Ap Euro Key Terms

Unit 1-2

Great Famine

A terrible famine in 1315-1322 that hit much of Europe after a period of climate change.

Black Death

Plague that first struck Europe in 1347 and killed perhaps one-third of the population.

The Decameron

A book by Giovanni Boccaccio where he described how people fled from cities and only cared for their own survival.

Flagellants

People who believed that the plague was God’s punishment for sin and sought to do penance by flagellating, whipping, themselves.

Hundred Years’ War

A war between England and France from 1337-1453, with political and economic causes and consequences.

Agincourt

Where England successfully invaded France in the Hundred Years’ War due to the longbow’s effectiveness.

Avignon

An area in France where the Pope was relocated.

Great Schism

The division of split, in church leadership from 1378-1417 when there were two, then three, popes.

Conciliarists

People who believed that the authority in the Roman Church should rest in a general council composed of clergy, theologians, and laypeople rather than in the Pope alone.

Jacquerie

A massive uprising by French peasants in 1358 protesting heavy taxation.

English Peasants’ Revolt

Revolt by English peasants in 1381 in response to changing economic conditions.

Vernacular

Writing in the local language that people spoke rather than Latin.

Divine Comedy

An epic poem written in italian by Dante Alighieri about the layers of the Afterlife: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.

The Canterbury Tales

A collection of stories written in english by Geoffrey Chaucer about cultural tension and secularism.

Renaissance

A French word meaning “rebirth,” used to describe the rebirth of the culture of classical antiquity in Italy during the 14th-16th century.

Patronage

Financial support of writers and artists by cities, groups, and individuals, often to produce specific works or works in specific styles.

Communes

Sworn associates of free men in Italien cities led by merchant guilds that sought political and economic independence from local nobles.

Populo

Disenfranchised common people in Italien cities who resented their exclusion from power.

Signori

Government by one-man rule in Italien cities such as Milan; also refers to these rulers

Courts

Magnificent households and palaces where signori and other rulers lived, conducted business, and supported the arts.

Humanism

A program of study designed by Italians’ that emphasized the critical study of Latin and Greek literature with the goal of understanding the arts.

Virtu

The quality of being able to shape the world according to one’s own will.

Christian Humanism

Northern Humanists who interpreted Italian ideas about and attitudes toward classical antiquity and humanism in terms of their own religious traditions.

New Christians

A term for Jews and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula who accepted Christianity, in many cases they included Christians whose families had converted centuries earlier.

Anticlericalism

Opposition to the clergy.

Indulgence

A document issued by the Catholic Church lessening penance or time in purgatory, widely believed to bring forgiveness of all sin.

Protestant

The name originally given to followers of Luther, which came to mean all non-Catholic Western Christian groups.

Spanish Armada

The fleet sent by Philip II of Spain in 1588 against England as a religious crusade against Protestantism. Weather and the English fleet defeat it.

Predestination

The teaching that God has determined the salvation or damnation of individuals based on his will and purpose, not on their merit or works.

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Clavin’s formulation of Christian doctrine, which became a systematic theology for Protestantism.

Holy Office

The official Roman Catholic agency founded in 1542 to combat international doctrinal heresy.

Jesuits

Members of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius Loyola, whose goal was the spread of the Roman Catholic faith.

Huguenots

French Calvinists.

Politiques

Catholic and Protestant moderates who held that only a strong monarchy could save France from total collapse; politics over religion.

Edict of Nantes

A document issued by Henry IV of France (Henry of Navarre) in France, granting liberty of conscience and of public worship to Calvinists, which helped restore peace in France.

Union of Utrecht

The alliance of seven Northern provinces, led by Holland, that declared its independence from Spain and formed the United Provinces of the Netherlands.