Deck 9: Consolidation and Crisis: the High Middle Ages, 1200-1400

Question 1

What were male bankers, merchants, and craftsmen looking for when they sought brides?

A) They wanted women close to their ages with experience and business-related skills.
B) They sought women from foreign countries for their knowledge about possible competitors.
C) They chose young wives in order to produce multiple children-heirs-from families that would provide appropriate dowries.
D) They desired women from noble ranks so the merchants could move into the noble ranks of society.
E) They selected women from the peasant class, thinking such women would be more subservient.

Answer 1

They chose young wives in order to produce multiple children-heirs-from families that would provide appropriate dowries.

Question 2

How much did England's population change in the High Middle Ages?

A) It increased by 22 percent.
B) It increased by 50 percent.
C) It more than doubled.
D) It decreased only slightly.
E) It stagnated.

Answer 2

It more than doubled.

Question 3

In the later twelfth century, what two cities grew significantly and became leaders in the Hanseatic League?

A) Hamburg and Lübeck
B) Hamburg and Berlin
C) York and London
D) Paris and Avignon
E) Florence and Genoa

Answer 3

Hamburg and Lübeck

Question 4

What was the role of the podesta in medieval Italian cities?

A) They served as papal ambassadors.
B) They were elected military generals.
C) They were the highest-ranking executives in banking and shipping firms.
D) They translated ideals and principles into the everyday work of fair government.
E) They replaced the bishops who had been in authority over towns.

Question 5

In the wool industry, who usually turned the wool fibers into thread?

A) children
B) men
C) women
D) the elderly
E) the elite

Question 6

What distinguished Brunetto Latini, a Florentine notary, from previous medieval writers?

A) He wrote in the vernacular, and he wrote on secular matters.
B) He referred to pagan authorities as well as biblical ones.
C) All the characters in his writings were women.
D) He described his feelings in great detail.
E) He never mentioned Jesus in his philosophical treatises.

Question 7

What separated Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales, from previous writers of travelogues?

A) He wrote about unique, imaginary creatures as well as well-known mythical figures.
B) He wrote frankly and realistically about pilgrims from many levels of society.
C) He was the first author of note to write in Middle English.
D) He was the first secular author to write in English.
E) He made no comments about religious figures; his work focused strictly on secular characters.

Question 8

Who was a high-ranking Florentine, condemned and exiled for corruption, who wrote the much-celebrated Divine Comedy?

A) Giovanni Boccaccio
B) Dante Alighieri
C) Giovanni Villani
D) Brunetto Latini
E) Geoffrey Chaucer

Question 9

Between the years 1200 and 1250 in Genoa, how many of the commenda contracts were granted to women?

A) one-tenth
B) one-fifth
C) one-third
D) one-half
E) none

Question 10

Why did Christian theologians condemn charging interest?

A) To do so smacked of Muslim business practices.
B) They claimed that demons had created money.
C) Judas Iscariot accepted money to betray Jesus.
D) Charging interest was like selling time, and only God controlled time.
E) They wanted to lower payments on loans to build cathedrals.

Question 11

What role did the Parlement play in the expansion of royal authority in France?

A) It expounded on the royal authority in treatises and dispensed justice according to those principles.
B) It supported the crown against any nobles who opposed the king.
C) It provided the majority of the taxes, which French kings used to hire mercenaries.
D) Most of the kings' administrators came from the Parlement.
E) As a representative body, it gave French kings access to their subjects.

Question 12

What new group of officials did Philip Augustus rely upon to help him centralize the crown's authority over France?

A) cortes
B) sheriffs
C) counts
D) podestas
E) bailiffs

Question 13

In the countryside, in what area did women tend to work?

A) Women tended to plow in the fields.
B) Women spent almost all their time at home.
C) Women tended to work in the dairy and poultry industries.
D) Women did most of the fishing.
E) Women cleared forested areas.

Question 14

In the High Middle Ages, how was laborers' work performed differently than in past centuries?

A) It was more diversified.
B) It was more specialized.
C) It was more commercialized.
D) It was more unionized.
E) It was more glorified.

Question 15

What new development in accounting allowed for much better tracking and recording of deposits and expenditures?

