Deck 13: Crisis and Renaissance, 1340-1492

Question 1

Where did the plague originate? How did it spread throughout Europe?

Answer 1

Answer would ideally include the following. The plague, a bacterial infection of Yersinia pestis, started in central Asia and traveled westward with trade. It is likely that the immediate cause of the strain that entered Europe was contaminated grain, which came from the port city of Tara and crossed the Black Sea into Constantinople. The disease was then spread along trade routes into southern Europe and the Islamic world and eventually into Russia.

Question 2

What was the Dance of Death, and why was it performed in Europe in the mid-fourteenth century?

Answer 2

Answer would ideally include the following. The Dance of Death was a response to the plague, which broke out in Europe in 1347. It featured a procession of men, women, and children who made their way to cemeteries. In artistic representations, ghastly skeletal figures laughed as they made off with their victims. Most obviously, the emergence of this dance reflected the preoccupation with the high death rates, which may have been as high as 60 percent in some regions of Europe.

Question 3

How did the plague ironically lead to an expansion of colleges and universities?

Answer 3

Answer would ideally include the following. The plague did not discriminate in its choice of victims, killing clergy as well as laity. Since so many monks had perished, the survivors realized that they needed to train a new generation for the priesthood. Many local princes who had survived had become wealthier, having received the wealth left behind by the dead. Wishing to be known as patrons of education, they helped found new colleges and universities.

Question 4

What were the two major phases of the Hundred Years' War? What were the key events in the final phase?

Question 5

Who was Joan of Arc, and how did she influence the outcome of the Hundred Years' War?

Question 6

What was the Jacquerie of 1358? Explain both its causes and results.

Question 7

Describe how the Ottoman Turks were finally able to conquer Constantinople in 1453. What significance did this event have for Europe?

Question 8

What were the beliefs held by John Wycliffe (c. 1330-1384)? Did these beliefs survive his death?

Question 9

Who was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, and how did his Oration on the Dignity of Man embody the optimism of Renaissance philosophy?

Question 10

How and why did the centralizing Spanish monarchy become an agent of intolerance with regard to its religious minorities?

Question 11

Explain the impact that the plague had on the European population demographically, religiously, and economically.

Question 12

Describe the causes and the political, military, and social impact of the Hundred Years' War in western Europe.

Question 13

Describe the origins of the Great Schism and its political and religious impact in Europe.

Question 14

What factors allowed Renaissance culture to emerge? How can the Renaissance be characterized? How did literature change during this time? How did architecture change?

Question 15

In the fifteenth century, the English, French, and Spanish monarchies underwent a process of centralization and expanded their territorial holdings and authority. Discuss the factors that contributed to the success of their efforts.

Question 16

Which group of invaders marked the end of the Byzantine Empire with their conquest of Constantinople in 1453?

A) The Mongols
B) The Ottomans
C) The Russians
D) The Germans

Question 17

Why is the mid-fourteenth century regarded as an era of crisis in the West?

A) Europe was threatened by renewed invasions from the Magyars, Saracens, and Vikings.
B) Global warming led to devastating droughts and the introduction of tropical diseases.
C) Ottoman invasions threatened to topple the pope from his throne in Rome.
D) Europe was ravaged by devastating outbreaks of the plague as well as by destructive wars.

Question 18

According to this map, the plague only reached England by the
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A) twelfth century.
B) thirteenth century.
C) fourteenth century.
D) fifteenth century.

Question 19

Why did the plague spread so rapidly on the European continent in the mid-fourteenth century?

A) The bacterium that likely caused the disease, Yersinia pestis, followed major trade routes to and across the continent.
B) Invading Ottoman troops spread the disease to Europe during their siege of Constantinople and their attacks on the Balkans.
C) The fighting during the Hundred Years' War allowed the disease to erupt among wounded and exhausted soldiers.
D) Europeans had yet to learn about quarantines or other measures that could effectively halt the spread of disease.

Question 20

What is historians' highest estimate for the percentage of the European population that perished from the plague between 1348 and 1400?

