1.     one of the Cappadocian Fathers;  known as the father of Eastern monasticism. 

John Cassian

1.     known as the father of Western monasticism. He sought to establish a standardized form of monasticism for the Western Roman Empire based upon the ideal of Eastern monasticism. 

Benedict of Nursia-

1.     founder of the Benedictine monastery at Monte Casino and author of the Rule for Monastaries, which eventually became the primary rule of monasticism in the West. 

Feudal system

1.     in the early medieval period, the organization of society on the basis of bonds of personal loyalty between a lord and his vasaal, based on mutual duties and benefits. (feudal is from latin foedus meaning “treaty” or “agreement”) Feudalism provided security and protection at a time when central political authority was weak. Wealthy landlords deeded large tracts of land to vassals who, in return, agreed to provide certain services like military assistance for the landlords. The vassals, in turn, required serfs or peasants to work the land. 

Lay investiture 

1.     during the early medieval period, secular rulers (emperors, kings, nobility) took upon themselves the right to appoint bishops, abbots, and other church officials; the right appointment was expressed ritually in the ceremony in which the secular ruler “invested” the official with the spiritual symbols of his office.

Simony-

1.     the buying and selling of spiritual things, including church and leadership positions. 

Concubinage

during the early medieval period, the practice among some clergy of maintaining concubines in a relationship something like marriage

Gregory I

1.     (reigned 590-604 AD) also known as “Gregory the Great”. Statesman, theologian, and prodigious writer, his wise and pastoral leadership made him a model for subsequent popes. Among his accomplishments was his decision to sponsor a mission to convert the aglo-saxons in England. 

Gregory VII

1.     -(reigned 1073-1085 AD) a reform pope, he attacked abuses such as simony, alienation of property and lay investiture. He also declared the pope to be the supreme judge under God, holding the absolute powers of absolution and excommunication. 

Sacramentary

a book containing the prayers needed by a priest to celebrate the Eucharist and (sometimes) other sacraments.

Roman Rite

1.     the primary form of liturgy for the Roman Catholic Church, which was standardized by Charlemagne in the second half of the eight century. Some of its prayers are thought to have been composed by Pope Gregory I.

Gregorian Chant

1.     a repertoire of music consisting of chants used in the city of Rome together with the native chants of the Frankish churches, mandated by Charlemagne to be used as church music throughout the empire.

1.     the style of buildings developed druing the Carolingian and Ottonian dynasties of early medieval Europe. The structures featured stone vaulted ceilings, heavy walls and piers, and small openings for light, creating a fortress-like impression. 

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite- 

1.     the pseudonym of an anonymous Syrian monk of the early 6^th century A.D. who authored several important and influential theological works. He is perhaps most famous for his vis negativa “negative approach” in which all affirmations concerning God must be denied since the divine reality so far supersedes any word that can be said about it.

Symeon the New Theologian

1.     -(942-1022 AD) an Eastern Christian mystic and theologian, representative of the spirituality and theology of the early medieval period. 

Mysticism

a spiritual phenomenon that expresses itself in direct, intense experiences of union and oneness with God. Generally, the mystical journey consists of 3 phases: purgation (cleansing from sin), illumination (an attraction to all things of God), and union (the state of oneness with God). 

Anselm of Canterbury

1.     A.D. 1033-1109) Benedictine monk and archbishop of Canterbury, Anselm is known for his “debt satisfaction” theory of atonement and for his ontological argument for the existence of God. 

Christendom

1.     a term that modern historians have given to the thorough merging of Christianity and culture, which took place in Europe during the 12^th and 13^th centuries, also known as the High Middle Ages.

Curia

1.     the pope’s court staffed by the college of cardinals, a papal advisory team of bishops and clergy. 

Innocent III

1.     (reigned ad 1198-1216) pope of the roman catholic church, perhaps best known for his political involvements. The Fourth Lateran Council took place during his reign.

Interdict

1.     a kind of “strike” in which the church shuts down the sacramental system (Echarist, Baptism, Penance, etc.). It was used in the medieval period by popes who wished to discipline civil leaders (kings, princes, etc.).

Fourth Lateran Council

1.     (A.D. 1215)- urged reform of the clergy and defined the dogma of transubstantiation, concerning the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. 

Transubstantiation

1.     a teaching about how the break and wine of the Eucharist become the body and blood of Jesus Christ: after consecration (blessing) by a validly ordained priest, the accidents (physical appearance) remain as bread and wine, but the substance (or essence) changes and becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  

Boniface VIII

1.     (reigned 1294-1303)- the pope who published “Unam Sanctum”, perhaps the most famous medieval statement on church and state, which asserts the authority of the papacy over the emerging nation kingdoms at that time. 

Cistercians

1.     a group of monks who, in the 12^th century ad, sought religious reforms by returning to the primitive Benedictine life in wilderness areas. They are named for their first house at Citeaux in France.

Bernard of Clairvaux-

1.     - (A.D 1090-1153) a Cistercian monk who wrote and preached extensively on the spiritual life. 

1.     from a Latin word for “begging”, a type of religious order that emerged in the High Middle Ages. Unlike monks, mendicants lived in towns and cities, begged for their livelihood, and performed whatever ministry needed to be done. 

