. 5. abbot – The leader of a monastery

6. pope – Leader of the Roman Catholic Church. 7. mayor of the palace – a noble who took over the royal duties of giving out land, settling disputes, and fighting their own wars. 8. count – Nobles who ran the courts. 9. scriptoria – writing rooms where monks made copies of important works.

10. interdict – a decree that forbids priests from providing Christian rituals to a group of people. 11. feudalism – A system where landowning nobles governed and protected the people in return for services. 12. vassal – A noble who served a lord of higher rank in return for protection. 13. fief – Under feudalism, the land a lord granted to a vassal in exchange for military service and loyalty.

14. Knight – In the Middle Ages, a noble warrior who fought on horseback. 15. serf – Peasant laborer bound by law to the lands of a noble. 16. guild – Medieval business group formed by craftspeople and merchants. 17. apprentice – A person who learned a trade from a master craftsperson. 18. estates – Large farms.

19. manor – An estate belonging to a lord that included a castle, surrounding lands, and a peasant village. 20. three field system – A method of growing more food by rotating crops. 21. code of chivalry – A guide for good behavior for medieval knights.

22. grand jury – A group that decided whether there was enough evidence to accuse a person of a crime. 23. trial jury – A group that decided whether an accused person was innocent or guilty. 24. clergy – Religious officials, such as priests, given authority to conduct religious services.

25. Domesday Book – A census in Europe that counted people, manors, and farm animals. 26. Magna Carta – A document of rights signed by King John. Means Great Charter. 27. parliament – A group of people from different parts of England who gathered to advise the king and make laws. 28. House of Lords – High-ranking nobles and church officials who served in parliament.

29. House of Commons – Knights and townspeople who served in parliament. 30. Estates – General – France’s first parliament 31. crusade – A holy war. 32. common law – A law that is the same throughout an entire kingdom. 33. natural law – the idea the people have rights and that the power of the government should be limited.

34. mass – The Catholic worship service. 35. heresy – Religious beliefs that conflict with Church teachings. 36. anti-semitism – Hatred of Jews. 37. theology – The study of religion and God. 37. scholasticism – Medieval way of thinking that tried to bring together reason and faith in studies of religion.

38. vernacular – Everyday language used in a country or region. 39. friar – A religious order of men who went out into the world to preach. 40. sacraments – Religious rituals in the Roman Catholic Church such as communion. 41. relics – Religious symbols or objects that early Christians believed had special powers.

42. Inquisition – A religious court that tried people suspected of heresy. 43. ghetto – separate communities in which Jews were forced to live. 44. cathedral – Very large churches. 45. Summa Theologica – A summary of knowledge on Theology. 46. troubadour poetry – traveling musicians who sang songs and told stories about love.

47. plague – a disease that spreads rapidly and kills many people. 48. Reconquista – The Christian struggle to take back the Iberian Peninsula. 49. Black Death – Name given to a plague that spread throughout Europe and Asia in the 1300’s. 50. War of the roses – A civil war over power that broke out in England among the nobles after the Hundred Years War.

51. Kremlin – A fortress at the center of Moscow. 52. czar – A shortened version of the word Caesar which means emperor in Russian.