Deck 11: Rebirth and Unrest,1350–1453

Question 1

The Black Death and ensuing social unrest resulted in noble families:

A) becoming impoverished.
B) turning to commerce in a bid to make more money.
C) selling off much of their land to small farmers.
D) building large and very strong castles to protect themselves.
E) growing wealthier than they had been.

Answer 1

growing wealthier than they had been.

Question 2

Most of the innovations that occurred in farming after the first waves of the Black Death were made by:

A) great lords.
B) abbeys who held vast agricultural lands.
C) monarchs who instituted widespread farming reforms.
D) inventors in the towns and cities of Europe.
E) small farmers.

Answer 2

small farmers.

Question 3

The works of Boccaccio,Chaucer,and de Pisan all demonstrate:

A) that most literature was still written in Latin.
B) the spread of vernacular literacy.
C) that most people who were literate still studied and worked in universities.
D) that there was still no market for professional writers in Europe.
E) that most literature was still very formal.

Answer 3

the spread of vernacular literacy.

Question 4

As a result of the depopulation in Europe caused by the Black Death:

A) Europe became an agricultural wasteland.
B) European farmers turned toward producing cash crops exclusively.
C) great lords and monasteries took control of 75 percent of all agricultural land.
D) Europe's massively depleted ecological resources recovered.
E) Europeans began buying slaves to use as agricultural workers.

Question 5

Underlying the social unrest of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries lay:

A) desperation born of poverty and hunger.
B) a growing belief that the Church would foster social change within society.
C) a belief that the monarchs of Europe ruled illegitimately.
D) a general lack of respect for those in authority.
E) a growing sense of self-confidence.

Question 6

The series of pageant plays performed at York were motivated by devotion but also:

A) created such chaos in the town that many heinous crimes were committed during their production.
B) pride in the nation of England.
C) a desire to teach biblical stories to nonbelievers.
D) the desire of the guilds to display their wares in the plays.
E) a desire to mock the royal family.

Question 7

Those who claimed aristocratic status in the fourteenth century did so by:

A) commissioning a family coat of arms.
B) living lavish and extremely expensive lifestyles.
C) demonstrating a genealogy that traced the family history to a king.
D) participating in the court culture of a local king or great lord.
E) fighting in tournaments on horseback.

Question 8

Large landholders sometimes responded to the shortage of agricultural workers as a result of the Black Death by:

A) forcing tenants to do more unpaid labor, imposing new taxes, and requiring new forms of servitude.
B) paying their laborers less.
C) consolidating their holdings and selling off land they did not have the manpower to cultivate.
D) investing money in new technologies and laborsaving devices.
E) buying slaves from West Africa to work on their lands.

Question 9

Nobility defined by recognized conspicuous consumption meant that:

A) class boundaries were porous.
B) class boundaries were closed and rigidly defended.
C) a person's class was in no way tied to his or her economic status.
D) a person's class was tied to his or her lineage.
E) class boundaries had become obsolete.

Question 10

A "noble" in Europe was defined as an individual who:

A) had been born into the class.
B) had achieved the rank through deeds in war.
C) had achieved wealth through commerce.
D) lived according to a particular lifestyle.
E) had been made such by his king.

Question 11

One consequence of the Black Death was a reversion of farmland to:

A) towns and villages.
B) monastic holdings.
C) pastures and forests.
D) swamps and marches
E) noble hunting grounds.

Question 12

Compared to the western Europe of 1300,the western Europe of 1450 had _________ people and a(n)_________ standard of living.

A) more; higher
B) fewer; higher
C) fewer; lower
D) more; lower
E) equal; equal

Question 13

The Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden expressed piety and the ever-present message of the Bible by:

A) presenting biblical figures in contemporary settings.
B) placing contemporary figures in biblical settings.
C) presenting idealized settings of sites in the Holy Land for his portraits.
D) presenting biblical figures in otherworldly settings.
E) renouncing painting and entering a monastery.

Question 14

The social mobility of the fourteenth century was made possible largely due to the:

A) Crusades.
B) Black Death.
C) English Peasants' Revolt.
D) beginning of the Hundred Years' War.
E) creation of the Holy Roman Empire.

Question 15

Which lower-class rebellion in the later Middle Ages involved the revolt of workers in the cloth industry who sought greater participation in local government?

