8th Grade Global Final Study Guide - Middle Ages

Comprehensive vocabulary terms and definitions covering the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages as detailed in the lecture transcript.

Burkhardt

The historian who associated the Renaissance with progress and relegated the Middle Ages to a mere transition period with no significant contributions.

High Middle Ages

The period of European history from the late $11^{th}$ to the $13^{th}$ century, characterized by economic, political, and cultural expansion.

Wergeld

Known as 'man money,' this was a fine paid by a wrongdoer to the family of the person they injured or killed, based on the victim's social status.

Compurgation

A Germanic legal procedure where an accused person swore an oath of innocence, supported by a group of 12 to 25 'oath helpers.'

Ordeal

A trial based on the belief in divine intervention, where an accused person was subjected to dangerous tasks like using water or burning iron to determine guilt.

Monastery Scriptoriums

Locations within monasteries where monks preserved Latin literacy and learning by copying manuscripts of the Bible, theologies, and classical works.

Ulfilas

A missionary who converted Germanic tribes, such as the Goths and Alemanni, to Arian Christianity before they entered the Roman Empire.

Clovis

The King of the Franks who conquered Gaul in 486 and converted to Roman Catholic Christianity, establishing an alliance with the Pope.

Battle of Tours

A battle in 732 where Charles Martel and the Frankish warriors defeated Muslim armies, interpreted by Christians as a sign of God's favor.

Three-field system

An agricultural method where land was divided into three parts; one-third was left fallow each season while the others were planted, including leguminous crops to restore fertility.

Heavy iron plow

An advanced agricultural tool that replaced the scratch plow by digging deep troughs in heavy soil with one pass.

Merchant Guilds

Associations of traders that established production standards, offered mutual aid, and often formed the political class of a town.

Town Charter

A legal document sold by a sovereign to an urban center that waived feudal duties and granted the right to form guilds and local courts.

Masterpiece

The work presented by an apprentice to the guild hierarchy to prove they had acquired the necessary skills to become a master.

Trivium

The 'three-part curriculum' of medieval grammar schools consisting of grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

Quadrivium

The 'four-part curriculum' of medieval education consisting of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

Peter Abelard

A scholar known for his work 'Sic et non,' who applied logic to demonstrate contradictions in established authorities and promoted inquiry to perceive truth.

Scholastic Method

A structured university method of reasoning that involved posing a question, providing arguments against the conclusion, offering a counter-proposal, and synthesizing a definitive response.

Fief

An area of land granted as a 'holding' by a lord to a vassal in exchange for military service and personal loyalty.

Scutage

A monetary payment made by a vassal to a lord to avoid the obligation of personal military service.

Demesne

The portion of manorial land directly controlled and cultivated for the lord, rather than for the individual use of the peasants.

Serfs

Peasants who were legally tied to the land they tilled and obligated to work for the lord in exchange for protection and a plot for self-sustenance.

Reeve

A high-status medieval serf responsible for managing the lord's estate, organizing labor, and keeping records.

Yersinia pestis

The bacterium that caused the bubonic plague, which killed between $30$ and $40$ percent of the population during the Great Plague of 1348-1349.

Ordinance of Labourers

A 1349 English law that attempted to freeze wages at pre-plague levels and compel labor due to the scarcity of workers following the Black Death.

Transubstantiation

The Catholic doctrine that during the mass, the substance of the bread and wine is transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ.

Ora et labora

Latin for 'prayer and work,' the core principle of Christian monasticism involving submission of all life to God’s presence.

Simony

The practice of selling Church offices, which reform movements starting in the $11^{th}$ century sought to eliminate.

Investiture Controversy

A conflict between the Church and secular rulers over who had the authority to appoint bishops and abbots with both ecclesiastical and secular power.

Concordat of Worms

The 1122 agreement that distinguished between the spiritual powers of a bishop (symbolized by the staff and ring) and their secular privileges as a land-holding vassal.

Thomas Becket

The Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in 1170 following a conflict with King Henry II over the legal rights of the Church and 'criminous clerks.'