A) 10 percent
B) 30 percent
C) 60 percent
D) 80 percent

Question 21

Individuals who sought to appease God by traveling from city to city and scourging themselves with whips were known as

A) mendicants.
B) Franciscans.
C) flagellants.
D) Mongols.

Question 22

How did outbreaks of the plague lead to the founding of new universities in Europe?

A) Local princes received money and property from those who had perished, and they used this income to become patrons of education.
B) Mass death led many wealthy noblemen to lose faith in the church, and they opted to will their resources to secular institutions rather than to the church.
C) The plague forced more than 80 percent of existing universities to close their doors, necessitating the creation of new institutions.
D) Searching for the causes of the plague led to major scientific discoveries and the creation of new universities to train future scientists.

Question 23

Which of the following initially precipitated the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453)?

A) The English king Edward III decided to march from Guyenne into Languedoc, which enraged the French king Philip VI.
B) The duke of Burgundy attempted to seize English lands in Normandy.
C) King Edward III of England invaded France at Calais and laid claim to the French crown.
D) The French king Philip VI laid claim to Guyenne, a fief of the English king Edward III.

Question 24

Why did Joan of Arc, an unknown peasant girl, succeed in helping the French to turn the tide against the English in the Hundred Years' War?

A) She inspired French soldiers to rally round the dauphin.
B) She single-handedly defeated an English army at the battle of Orléans and personally crowned Philip VI as king.
C) She convinced the Burgundians to switch sides from the English to the French in 1435.
D) Because of her religious visions, she drew the support of Pope Martin V, who took the side of the French.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is supported by this series of maps?
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A) Over the course of the Hundred Years' War, England lost its holdings in mainland Europe to France.
B) During the Hundred Years' War, France lost a considerable amount of territory to England.
C) The French won far more battles during the Hundred Years' War than England.
D) Joan of Arc led forces north through English territory, across the English channel, and into England.

Question 26

Toward the end of the Hundred Years' War, which of the following shifted support from England to France?

A) Bavaria
B) Aragon
C) The duchy of Burgundy
D) The Papal States

Question 27

In what way may the Hundred Years' War be seen as a world war?

A) It was fought on multiple continents.
B) Its outcome had global significance.
C) Both the English and the French hired mercenaries from other countries.
D) It lasted for more than a century.

Question 28

How did warfare change during the Hundred Years' War?

A) It became increasingly chivalrous.
B) Armies relied on conscripts.
C) Knights on horseback played a decisive role.
D) Armies became more professional and centralized.

Question 29

The uprising of French peasants against the nobility in 1358 was known as

A) the indulgence.
B) the Great Schism.
C) Wat Tyler's Rebellion.
D) the Jacquerie.

Question 30

What triggered Wat Tyler's Rebellion in 1381?

A) King Richard II's imposition of military conscription
B) The teachings of John Wycliffe, who held that the people, not the king, owned the land
C) The imposition of a poll tax to raise revenue for the Hundred Years' War
D) Widespread famine and rumors that barons were hoarding grain

Question 31

Why did Constantinople finally succumb to invasion in 1453 when it had withstood so many invasions in the past?

A) Traitors from within betrayed the city to the enemy.
B) Its European trading partners failed to assist in its defense.
C) The invading Arab armies vastly outnumbered the Greek defenders.
D) The use of cannons allowed its walls to be breached.

Question 32

What term was used for the European Christian boys who were forced to convert to Islam and made up the core of the Ottoman army?

A) Janissaries
B) Sultans
C) Cardinals
D) Indulgences

Question 33

Who succeeded in conquering the city of Constantinople in 1453, thus administering the deathblow to the Byzantine Empire?

A) Gregory XI
B) Urban
C) Mehmed I
D) Mehmed II

Question 34

How did the Ottomans conquer the Balkans and Anatolia?

A) Through negotiations and war
B) Through a series of marriages
C) By inheritance of kings
D) By adoption of Christianity

Question 35

This map shows that during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire
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A) engaged in trade by way of the Black Sea.
B) succumbed to the Byzantines and lost territory.
C) expanded to the east and west.
D) overtook significant amounts of Islamic territory.

