Deck 11: The Later Middle Ages: Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century

Question 1

What were the major themes of the vernacular literature of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Chaucer? How did the work of Christine de Pizan indicate both similar and different concerns?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.

Question 2

What led to the papacy's decline during the fourteenth century?

Answer 2

Answers may vary.

Question 3

define the following term:
Yersinia pestis

Answer 3

Answers may vary.

Question 4

What major problems did European states face in the fourteenth century? How are these problems evident in the history of England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire?

Question 5

How did the adversities of the fourteenth century affect urban life and medical practices at the time?

Question 6

What factors that led to the urban and rural revolts in the fourteenth century. Which causes were most important and why?

Question 7

To what extent were climate and disease key factors in producing economic and social changes in the Later Middle Ages?

Question 8

What were the main causes of the Great Schism? What were the major results of this political and religious conflict?

Question 9

Compare and contrast the Jacquerie with the English Peasants' Revolt. What accounts for the differences?

Question 10

define the following term:
flagellants

Question 11

What were the causes and consequences of the failure of Germany and Italy to develop strong centralized governments?

Question 12

define the following term:
pogroms

Question 13

define the following term:
Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron

Question 14

define the following term:
bubonic plague

Question 15

What changes occurred in the political life of Italy during the fourteenth century?

Question 16

What were the greatest short-term and long-term consequences of the Black Death?

Question 17

Evaluate the social, military, economic, and political consequences of the introduction and use of cannons and gunpowder.

Question 18

define the following term:
Black Death

Question 19

define the following term:
"little ice age" and great famine

Question 20

define the following term:
pneumonic plague

Question 21

define the following term:
the Hundred Years' War

Question 22

define the following term:
grandi, popolo grasso, and popolo minuto

Question 23

define the following term:
condottieri

Question 24

define the following term:
Italian communes

Question 25

define the following term:
the longbow

Question 26

define the following term:
Henry V and the Battle of Agincourt

Question 27

define the following term:
Statute of Laborers

Question 28

define the following term:
Charles the dauphin/VII

Question 29

define the following term:
Florence's ciompi

Question 30

define the following term:
scutage

Question 31

define the following term:
Joan of Arc

Question 32

define the following term:
Orléans

Question 33

define the following term:
the Visconti and the d'Este

Question 34

define the following term:
the Jacquerie

Question 35

define the following term:
the gabelle and the taille

Question 36

define the following term:
gunpowder

Question 37

define the following term:
Wat Tyler, John Ball, and the English Peasants' Revolt

Question 38

define the following term:
the Battle of Crécy

Question 39

define the following term:
Golden Bull of Charles IV

Question 40

define the following term:
dukes of Burgundy and Orleans

Question 41

define the following term:
Meister Eckhart

Question 42

define the following term:
Catherine of Siena

Question 43

define the following term:
Giotto

Question 44

define the following term:
Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life

Question 45

define the following term:
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

Question 46

define the following term:
the vernacular

Question 47

define the following term:
Petrarch's sonnets

Question 48

define the following term:
Gerard Groote

Question 49

define the following term:
Great Schism

Question 50

define the following term:
Marsiglio of Padua

Question 51

define the following term:
Modern Devotion

Question 52

define the following term:
Council of Constance

Question 53

define the following term:
Council of Ten and the doge

Question 54

define the following term:
conciliarism

Question 55

define the following term:
Dante's Divine Comedy

Question 56

define the following term:
Pope Boniface VIII's Unam Sanctam

Question 57

define the following term:
Christine de Pizan

Question 58

define the following term:
mysticism

Question 59

define the following term:
William of Occam and nominalism

Question 60

define the following term:
Avignon

Question 61

Among the adverse economic and population changes in fourteenth-century Europe were

A)shrinking peasant land holdings below the size needed to support a family.
B)an exodus of residents from overpopulated rural areas.
C)rapidly rising numbers of poor people in cities.
D)all productive land was being farmed, including many marginal lands susceptible to changing weather patterns
E)all the above

Question 62

All of the following were reactions to the great plague except

A)an increase in violence and murder due to a sense of life's cheapness.
B)the formation of groups like the flagellants, who flogged themselves to save the world.
C)a reduction in the persecution of religious minorities because of the displeasure it caused God.
D)morbidity and preoccupation with death in everyday life.
E)economic depression.