A) double-entry bookkeeping
B) clocks converted into adding machines
C) the switch from Arabic to Roman numerals
D) better scales used to measure coins
E) the employment of monks to count money since they were trustworthy

Question 16

What was the standard interest allowed for merchants to charge for their services?

A) 3 percent, at first, but increased to 8
B) 10 percent
C) 15 percent
D) 20 percent
E) Rates varied so much that a representative average is incalculable.

Question 17

Town leaders built huge public buildings chiefly to impress whom?

A) law-abiding citizens
B) the clergy
C) visiting rulers and diplomats
D) the wealthy
E) the poor

Question 18

From where does the word bank come?

A) the banks of the Tiber River, where the first bank was built in Rome
B) an Arabic word meaning coin or currency
C) the term for the bundles of wool shipped to Italian towns
D) the seal applied to business transactions conducted by the papacy
E) the market stall with a banco ("counter"), where the owner met customers

Question 19

How did Magna Carta help English subjects who were not present at Runnymede?

A) They were promised money if they absented themselves from the debate.
B) Magna Carta abolished serfdom across England, but not Scotland.
C) The day of the signing became a national holiday.
D) Courts extended the guarantees of legal protection to ranks of society below the nobility.
E) The peasantry was exempted from feudal fees that the nobility complained about.

Question 20

What city had over twenty schools for girls and employed female schoolmasters?

A) London
B) Cologne
C) Nuremberg
D) Ghent
E) Paris

Question 21

Francis of Assisi instructed his followers to imitate which religious figure?

A) Christ and his first converts, especially their humility and poverty
B) Paul, especially his knowledge and application of Old Testament writers
C) Saint Dominic, especially his life of continual prayer and meditation
D) the disciple John, especially how he sensed Christ's love
E) Augustine, the greatest of all the early Church fathers

Question 22

In 1290, who did King Edward I of England expel from England?

A) Muslims
B) Dominican inquisitors
C) Jews
D) foreigners
E) French merchants

Question 23

Franciscans and Dominicans were called "mendicants," which meant what?

A) The friars were to beg for their sustenance.
B) These men originally came from Mendes, Italy.
C) They were "to mend fences," so to speak, between the papacy and secular rulers.
D) The original name for monks was used again.
E) The Latin expression for "men" and "to chant" was applied to the new friars.

Question 24

How did Pope Innocent III confront the threat of the Cathars in 1209?

A) He instituted the Inquisition.
B) He convened the Fourth Lateran Council.
C) He sent a group of monks to preach against the Cathars in southern France.
D) He commissioned a crusade against the Cathars.
E) He created a network of new schools to combat the heresy at the local level.

Question 25

How did Dominicans intend to convert heretics?

A) by acts of service and charity
B) by intellectual sparring and debate
C) by physical force
D) by education-that is, through parish schools
E) by miracles

Question 26

Who established the definitive form of scholastic theology?

A) Peter Abelard
B) Bernard Gui
C) Dominic de Guzmán
D) Jacques Fournier
E) Thomas Aquinas

Question 27

What did it mean when scholars could claim they were "doctors of both laws"?

A) They held degrees in civil and criminal law.
B) They held degrees in theology and statecraft.
C) They held degrees in civil and canon law.
D) They held degrees in two branches of medicine.
E) They held positions in both a secular court and in the church simultaneously.

Question 28

Why did Pope Innocent denounce Enrico Dandolo's attack on the city of Zara during the Fourth Crusade?

A) Zara was known as a heretic hideaway.
B) Zara was a Christian city.
C) This city was one of the Muslim capitals.
D) A daughter of the doge had been kidnapped by Zarian pirates.
E) Dandolo was secretly acting upon orders from Pope Innocent III.

Question 29

Saint Clare was the first woman to

A) go on a crusade.
B) organize a religious order.
C) work in the papal court.
D) perform a baptism.
E) become an inquisitor.

Question 30

What characteristic or practice of the Cathars held the greatest appeal?

