REL 231 - History of the Christian Church
Course Notes
Week 6 : Glossary
Autocephalous (or-toe-SEF-u-lus) - "self-headed", meaning that a Church is answerable only to its own Bishops, not to any other authority
Beloozero (BYEL-uh OH-zyer-ah) - "White Lake". Cyril of Beloozero was a monk who wanted to live as a hermit. He founded the Belozersky monastery, from whence monks went as missionaries to isolated regions of Russia
Boyar (BOY-ar) - Russian noble class, equivalent to western landed gentry or knights
Byzantium (bi-ZAN-tee-um) - The later name for the city of Constantinople
Byzantine (bi-zan-TEEN) - the adjective describing something related to Byzantium. Because the politics and power struggles of the Byzantine court were very involved and at times corrupt, "byzantine" has come to mean anything devious and convoluted
Caesaropapism (SEE-sah-roe-PAY-pism) - the system in Russia, where the Tsar acted as both Head of State (Caesar - Tsar) and Head of the Church (Papacy - rule by a Pope)
Genghis Khan (GENG-iss karn) - Mongol leader
Godunov (GOD-uh-nov) - Boris Godunov ( ) seized power after the death of Ivan the Terrible and probably had Ivan's son Fedor murdered. He was unable to hold the country together, and the "Time of Troubles" ensued, a period of civil war and invasion by Poland.
Hagia Sophia (HAHG-ee-ah soe-FEE-ah) - Greek for "Holy Wisdom" - the name of several Churches and Cathedrals. The most famous one is in Constantinople
Hesychast (HEZ-i-kast) - Someone who practices hesychastic prayer, which emphasizes stillness, meditation, and centering, to cut out external stimuli and bring the heart and mind to God. Hesychasts usually use the Jesus Prayer as part of their spiritual discipline
Iconostasis (eye-kon-uh-STAR-siss) - A screen covered with icons which separates the sanctuary area round the altar from the general area for the people in an Eastern Orthodox church. There is usually one large door in the center, and two smaller doors at each side for the deacons and priests to move between the congregation and the altar.
Khlysty (KLIS-tee) - a heretical group of flagellants (people who whipped themselves), founded by a self-proclaimed messiah, Danila Filippovich, in the eighteen century
Kiev (KEE-ev) - originally the capital of Kievan Rus, now the capital of the Ukraine
Lavra (LAV-rah) - a Russian monastery
Mieszko or Mieczyslaw (m-yesh-KOH) - Polish prince who married a Christian princess and made Poland a vassal state of the Roman Catholic Pope in 966
Nevski (NEV-ski) - the title given to Prince Alexander to honor his victory at the Battle of the Neva
Novgorod (NOV-gor-od) - City in north-west Russia
Oprichniki (op-RICH-ni-ki) - officials appointed by Ivan the Terrible in the sixteenth century to act as secret police, particularly for religious "offenses" - equivalent to the Inquisition in the Western Church
Petcheneg (PETCH-en-eg) - Invading tribes from the South and East
Pskov (ps-KOFF) - town near the Baltic
Radonezh (RAD-oh-nesh) - A town and monastery near Moscow. Sergius of Radonezh (1314-1392) is one of the Patron Saints of Russia. he was a spiritual leader who lived as a hermit, and whose disciples founded monasteries in desolate places
Raskolniki (RAZ-kohl-NEE-kee) - The "Old Believers" who refused to accept the rules of the Patriarch Nikon, and were excommunicated in 1667. Small groups of Old Believers still exist in Russia today.
Romanov (ROME-an-off) - The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia from 1613 to 1914. It was founded by Michael Romanov (1596-1676), a grand-nephew of Ivan the Terrible, who became Tsar in 1613. It ended with the murder of Tsar Nicholas II, his young son, and all his family by the Communists in 1918
Andrei Rublev (AN-drey ROO-blev) - Icon painter of the fifteenth century. Some of his icons still exist; they survived the communist persecutions, and can be seen in Moscow
Skete (skeet) - a very small monastery, usually with less than a dozen monks
Slav (slarv) - an ethnic and linguistic group which includes the Russians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks.
Strigolnik (strig-OL-nik) - member of a heretical sect which developed in the fourteenth centruy
Svyatoslav (sv-YAT-oh-slarv) - Prince of Kiev, pagan son of Grand Princess Olga
Theopempt (THEE-oh-pempt) - first Metropolitan of Kiev
Troglodyte (TROG-luh-dite) - someone who lives in a cave
Valaam (val-ARM) - . The monastery at Valaam has survived successive invasions, and the recent Communist persecutions, and is still a center of Orthodox spirituality.
Varyag (VAR-yag) - people related to the Vikings, who moved East from Scandinavia into Russia during the 5th to 10th centuries
Vladimir (vlad-EE-meer or VLAD-i-meer) - Prince of Kiev, 956-1015
Yakoslev (YAK-oh-slev) - Postnik Yakoslev was the architect of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. After it was built, Ivan the Terrible had him blinded so that he could not design anything more beautiful
Yaroslav (YAH-roe-slarv) - Prince of Kiev
Yurodivi (you-roe-DEE-vee) - "Holy Fools" - people who took an extreme views, both of God's call to society, and their need to confront society with that call. Some of them walked around naked all the time (even in the freezing Russian winters) to protest such things as the heedless life-style of the rich
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
