1. This Muslim holy building was constructed on the site of
the Jewish Temple.
a. Kaaba
b. Dome of the Rock
c. Grand Mosque of
Sana’a
d. Great Mosque of
Córdoba
The answer is b. The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was built
on the site of the Jewish Temple after the Muslim conquest of 638.
2. This was the dominant sect of Christianity in Syria,
Persia, Iraq, and China.
a. Nestorian
b. Orthodox
c. Catholic
d. Manichaean
The answer is a. The Nestorian branch of Christianity
survived in Muslim Syria, Iraq, and Persia, and even took root in China.
3. What led to the decline of Christianity in China in the
ninth century?
a. An active Buddhist
mission in China lured away Christians.
b. Neo-Confucianism
developed, proving more attractive to the masses than Christianity.
c. With the Islamic
conquest of Central Asia, the Christians of China no longer had access to
priests and missionaries.
d. The Chinese state
turned against all religions of foreign origin.
The answer is d. In the mid-ninth century, the Chinese
government turned against foreign religions, including Christianity, Buddhism,
and Islam; in the face of government attacks, Christianity nearly vanished.
4. What was the Mongol attitude toward Christianity?
a. They rejected it,
believing that Christians practiced cannibalism.
b. They appreciated
Christianity’s permissiveness regarding food and drink, and a number of
prominent Mongols converted.
c. They were deeply
attracted to Christianity, making it the official religion of their state.
d. They ignored it,
showing tolerance but regarding Christianity as a religion for inferior,
sedentary peoples.
The answer is b. To the Mongols, Jesus was a prominent
shaman, and Christianity’s dietary rules were more appealing than those of
Buddhism and Islam.
5. Christianity in this land continued long after the Muslim
conquest, only to decline severely in numbers after violent persecution broke
out in the mid-fourteenth century; about 10 percent of the population is still
Christian today.
a. Turkey
b. Persia
c. Egypt
d. Ethiopia
The answer is c. Christianity was the majority religion in
Egypt by the time of the conquest. The Christian community remained vital for
centuries, until it was violently attacked in the mid-fourteenth century.
6. Which of the following is a distinctive feature of
Ethiopian Christianity?
a. A fascination with
Judaism and Jerusalem
b. Belief that Jesus
came and preached in their country
c. Belief that the
apostle St. Thomas was the first to spread Christianity in their country
d. A special
veneration for St. Gregory the Great
The answer is a. Ethiopian Christians were fascinated with
Judaism and Jerusalem and believed their own king was a descendant of King
Solomon.
7. What was the Byzantine Empire?
a. An Islamic empire
focused on the Balkans
b. The last of the
Greek Hellenistic states, formerly called the Seleucid Empire
c. The Christian
state that replaced the Roman Empire in central Europe
d. The continuation
of the eastern half of the Roman Empire
The answer is d. Only called “Byzantine” by modern scholars,
the people of this state, which included the eastern half of the Roman Empire,
regarded themselves as Romans.
8. What was the “New Rome”?
a. Paris
b. Moscow
c. Constantinople
d. Athens
The answer is c. Founded in the early fourth century by
Emperor Constantine, Constantinople was consciously intended to be a “New Rome”
that preserved Rome’s cultural heritage.
9. The ruler of this state claimed to be the “peer of the
apostles.”
a. Ethiopia
b. France
c. Papal State
d. Byzantine Empire
The answer is d. The Byzantine emperors had “peer of the
apostles” and “sole ruler of the world” among their titles.
10. What is the term used for a system in which the Church
is closely tied to the state, with the secular ruler playing a role as head of
the Church?
a. Caesaropapism
b. Nicolaitism
c. Theocracy
d. Papism
The answer is a. In caesaropapism, the ruler is head both of
state and of the Church, embodying the roles of both Caesar and the pope.
11. How was Arian Christianity different from Orthodoxy?
a. It held that Jesus
was a human, not God.
b. It held that Jesus
was created by God the Father, and was not co-eternal with him.
c. It taught that
Jesus only appeared to live on the earth, without actually taking on human
form.
d. It taught that
Jesus had only a single, divine nature.
The answer is b. Arius taught that Jesus was a lesser,
divine figure than God the Father, who had been created in time rather than
existing eternal.