A) The Cathars insisted that their leaders should marry; Catholic clergy were forbidden to do so.
B) The Cathars' emphasis on poverty contrasted strikingly with the growing wealth of the Church.
C) The Cathars' willingness to use military force appealed to the noble class.
D) The Cathars elevated the veneration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, even more than Catholic authorities.
E) The Cathars demonstrated more care for the indigent than their Catholic competition.

Question 31

Why did Pope Innocent III in 1215 decree that priests could no longer be involved in ordeals?

A) Secular courts were no longer paying for the services of the priests.
B) This would put pressure on secular courts to use priests; his declaration was just a threat.
C) This particular pope was simply not interested in legal matters.
D) With extra time, priests could devote more attention to heretics.
E) This would distinguish the laity from the clergy and spiritual matters from secular issues.

Question 32

Which of the following was among the most heinous crimes charged against Jews?

A) ritual murder of Christian children
B) desecration of Christian graves
C) burning of crosses
D) wearing disguises to enroll in universities
E) witchcraft

Question 33

Clerical authorities were irritated by which of the Waldensians' claims or activities and prohibited them from teaching?

A) Jesus did not die at Golgotha.
B) All Catholic priests were antichrists.
C) The Bible contained numerous scribal errors.
D) Waldensians lived in poverty and begged their way through the world.
E) The sacraments were of no value.

Question 34

At the Fourth Lateran Council, what was decreed as mandatory?

A) participation in local crusades
B) tithing
C) annual penance
D) adult baptism
E) monthly receiving of the sacraments

Question 35

Emperor Frederick II was a successful military leader; over what region did he regain control?

A) Granada
B) Jerusalem
C) Cologne
D) Baghdad
E) Constantinople

Question 36

Which of the following do inquisitorial records reveal?

A) the exceptional and successful work of church authorities in educating common people
B) how the common people could not have cared less about religious issues
C) the vast network of heretical communities
D) that the common people were actively concerned about religious issues but not always in agreement with orthodox Catholic views
E) that women were treated as equals among those deemed as heretics

Question 37

What was the Spanish equivalent of the English parliament-that is, its quasi-representative assembly?

A) the Cortes
B) the Parlement
C) the Domus Corona
D) the Podesta
E) the Convocation

Question 38

What was among Pope Innocent III's top priorities?

A) encouraging secular rulers to reform their church administrations as they saw fit
B) increasing the number of monastic orders as quickly as possible
C) enlarging the dominion of the Papal States
D) expanding the purview of the Catholic Church by waging wars as crusaders
E) weakening the authority of the Hohenstaufen dynasty

Question 39

What was the inquisitors' primary responsibility?

A) to strengthen and enhance the papal court
B) to execute Cathars
C) to act as papal agents
D) to ensure that the papacy received stipulated taxes and fees
E) to find, interrogate, and obtain confessions from those suspected of heresy

Question 40

Once parliaments convened more often in the reign of Edward I, besides the high nobility and clergy, who were summoned to attend?

A) the lower clergy
B) the king's closest relatives
C) representatives of the knights of the shires and office holders of designated towns
D) military officers
E) the staff of the high nobility

Question 41

In the Spanish kingdoms, there was no equivalent to Parliament in England.

Question 42

European cities between 1200 and 1350 expanded more than they had since the Roman Empire.

Question 43

Why was the Avignon papacy denounced much more often by non-French sources than by French ones?

A) The French were less affected by heretical movements than the rest of Europe.
B) Just as France dominated the political world, its bishops dominated the papal court.
C) The French were never known for devotion; their clerical leaders were just not that involved.
D) Avignon was situated just south of the French king's domain; naturally more popes and other high officials were appointed from France.
E) French clerical leaders did not want to antagonize the papacy in Rome.

Question 44

Since the training necessary to conduct business in the emerging cities was so novel, attitudes about marriage were likewise progressive.

Question 45

Before plague struck in 1347, what had happened in Europe that compromised people's resistance to the Black Death?

A) Europe endured wet and cold weather, which resulted in famines from 1315 to 1322.
B) Europe's universities were not granting as many medical doctorates as before.
C) Because of the fear of witchcraft, people had begun to eradicate cats.
D) Religious prejudice against new medical discoveries stagnated medicine in general.
E) Wet weather actually helped rats to breed more.

