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◙ Religious vocabulary is important to know when studying the Middle Ages because of the imporance of the church.  Terms like excommunicate, sacraments, etc. are used frequently.  www.catholicreference.net is a good dictionary of religious terms.

 

◙ Many different terms are used to describe this one period.  Some historians use Medieval as a blanket statement to cover the whole period.  Some historians break it down into Early Middle Ages and Late Middle ages.  In the past, the term Dark Ages has been used.  This term connotates a period of little development, which, as we've learned, definately wasn't true  Today most historians refrain from using the phrase Dark Ages.

 

◙ Unlike French neoclassicism or the English Restoration, the Middle Ages does not refer to one country or even one geographical area in Europe.  There are a lot of cultural differences from one town to another, let alone from Eastern European countries to Spain.  The aspects of Medieval theatre that I've listed and that show up in most general texts explains the events and details most common throughout Europe.  If you are writing a paper, you may want to look into one specific area in Europe instead of focusing on the Middle Ages in general.