12. Which of the following was a practice of the Western
Catholic Church but not of Eastern Orthodoxy?
a. Western Christians
venerated saints while Eastern Christians did not.
b. Western Christians
were under the authority of bishops while Eastern Christians were not.
c. Western Christians
defined Christian doctrine in terms of Greek philosophical concepts while
Eastern Christians did not.
d. Western Christians
believed the pope to be the supreme authority over the Church while Eastern
Christians did not.
The answer is d. By about the year 1000, Western Christians
were united in seeing the pope as the final authority over the Church; it was
over this issue above all that the Churches formally broke apart in 1054.
13. What effect did the Crusades have on relations between
the Eastern and Western Churches?
a. They led to
worsening relations, as westerners saw Orthodoxy as blasphemous and soon came
to attack Byzantines.
b. They led to
improved relations, as westerners came to rescue the Byzantines from the Turks.
c. They did not have
a significant impact on relations between the Churches.
d. At first they
caused tension, but in time they led to a reunification of the two Churches.
The answer is a. The Crusades began as a movement in
cooperation with the Byzantine Empire but were plagued from the beginning by
cultural and other misunderstandings that made the relationship between the two
Churches worse.
14. What was “Greek fire”?
a. The fire that
spontaneously lights in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher every Easter
b. An early form of
bomb
c. A flammable
mixture launched from bronze tubes
d. A perpetual flame
kept in the city of Constantinople to remind emperors that Rome had been lost
and must be recovered
The answer is c. Greek fire, a highly flammable combination
of oil, sulfur, and lime, was launched from bronze tubes; it was important
especially during the Arab sieges of Constantinople.
15. These brothers were missionaries to the Slavs and their
development of a script in which to write Slavic languages helped spread both
Christianity and literacy.
a. Cyril and
Methodius
b. Damon and Pytthias
c. Cosmas and Damian
d. Harmodias and
Aristogeiton
The answer is a. Cyril and Methodius are regarded as the
apostles to the Slavs, These Byzantine brothers, who lived in the ninth
century, developed a Cyrillic script that made it possible to translate
religious writings into Slavic languages.
16. This prince converted to Orthodox Christianity after
sending emissaries to bring reports of Judaism, Islam, and both Eastern and
Western Christianity, finding the splendor of the Byzantine Church most
convincing.
a. Clovis
b. Charlemagne
c. Vladimir
d. Wenceslas
The answer is c. The tenth-century Vladimir of Kiev,
according to early chronicles, sent emissaries to learn of different religions
before opting for Orthodoxy; he also received a Byzantine princess as bride.
17. Which of the following statements best describes Western
Europe in the early Middle Ages?
a. It fragmented
politically but largely retained the economic structures it had enjoyed during
the Roman Empire.
b. It remained
politically united under German successors of the Roman emperors but suffered a
steep economic decline.
c. It was politically
fragmented, but its population remained relatively steady, with German invaders
replacing Romans who died in several epidemics.
d. It was politically
fragmented and largely rural.
The answer is d. After the end of the Roman Empire in the
West, Western Europe was politically fragmented and suffered a sharp decline in
urban life.
18. Which statement best describes the relationship between
Germans and Roman culture in early medieval western European culture?
a. Germans rejected
Roman culture, regarding it as decadent and inferior to their own.
b. Germans accepted
some elements of Roman culture but rejected their language and religion.
c. Germans were quick
to accept much of Roman culture.
d. Germans adopted
Roman religion but rejected most other elements of Roman culture.
The answer is c. Germans were highly influenced by Roman
culture, in everything from a preference for wine to legal systems and
Christianity.
19. This Germanic king created a large empire in Western
Europe and was crowned as Roman emperor on Christmas Day, 800.
a. Charlemagne
b. Otto I
c. Clovis
d. Odoacer
The answer is a. Charlemagne, or Charles “the Great,” was a
king of the Franks who did his best to re-create the Roman Empire and received
imperial coronation from the pope on Christmas Day in the year 800.
20. What was feudalism?
a. An economic system
in which elites exercised control over the serfs who worked the land
b. A political and
social system in which power was largely in the hands of a land-holding warrior
elite who swore allegiance to greater lords or kings
c. A political system
in which a king controlled a country by building castles that his officials
then controlled
d. A church system in
which people turned their lands over to a local monastery or church in return
for protection and prayer
The answer is b. Feudalism was a system of decentralized
political power with most power in the hands of land-holding warrior elites who
gave their allegiance and military service to more important lords in return
for the land that they then controlled.