A) the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381
B) the "Jacquerie" uprising of 1358
C) the Florentine Ciompi revolt of 1378
D) the Lübeck "taxpayers" revolt of 1408
E) the German Peasants' revolt of 1424

Question 16

Just as Boccaccio wrote about a group of people telling stories to one another while sitting out the Black Death,_________ wrote about a group of people telling stories to one another while on a pilgrimage.

A) Augustine
B) Chaucer
C) Christine de Pisan
D) Giotto di Bondone
E) Dante

Question 17

Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in:

A) Latin.
B) Anglo-Saxon.
C) Old English.
D) Middle English.
E) Modern English.

Question 18

What is the central theme of Christine de Pisan's The City of Ladies?

A) The book is an attack on the patriarchal social organization of feudalism.
B) The book describes a mythic journey through Africa in search of powerful "Amazon" women.
C) The book is a courtly romance about love, sacrifice, and betrayal in the tradition of Romance of the Rose.
D) The book is an attack on the failures of the late-medieval clergy.
E) The book is a defense of women against the misogynistic claims of men.

Question 19

Women who migrated to cities after the Black Death found their opportunities:

A) extremely limited.
B) about the same as before the Black Death.
C) greatly expanded.
D) the same as men's opportunities.
E) limited to domestic service and beer making.

Question 20

The English Peasants' Revolt,like other popular uprisings of the fourteenth century,had its fundamental origins in:

A) the repression of the peasants by the nobility in the 1370s.
B) the king's decision to convert all freedmen to the status of serfs in 1361.
C) a series of taxes levied to support the English war with Norway.
D) the economic, social, and political consequences of the Black Death.
E) the English peasant's desire to be a part of the English parliamentary process.

Question 21

The great influx of Greek manuscripts from the East in the fifteenth century led to the development of a new interest in a form of literary analysis known as:

A) close reading.
B) New Criticism.
C) postmodernism.
D) textual criticism.
E) deconstructionism.

Question 22

Which of the following Renaissance humanists proved that the Donation of Constantine was a medieval forgery?

A) Petrarch
B) Leonardo Bruni
C) Leon Battista Alberti
D) Lorenzo Valla
E) Marsilio Ficino

Question 23

Humanists such as Leon Battista Alberti praised the nuclear family and argued that women should be:

A) consigned purely to domestic roles.
B) allowed to work as painters and sculptors.
C) encouraged to adopt children rather than raise their own.
D) educated and participate in public life as they were able.
E) able to rule as equals with men.

Question 24

The French victories over the English during the second phase of the Hundred Years' War were,in part,due to the:

A) inability of England to gather a large army in this period.
B) excellent leadership of Charles VI.
C) introduction of longbowmen into the French Army.
D) professionalization of the French Army.
E) widespread use of mercenaries in the English Army.

Question 25

Although medieval scholars knew important classical authors such as Virgil and Cicero,the works of _________ were not fully known in western Europe until the Renaissance.

A) Aristotle
B) Livy
C) Ovid
D) Paul
E) Plutarch

Question 26

The Ottoman Army that conquered much of the Middle and Near East was composed mostly of:

A) mercenaries.
B) free Muslim citizens.
C) slaves.
D) volunteers from conquered countries.
E) drafted Christians from conquered lands.

Question 27

The Ottoman Turks were able to begin to amass territory in the fourteenth century because:

A) the Mongols had toppled the older powers that had traditionally kept them in check.
B) the Byzantine empire had fallen.
C) they had acquired artillery from China.
D) they had allied themselves with the sultanate of Rûm.
E) the Abbasid caliphate had hired them as mercenaries.

Question 28

The goal of the humanist education system was to:

A) produce able merchants.
B) produce individuals who were suited to the priesthood.
C) train bureaucrats.
D) produce virtuous citizens and able public officials.
E) train people to lead a private, contemplative life.

Question 29

The Muscovite state fostered a sense of unity and history within its peoples by:

A) promoting Roman Catholicism within the territory.
B) arguing that Muscovy was the divinely appointed successor to the Mongol empire.
C) arguing that Muscovy was the divinely appointed successor to the Roman Empire.
D) fostering hostility toward the Orthodox Church.
E) fostering hostility toward Jewish peoples.

