Power of the Medieval Church
These holy rites, such as baptism and communion, were controlled by the Catholic Church and believed to be essential for salvation.
What are the Seven Sacraments?
This term describes the controversy over whether kings or popes had the right to appoint high-ranking church officials like bishops.
What is Lay Investiture?
This Pope called for the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095, promising forgiveness of sins for those who fought.
Who is Pope Urban II?
Western European Crusader knights were generally called by this collective name in Arab primary sources like Ibn al-Athir's chronicles.
What are the Franks?
European contact with the Middle East during the Crusades led to a massive surge in demand for these luxurious Asian/Middle Eastern luxury items.
What are spices (or silk, sugar, perfume)?
This spiritual penalty cut off an individual person from the Church, sacraments, and holy burial.
What is excommunication?
This Pope issued the Dictatus Papae in 1075, declaring that the Pope held absolute power over all earthly monarchs.
Who is Pope Gregory VII?
This Christian empire faced invasions by the Seljuk Turks and appealed to Western European Christians for military aid.
What is the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire)?
This French priest wrote a chronicled account of the Fall of Jerusalem in 1099 from a triumphant, pro-Crusader perspective.
Who is Fulcher of Chartres?
Because many feudal lords died or went bankrupt funding crusading armies, this social and political system began to break down across Western Europe.
What is Feudalism?
When a king defied papal authority, the Pope could issue this penalty, which suspended all public church services across an entire region or kingdom.
What is an interdict?
This Holy Roman Emperor stood barefoot in the snow outside the castle at Canossa to beg the Pope for forgiveness.
Who is King / Emperor Henry IV?
The promised reward of immediate forgiveness of sins and direct entry to heaven for crusaders who died fighting for the Holy Land.
What is a plenary indulgence?
According to Arab historian Ibn al-Athir, tens of thousands of Muslims, scholars, and religious leaders were slaughtered inside this holy site during the 1099 siege.
What is the Al-Aqsa Mosque?
These Italian maritime city-states grew wealthy and powerful by building fleets to transport crusaders and establishing trade routes in the Mediterranean.
What are Venice and Genoa?
Pope Gelasius I proposed this theoretical framework to describe the division between papal authority and royal authority in Western Europe.
What is the "Two Swords" Theory?
The compromise reached in 1122 that granted the Church spiritual authority (ring and staff) and the King secular authority (scepter and land) over bishops.
What is the Concordat of Worms?
This Muslim sultan famously recaptured Jerusalem from Crusader forces in 1187, earning a reputation for military skill and chivalry.
Who is Saladin (Salah al-Din)?
In his letter to Pope Gregory VII, King Henry IV ended his defiant message by demanding the Pope step down using this phrasing.
What is "Come down, come down, and be damned throughout the ages!"?
The reintroduction of lost Greco-Roman philosophy and Muslim advancements in science, medicine, and mathematics laid the groundwork for this future European era.
What is the Renaissance (or the Scientific Revival)?
This term refers to the corrupt medieval practice of buying or selling positions or privileges within the Church hierarchy.
What is simony?
The physical symbols handed to a new bishop during investiture: one representing his spiritual marriage to the Church, and the other his role as a shepherd to his flock.
What are the ring and staff (crozier)?
During this notorious crusade in 1204, Christian knights abandoned their journey to Jerusalem and instead sacked the Christian city of Constantinople.
What is the Fourth Crusade?
This Latin phrase, meaning "God wills it!", was shouted by European crowds at the Council of Clermont after hearing Pope Urban II speak.
What is "Deus vult!"?
This custom, in which only the eldest son inherited a noble family's land, forced younger landless knights to look toward the Crusades for wealth and property.
What is primogeniture?