Vocabulary List – Honors - Renaissance and Reformation

amoral - being neither moral nor immoral; lying outside the sphere to which moral judgments apply

Catholic - a Christian who believes in the authority of the Pope, the importance of the saints, and in the original definition of Christianity as it was passed down from the early Roman Church

Christian - someone who believes in the divinity of Christ; the churches or organizations of said people

commercial - done for profit as a business; often retail or selling things

domestic - having to do with the home; characterized by being centered around the home

endemic disease - An infectious disease that is present in the community at all times but normally at low frequency.

epidemic - affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time

guilds - associations of workers; like unions, although they are generally run in a hierarchical fashion by the most skilled members

heresy - A belief that disagrees with the official and accepted beliefs of a church, school, or political party

immoral - conflicting with generally or traditionally held moral principles; deviating from what is considered right, proper, or good

indulgences – pardons issued by the Pope that people could buy supposedly to reduce their time in purgatory

industry - a business that makes things, usually using large-scale methods; the body of factories that produce a certain type of things

Inquisition - trials by the Catholic Church of non-believers and of believers of other religions

Moral - good according to a standard of right and wrong

Protestant - a Christian who follows neither the Catholic Church nor the Eastern Orthodox Church; Christians who generally find a direct faith in God and personal interpretation of the Bible to be more important as guides than the traditional religious hierarchy of the Roman Church (e.g. the Pope and the Saints)

Reformation - the splitting up of the Western Christian Church into Catholics and Protestants

Renaissance - the rebirth of classical learning, artistic forms, and culture in Europe

Secular – non-religious; not having to do with the church or the rules laid down by the church

Vernacular - the native speech or language of a place as spoken or written by inhabitants. Everyday language as used everyday by ordinary people.