Study Guide: Ch 9 - 10

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Medieval Glossary

Abbey: A monastic community of either monks or nuns. Ruled by an Abbot or Abbess Usually founded by a particular monastic order and bound by their rules. Abbeys many times owe some form of feudal obligation to a lord. Basically they are self contained with all basic function performed by the monks or nuns.

Aid: A special obligation of a vassal to provide money for such occasions as his lord's ransom, the marriage of his daughter, the knighting of his son, or for going on Crusade.

Albigensians: Name for the heretics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; derived from the city of Albi in southern France, one of their centers of influence; also called Cathars.

Bailiff: (or bailie, bailo) Manorial official, overseer of the manor, chosen by the lord.

Banalities : Fees which a feudal lord imposed on his serfs for the use of his mill, oven, wine press, or similar facilities. It sometimes included part of a fish catch or the proceeds from a rabbit warren.

chivalry: Code of behavior/ethics for knights, based on telling the truth, keeping one's word and protecting those weaker than oneself.

Cistercians: A variety of Benedictine monks, who appeared as a reform movement in 1098 and flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; they advocated a return to the strict, literal observance of Benedict's Rule.

Cluny - In Burgundy, monastics convinced William the Pious of Aquitane to found the Cluny monastery around 910. Gifts of land or provisions would not be in return for feudal services, but would be recompensed by the monks' prayers. The monks received the right to elect their own abbot, putting the position beyond lay interference. Cluny's founders tried to eliminate any potentially idle time by instituting heavy schedules of communal liturgical prayer services, in addition to fieldwork and manuscript reproduction. 

demesne : The part of the lord's manorial lands reserved for his own use and not allocated to his serfs or freeholder tenants. Serfs worked the demesne for a specified numbers of days a week. The demesne may either be scattered among the serfs land, or a separate area, the latter being more common for meadow and orchard lands. / Land devoted to the lord's profit, whether a manor, or a portion of land within a manor, worked by peasants as part of their obligations.

fair: A market held at regular intervals, usually once to twice a year. Fairs tend to offer a wider range of goods than normal markets.

Fealty, Oath of:    The oath by which a vassal swore loyalty to his lord. / An oath of fidelity. Sometimes combined with homage since both were commonly performed together when a vassal received a fief from a lord.

Feudalism:  The system of governing whereby semiautonomous landed nobility have certain well defined responsibilities to the king, in return for the use of grants of land (fiefs)

fief - Land or revenue-producing property granted by a lord in return for a vassal's service. / a grant by a lord to a vassal to secure the services of the vassal. 

Francis of Assisi emphasized simplicity and poverty, relying on God's providence rather than worldly goods. The brothers worked or begged for what they needed to live, and any surplus was given to the poor. He worked to care for the poor, and one of his first actions after his conversion was to care for lepers.

Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) - Hildebrand, reforming pope, and chief Church protagonist in Investiture Controversy. 

guild: Trade associations formed to protect members from the competition of foreign merchants and to maintain commercial standards. Guilds maintained a system of education, whereby apprentices served a master for five to seven years before becoming a journeyman at about age nineteen. Journeymen worked in the shop of a master until they could demonstrate to the leaders of the guild that they were ready for master status. Guild members were forbidden to compete with each other, and merchants were required to sell at a "just price". 

Henry II was one of the most effective of all England's monarchs. His French holdings more than doubled with his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitane (ex-wife of King Louis VII of France). The continental empire ruled by Henry and his sons included the French counties of Brittany, Maine, Poitou, Touraine, Gascony, Anjou, Aquitane, and Normandy. The process of strengthening the royal courts yielded an unexpected controversy. The church courts were a safe haven for criminals.  Henry wished to transfer sentencing in such cases to the royal courts, as church courts merely demoted clerics to laymen. Thomas Beckett, Henry's close friend and chancellor since 1155, was named Archbishop of Canterbury in June 1162, but opposed the weakening of church courts.

Henry IV (1056-1106) - German Emperor during Investiture Controversy. German nobles had gained power during his long minority, and as emperor he faced a revolt of nobles in league with the papacy.

heretic: A person who obstinately holds to a view that is contrary to one or more of the fundamental beliefs of the church; it is not mere error, but obstinate holding to the error when instructed by a properly constituted authority.

Homage:   The ceremony by which a vassal pledges his fealty to his liege, and acknowledges all other feudal obligations, in return for a grant of land.

Iconoclasm: The destruciton of icons; iconoclasm was a policy of some Byzantine emperors between 725 and 842; eventually repudiated by the Christian churches of the medieval east and west. 

Indulgences  During the Middle Ages, forgiveness for sin could be purchased from the Church as indulgences, removing the burden of penance for the commission of sins. These were often connected with relics.

Investiture: The act of formally putting someone into an office or a landholding; it was a major occasion of dispute in the eleventh and twelfth centuries when reformers opposed lay rulers who invested clergy with the symbols of their positions. 

Henry IV needed the support of Germany's bishops and felt he needed to appoint them. He did not want the Pope--whom he had not appointed--to tell him who to invest as bishop.  Pope Gregory VII was an arch-reformer, feeling that he was God's vicar on earth and that all clerics of Latin Christianity should be responsible to him, and him alone. In 1075, Gregory claimed that no one invested by a layman was a real bishop, and that any non-cleric who would presume to do such a thing would be excommunicated. 

knight: The retainer of a feudal lord who owed military service for his fief.

manor:  A small holding. The manor as a unit of land is generally held by a knight or managed by a bailiff. / Estate held by a lord and farmed by tenants who owed him rents and services, and whose relations with him were governed by his manorial court.

monk:  a man who joined a religious house, called a monastery, where he took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; the commonest form of monk was a man living under the provisions of the Rule of St Benedict.

Orthodox Church: The dominant form of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire and in the Slavic lands converted from that empire

Peace of God: A movement that arose in southern France in the tenth and eleventh centuries to place limits on fighting; it placed certain classes of people - non-combatants, women, clergy and the poor - under the protection of the church.

reeve: A royal or manor official appointed by the lord or elected by the peasants. / Manorial overseer, usually a villager elected by tenants of the manor.

serf: A semi-free peasant (cottagers, small holders, or villeins) who worked his lord's demesne and paid him certain dues in return for the use of land, the possession (not ownership) of which was heritable. These dues ("corvee"), were in the form of labor on the lord's land, averaging three days a week.

sheriff  (from "Shire Reeve"): The chief administrative and judicial officer of a shire. He collected taxes and forwarded them on to the Exchequer, and was also responsible for making sure that the King's table was well stocked.

simony  The buying or selling of spiritual things, particularly Church offices. Church reformers in the 11th century sought to attack what they saw as "abuses, especially simony (paying for ecclesiastical office) and clerical marriage. Both practices were condemned by a Roman council held in 1074 early in the pontificate of Pope Gregory VII

steward: The man responsible for running the day-to-day affairs of the castle when the lord was absent.

tithe  One tenth of a person's income given to support the church annually.

Truce of God: A movement that began in the eleventh century which sought to forbid fighting on Sundays and the chief religious seasons and feasts.

vassal: A free man who held land (fief) from a lord to whom he paid homage and swore fealty. He owed various services and obligations, primarily military, but he also advised his lord and paid him the traditional feudal aids required on the knighting of the lord's eldest son, the marriage of the lord's eldest daughter, and the ransoming of the lord, should he be held captive.

wattle: A mat of woven sticks and weeds. daub: A mud and clay mixture applied over wattle to strengthen and seal it.

           Western Civilization Practice Exam VII   Ch. 9 at Discovery.com
 

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