Deck 15: A New Civilization Emerges in Western Europe

Question 1

The post classical period in Western history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the 15th century is referred to as the

A) Middle Ages.
B) Renaissance.
C) Age of Discovery.
D) Baroque.

Answer 1

Middle Ages.

Question 2

In which of the following ways was the medieval West NOT like other civilizations?

A) The medieval period saw the spread of civilization outside the Mediterranean zone core region to new areas in northern Europe.
B) New religious beliefs accompanied the spread of civilization.
C) The medieval West remained culturally backward.
D) Western Europe participated in the emerging international community.

Answer 2

The medieval West remained culturally backward.

Question 3

Which of the following statements concerning the impact of Christianity on polytheistic religions in western Europe is most accurate?

A) Christianity eradicated all traces of those earlier religions as the new religion became universal in western Europe.
B) The process of conversion produced a religious amalgam in which beliefs in magic and supernatural spirits coexisted with Christianity.
C) Although Christianity made inroads, many areas of Europe retained polytheistic beliefs and rejected the new religion.
D) Small islands of polytheistic belief remained, but Christianity eradicated belief in magic and spirits wherever the new religion was accepted.

Answer 3

The process of conversion produced a religious amalgam in which beliefs in magic and supernatural spirits coexisted with Christianity.

Question 4

Medieval backwardness in western Europe accounts for

A) the failure of the medieval West to establish centralized governments.
B) the inability of the West to establish trade contacts with the larger world commercial network.
C) the refusal of the West to adopt technologies and knowledge from other civilizations.
D) the anxiety of the West about the more powerful Muslim world.

Question 5

Following the fall of Rome, where was the center of the post-classical West?

A) In the former Roman colony of Spain
B) In Italy, particularly Rome
C) In the central plain of northern Europe: France, the Low Countries, southern and western Germany
D) Greece

Question 6

Who were the invaders who disrupted the development of political institutions in the medieval West until the 10th century?

A) Muslims
B) Mongols
C) Vikings
D) Chinese

Question 7

Which of the following statements concerning the intellectual activity of the medieval West prior to the 8th century is most accurate?

A) Classical rational traditions were actively united with Christian mysticism to carve out a new intellectual world.
B) With the few literate people concentrated in monasteries, little was achieved other than copying older manuscripts.
C) Universities rapidly created a new intellectual climate in which logic was applied to matters of Christian doctrine.
D) All literacy and contact with the ancient culture was lost in the centuries following the fall of Rome.

Question 8

The system that described economic and political relations between landlords and their peasant laborers was called

A) manorialism.
B) feudalism.
C) slavery.
D) capitalism.

Question 9

Agricultural laborers under the jurisdiction of aristocratic landowners were called

A) artisans.
B) guilds.
C) serfs.
D) bourgeoisie.

Question 10

Which of the following statements concerning the agricultural laborers of the medieval West is NOT true?

A) They received protection and the administration of justice from their landlords
B) They were obligated to turn over part of their goods to remain on the land
C) They retained essential ownership of their houses
D) They were slaves

Question 11

The moldboard was

A) a system of justice common to the manorial regime of the medieval West.
B) a technological innovation--a plow that allowed deeper turning of the soil.
C) a technological innovation--a water-driven mill for grinding grain.
D) the peasant council that determined the division of land and labor in a peasant village.

Question 12

Which of the following statements about the manorial system is NOT true?

A) It was technologically sophisticated.
B) It had originated in the Roman Empire.
C) Its obligations bore heavily on serfs.
D) Agricultural productivity was low.

Question 13

Which of the following statements concerning the three-field rotation system is most accurate?

A) Introduced in the 8th century, the three-field rotation added acres to production by leaving only a third of the land unplanted.
B) The three-field system removed land from production by reserving one-third for fallow.
C) The three-field system was rapidly replaced after the 8th century by the two-field system that offered greater flexibility in terms of crop rotation.
D) The three-field system removed fallow fields and replaced them with nitrogen-bearing crops.

Question 14

Relationships between members of the military elite based on a reciprocal exchange of land for military service and loyalty were called

A) manorialism.
B) feudalism.
C) capitalism.
D) the guild system.

Question 15

The members of the military elite who received land in return for military service in the bands of the greater lords were called

A) fiefs.
B) benefices.
C) vassals.
D) serfs.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about feudalism is most accurate?

A) Although it inhibited the development of strong central states, some kings were able to use feudalism to build their own power.
B) Although it provided initial political stability, feudalism was rapidly replaced by a western European imperial system.
C) Feudalism represented only a brief, and largely unsatisfactory, attempt to create political stability in western Europe.
D) Feudalism produced centralized monarchies by the 8th century.