Question 30

Historians today generally use the term Renaissance to refer to:

A) a period in economic history when trade was reborn.
B) a period in European history when the northern countries dominated the culture of the Continent.
C) a period in European history between 1300 and 1550, during which all aspects of European life were united by a common spirit of the age.
D) a period of intellectual rebirth after the Dark Ages, when learning had been extinguished.
E) a period in intellectual and cultural history, marked by a new interest in the study of classical learning.

Question 31

In late medieval Italy there was a renewed interest in studying texts written in Greek because:

A) schools there were organized by Greek masters.
B) Greek had become the lingua franca there due to trade connections to the East.
C) Italians spoke and read Greek as their vernacular language.
D) Petrarch wrote an excellent text on learning the Greek language that was wildly popular.
E) Greek-speaking intellectuals fled to Italy as the Mongols and Ottoman Turks continually took territory from the Byzantine empire.

Question 32

Humanists believed that excellent scholarship and poetry could only be written in:

A) Italian and Catalan.
B) Middle English and Old French.
C) Picard and Provençal.
D) medieval Latin and medieval Greek.
E) classical Latin and classical Greek.

Question 33

The early humanist Petrarch criticized late-medieval scholasticism because he felt it:

A) concentrated more on virtuous living than on abstract speculation.
B) concentrated more on abstract speculation than on virtuous living.
C) focused too much on Christianity and salvation.
D) encouraged a solitary life of contemplation and asceticism.
E) was much too worldly in its approach to education.

Question 34

Petrarch believed that the "Dark Ages" were not the pagan past,but the Middle Ages,the time that separated him from:

A) the time of Jesus.
B) direct communication with the classics.
C) the Trojan War.
D) the time of the Church Fathers.
E) the time of Moses.

Question 35

The growth of power claims based on classical models,including patronage of the arts,occurred in Renaissance Italy due to the:

A) admiration Renaissance Italians had for the Emperor Nero.
B) rediscovery and subsequent popularity of Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars.
C) relative weakness of the Church, which no longer provided an alternate model.
D) relative weakness of the Holy Roman Emperor, which no longer provided an alternate model.
E) rediscovery and subsequent popularity of Aristotle's Politics.

Question 36

The majority of Ottoman slaves were Christians because:

A) Christians were generally out of favor in Ottoman society.
B) Christians in Ottoman society were from a lower socioeconomic class.
C) Jews were not allowed to settle within the Ottoman empire.
D) Muslims were the only people who could work in business or governmental posts.
E) Muslims were not permitted to enslave other Muslims.

Question 37

After the fall of the Byzantine empire,the only surviving proponent of Orthodox Christianity was the:

A) Roman Catholic Church.
B) Greek Orthodox Church.
C) Syrian Christian Church.
D) Egyptian Coptic Church.
E) Russian Orthodox Church.

Question 38

The Ottoman empire was tolerant of all faiths EXCEPT:

A) Sephardic Jews.
B) Roman Catholics.
C) Eastern Orthodox Christians.
D) Non-Sunni Muslims.
E) Zoroastrians.

Question 39

When the Ottomans conquered Constantinople in 1453,the primary effect of their conquest on western Europe was:

A) psychological.
B) military.
C) economic.
D) political.
E) geographical: it spurred European attempts to find a direct route around Africa to India and the Far East.

Question 40

For the Ottomans,their conquest of Constantinople brought:

A) a reduced demand for slaves because the size of the Ottoman Army could now be reduced.
B) vast new wealth, which greatly increased the population of the city.
C) an economic crisis, as trade routes were redirected away from Constantinople.
D) relatively little change to Ottoman society.
E) a revitalization of Ottoman society with the realization that they could build an empire.

Question 41

The English Lollards were the lay followers and successors of which late medieval theologian?

A) Jan Zizka
B) Jan Hus
C) Meister Eckhart
D) John Wycliffe
E) Ulrich Zwingli

Question 42

The Renaissance was chronologically distinct from the late Middle Ages.

Question 43

Religious devotion in the later Middle Ages sometimes supported commercial enterprises.

Question 44

Although Jan Hus adopted the ideas of John Wycliffe,he did diverge from Wycliffe in his view of the:

A) centrality of confession.
B) primacy of the pope in setting dogma.
C) importance of Eucharistic piety.
D) importance of Baptism.
E) need for a priesthood.

