What were the Crusades?
The Crusades were an attempt by Western Europe and the Roman branch of the Church to retake the Holy Land, secure trade routes, and drive back Muslim encroachment into Europe.
What is Feudalism?
Feudalism is a broad paradigm for the kind of power relationships that developed in the West between 600 and 1400 within which different kinds of political agreements were reached.
What is Manorialism/Manorism?
Manorialism/Manorism refers to the economic system that developed in the Middle Ages that was dependent upon manors staffed by serfs and ruled by lords.
Who were the Franks?
The Franks were a Germanic people who lived in Germany, Belgium, and Holland on the periphery of the Roman Empire (both geographically and culturally). They were only somewhat Romanized, and their chief connection with Rome was providing a ready supply of rugged recruits for the Roman army. By the 400s, Franks served as high-ranking military officers.
Who was Clovis?
Clovis was the king of the Franks who got the Romans and Franks to work together and created the Merovingian empire.
What was Gallo-Roman/Franco-Roman society?
Gallo-Roman/Franco-Roman society was the society created by the fusion of Frank and Roman culture and peoples into one. This society became the foundation of European social and political organization for the next 1,000 years.
What was the Merovingian kingdom?
Named after a legendary ancestor, the Merovingian kingdom was the kingdom founded by Clovis. Both modern France and modern Germany trace their roots to the Merovingians.
Who was Gregory the Great?
Gregory the Great was the “first” Roman Catholic pope. He made the pope the greatest landowner in Italy, organized the military defenses of Rome and paid for its army, heard court cases, negotiated treaties,
and provided welfare services.
What is the Iconoclastic controversy?
The iconoclastic controversy was the issue that permanently divided the church into two branches. Beginning in the 700s, the eastern church took a strong no-icons approach, prohibiting the use of religious objects and sacred images as mediating devices in worship, claiming their use constituted idolatry. The western church staunchly defended the appropriate use of statues and relics in Christian worship. The popes even considered the anti-icon emperors heretics.
What is Arianism?
Ariansim was the wide-spread heresy that taught Jesus was not fully God and not an equal member of the Trinity. The Arians said Jesus was a created being who had been elevated to a quasi-Divine status because of His obedience to God’s will.
Who was Charles Martel?
Charles Martel, the son of Pepin, defeated the invading Muslim armies at the Battle of Tours in 732, pushing them back into Spain and saving Western Civilization.
Who was Charlemagne?
Charlemagne, Pepin the Short’s son, brought the Frankish Kingdom reached its height and became the first Holy Roman Emperor.
What was the Holy Roman Emperor?
The Holy Roman Emperor was the king of the Frankish kingdom, and the title signified the marriage of Frankish Empire with Roman Catholicism.
What was the Carolingian Renaissance?
The Carolingian Renaissance refers to the learning Charlemagne promoted amongst priests and civil servants.
Who was Alcuin?
Alcuin was a scholar from England and the headmaster of the palace school Charlemagne founded at which he and his children learned. Alcuin and monks preserved and transcribed many ancient texts.
Who was Einhard?
Einhard was the author of a biography on Charlemagne, the first medieval biography of a secular leader.
What is chivalry?
Chivalry was the unwritten code of
proper knight etiquette that developed in the Middle Ages.
What is a manor?
A manor is a large, self-sufficient estate owned by a lord and worled by serfs.
What is a serf?
A serf was a virtual slave, a peasant who worked on the manner who exchanged his freedom for the lord’s protection.