Question 36

What triggered the Great Schism in 1378?

A) Disputes over how severely to treat those whose ideas were deemed heretical
B) The election of Urban VI, an Italian, as pope
C) The refusal of the patriarch of Constantinople to obey the Roman pontiff
D) Challenges to Christianity by scholastic philosophers

Question 37

Who did the French select as pope upon the realization that the selection of Urban was a mistake?

A) Avignon
B) Gregory XI
C) Clement VII
D) Mehmed II

Question 38

Under pressure from Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to resolve the Great Schism, Pope John XXIII convened a church council at Constance in 1414, which elected who as a new pope?

A) Alexander V
B) Clement VII
C) Martin V
D) Gregory XII

Question 39

An indulgence was a certificate offered by the church to

A) vouch that proper baptismal practices had been followed.
B) ensure that one would bypass purgatory altogether and enter heaven directly.
C) reduce the time one spent in purgatory.
D) grant entry to the sites where sacred relics were held.

Question 40

The Book of Hours contained which of the following?

A) Astronomic tables
B) Information on tides
C) Prayers and calendars
D) Military tactics

Question 41

What did the Oxford scholar John Wycliffe argue?

A) That the true church was a community of believers, not an ecclesiastical hierarchy
B) That the Greek Orthodox church and not the Roman Catholic church was the rightful heir to the keys of St. Peter
C) That pious monks needed to oust corrupt and materialistic churchmen from their high positions in the church hierarchy
D) That the papacy had lost its moral authority for not having settled the Hundred Years' War

Question 42

Why did Jan Hus's ideas gain such a large number of followers in Bohemia?

A) His ideas tapped into the resentments of the Czech majority against the dominant and largely urban German-speaking minority.
B) His doctrine of justification by faith minimized the ecclesiastical power of the unpopular Bohemian church hierarchy.
C) John Wycliffe's ideas had spread throughout Bohemia several decades earlier, thus providing fertile soil for Hus's ideas to grow in.
D) Church leaders tolerated the spread of Hus's ideas.

Question 43

What was the central desire of Jan Hus's followers?

A) To receive both the bread and the wine at Mass
B) To hear the liturgy in their own language
C) To have German bishops removed from office and replaced by Czechs
D) To prohibit immoral priests from conducting Mass

Question 44

The period from about 1350 through 1600 in which artists and philosophers revived elements of the classical past is known as the

A) scholastic movement.
B) Renaissance.
C) disillusionment.
D) Revolution.

Question 45

During the late medieval period, there was both a flowering of vernacular literature and a

A) rejection of previously popular luxury goods in favor of an austere and simple lifestyle.
B) revival of classical learning that led to a new intellectual movement called humanism.
C) decline in the study of the Latin language and literature.
D) return to the religious traditions of the established church paired with a renewed interest in monasticism.

Question 46

Where did humanism originate?

A) Italian city-states
B) Rural France
C) Urban England
D) German city-states

Question 47

What is Francis Petrarch best known as?

A) The husband of Laura, to whom he dedicated many romantic poems
B) The lover of Beatrice, about whom he wrote extensively
C) A victim of the Babylonian captivity
D) The first humanist

Question 48

Which Renaissance humanist is known for the work Oration on the Dignity of Man?

A) Francis Petrarch
B) Christine de Pisan
C) Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
D) Lauro Quirini

Question 49

Sandro Botticelli and other Renaissance painters mined the ancient world for new subjects, such as

A) Julius Caesar.
B) Cicero.
C) Jupiter.
D) Venus.

Question 50

Which of the following is regarded as a significant innovation in Renaissance art?

A) The use of oil on canvas
B) The depiction of mythical figures
C) The use of linear perspective
D) The introduction of pointillism

Question 51

How did the leading Renaissance musicians and composers support themselves in their artistic endeavors?

A) They were forced to compose and perform on the side while pursuing better-paying occupations.
B) They found wealthy patrons in the ranks of the church, secular rulers, and local governments.
C) They worked solely for the glory of God and received no compensation for their efforts.
D) They entered into formal partnerships with painters, sculptors, and architects.