Question 45

The Holy Roman Empire and the Italian Peninsula did not unite as national monarchies in part because:

A) dynastic struggles in the ruling houses prevented it.
B) continual armed conflict and shifting alliances prevented the emergence of strong, centralizing rulers in these territories.
C) both territories were relatively poor and no single ruling family had the financial and military resources to centralize power in its own hands.
D) both territories were too concerned with checking Ottoman advances for strong rulers to look to expanding their power within Europe.
E) these territories had no external enemy to encourage unification.

Question 46

The Great Schism ended in 1417 when the:

A) papacy moved its administrative offices back to Rome.
B) Council of Basel dismissed all rival popes.
C) pope defeated the conciliar movement.
D) Council of Constance elected a new pope.
E) French king returned the pope to Rome.

Question 47

Petrarch thought the goal of a Christian writer was to inspire people to do good rather than concentrate on abstract speculation.

Question 48

Being a slave carried relatively little social stigma in the Ottoman empire.

Question 49

Henry V was so successful in taking territory from France during the latter part of the Hundred Years' War that he was able to force the king of France to:

A) concede his crown.
B) become a vassal of the English king.
C) resign his crown and retire to a monastery.
D) request aid from the Byzantine empire.
E) recognize the English king as the heir to the French throne.

Question 50

The Lollards advocated for all of these things EXCEPT the:

A) marriage of all clerics.
B) confiscation of ecclesiastical wealth.
C) removal of corrupt or immoral priests.
D) translation of the Bible into English.
E) removal of sacraments from Catholic ritual.

Question 51

Before the Ottomans captured Constantinople,some of their number had worked as mercenaries for the Eastern Roman Empire.

Question 52

One way people of the medieval period came to understand the divine in their own lives was through:

A) Magister theologia by Meister Eckhart.
B) The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio.
C) Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love by Julianne of Norwich.
D) The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis.
E) The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe.

Question 53

The fundamental distinction that marked a person as noble was his or her wealth.

Question 54

The failed conciliar movement of the Church was intended to locate the supreme authority of the Church with the:

A) pope alone.
B) cardinals.
C) delegates of regularly called councils.
D) delegates of every diocese who gathered in Rome each year.
E) papal legates.

Question 55

The late Middle Ages was a period of aristocratic crisis and peasant prosperity.

Question 56

The Jacquerie was a group of French nobles who were effective in passing legislation against peasant demands for lower prices and an end to serfdom.

Question 57

The humanist's insistence on ancient standards of Latin grammar and word choice turned Latin into a dead language.

Question 58

Joan of Arc was a problematic leader of the French forces during the latter part of the Hundred Years' War because:

A) she was a peasant woman.
B) she refused to wear armor even in the midst of battle.
C) she regularly fought with the military generals she was supposed to lead.
D) she was believed to be the mistress of the Dauphin.
E) she was illiterate.

Question 59

The emerging national monarchies in late medieval Europe resulted in:

A) the development of parliamentary democracies.
B) the development of monarchs with absolute power.
C) an increase in commerce and economic growth.
D) greater militarization and more warfare.
E) greater militarization and, therefore, less warfare.

Question 60

The reduction in population in the wake of the Black Death allowed most serfs in medieval Europe to become freedmen.

Question 61

In 1422,Henry VI was king of both England and France,though he was only an infant.

Question 62

Compare and contrast the effect of the plague on the towns as opposed to the countryside.

Question 63

Why did the Renaissance originate in Italy?

Question 64

What determined nobility in the late Middle Ages?

Question 65

Ottoman society was closed and intolerant.

Question 66

In what ways were popular religious reform movements linked to political movements in the late Middle Ages?

Question 67

The Council of Pisa succeeded in resolving the Great Western Schism in 1409.

Question 68

The Lollard movement gained great support in the fourteenth century due to the number of nobles who supported the movement.

Question 69

What were the foundations of the Ottoman empire,and how did these foundations shape it?

Question 70

How were women's devotional practices a challenge to Church authority in the late Middle Ages?

Question 71

What events sparked the Great Schism,and how was it resolved?

Question 72

What circumstances account for the rebellions between 1300 and 1425?

Question 73

The title tsar means "caesar."

Question 74

How was humanist education a break from the tradition of scholastic education?

Question 75

How did the introduction of artillery and firearms aid in the consolidation of national monarchies?