AP European History: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, historical figures, movements, and doctrines from Chapters 11, 12, and 13 of AP European History.

Little Ice Age

A period of shifting cold weather lasting from 1300 to 1450 that led to severe crop failures, the Great Famine, and heightened susceptibility to disease across Europe.

Great Famine of 1315-1322

A severe food shortage across Europe triggered by extreme weather and the Little Ice Age, resulting in mass starvation and social disruption.

Pasteurella Pestis

The bacterium (also known as Yersinia Pestis) responsible for the Black Death, carried by fleas on rats aboard Genoese ships in 1347.

Babylonian Captivity

The period from 1309 to 1377 when popes resided in Avignon, France instead of Rome, heavily focusing on financial and bureaucratic matters rather than spiritual leadership.

Great Schism

A division in the Catholic Church beginning in 1378 when rival popes in Rome and Avignon (and later Pisa) simultaneously claimed true papal authority.

Conciliar Movement

A reform movement arguing that supreme church authority should reside in a general council of Christians rather than solely in the pope.

Marsiglio of Padua

An Italian lawyer and university official who advocated for the conciliar movement and championed the separation of Church and state.

John Wyclif

An English theologian who challenged papal authority, argued that Scripture should be the sole standard of Christian practice, and urged stripping the church of its property.

Lollards

Followers of John Wyclif who promoted an English translation of the Bible and rejected Catholic Church property and papal supreme authority.

Fur-Collar Crime

Crimes including fraud and violence committed by 14th- and 15th-century nobles against lower-class individuals to supplement fixed incomes.

Jacquerie

A massive French peasant uprising in 1358 sparked by heavy taxation and economic disruption during the Hundred Years' War.

English Peasants' Revolt of 1381

A major rebellion led by Wat Tyler and John Ball triggered by the enforcement of poll taxes on adult males to pay for war with France.

Statute of Laborers

An English law passed in 1351 by King Edward III attempting to freeze wages at pre-plague levels and suppress worker demands.

Statute of Kilkenny (1366)

English legislation in Ireland that outlawed intermarriage between English and Irish, prohibited the Irish language, and banned Irish native laws.

Legal Pluralism

A legal system in medieval frontier regions where indigenous populations and incoming settlers lived under their respective traditional laws.

Joan of Arc

A French peasant girl whose religious visions and military leadership at Orleans helped France turn the tide and win the Hundred Years' War.

Jan Hus

A Bohemian theologian who adopted Wyclif's anti-papal views and led the Hussite reform movement until his execution at the Council of Constance.

Christine de Pizan

A medieval writer who became the first European woman to earn a living by writing, known for The Book of Three Virtues and The City of Ladies.

Decree Sacrosancta

A Council of Constance decree stating that a general council of the Catholic Church holds supreme authority over all Christians, including the pope.

Decree Frequens

A decree enacted by the Council of Constance mandating that general councils of the Catholic Church meet at regular fixed intervals.

Waldensians

A pious religious group founded in the 12th century by Peter Waldo in southern France and northern Italy that faced ongoing church persecution into the 14th century.

Humanism

An intellectual movement of the Renaissance focused on the study of classical Greek and Roman texts, human achievements, and human potential.

Virtú

A humanist concept described by Pico della Mirandola as the quality of being able to shape the world according to one's own free will.

Individualism

A Renaissance attitude highlighting personal uniqueness, individual achievement, and personal quest for distinction.

Secularism

A focus on worldly, material affairs and practical concerns rather than purely religious or spiritual considerations.

Girolamo Savonarola

A Florentine Dominican friar who denounced moral decay, criticized lavish living, and called for Christian communal renewal before being executed.

Johannes Gutenberg

The German inventor who developed movable type printing in Europe, dramatically speeding up the spread of literacy, ideas, and religious texts.

Christian Humanism

A Northern Renaissance movement that combined classical learning with Christian texts to reform the Church and foster personal piety.

Thomas More

An English Christian humanist and author of Utopia, a work depicting an ideal island society with universal education and shared property.

Desiderius Erasmus

A Dutch Christian humanist who authored The Praise of Folly and The Education of a Christian Prince, advocating Bible reading in classical education.

Signori

An Italian government system where absolute authority was held by a single ruler and passed down hereditarily.

Communes

Sworn associations of free men in Italian cities led by merchant guilds to maintain civic order and achieve political independence from nobles.

Popolo

The disenfranchised common class in Italian city-states who resented exclusion from political power and sometimes used force to seize government control.

Reconquista

The centuries-long military movement by Christian kingdoms to reclaim the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule, completed in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella.

Conversos

Jewish individuals in Spain who converted to Christianity under pressure, many of whom were later targeted by the Spanish Inquisition.

Court of Star Chamber

A secret English judicial court created under Henry VII that used harsh measures without juries to suppress aristocratic unrest.

Niccolò Machiavelli

A Florentine political philosopher who wrote The Prince, asserting that a ruler must focus on state survival and power regardless of moral codes.

Indulgences

Catholic Church documents granting partial remission of temporal punishment in purgatory for sins, famously criticized by Martin Luther.

Sola Scriptura

The Protestant doctrine that the Bible alone serves as the final authority on all matters of Christian doctrine and practice.

Transubstantiation

The Catholic doctrine stating that during the Mass, a priest transforms bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Christ.

Consubstantiation

Martin Luther's belief that Christ's presence coexists in the bread and wine through divine mystery without a physical transformation by a priest.

Predestination

The Calvinist theological doctrine that God has determined the eternal salvation or damnation of every soul prior to creation.

Institutes of the Christian Religion

John Calvin's foundational work outlining a systematic, structured theology for Protestantism.

Anabaptists

Radical Protestant groups who rejected infant baptism, practicing adult baptism and advocating strict communal living based on early Christian models.

Act of Supremacy

The 1534 English law that declared King Henry VIII the supreme head of the Church of England, severing papal authority.

Council of Trent

An ecumenical council of the Catholic Church (1545–1563) that reformed ecclesiastical abuses while reaffirming traditional Catholic doctrines.

Consistory

A governing body of laymen and pastors in Calvinist Geneva responsible for overseeing and enforcing public moral conduct.

Huguenots

French Calvinists who engaged in violent religious wars against French Catholics during the 16th century.

Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre

A targeted wave of Catholic mob violence against French Huguenots beginning on August 24, 1572, following a royal wedding.

Edict of Nantes (1598)

A decree issued by King Henry IV of France granting religious tolerance and public worship rights to French Calvinists.

Politiques

Moderate Catholic and Protestant figures in 16th-century France who prioritized a strong central monarchy over religious uniformity to prevent national collapse.

Jesuits

Members of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola, dedicated to defending and spreading Catholicism worldwide through education and missionary work.

Absenteeism

The practice of Catholic Church officials holding positions in districts where they did not reside, leading to neglect of spiritual duties.

Pluralism

The practice of holding more than one ecclesiastical office simultaneously in the Catholic Church.