Medieval History Practice Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary, legal terms, and historical concepts from the Middle Ages to the early modern period as described in the lecture notes.

Early Middle Ages Chronology

The period within the Middle Ages lasting from approximately the year $500$ to the year $900$ or $1000$.

Teleology

An approach in historical study that focuses exclusively on the effects or final outcomes rather than looking at the ongoing process of development.

Annales School

A historical movement that focuses on 'total history' and mentalities, utilizing diverse primary sources beyond just written documents.

Hagiographies

Biographies of saints that, according to the notes, can provide precious information about the lives of common people.

Captatio Benevolentiae

The second part of a medieval letter, designed as an elegant and elaborate formula to capture the goodwill of the recipient.

Iconoclast Crisis

A religious and political symptom of the division between the East and West occurring between the years $726$ and $787$.

Filioque

A theological concept regarding the procession of the Holy Spirit, emerging in the Iberian Peninsula in the $7^{th}$ century and adopted in Rome by the $11^{th}$ century.

Privilegium Fori

A clerical privilege established so that a cleric could only be tried by ecclesiastical tribunals.

Privilegium Immunitatis

A clerical privilege that exempted the clergy from any fiscal or military obligations in the public domain.

Civitates

The Roman administrative system inherited by the Mediterranean dioceses that influenced the density of bishoprics.

Servus Servorum Dei

A title meaning 'Servant of the servants of God,' used by Gregory the Great to express the ideal of papal primacy.

Simony

The corrupt practice of buying and selling ecclesiastical offices, a major target of the $11^{th}$ century papal reforms.

Dictatus Papae

A document asserting that the Pope cannot be judged, can wear imperial insignia, can depose emperors, and represents the infallibility of the institution.

Concordat of Worms

An agreement reached in $1122$ where kings and emperors renounced the investiture of ecclesiastical functions while retaining the right to invest bishops with secular authority.

Transubstantiation

A religious doctrine defined during the Fourth Lateran Council in $1215$ regarding the nature of the Eucharist.

Liber Extra

The first complete collection of papal decretals, published in $1234$ during the papacy of Gregory IX.

Wergeld

A concept described as the 'price of blood' within the hierarchy of aristocratic values.

Oratores, Bellatores, Laboratores

The three orders of the tripartite society: those who pray, those who fight, and those who work.

Stadtluft macht frei

A legal principle meaning 'City air makes you free,' where a serf could become free after hiding in a city for a certain period of time.

Serrata

The legislative act in $1297$ that defined the status of the Great Council of Venice, restricting government access to approximately $1000$ families.

Communion/Communia

A term for common property used in the $12^{th}$ century to describe the rights and liberties of urban communities.

The Domesday Book

A descriptive survey commissioned by William the Conqueror in $1086$, documenting manors, livestock, and incomes by county across England.

Magna Charta

A document from $1215$ containing $63$ articles, including principles that no free man can be subject to arbitrary judgment (habeas corpus).

Pax Dei

The 'Peace of God,' a movement aimed at controlling military actions and prohibiting fighting on holidays or days commemorating Christ's sacrifice.

Persona Mixta

The concept of the king as a 'twin person' — a fusion of the natural/human and the spiritual/divine through the sacrament of consecration.

Rex Imago Christi

A Christocentric kingship idea where the king is seen as the image of Christ, sanctified by anointing and consecration.

Sola Fide

The Lutheran doctrine stating that salvation is achieved through faith alone, developed after Martin Luther's study of the Epistle to the Romans.

Counter-Reformation

The Catholic action movement aimed at recovering territories lost to Protestantism and clarifying Church doctrine.