sanctifying grace. With the sacraments, one achieved salvation. Cut off from the
sacraments (by anathema, excommunication, or interdict), one was damned.
scriptorium (pl. scriptoria) The room of the monastery where parchment was prepared
and texts were copied, illuminated, and bound.
summa (pl. summae) A compendium or summary. A term favored by scholastics to
title their comprehensive syntheses.
The Virgin/The Virgin Mary/The Blessed Virgin/The Madonna The Gospels of Matthew (1:18–
23) and Luke (1:27–35) assert that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit
(rather than by a man) and born of Mary, a virgin. Already in the fourth century
the Church Fathers stressed the virginity of Mary, which guaranteed the holiness
of Christ. In the fifth century, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), Mary’s
perpetual (eternal) virginity was declared. Mary was understood as the exact
opposite of (and antidote to) Eve. In the medieval church, Mary was celebrated
with four feasts—her Nativity (birth), the Annunciation (when the Angel Gabriel
announced to her that she would give birth to the Messiah), the Purification
(when she presented the baby Jesus in the temple and was herself cleansed after
giving birth), and her Assumption (when she rose to Heaven). (The Purification is
also called the Presentation in the Temple.) These events were frequently
depicted in paintings and sculpture, especially in the later Middle Ages, when
devotion to Mary’s cult increased and greater emphasis was placed on her role as
intercessor with her son in Heaven.
