The Medieval Expansion of Europe and Religious Movements

Flashcards covering the expansion of medieval Europe into the Atlantic and Baltic, the Crusades, and key medieval popular heretical movements.

Tenth Century Conversion in Scandinavia

The historical period during which the kings of Denmark and Norway converted to Christianity, leading to royal support for the Roman Catholic church despite initial popular resistance.

Icelandic Christian Adoption

The formal adoption of Christianity by the Norwegian colony in Iceland occurring in 999 or 1000 C.E.

Swedish and Finnish Christianization

The expansion of Christian faith into Sweden and Finland between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.

Templars

A prominent hybrid military-religious order formed during the Crusades whose members took religious vows and devoted themselves to fighting Muslims and pagans.

Hospitallers

A prominent military-religious order established during the era of crusades to struggle against Muslims and pagans.

Teutonic Knights

A military-religious order active in the Baltic region that waged military campaigns against pagan Slavic peoples during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Pagan Slavic Peoples

The native inhabitants of the Baltic region against whom the Teutonic Knights waged military campaigns during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

German Missionaries

Religious figures who assisted the Teutonic Knights in establishing churches and monasteries across subdued Baltic territories.

Baltic Lands

Territories including Prussia, Livonia, and Lithuania where Christian authority was introduced in the wake of military conquest.

Baltic Catholic Presence (Late 13th Century)

The established presence of the Roman Catholic church across the entire Baltic region by the late thirteenth century.

Eric the Red

The leader of a party that discovered Greenland at the end of the tenth century and established a small colony there.

Leif Ericsson

The son of Eric the Red who led an exploratory voyage south and west of Greenland about 1000 C.E., arriving in modern Newfoundland.

Vinland

The name given by Leif Ericsson to modern Newfoundland in Canada, named for the wild grapes growing in the area.

Vinland Resources

Plentiful supplies of fish, timber, and wild grapes found by Leif Ericsson's exploratory party in North America.

Archaeological Evidence at Newfoundland

Scandinavian tools and building foundations dating to the early eleventh century uncovered in northern Newfoundland since the 1960s.

Scandinavian Sagas

Historical stories preserving accounts of maritime ventures that document the Greenlander colony in Newfoundland.

Abandonment of Vinland

The departure or demise of Greenlander settlers resulting from a lack of resources to maintain a settlement across the stormy North Atlantic Ocean.

High Middle Ages Growth Factors

Powerful states, economic expansion, and demographic growth that strengthened European society during the high middle ages.

Fronts of European Expansion

The three geographic regions—Atlantic, Baltic, and Mediterranean—where Europeans mounted expansive ventures starting around the mid-eleventh century.

Mediterranean Recapture

The European recapture of Spain and Mediterranean islands from Muslims beginning about the mid-eleventh century.

The Crusades

Enormous military campaigns mounted by European knights designed to seize the holy land of Palestine from Muslims.

Military Outcome of the Crusades

Ventures that achieved limited success by holding the holy land only temporarily, while demonstrating Europe's expanding role in eastern hemisphere affairs.

Dominicans and Franciscans

Religious orders that operated within the framework of the Roman Catholic church rather than rejecting it.

12th and 13th Century Popular Heresies

Alternative religious movements that rejected the Roman Catholic church and protested the increasing materialism of European society.

Waldensians

A popular movement in southern France and northern Italy that criticized the Roman Catholic clergy as corrupt and advocated modest, simple lives.

Waldensian Lay Rights

The assertion by the Waldensians that ordinary laity had the right to preach and administer sacraments.

Manichaeans

An ancient group whose dualistic views were revived by popular medieval movements like the Bogomils and Cathars.

Bogomils

A religious movement in Bulgaria and Byzantium that viewed the world as a cosmic struggle between good and evil and adopted an ascetic regime.

Bogomil Asceticism

A spiritual regime seeking purity through the renunciation of wealth, marriage, and material pleasures.

Cathars

A dualist movement active in southern France and northern Italy during the eleventh century, also known as Albigensians.

Albigensians

An alternative name for the Cathars who rejected official churches, priests, and sacraments as hopelessly corrupt.

Dualism in Medieval Heresies

The belief that the world is a site of unrelenting, cosmic struggle between the forces of good and evil.

Heretical View of Church Sacraments

The rejection of official church sacraments and priests by Bogomils and Cathars due to perceived hopeless corruption.

Official Perception of Heretical Movements

The view held by government and church authorities that popular movements were threats to cultural stability and religious orthodoxy.

Suppression of Bogomils and Cathars

Ruthless campaigns launched jointly by government and church officials beginning in the late eleventh century to destroy dualist heretics.

14th Century Heretic Survival

The period by which Bogomils and Cathars survived in only a few remote regions of Europe due to extensive suppression campaigns.

Greenland Colony

A small settlement founded at the end of the tenth century by Eric the Red and his exploration party.

Prussia

A Baltic region conquered and brought under Christian authority through campaigns led by the Teutonic Knights and German missionaries.

Livonia

A Baltic territory where Christian presence was established via military conquest in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Lithuania

One of the Baltic lands incorporated into Christian Europe through medieval conquest and missionary work.

Finland

A northern region that adopted Christianity between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries alongside Sweden.

Palestine

The holy land targeted by European crusaders during military campaigns intended to establish Christian authority.

Iceland Settlement

An Atlantic island occupied by Scandinavian seafarers starting in the late ninth century.

European Materialism

The increasing societal focus on wealth during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that sparked protests from popular heresy movements.

Southern France and Northern Italy

Key regions in Europe where both the Waldensian and Cathar heretical movements actively spread.

Bulgaria and Byzantium

The regions where the dualist Bogomil movement originated and experienced rapid growth during the late tenth century.

Military-Religious Orders

Hybrid Christian organizations formed during the Crusades that combined religious vows with military duty against Muslims and pagans.

Viking Raids Protection

The defense of western Europe established during the ninth and tenth centuries through the emergence of regional states.

Late Tenth Century Bogomil Growth

The period during which the Bogomil movement grew rapidly in Bulgaria and Byzantium before spreading similar dualistic views to western Europe.

Role of Regional States (9th-10th Centuries)

Political structures whose emergence protected western Europe from Viking raids, leading Scandinavian seafarers to explore the North Atlantic Ocean.