Question 52

By the end of the fourteenth century, Lithuania, whose rulers were the last in Europe to remain unconverted to Christianity, had

A) been conquered and converted by the Teutonic knights.
B) invaded the Holy Roman Empire.
C) been weakened by nearly constant war with neighboring Russia.
D) entered into a union with Poland.

Question 53

What alliance brought together many cities in northern Germany and the Baltic for the purposes of trade and defense?

A) The Delian League
B) The Holy Roman Empire
C) The Burgundian League
D) The Hanseatic League

Question 54

What state filled the territorial gap between France and Germany but was, unlike most other European states, an artificial creation whose existence depended entirely on skillful rulers?

A) Venice
B) Genoa
C) Burgundy
D) Guyenne

Question 55

In the year 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella succeeded in reunifying Spain by conquering what kingdom on the Iberian peninsula?

A) The Jewish kingdom of al-Andalus
B) The Christian kingdom of Portugal
C) The Muslim kingdom of Granada
D) The British outpost on Gibraltar

Question 56

One important element of the French king's campaign to consolidate and strengthen the monarchy was Gallicanism, which was characterized by which of the following?

A) Royal control over ecclesiastical revenues and the appointment of all French bishops
B) The establishment of a centralized bureaucracy, with its seat in Paris, that was in charge of all provincial tax, administrative, and military responsibilities
C) The rejection of further territorial expansion in favor of securing and developing the territories within current state borders
D) A state-sponsored propaganda effort linking the current French monarchy with the legacy and glory of the ancient Roman Empire

Question 57

Which of the following contributed to rising prosperity in England during the fifteenth century?

A) The expansion of the cloth industry
B) The growing role of the peasantry in politics
C) Increased trade with eastern Europe
D) The absence of warfare on English soil

Question 58

Which of the following statements about the Swiss Confederation is true?

A) It was formed to facilitate the hiring out of mercenaries to the rulers of Europe.
B) It was dominated by the landed nobility.
C) It was the most egalitarian of the political entities of the fifteenth century.
D) It was conquered by the duke of Burgundy.

Question 59

Which of the following did the Peace of Lodi (1454) accomplish?

A) It established a truce between the kingdoms of Naples and Aragon and allied them against the Ottoman Turks.
B) It put an end to the conflict between Venice and Milan that had been raging since 1450.
C) It established permanent boundaries between the Papal States and the northern Italian city-states.
D) It led to a truce between Venice and the Ottoman Empire and the division of the Adriatic Sea into separate zones for Venetian and Ottoman commercial traffic.

Question 60

The political power of the Medici family of Florence stemmed from

A) the wealth of the Medici bank and its involvement in papal finances.
B) the support given to the family by the Ottoman Turks.
C) the family's significant investments in the textile and wool industries of England, North Africa, and France.
D) the Medicis' role in finding overseas routes to Asia that bypassed the Ottoman base in the Middle East.

Question 61

The catasto was an attempt by Florentine rulers to

A) develop new musical forms.
B) reform their republican forms of government.
C) survey the population and surrounding territories for the purposes of taxation.
D) establish new diplomatic institutions to preserve the Peace of Lodi.

Question 62

Where did large numbers of Jews convert to Christianity at the end of the fourteenth century in an effort to save their lives in the face of vast persecution?

A) France
B) England
C) Spain
D) Byzantium

Question 63

Why did Ferdinand and Isabella establish inquisitions in Spain in 1478?

A) The papacy had put pressure on them to establish religious homogeneity on the Iberian peninsula.
B) The Ottoman Empire had forged an alliance with the king of Granada to regain territories lost in previous centuries as part of the Christian reconquista.
C) Resentment was growing at the success of those Jews who had converted to Christianity.
D) The Cathar heresy had not been completely eliminated in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Question 64

Which of the following was part of the Holy Roman Empire by about 1492?
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A) France
B) England
C) Bohemia
D) Hungary

Question 65

According to this map, most of the important Hanseatic towns and trading partners were
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A) controlled by French rulers.
B) run by Jewish people.
C) along the Mediterranean coast.
D) within the Holy Roman Empire.