Deck 11: The Roman Empire and the Rise of Christianity in the West, 31 Bce -800 Ce

Question 1

What is the source of most of our information on early German tribes?

A)Goths
B)Franks
C)Greeks
D)Asian Huns
E)Romans

Answer 1

Romans

Question 2

Who did the early eastern bishops claim to  be directly descended from?

A)Jesus of Nazareth
B)the 12 apostles
C)John the Baptist
D)Paul
E)Judas

Answer 2

the 12 apostles

Question 3

Where was the first major Christian Church council held and what was the result of the meeting?

A)Hippo, where St. Augustine became bishop.
B)Nicaea, where a number of theological questions were settled.
C)Rome, where the doctrine of Petrine Succession was adopted.
D)Constantinople, where clergy and lay people studied many ancient documents.
E)Milan, where Church officials decided to make Rome their official headquarters.

Answer 3

Nicaea, where a number of theological questions were settled.

Question 4

Which statement best describes the German system of government?

A)The Germans elected their leaders, whose total authority covered times of both war and peace.
B)The Germans immediately settled down in cities and fortified towns where their leaders held court.
C)The Germans had kings who sometimes lived at least part of the year in castles inside towns named for them.
D)The Germans rejected the concept that tribute should be made to the office of king rather than to the man himself.
E)The Germans used war tactics that were so different from those of the Romans that they rejected virtually everything Roman.

Question 5

Which of the following statements does NOT describe the Corpus Iuris ?

A)It was a sixth-c entury condensed version of Roman law.
B)Justinian commanded it be compiled.
C)It was a commission to heal the rift in the eastern and western branches of the Church.
D)It is the foundation for most early modern law codes.
E)It was passed down to the Roman Catholic countries in Europe.

Question 6

Which of the following correctly describes the Germanic invasions?

A)The Vandals began their attempted conquest by invading Rome itself.
B)The Franks established themselves in France during the fifth century.
C)The Angles and the Saxons set up their kingdom in northern Germany.
D)The Angles took over Spain.
E)England became home to both the Saxons and the Franks.

Question 7

Who is considered the founder of Christianity?

A)Siddhartha Gautama
B)Jesus Christ of Nazareth
C)the Hebrews
D)Zarathustra
E)Paul of Tarsus

Question 8

Which of the following convinced Romans to abandon the west?

A)The adoption of Christianity by German leaders.
B)The invasion of the Asian Huns.
C)The pagan rituals spreading from the Franks.
D)The lack of military leaders willing to stay in the west.
E)The trade routes in the east were more profitable.

Question 9

Which one of the following statements exemplifies some of the major aspects of the Barracks Emperors period of Roman history?

A)Rome experienced a last, brief period of peace.
B)Rome maintained the existence of the ordinary people through agriculture.
C)In about 50 years Rome had 20 emperors, 18 of whom died by violence.
D)The Roman military was able to repel all invasions due to its cohesiveness.
E)Roman generals brought on relative peace and prosperity through martial law.

Question 10

Who was the head of the eastern branch of the Church?

A)the Patriarch
B)the emperor
C)the pope
D)St. Augustine
E)the Hagia Sophia

Question 11

What was the reason Charlemagne issued the missi dominici ?

A)To create the position of comes to represent the king.
B)To appoint clergy to convert the Germanic tribes to Christianity.
C)To establish a palace school to train government officials as well as the clergy.
D)To establish a line of succession for the Holy Roman Empire.
E)To establish special officers who reported directly to the king about the conduct of counts and others.

Question 12

When the emperor Constantine officially recognized Christianity, fellow Christians would most likely have accepted which of the following reasons for his decision?

A)To help the new faith to grow.
B)To recognize God for helping him win an important battle.
C)To appease the large number of his subjects who had accepted the faith.
D)To create a greater sense of unity between his government and the people.
E)To make his mother, who was a Christian, happy.

Question 13

What did early Christian emperors allow bishops to do that led to problems later?