Question 46

Since Dominicans and Franciscans were new monastic orders, their members were not required to take the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience like other monks were.

Question 47

What did Pope Boniface VIII declare in one of his papal bulls?

A) that he was master of all the churches in Europe
B) that he had the mind of Christ, meaning he understood all divine mysteries
C) that he held the highest jurisdiction over secular and church authorities
D) that he would send a new crusade against the Muslims in Egypt
E) that he had the right to collect taxes directly from kings

Question 48

The seventh and eighth Crusades were not directed at Jerusalem.

Question 49

During the reign of Philip Augustus, Paris no longer served as the capital for the king's administration.

Question 50

What did the English peasants demand when they revolted in 1381?

A) that the king call a parliament
B) that all bishops be removed from the country
C) that nobles' lands be redistributed among the poor
D) that Magna Carta be reissued
E) that serfdom be abolished

Question 51

What did contemporaries call the period in which the papacy was stationed in Avignon?

A) Great Schism
B) Intertestamental Period
C) Fifth Crusade
D) Great Emancipation
E) Babylonian Captivity

Question 52

Magna Carta guaranteed equal rights across all levels of English society.

Question 53

Medieval cities kept the older judicial system with ordeals because their leaders feared change.

Question 54

How much did the Black Death probably reduce Europe's population from 1347 to 1350?

A) 10 percent
B) 18 percent
C) 25 percent
D) 40 to 50 percent
E) over 50 percent

Question 55

The ordeal of water was designed to prove innocence, by God rescuing the defendant from sinking into a pond.

Question 56

All crusades were directed against heretical foes outside Europe.

Question 57

How far into Europe did the Mongols advance?

A) Mongol armies reached the outskirts of Paris.
B) Mongol forces captured Genoa.
C) The Mongols seized Berlin.
D) Mongol warriors reached as far as the gates of Vienna.
E) The Mongols briefly held Augsburg.

Question 58

What was Philip IV's of France reaction to Pope Boniface's papal bull that claimed superior authority?

A) He sent an army to storm the papal palace at Anagni.
B) He organized a march on Rome to protest the pope's claims.
C) He begged for forgiveness at the pope's residence.
D) He sent an ambassador to work out a treaty with the papacy.
E) At first he did nothing, waiting to see how the English king, Edward I, would react.

Question 59

During the Hundred Years' War, the English won an astounding victory at Agincourt in 1415.What helped them achieve this victory?

A) gunpowder
B) the support of the German emperor
C) the Black Death, which first decimated the French troops
D) deceit and trickery
E) the English longbow

Question 60

When and where was the last major outbreak of the plague in Europe?

A) 1591 in Venice
B) 1610 in Berlin
C) 1715 in Prague
D) 1665-66 in London
E) 1503 in Paris

Question 61

Discuss how Magna Carta addressed the grievances of nobles and clergy toward King John and how it prefigured later political developments in England.

Question 62

Many factors contributed to the devastation of the Black Death, but not the pollution of the water supply in major cities.

Question 63

Discuss the causes and course of the English Peasant Revolt of 1381.

Question 64

Discuss the policies of Pope Innocent III.

Question 65

Discuss the immediate impact of the plague in fourteenth-century Europe.

Question 66

Previously, historians had considered contemporary accounts of the effects of the Black Death to be exaggerated.

Question 67

Discuss how the Jews were treated in connection to the expansive reforms of secular states and the medieval church.

Question 68

The Travels of Marco Polo had an impact on secular European intellectuals, but not on church leaders.

Question 69

Discuss the brilliance and limitations of the court and reign of Frederick II.

Question 70

Discuss women's commercial involvement in medieval European cities.Give concrete examples of their involvement.

Question 71

What innovations were introduced by the Dominicans and Franciscans?

Question 72

The bubonic strain of the plague was the only manifestation of the disease to affect humans.

Question 73

Describe the experiences and conditions for the urban poor.

Question 74

Why were the Waldensians and Cathars seen as threats to the medieval church?

Question 75

Aquinas's achievement, showing that reason could support the truths of revelation, was accepted by all academics of his generation.