History glossary
pagan
a broad medieval Christian label for people or practices outside Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
- Category
- Religious label
- Region
- Varies
- Date range
- Varies
What it means
Pagan was a broad label medieval Christians used for people and practices outside Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In crusading contexts it often referred to non-Christian peoples on Europe's northern and eastern frontiers. The term reflected Christian categories and could flatten very different local religions into a single outsider identity.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were the peoples and kingdoms that shaped Anglo-Saxon England after the end of Roman rule in Britain. From migration and settlement in Anglo-Saxon Britain to Christian conversion, Viking attacks, Alfred the Great, and the road to 1066, Anglo-Saxon history explains how early medieval England took form. Their language, laws, kingdoms, monasteries, and political traditions left a lasting mark on English identity before the Norman Conquest transformed the realm.
Kievan Rus
The founding of the Rus’ state in the north.
The Fall of Rome to Early Medieval Europe
From the arrival of Gothic peoples at the Danube to the crowning of Charlemagne, this story traces how the Western Roman Empire fragmented into successor kingdoms and how a new medieval world took shape.
The Rise of the Medieval Church
From the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Avignon papacy, this story traces how the Christian Church built its authority through bishops, monasteries, missions, reform, and direct confrontation with Europe's rulers.
The Rise of Christianity
From Jesus in Roman Judea to medieval Europe, Christianity grew from a persecuted movement into an imperial and civilisational force.
The Crusades
From Pope Urban II's call at Clermont to the fall of Acre, the Crusades reshaped the medieval world through religious war, cross-cultural encounter, and lasting consequences for Europe and the Middle East.