A)Allowed the bishops to participate in their coronations.
B)Allowed the bishops to make church law independently.
C)Allowed the bishops to create the position of pope as supreme head of the Church.
D)Allowed the bishops to operate completely separately from the civil authorities.
E)Allowed the bishops to collect and retain a share of the taxes within their dioceses.

Question 14

Why did the early Christians not appear to be too concerned about the fall of the Roman Empire to the Germanic invaders?

A)Their faith preached religious toleration, and that included German barbarians' pagan rituals.
B)They were more concerned about mixing Christian beliefs with existing Roman pagan practices.
C)They believed that the Lord was returning soon, and no earthly empire would be in control.
D)After Theodosius, they could keep their faith and help defend the empire at the same time.
E)They believed their faith would help them repel the invaders.

Question 15

What did Diocletian do to make the Roman Empire more governable?

A)He made the empire a military dictatorship.
B)He reduced tax burdens.
C)He retained sold control of the empire.
D)He divided the empire into western and eastern halves.
E)He retained the rule of Barracks Emperors.

Question 16

In the earliest decades of Christianity, who were two of the most influential persons involved in spreading the faith?

A)the pope and the Patriarch
B)the apostles Paul and Peter
C)the apostles John and Mark
D)Constantine and Diocletian
E)Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose

Question 17

What is meant by the doctrine of Petrine Succession in the Christian faith?

A)Christ was not equal to God the father.
B)The Bishop of Rome, or pope, was the head of the Christian Church.
C)Emperors could rightfully direct religious policy and practices.
D)Christ's Second Coming would occur after Rome had fallen.
E)The Archbishop of Constantinople was head of the Christian Church.

Question 18

Why do we know very little about the Dark Ages in Europe?

A)The pagan religion did not allow the Germans to keep records.
B)The peace and tranquility led to a more secular government.
C)The Germans took over the record keeping role from the Church.
D)The society lacked an educated populace and few records were kept.
E)The Church censored much of the documentation about Europe.

Question 19

What was the purpose of Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan that was issued in 313 CE?

A)It established the tetrarchy, or four-man rule.
B)It established the Rhine as the official northern border of Roman territory.
C)It called for open borders to allow any and all migration into Roman territory.
D)It "Germanized" Roman armies on the frontiers by recruiting barbarians.
E)It stipulated that Christianity would be officially tolerated in the Roman Empire.

Question 20

Which of the following was NOT a reason for the appeal of Christianity in its early stages?

A)Christianity offered a new spirit of optimism and hope to a downtrodden people.
B)The new doctrine promised release from Roman rule in the near future.
C)The Christian doctrine had a spirit of mutuality in which each member was to help the other members in times of trouble.
D)Its ideals of charity and caring for others were like a breath of fresh air in a world filled with greed.
E)The religion was universal, meaning it was open to all peoples.

Question 21

Charlemagne started the ____________________, which was a group of special officers who reported on courts directly to the emperor.

Question 22

After Constantine, the only non-Christian emperor was ____________________.

Question 23

The ____________________ were the most serious threat to the Carolingian Empire due to their tactics of swift amphibious raids that eventually evolved into more permanent conquests.

Question 24

____________________ were the original settlers in Gaul but were driven into Spain by invading tribes.

Question 25

The most important of the Fathers of the Church were ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 26

What was the significance of the Treaty of Verdun to world history?

A)It divided Germany between the Magyars and the Christians.
B)It created the kingdom of the Franks and made Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor.
C)It was a compromise between Eastern and Western Christianity.
D)It divided Charlemagne's empire into three states, which established linguistic and cultural borders still used today.
E)It provided for religious toleration within the Holy Roman Empire.

Question 27

____________________ was the Anglo-Saxon monk who ran Charlemagne's palace school for clergy and officials.

Question 28

Which of the many substantial accomplishments of the Byzantine Empire had the most long-term historical impact?

A)the defeat of the Bulgars and Muslims
B)the re-uniting of the Roman Empire
C)the Christianization of eastern Europe
D)the calling of the Council of Nicaea
E)the capture of the Jews in eastern Europe

Question 29

What was the German belief system before many of them converted to Christianity?

