Renaissance

A cultural movement where many educated Europeans, especially in Italy, studied the literature and art of the ancient Greeks and Romans; the term literally means “rebirth”

Gutenberg, Johannes

A German printer who cast letters of the alphabet in lead, making it possible to arrange them into words 

Printing Press

It was modeled from the presses used by wine makers and paper makers

Humanism

The emphasis on the importance of this world, and on making human life more fulfilling by way of the classical arts and literature and through scientific innovations

Alexander VI

The most notorious of the Renaissance popes; he had six children – although they were born before he became pope    

Real Presence

The consecrated elements of bread and wine changed into the body and blood of Christ

Transubstantiation

The doctrine that holds the bread and wine are changed in substance, though not in appearance, into Christ’s body and blood at the consecration of the Mass    

1215 _C.E.

The doctrine of the Transubstantiation was defined    

Chaucer, Geoffrey

The English author who wrote The Canterbury Tales    

Canterbury Tales, The

A collection of stories told by fictitious pilgrims on their way to the shrine of Saint Thomas a` Becket, the martyred archbishop of Canterbury, England    

Blessed Mother, Mary

She was particularly honored with devotion; shrines, feasts, and special titles were created to revere her

Purgatory

The afterlife condition of being purified of all traces of sin before one could enter Heaven   

1492 _C.E.

The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sought a shortcut to India      

Columbus, Christopher

He made an unplanned discovery: he stumbled upon several islands and then a continent of a New World, as yet unknown to Europeans