Question 63

Postplague socioeconomic relations between rich and poor in Europe

A)improved noticeably as Christians sought to make peace with one another to please an angry God.
B)did not alter from their preplague character.
C)deteriorated because a surplus of workers resulted in a dramatic downturn in wages.
D)improved radically as the economy entered into a period of sustained prosperity.
E)got much worse as the positions of landlords deteriorated, and they sought to limit the gains of the peasants.

Question 64

define the following term:
clocks, eyeglasses, and paper

Question 65

The European aristocracy responded to the adversity of the great plague by

A)seeking to lower wages by legal means, especially for farm laborers.
B)producing only the most basic foodstuffs, such as grain.
C)petitioning kings to order the relocation of laborers.
D)forming agricultural cooperatives linking landowners, laborers, and city consumers.
E)investing in trade and commerce rather than agricultural production.

Question 66

The Black Death resulted in a decline of the European population by

A)10 percent.
B)between 15 and 25 percent.
C)between 25 and 50 percent.
D)between 50 and 75 percent.
E)80 percent.

Question 67

The term ars moriendi means

A)the art of dying.
B)the beauty of death.
C)the triumph of life.
D)the art of living well
E)the divine artist

Question 68

define the following term:
the "four humors"

Question 69

Merchants and manufacturers responded to the economic tribulations of the fourteenth century by

A)increasing their prices.
B)restricting competition and resisting the demands of the lower classes.
C)blaming the Jews and persecuting them.
D)pressuring the government to raise the prices of their products.
E)adopting laissez-faire policies.

Question 70

One major issue behind the Hundred Years' War was a claim to the French throne by the English king

A)John II.
B)Edward II.
C)Edward III.
D)William the Conqueror
E)Henry I.

Question 71

The English Peasants' Revolt of 1381

A)was caused by the rising economic expectations of ordinary people.
B)was halted when leaders Wat Tyler and John Ball betrayed the peasants' cause.
C)succeeded in getting the government to agree to the peasants' demands.
D)gained long-term results for the peasants.
E)led to the end of the Hundred Years' War.

Question 72

What was the main cause of the early fourteenth century famines?

A)a blight that struck the wheat crop
B)a lack of knowledge of scientific agriculture
C)droughts throughout most of Europe
D)a little ice age inducing bad weather with heavy rains
E)urban pollution that spread into nearby farming regions.

Question 73

The bubonic plague originated in

A)Africa.
B)Syria.
C)Italy.
D)the Azores.
E)Asia.

Question 74

Pogroms were

A)religious ceremonies convened to ask for God's help against the plague.
B)special indulgences granted to those infected with the plague.
C)organized massacres against the Jews.
D)the name given to people believed to be responsible for the Black Death.
E)mysterious sites where people could go to miraculously recover from the plague.

Question 75

A key economic consequence of the plague was

A)the rapid expansion of European civic banking to rebuild industry.
B)a decline in manorialism and weakening of feudalism as noble landlords desperate for cash converted peasant labor service to market rents freeing their serfs.
C)the more frequent bankruptcy of monarchs as they emptied their treasuries trying to provide poor relief.
D)the very slow enrichment of middling peasant laborers who began to dominate rural communities.
E)a long-term trend to abandon cities for the more secure rural environment.

Question 76

The French government and aristocracy responded to the Jacquerie by

A)drafting the rebels into the army.
B)taking no action and letting it run its course.
C)negotiating a settlement with its leaders.
D)massacring the participants.
E)renouncing their historic privileges.

Question 77

Economically, the great plague and the crises of the fourteenth century

A)devastated peasants but not nobles.
B)brought an economic boom to landlords.
C)caused only minor changes in agricultural practices.
D)raised wages because of a scarcity of labor.
E)had little impact.

Question 78

define the following term:
Francisco Traini's The Triumph of Death

Question 79

During the Black Death

A)Western Europe became home to large Jewish communities because of persecutions in Russia and Poland.
B)the worst organized massacres of the Jews were carried out in England.
C)the Jews acted as partners of the flagellants in seeking to mitigate the effects of plague.
D)Strasbourg became the most important place of refuge for Jews.
E)Jews were accused of causing the plague by poisoning town wells.

Question 80

The flagellants

A)were praised by the Catholic church for their miraculous deeds.
B)were attracted attention and created mass hysteria wherever they went.
C)worked with both Jews and clergy to cope with the disorder and dislocation caused by the plague.
D)remained a popular religious movement throughout the fourteenth century.
E)were only to be found in isolated rural areas.