A)They were monotheistic and worshipped Thor as their only deity.
B)They were polytheistic but had no religious ceremonies.
C)They were animistic with supernatural beliefs and no afterlife.
D)They were logical and had a society based on ethical principles.
E)They were atheistic and rejected the idea of deities.

Question 30

What was the result of the pope's and the Patriarch's excommunication of each other in 1054?

A)The Christian faith was successfully dominated by Rome.
B)The rivalry between Justinian and the Roman pope intensified.
C)The overall weakness of Church authority was emphasized.
D)The cultural differences between north and south were exposed.
E)The Christian Church was divided into Greek and Latin halves.

Question 31

What prompted the original feudal knights to perform their duties?

A)They served because of an idealistic loyalty to their leaders.
B)The knights were motivated by chivalry and fulfilling romantic visionaries.
C)The knights were mercenaries who usually served the highest bidder in exchange for land and serfs.
D)They wanted to see justice and mercy balanced out in treatment of the serfs.
E)The knights were usually of a monastic order that saw its members as selfless servants of the people.

Question 32

In 800 C.E., who crowned Charlemagne as the official emperor of the Holy Roman Empire?

A)St. Augustine
B)Charlemagne crowned himself
C)Pope Leo III
D)Ambrose
E)Pope Gregory I

Question 33

Due to the chronic succession problem that often caused serious disruptions in the government of Rome, the governmental system set up by Diocletian in an attempt to end civil war was a(n)____________________, or rule of four.

Question 34

Between 235 and 284, Rome had 20 emperors who led the empire in a very violent time. The rule of these emperor-generals was referred to as the ____________________.

Question 35

What was the concept created by the Byzantine emperor Justinian that made the monarch the head of the church and state?

A)Hagia Sophia
B)Corpus Iuris
C)Alcuin
D)Caesaro-Papism
E)missi dominici

Question 36

The first Holy Roman Emperor was ____________________.

Question 37

Constantine transferred the empire's capital eastward, to the old Greek city of ____________________.

Question 38

Which of the following was one of the many reasons for the rise of the feudal system in Europe?

A)Feudalism reflected a need for widespread economic activity and the need for workers.
B)Feudalism arose out of fears over more invasions and a desire for a sense of order and protection.
C)Feudalism allowed for the growth of large military forces used for conquest of new lands.
D)Feudalism was a reaction to a desire to spread Roman culture.
E)Feudalism was the result of the desire to impose Germanic customs on all of western Europe.

Question 39

All of the following statements are true of the Dark Ages EXCEPT

A)Literacy rates rose dramatically.
B)There was an increase in piracy and vandalism.
C)Towns and cities declined and people increasingly went to live on manorial lands.
D)The churches suffered numerous scandals.
E)The Roman transport network fell to pieces.

Question 40

Who was the last emperor to attempt to resurrect the broken Byzantine Empire?

A)Constantine
B)Diocletian
C)Hadrian
D)Charlemagne
E)Justinian

Question 41

Term for identification: Council of Nicaea

Question 42

Term for identification: Petrine Succession

Question 43

Term for identification: Byzantine Empire

Question 44

Term for identification: Diocletian

Question 45

Term for identification: Caesaro-Papism

Question 46

Trace the development of the early Christian church including theology and early leaders.

Question 47

Term for identification: Charlemagne

Question 48

Discuss the Carolingian Renaissance. Why did the Carolingian Empire fail?

Question 49

What were the significant challenges of the Roman empire from the beginning of the millennium through the Byzantine empire?

Question 50

Christianity went from being a small group of believers to the most populous religion in existence in medieval times. What made Christianity so appealing to so many people?

Question 51

Term for identification: Jewish War

Question 52

Describe the impact of the "barbarian" groups on Rome, including invasions, conversion to Christianity, and Roman control of western Europe.

Question 53

Term for identification: Hagia Sophia

Question 54

Term for identification: Tetrarchy

Question 55

Compare and contrast the reigns of Constantine and Diocletian, including political, religious, and economic reforms. Which would you consider to be more effective? Explain your answer.

Question 56

Term for identification: manors