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

Question 1

In the conduct of the Hundred Years' War, which of the following proved a sure sign of feudalism's decline?

A)The inability of feuding kings to raise armies of knights
B)The reliance of kings on artillery as the main component of royal armies
C)The decisive role of peasant foot soldiers rather than mounted knights

Answer 1

The decisive role of peasant foot soldiers rather than mounted knights

Question 2

Which of the following is a key economic consequence of the plague?

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

Answer 2

A decline in manorialism and weakening of feudalism as noble landlords desperate for cash converted peasant labor service to market rents, freeing their serfs

Question 3

In fourteenth-century Venice, the real executive power of the state came to be held by whom?

A)Doge
B)Council of Ten
C)Council of Merchants

Answer 3

Council of Ten

Question 4

How did the French government and aristocracy respond to the Jacquerie?

A)Drafting the rebels into the army
B)Massacring the participants
C)Negotiating a settlement with its leaders

Question 5

Who were the Italian condottieri?

A)Political leaders supporting the pope
B)Bankers with branch banks throughout much of Western Europe
C)Leaders of mercenary bands, occasionally ruling as military dictators

Question 6

Politically, Italy and Germany were similar in the fourteenth century for what reason?

A)The plague had equally devastated both regions.
B)Both regions failed to develop a centralized monarchical state.
C)Local nobles and town governments lost much influence over reigning kings.

Question 7

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

A)John II
B)Edward II
C)Edward III

Question 8

Which of the following describes an adverse economic and population change in fourteenth-century Europe?

A)Growing peasant land holdings below the size needed to support a family
B)An exodus of residents from overpopulated rural areas
C)Slowly rising numbers of poor people in cities

Question 9

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

A)A little ice age inducing bad weather with heavy rains
B)A lack of knowledge of scientific agriculture
C)Droughts throughout most of Europe

Question 10

Florence was ruled throughout most of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries by whom?

A)Grandi
B)Popólo grasso
C)Popólo minuto

Question 11

What crucial battle of the Hundred Years' War was won by Henry V in 1415 and led to the treaty and apparent victory in the war for Henry and England?

A)Battle of Agincourt
B)Battle of Tours
C)Battle of Poitiers

Question 12

What was the chief ambition of the Venetian city-state in the fourteenth century?

A)Financial control of the Holy Roman Empire
B)Inducing the bankruptcy of the papacy
C)To create a maritime commercial empire throughout the Mediterranean and Black seas

Question 13

During the reign of Edward III of England, how did the role of the Great Council of the barons change?

A)It became the chief advisory body of the king.
B)It relinquished most of its main powers.
C)It became the House of Lords, forming a hereditary body of peers in parliament.

Question 14

The Golden Bull of 1356 in Germany had what effect?

A)It made heredity rather than election the process by which German kings were selected.
B)It ensured the independence of the ecclesiastical states.
C)It gave seven electors the power to choose the "king of the Romans."

Question 15

The conflict between Pope Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France began when Philip did which of the following?

A)Tried to end corruption in the French Church.
B)Tried to buy the papacy for his nephew, Henry.
C)Taxed churchmen without the Church's permission.

Question 16

How did merchants and manufacturers respond to the economic tribulations of the fourteenth century?

A)By increasing their prices
B)By restricting competition and resisting the demands of the lower classes
C)By blaming the Jews and persecuting them

Question 17

Joan of Arc saved France by inspiring the French soldiers to break the English siege of which city?

A)Bordeaux
B)Amiens
C)Orléans

Question 18

Which of the following is true of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381?

A)It was caused by the rising economic expectations of ordinary people.
B)It was halted when leaders Wat Tyler and John Ball betrayed the peasants' cause.
C)It succeeded in getting the government to agree to the peasants' demands.

Question 19

Politically, France by the end of the fourteenth century experienced which of the following?

A)The dominance of the Estates-General in determining government policy and administering taxes
B)No new forms of government revenue due to royal opposition
C)Chaos and civil war as rival noble factions fought for control of the realm

Question 20

Prior to the Golden Bull of 1356, how is Germany best described?

A)It composed the four kingdoms of Bavaria, Prussia, Hanover, and Austria.
B)It was under the sole authority of the pope.
C)It was a land of hundreds of virtually independent states.

Question 21

How did medieval people respond to the plague?

Question 22

Which is the best description of parent-child relationships in the Middle Ages?

A)Parents were mostly indifferent toward their children, who often died while very young.
B)Parents lavished considerable attention and affection on their offspring.
C)Children were increasingly given over to be raised by strict church tutors.

Question 23

What was the "little ice age," and why does it matter?

Question 24

From 1305 to 1377, the Papacy resided across the French border in which town?

A)Avignon
B)Bordeaux
C)Provence

Question 25

Where is the Decameron set?

A)In Florence at the time of the Black Death
B)In Rome during the Great Schism
C)In German lands after the Golden Bull

Question 26

How is mysticism in the fourteenth century best described?

A)It was especially advocated by the nominalist school of William of Occam.
B)It particularly took hold in France and Spain.
C)It emphasized an intensely personal feeling of oneness with God.

Question 27

Why did some Europeans target Jews during the plague?

Question 28

All are correct about Petrarch EXCEPT which of the following?

