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900 or even later.
Bishops: Overseers in Greek, the chief religious and administrative officers of the Christian church.
Black Death: Devastating outbreak of bubonic plague in 1348; killed one-fourth to one-third of the population.
Book of Common Prayer: Issued under the aegis of Queen Elizabeth I (r.
155 8 1603) in 1569 as a service book for, and theological statement of, what
came to be called Anglicanism, that is, the English via media between
Catholicism and Protestantism.
Bretwalda: Contemporary name for early Anglo-Saxon kings who claimed some wide-ranging authority: broad-wielders or Britain-wielders.
Caliph: Successor to the prophet in Islam. Originally held only Muhammad s secular authority but, over time, acquired some responsibility for custody of the
faith.
Capetians: Name for the ruling dynasty of France from 987 to 1328.
Capitularies: Legislation in chapters (capitula) issued by Frankish kings.
Cappadocian fathers: Basil the Great (c. 330-379), his brother Gregory of
Nyssa (c. 330 395), and Gregory Nazianzus (329 389) were among the greatest
Greek Church fathers. They wrote especially on Trinitarian and Chris tological
issues.
Cardinals: Key officers of the Catholic Church. Emerged in late antiquity and
achieved real institutional prominence in the twelfth century. Served as papal electors.
Carolingians: Dynasty of Frankish rulers whose most famous member was
Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus). Became kings in 751 and ruled until 911 in
Germany and 987 in France.
Cathars: Dualist heretics, in the ancient Zoroastrian-Manichaean tradition, who were prominent in southern France from the mid-twelfth century to the early
thirteenth. Especially common around Albi, whence the name Albigensians.
Censors: Roman republican officers, two in number, elected every five years to
serve for eighteen months. They determined the economic status of citizens for voting purposes and legislated on public morality.
Centuriate Assembly: Roman republican voting assembly consisting of all
Roman citizens organized by centuries, or wealth groups. Used block voting, that is, there were always 192 votes, one for each century.
Chaeronea, Battle of: Macedonians, led by King Philip II and his son Alexander, defeated the Greeks in 338 B.C.
Chivalry: The social ethos of the medieval wari-ior-aristocracy that emphasized prowess, courage, loyalty, and generosity. The conduct proper for a knight, a
man who rode and fought on a horse (cheval).
Christian humanism: Term applied to scholarship of Renaissance figures in
northern Europe who tended to study the Bible and Church fathers rather than the Greco-Roman classics.
Christology: The branch of Christian theology that explores how Jesus Christ can be true God and true man.
Church fathers: Greek and Latin Christian writers (from the time 300-750 but, especially, 350 450) who set norms for biblical interpretation and explained key
Christian doctrines.
Cisalpine Gaul: Roman name for the Italian area between the Alps and the Rubicon River, literally Gaul on this side of the Alps.
Cistercians: Monks of Citeaux, in Burgundy, or their allies; a community of
reformed Benedictine monks who sought primitive purity. Spread rapidly in the twelfth century.
Cluny: Great monastery founded in Burgundy in 910 to be free of all lay control. Tremendously influential well into the twelfth century, not least because of its
famous abbots.
Columbian exchange: Name for the process whereby Europeans and peoples in
the New World exchanged crops, livestock, and germs.
Comedy: A dramatic work that may be fantastic or ridiculous, whose humor may be riotous or mordant, and which may have powerful contemporary resonance.
Communes: Urban institutions in Italy involving fairly wide political participation by the elites.
Complutensian Polyglot Bible: Produced around 1500 at the University of
Alcala in Spain, a scholarly edition of the Bible with parallel columns in different languages and elaborate notes.
Conciliarism: Doctrine spawned during the Great Schism (q.v.) maintaining that Church councils and not the popes are supreme in the Church.
Consul: Highest officer in the Roman Republic. There were two, elected annually, who led armies, proposed legislation, and convened assemblies.
Corinthian: Name for one of the three Greek orders; pertains particularly to the columns characterized by fluting, more -or-less elaborate pedestals, and Acanthus-
leaf capitals. This style was especially favored by the Romans.
Corpus Iuris Civilis: Massive codification of Roman law carried out (529 532) by a commission headed by Tribonian under the aegis of Justinian (see
Biographical Notes).
Council of Trent (1545 1563): Most important Catholic Church council of the Reformation era. Affirmed traditional Catholic teachings and instituted many
reforms.
Counter-Reformation: From the 1560s, an effort by the Catholic Church to win back areas lost to Protestants. Most effective in Poland and southern Ge rmany.
Covenant: Central idea in religious faith of the Hebrews. Calls for a mutual, reciprocal pact between God and his chosen people.
Crusades: Long series of armed pilgrimages between 1095 and 1291 designed to liberate the Holy Land from the Infidel, that is, Muslims. The French were
most prominent in the Crusades. Papal leadership was sometimes effective, but the overall results were limited.
Cuneiform: Literally wedge shaped ; customary name for the writing used in Mesopotamia.
Dominicans: Mendicant order founded by Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221) in
southern France. Their ideal was to combat heresy by acquiring great learning and living exemplary lives. The order produced many great scholars.
Dorians: Greek speakers who migrated from Thessaly to Peloponnesus after
about 1200 B.C. and settled around Sparta. Greek legend remembered them as invaders.
Doric: Name for one of the three Greek orders; pertains particularly to the
columns characterized by convex shape, fluting, lack of pedestals, and simple capitals.
Edict of Milan: Decree in 313 whereby Constantine granted legal toleration to
Christianity.
Ephors: Overseers who, in the Spartan system, judged the validity of laws.
Epicureanism: Philosophy that stressed happiness or pleasure, defined as
absence of pain or strife (not hedonism, as it later came to be understood).
Equals: See homoioi.
Etruscans: Mysterious people, probably of eastern Mediterranean origin, who
lived north of Latium and dominated the emerging Romans until about 500 B.C. Excommunication: Ecclesiastical punishment by which a person is denied the
sacraments of the Church and forbidden most kind of ordinary human interactions.
Federates: People who had afoedus, a treaty, with Rome; usually along frontiers.
Feudalism: Social and political regime in which public services and private bonds alike were arranged by vassals (q.v.), men who have sworn mutual pledges to
one another, and fiefs (q.v.; from feudum), something of value, usually land, (a manor q.v.), which was exchanged between the lord and the vassal. There never
was a uniform feudal system in medieval Europe in any one place or time.
Fief: From Latinfeudum, this was something of value that was assigned by a lord to a vassal in exchange for loyalty and some particular service, normally
military.
Five Good Emperors: Extremely competent and successful Roman emperors from 96 to 180: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius.
Franciscans: Mendicant order founded by Francis of Assisi (1181/1182 1226) based on poverty and service to outcasts. Tremendously popular but riven by
factional strife over the question of individual versus corporate property.
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