Friar

1.     from a Latin word meaning “brother”, the term refers to a person who belongs to a mendicant order.

1.     the community founded by Francis of Assisi, also known as Friars Minor (the lesser brother). Known for their radical understanding of the vow of poverty, their primary vocation is to preach the gospel and to witness to it in action. 

Dominic Guzman 

1.     (ad 1221)- founder of the Dominican order of mendicants, also called the order of preachers. 

Dominicans

an order of beggar friars founded by Dominic Guzman, also called the order of preachers. Known for their radical understanding of the vow of poverty, their primary vocation was to preach and hear confessions. 

Beguines

1.     independent communities of laywomen that first emerged in Europe in the High Middle Ages. They had no rule or permanent vows, but they shared a form of common life and engaged in contemplative prayer or ministries of caring for the sick and poor. 

Waldensians

named for their former founder Valdes, these 12^th century Ad  Poor Men of Lyons sought to return to the apostolic life of the early church. Their hostility toward the clergy (because of clerical abuse) eventually led to their condemnation by the Council of Verona in 1814. 

Cathars-

1.     meaning “pure ones”, this anticlerical Christian reform movement emerged in the 12^th century A.d., teaching that the world and the flesh were the work of an evil god. Thus they practiced sever asceticism. Catharism was wide-spread in southern France, where they came to be known as the Albigensians. 

Inquisition

1.     the legal body set up to investigate and punish heretics. Although the Inquistion itself was usually under jurisdiction of church officials, civil leaders were often called upon to execute whatever punishments were assigned. 

Sacrament-

1.     a symbolic ritual consisting of words and visible gesture or material substance (bread, wine, water, oil, etc.) which, when properly performed for a recipient disposed to its action, becomes the means of transmitting the grace of God. Traditionally, it has been defined as an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.  

Indulgences

1.     - a practice popular in the medieval church in which the church would cancel all or part of the penance (punishment) due to an individual who had sinned, when the individual had completed certain devotions, acts of charity, or services for the church as substitutes. 

Vicarious satisfaction

1.     the possibility that someone could pay the debt of another person’s sin.

Communion of saints

1.     the ancient belief, enshrined in the creeds, that deceased holy ones share a relationship with the living members of the church. 

Purgatory

1.     - a place or state following death in which sinners destined for heaven undergo the punishment still remaining for forgiven sin and thereby are “purged” or made ready for heaven.  

Mortal sin

1.     sin that is committed willfully and deliberately and with the understanding that it is serious wrongdoing. 

Canonization

1.     a process by which the church designates certain persons as saints and therefore models of the Christian life; also the process by which the canon of the Bible took shape.  

Sacramentals

1.     a term used to describe certain religious practices and objects that are similar to sacraments in the fact that they have tangible qualities (water, oil, the rosary, etc.), but they are different from sacraments in the fact that they are not publicly celebrated and are not considered to by instituted by Christ. 

Nominalism

1.     the late medieval philosophical movement that addresses issues of human knowledge. It argues that knowledge can be derived only from the experience of individual things. Universals such as humanity or truth do not really exist. 

Avignon Papacy

1.     referring to a period in the Late Middle Ages when the pope moved his court to Avignon, France. Before the papacy returned to Rome, the church leadership would be involved in an even greater struggle for power called the Great Schism.

Nepotism

1.     the practice of allowing dispensations from church law for the advancement of one’s relatives. 

Great Schism

1.     - may refer to 2 different events: the serving of relationships in a.d. 1054 between the pope and the patriarch of Constantinople or the split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417, when European Catholocism was evenly divided between the competing claims of two different popes (and from 1409 to 1414 of a third pope). The schism of 1054 has never been healed. The split within the papacy was resolved by the council of constance. 

Conciliarism-

1.     a theory of church authority advanced by certain theologians and bishops of the Roman Catholic church intended to resolve the Great Schism of the papacy. According to this theory, the bishops, when they were gathered together in an official council in time of crisis, had the right to make binding decisions independent of the pope. 

Pieta-

1.     artistic representations of Mary holding the dead body of her son Jesus after he had been taken down from the cross. These were especially popular in the late medieval period. 

John Wycliffe 

1.     (1330-1384)- a reformer of the late medieval period. He preached against abuses in the church and challenged some of the church’s doctrines. He also advocated the translation of the Bible into English, the language of the people. 

Jan Hus

a reformer of the late medieval period. Like his contemporary, John Wycliffe, he preached against abuses in the church and challenged some of the church’s doctrines. He was eventually executed as a heretic. 

Catherine of Siena-

- a mystic of the late medieval period, she was a Dominican tertiary and was influential in bringing an end to the Avignon Papacy, only to see if it affected by the Great Schism. Catherin’s prayer life had led her into a vision of mystical marriage to Christ. Her visions often were of the nourishing and cleansing blood of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. 

Julian of Norwich

1.     an English mystic of the late middle ages; author of “showings”, which includes a series of visions she received during a brief illness and her theological reflections on those mystical experiences. She also reflects on the motherhood of Christ, the meaning of sin, and the question of why God allows sin and evil to exist. 

Anchorite/anchoress

1.     - a hermit who pledges his or her life to prayer and contemplation. During the middle ages, they lived in small enclosed rooms attached to a church, where they could be spiritual counselors for the people of the area.