A)He was a Florentine.
B)He wrote in the vernacular.
C)He wrote sonnets in Latin.

Question 29

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

A)10 percent
B)Between 15 and 25 percent
C)Between 25 and 50 percent

Question 30

How is Meister Eckhart best described?

A)He challenged the works of Thomas Aquinas in public disputations.
B)He was a mystic who claimed that one could achieve a union of the soul with God.
C)He was a noted leader of the flagellants who turned to persecution of the Jews.

Question 31

The Great Schism resulted in which of the following?

A)It put an end to the church's previous financial abuses.
B)It badly damaged the faith of many Christian believers.
C)It rejuvenated Christianity as it had been on the decline throughout Europe.

Question 32

Who was the fourteenth-century theologian who claimed that reason could not prove spiritual truth?

A)Thomas Aquinas
B)William of Occam
C)Oddone Colonna

Question 33

Pogroms are best described how?

A)They were religious ceremonies convened to ask for God's help against the plague.
B)They were special indulgences granted to those infected with the plague.
C)They were organized massacres of Jews living in European communities.

Question 34

Changed urban attitudes in the fourteenth century included which of the following?

A)The regulation and acceptance of prostitution in most communities
B)Later marriages and increases in the number of extended families
C)Children being seen as valuable only in their capacity to work and earn money for the family

Question 35

How is Dante's Divine Comedy best described?

A)It is considered a supreme summary of medieval thought.
B)It was one of the last fourteenth-century works to be written in Latin.
C)It lashed out at the "barbarity" of the classical tradition.

Question 36

What was the effect of the Black Death on Europe's population, and where was this effect most pronounced?

Question 37

How did women benefit from the Black Death?

A)There were new employment opportunities.
B)They were immune because of herbs taken in conjunction with pregnancy.
C)Social custom expected them to be restricted to their houses so they were less exposed to it.

Question 38

How is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales best described?

A)It celebrated English victories in the Hundred Years' War.
B)It portrayed characters from a variety of status levels, both high- and low-born.
C)It justified the English Peasants' Revolt.

Question 39

What happened to medieval cities during the plague?

Question 40

Why did peasants begin demanding more privileges after the plague?

Question 41

All were reactions to the great plague EXCEPT which of the following?

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 to God.

Question 42

How did the plague cause economic distress in cities?

Question 43

How did the French eventually achieve victory in the Hundred Years' War?

Question 44

How did the economic collapse after the plague shape medieval ideas about gender?

Question 45

How was the medieval medical profession affected by the plague?

Question 46

How did the plague break down traditional beliefs, attitudes, and relationships among medieval European communities?

Question 47

To what extent did the plague directly cause peasant and workers' revolts in medieval towns and cities, and to what extent was the plague a more indirect cause? What other direct causes for these revolts help explain them?

Question 48

How did city authorities respond to the plague?

Question 49

Describe the reasons for the French king's new fiscal policies.

Question 50

What is the best description of the flagellants?

A)They were praised by the Catholic church for their miraculous deeds.
B)They attracted attention and created mass hysteria wherever they went.
C)They worked with both Jews and clergy to cope with the disorder and dislocation caused by the plague.

Question 51

Describe the motivations of the participants in the Hundred Years' War.

Question 52

How did the plague affect European attitudes toward the use of violence?

Question 53

Describe the origins and results of the Wars of the Roses.

Question 54

How did the "little ice age" affect the outbreak and spread of the Black Death? Who was most affected?

Question 55

What was the most important issue at stake during the Hundred Years' War? To what extent was it resolved?

Question 56

How did the Council of Constance resolve the Great Schism?

Question 57

What is the central message of Boccaccio's Decameron?

Question 58

What is the key message of Dante's Divine Comedy?

Question 59

What was the central argument of Unam Sanctam?

Question 60

What effect did exiling the papacy to Avignon have on that institution?

Question 61

Economically, the great plague and the crises of the fourteenth century had what effect?

A)They devastated peasants but not nobles.
B)They brought an economic boom to landlords.
C)They raised wages because of a scarcity of labor.

Question 62

How did the Great Schism occur and how was it resolved? What damage did it do to the papacy's authority over secular leaders?

Question 63

How did papal politics and controversies influence the rise of purchasable indulgences? How did it influence the rise of mystical Christianity?

Question 64

In what ways did medieval communities become safer after the plague? To what extent were these improvements enjoyed equally by men and women? Why?

Question 65

How are postplague socioeconomic relations between rich and poor in Europe best described?

A)They improved noticeably as Christians sought to make peace with one another to please an angry God.
B)They got much worse as the positions of landlords deteriorated, and they sought to limit the gains of the peasants.
C)They deteriorated because a surplus of workers resulted in a dramatic downturn in wages.

Question 66

How did the European aristocracy respond to the adversity of the great plague?

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

Question 67

How did new technologies, practices, and knowledge improve European life after the plague? Were these improvements equally distributed across classes? Why or why not?

Question 68

Which of the following was most important to efforts to consolidate royal authority in the hands of kings: religion, marriage, or war? Use examples from several kingdoms to argue your case.

Question 69

Which of the following occurred 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)Jews were accused of causing the plague by poisoning town wells.

Question 70

What are the central themes and messages of later medieval literature? In what ways are they responding to their political, social, and religious context? Discuss at least three different works in your response.