21. What was the typical pattern for conversion to
Christianity in early medieval Western Europe?
a. A strategy to
convert rulers, who would then serve as the missionaries to their people
b. A grassroots
strategy in which missionaries sought to build a popular base so that neighbors
could then convert neighbors
c. A strategy based
on dissemination of religious texts to convince the populace
d. A top-down
strategy in which missionaries sought first to convert rulers
The answer is d. Most often, missionaries in Western Europe
tried first to convert rulers, so the rulers could then not only protect
missionaries but encourage their people to convert as well.
22. Which of the following statements is true of Europe in
about the year 1000?
a. It was suffering
severe attacks by Magyars, Vikings, and Muslims.
b. Agricultural
production was going down because of a cooling trend in the weather.
c. Weather was in a
long warming trend, leading to improved agricultural production.
d. Major wars between
Germany and France caused widespread instability.
The answer is c. A warming trend in Europe between about 750
and about 1200 led to greatly improved agricultural production.
23. Why was the Champagne area of France important in the
high Middle Ages?
a. It was the center
of feudalism.
b. It was home to
major trade fairs where northern and southern European goods were exchanged.
c. It was the center
of authority of the growing and centralizing French monarchy.
d. It was a leading
center of wine production, setting new standards of excellence.
The answer is b. The Champagne trade fairs were the great
meeting place of merchants from Northern and Southern Europe.
24. A group of people in the same line of work who associate
together to regulate their trade is a
a. union.
b. condotta.
c. guild.
d. university.
The answer is c. A guild was an association of all the
people in a particular craft; the association regulated quality, prices, and
membership.
25. What were Beguines?
a. Groups of laywomen
in Northern Europe who devoted themselves to a religious life
b. Female members of
a guild
c. Nuns
d. Women who withdrew
from life to a locked cell to lead a life of prayer
The answer is a. Beguines led an informal religious life
without formal vows, thus attracting the suspicion of male Church authorities.
26. From which European land did people leave to cross the
Atlantic Ocean to establish colonies around the year 1000?
a. Portugal
b. Ireland
c. Italy
d. Scandinavia
The answer is d. Scandinavians founded colonies on Iceland
and Greenland, and from the latter, Leif Erikson established a colony in
Newfoundland in about the year 1000.
27. What effect did crusading have on Spain?
a. Crusading took
away men who would otherwise have helped with the reconquest of Spain.
b. Crusading brought
Spain back under Christian rule.
c. Crusading had
little effect on Spain, because Spain was too busy with its own
Muslim-Christian struggle to worry about the Holy Land.
d. Crusading had a
devastating effect on Spain, provoking a Muslim counterattack against
Christianity that devastated the land for centuries to come.
The answer is b. The warriors who fought the centuries-long
reconquest of Spain were regarded as Crusaders.
28. Which of the following statements best describes
European technology in the late Middle Ages?
a. Europeans created
a number of new technologies in an independent process that caught them up with
the rest of Eurasia by about 1500.
b. European
technology in about 1500 still lagged far behind that of the Islamic world and
China.
c. Europeans borrowed
a great number of technological innovations and also created many of their own.
d. European
technology by about 1500 was considerably more advanced than that of China and
the Islamic world.
The answer is c. Europeans borrowed and adapted many
technologies to work in European conditions, but also invented new technologies
of their own.
29. This region had the most advanced use of gunpowder in
the world by c. 1500.
a. China
b. Turkish Empire
c. Mughal Empire
d. Europe
The answer is d. Gunpowder was a Chinese invention, but
Europeans were probably the first to make cannons. By 1500, Europeans had the
most advanced gunpowder weaponry in the world.
30. Which of the following is a reason for the high degree
of militarization of European society at the end of the Middle Ages?
a. Europe had many
political centers that competed constantly with each other.
b. Europe’s peoples
were naturally warlike.
c. Europe had become
accustomed to fighting enemies of the faith in the Crusades.
d. All of the
energies of Europe were directed at stopping the Turkish advance into Europe.
The answer is a.
Political life in Europe became a system of competing states that fought each
other frequently, thus leading to a high degree of militarization.