Question 17

Which of the following was NOT a power of the papacy immediately after 500?

A) The ability to send directives and receive information
B) Regulation of doctrine
C) Sponsorship of missionary activity
D) The appointment of all bishops

Question 18

What Frankish king was responsible for the conversion of his people to Christianity in order to gain a vague domination over the Franks?

A) Charles Martel
B) Clovis
C) Charlemagne
D) Pepin III

Question 19

What belief did the conversion of Germanic kings create among Western religious leaders, particularly the pope?

A) That the church was subordinate to the secular monarchs
B) That the church had a legitimate authority separate from and superior to the secular rulers
C) That the church should avoid conversion of northern Germanic kings
D) That such conversion represented a danger to the papal hierarchy

Question 20

Benedict of Nursia was responsible for what accomplishment in the 6th century?

A) The conversion of the Franks
B) The banning of lay investiture
C) The creation of a set of rules for monasteries
D) The conquest of Constantinople

Question 21

Which of the following was NOT a benefit of the monastic movement in western Europe?

A) They disciplined the intense spirituality of the medieval West in order to promote Christian unity.
B) Many monasteries helped improve the cultivation of the land.
C) By copying ancient texts, monks preserved classical culture for later intellectual inquiry.
D) Their political organization provided the foundation for the political order established in France, Germany, and England.

Question 22

What dynasty took over the Frankish monarchy in the 8th century?

A) Merovingian
B) Hohenstaufen
C) Carolingian
D) Saxon

Question 23

In what year was Charlemagne able to establish a substantial, if temporary, empire in France and Germany?

A) 500
B) 800
C) 900
D) 1000

Question 24

Which of the following statements concerning the Holy Roman emperors after the 10th century is most accurate?

A) They built upon the Carolingian foundations to establish the most centralized government found in the medieval West.
B) Building on a feudal framework rather than the Carolingian Germanic foundations, the Holy Roman Emperors created a strongly centralized government.
C) Discarding much of the former Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman emperors reestablished a centralized government in northern Italy.
D) The rule of the Holy Roman emperors became increasingly hollow, because they did not build a solid monarchy from regional foundations.

Question 25

Which of the following was NOT a positive development that introduced new sources of strength by the 9th and 10th centuries to western Europe?

A) New agricultural techniques
B) End of Viking raids
C) Development of imperial government
D) Greater regional political stability

Question 26

What was the impact of the improved economy after the 10th century on the social system of western Europe?

A) The improvements in the agricultural system retarded the development of towns and restricted social mobility.
B) Harsh serfdom became the rule throughout western Europe.
C) The increased pace of economic life created a less rigid structure.
D) Despite the improved economy, the rigid social system associated with feudalism continued to dominate western Europe.

Question 27

Where was the greatest concentration of urbanization after the 10th century?

A) Italy and the Low Countries
B) England and France
C) France and the Holy Roman empire
D) England and Scandinavia

Question 28

How did the introduction of feudal monarchy into England compare to the political experience of France?

A) English feudal monarchy developed more gradually and slowly in response to the improving economy.
B) English feudal monarchy was introduced abruptly after 1066, while French feudal monarchy developed more slowly.
C) French feudal monarchy arose almost immediately in the 10th century as a result of the defeat of the Normans.
D) France failed to develop feudal monarchy until the 15th century.

Question 29

By what century did France achieve a complete feudal monarchy?

A) 10th
B) 11th
C) 13th
D) 15th

Question 30

Which of the following regions achieved feudal monarchy prior to the end of the Middle Ages?

A) Holy Roman empire
B) England
C) Low Countries
D) Spain

Question 31

Which of the following areas was NOT one of the regions into which expansion from western Europe took place?

A) Eastern Germany and Poland
B) Northern Africa
C) Spain
D) Iceland and Greenland

Question 32

In what year did Pope Urban II call for the First Crusade?

A) 1095
B) 1130
C) 1236
D) 1453

Question 33

Which of the following did NOT occur as a result of the Crusades?

A) The Kingdom of Jerusalem was established for nearly a century in the Holy Land.
B) The Fourth Crusade resulted in the temporary conquest of Constantinople.
C) The Crusades helped to open the West to new cultural and economic influences from the Middle East.
D) The Crusades demonstrated a new Western superiority in the wider world.

Question 34

The reforming monastic orders founded in Assisi in the 13th century were created by

A) St. Benedict and Clovis.
B) St. Clare and St. Benedict.
C) St Francis and Charlemagne.
D) St. Francis and St. Clare.

Question 35

Pope Gregory VII decreed the practice of investiture invalid. What was investiture?

A) The practice whereby aristocrats dressed in bishops? robes and attempted to rule in their place
B) The practice of state appointment of bishops
C) The practice of trying clerics in secular courts
D) The state?s power to tax the clergy

Question 36

The Fourth Crusade was manipulated by merchants in Venice, who turned it into an attack on

A) Constantinople.
B) Jerusalem.
C) Athens.
D) Alexandria.

Question 37

In the 12th century, what Parisian scholar, the author of Yes and No, utilized logic to examine ecclesiastical doctrine?

A) Thomas Aquinas
B) William of Ockham
C) Peter Abelard
D) William of St. Thierry

Question 38

What 12th century monk stressed the importance of mystical union with God over logic and philosophy?

A) Duns Scotus
B) Bernard of Clairvaux
C) Simeon of Durham
D) Marsiglio of Padua

Question 39

In what way was the educational system of the medieval West different from that of China?

A) The West abandoned its classical heritage
B) The universities were not tied into a single bureaucratic system
C) In the West, there were no state bureaucracies to hire university graduates
D) The West lacked a formal system of education

Question 40

The leading figure in the synthesis of classical rational philosophy with Christian theology was a teacher at the University of Paris in the 13th century,

A) Thomas Aquinas.
B) William of Ockham.
C) Peter Abelard.
D) William of St.Thierry.

Question 41

Because of its base in the universities of western Europe, the dominant medieval philosophical approach was referred to as

A) existentialism.
B) corporate theology.
C) social contract theology.
D) scholasticism.

Question 42

During the 11th century, what new architectural style featuring pointed arches and flying buttresses became dominant in western Europe?

A) Romanesque
B) Gothic
C) Structuralism
D) Turkic

Question 43

Which of the following developments was NOT a result of the improved economy of the High Middle Ages?

A) Urban growth allowed more specialized manufacturing and commercial activities, including banking.
B) Some peasants were able to throw off the most severe constraints of manorialism, becoming almost free farmers.
C) Rising trade permitted the redevelopment of commerce within the Mediterranean and beyond.
D) Conflicts between peasants and the landlords became rare, if they did not disappear altogether.

Question 44

All of the following were functions of the merchant and artisan guilds EXCEPT

A) limitation of membership.
B) regulation of apprenticeship.
C) ensuring a free market economy.
D) guaranteeing good workmanship.

Question 45

Which of the following was NOT true of the career of Jacques Coeur?

A) He used his wealth to arrange for his 16 -year-old son to become an archbishop
B) He died a rich and honored advisor to the king of France
C) He was tortured, admitted to various crimes, and had his property confiscated
D) He had the largest fleet ever owned by a French subject

Question 46

Which of the following was NOT a threat to the sources of Western vitality at the end of the Middle Ages?

A) The Black Death
B) The increasing inability of agriculture to keep pace with population growth
C) The economic tail-spin
D) New social disputes, involving both peasants and landlords and artisans and their employees.

Question 47

Which of the following was a result of the Hundred Years War during the 14th and 15th centuries?

A) Kings reduced their reliance on feudal forces in favor of paid armies
B) An English victory
C) Mounted knights continued their dominance over footsoldiers and archers
D) Major battles resulted in enormous loss of life over the course of the war

Question 48

Which of the following was NOT typical of the challenges to medieval institutions in the 15th century?

A) The landowning aristocracy lost its dominance as the chief military force
B) The balance between church and state began to favor the dominance of the state
C) The medieval intellectual and artistic synthesis was breaking down
D) A single imperial government replaced the fragmented political structure of the Middle Ages

Question 49

Which of the following statements concerning the importance of medieval economics is most true?

A) Medieval economic thought and practice was of no consequence to later Western economic thinkers and actors.
B) Medieval economics set a much more direct stage for later developments than classical economics had done.
C) Medieval economics simply repeated the thought and practice of earlier economic thinkers.
D) Medieval economics, overall, tended to discourage merchant activity and technical innovation.

Question 50

What were the positive signs of vitality associated with the Middle Ages?

Question 51

Define manorialism and feudalism. How do they provide the building blocks for medieval political structure and society?

Question 52

What were the characteristics of feudal monarchy as demonstrated in France and England between 1000 and 1300?

Question 53

How did the theological outlook of western Europe change between 1000 and 1400?

Question 54

What were the developments that led to increases in monarchic power at the end of the Middle Ages? How was royal authority limited?