Medieval Europe Vocabulary: The Fast and the Curious

hierarchy

• an organization with different levels of authority; a classification into ranks.

• to declare that a person or group is no longer a member of the church

• people who are sent by a religious organization to spread the faith

• a group of merchants or craftsmen during medieval times; a group of merchants or craftspeople

clergy

• the system of service between a lord and the vassals who have sworn loyalty to the

• a religious way of life in which one rejects worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. (plural: monasteries)

• people (such as priests) who are the leaders of a religion

• a person under the protection of a lord to whom he has vowed loyalty; a low-ranking noble under the protection of a feudal lord.

laity

• the system of service between a lord and the vassals who have sworn loyalty to the lord; political order; under feudalism, nobles governed and protected people in return for services

•  regular church members; the largest group in the church hierarchy

• a mounted man-at-arms serving a feudal superior

• people (such as priests) who are the leaders of a religion

doctrine

• official church teaching

• the study of religious faith, practice, and experience

•  the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood

• a separation or division from a church

gospel

• to declare that a person or group is no longer a member of the church

• the accounts that apostles wrote of Jesus’s life

• a person under the protection of a lord to whom he has vowed loyalty; a low-ranking

• official church teaching

pope

• a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes

• a religious way of life in which one rejects worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. (plural: monasteries)

• the title given to the Bishop of Rome

• a feudal estate belonging to a vassal; a piece of land

icons

• an organization with different levels of authority; a classification into ranks.

• the accounts that apostles wrote of Jesus’s life

• a way of thinking that combined faith and reason

• a representation of an object of worship.

iconoclasts

• a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics.

• the everyday spoken language of a region

• originally: a person who destroys icons; today: a person who criticizes traditional beliefs

• a group of merchants or craftsmen during medieval times; a group of merchants or craftspeople

excommunicated

• a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes

• to declare that a person or group is no longer a member of the church

• a representation of an object of worship.

• regular church members; the largest group in the church hierarchy

schism

• a separation or division from a church

• the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood

• a member of the peasant class tied to the land and subject to the will of the landowner

• a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics.