Deck 2: The Upheaval in Western Christendom, 1300-1560

Question 1

Secularization, a process which transformed the civilization of Latin Christendom prior to any other world civilization, means

A) the rejection of ancestral religions.
B) the development of a variety of interests and activities outside the sphere of religion.
C) the development of industrial technology but the discouragement of natural science.
D) the encouragement of natural philosophy and science, but the neglect or even rejection of industrial technology.

Answer 1

the development of a variety of interests and activities outside the sphere of religion.

Question 2

One of the most important consequences of the Hundred Years' War was that

A) Parliament widened its powers in England.
B) England and France entered an extended period of peace and solidarity.
C) both England and France began to tax the clergy.
D) French armies ravaged England.

Answer 2

Parliament widened its powers in England.

Question 3

The cause of the "Babylonian Captivity" of the Roman Catholic church was

A) the transference of the pope from Rome to Avignon, where he was regarded as a tool of France.
B) the failure of Pope Boniface VIII to oppose the plans of the kings of England and France to tax church lands.
C) the increasing power of the Ottoman Turks, who captured Rome and forced the pope to reside at Babylon in Mesopotamia.
D) the Protestant Reformation.

Answer 3

the transference of the pope from Rome to Avignon, where he was regarded as a tool of France.

Question 4

After the bubonic plague, or Black Death, all of the following occurred except

A) a massive peasant insurrection.
B) a rise in wages for the survivors.
C) the development of the model for modern hospitals.
D) famines.

Question 5

All the following statements regarding the Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century are true except

A) the word "Renaissance" refers to the rebirth in Europe of the ideals and culture of Greco-Roman civilization.
B) the Renaissance witnessed the birth of the modern natural sciences.
C) an almost purely secular attitude first appeared in Italy.
D) the Renaissance developed for the first time the conception of "modern" and "ancient" times as distinct from the Middle Ages.

Question 6

What factors help to explain why the Renaissance developed first in Italy?

A) the towns of Italy were the most economically active of all the towns that appeared in Europe in the Middle Ages.
B) the Black Death was less severe in Italy than elsewhere.
C) the power of the pope in Rome assured the whole Italian peninsula of relative peace and stability.
D) the Holy Roman Empire's control over north and central Italy ensured relative peace and stability.

Question 7

Florentine became the standard form of the Italian language

A) because of a papal bull.
B) with the popularization of the dialect through literary texts like Dante's Divine Comedy.
C) as humanists rejected the learning of ancient Greece and Rome.
D) because Cicero advocated its use.

Question 8

As revealed in Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, the ideal Renaissance man

A) should be proficient in sports and arms, and not waste time studying dead languages like Greek and Latin.
B) should be familiar with literary and other subjects, converse with ease, and dance well.
C) should be extremely well-educated in order to win arguments through displays of learning.
D) should avoid most social gatherings and political activities in order to cultivate and refine his intellect without interference.

Question 9

The northern European Renaissance differed from the Italian in which respect?

A) The break with the Middle Ages was more distinct in the north.
B) The northern Renaissance was more influential in the sciences, medicine, and mathematics.
C) The northern painting techniques were less innovative.
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 10

Marriage in Renaissance Italy

A) was often based upon love rather than family alliances intended to enhance social rankings.
B) usually took place between men and women of approximately the same age.
C) was usually based upon the negotiations of parents hoping to enhance the political and economic standing of their families.
D) encouraged greater gender equality.

Question 11

Niccolò Machiavelli's writings on politics were significant because

A) he separated politics from theology and moral philosophy.
B) he reinforced the idea that political rulers were subject to moral considerations.
C) he discouraged the secularization of politics.
D) he discouraged political rulers from acting in their own interests.

Question 12

One reason for the decline of Italy and the Renaissance in the sixteenth century was that

A) Italy remained divided into small city-states rather than unified in a large state.
B) the Turks invaded Italy, sacking Rome in 1527.
C) the English seized control of the straits of Gibraltar, blocking Italian shipping and giving the northern countries access to the Mediterranean.
D) the Pope, in alliance with the Kingdom of Naples, conquered most of the peninsula.

Question 13

The new monarchy of Spain built up its power

A) by creating uniform political and administrative institutions for Aragon and Castile.
B) by forbidding the nobility to maintain private armies that displayed their own livery or insignia.
C) by working through the institutions of the Catholic church to impose religious conformity on the entire region.
D) by dismissing the Spanish estates general.

Question 14

According the Martin Luther, the authority to define true Christian belief was located in

A) church councils.
B) the pope.
C) the priesthood.
D) each individual's own conscience.

Question 15

When the German peasants rose in revolt in 1524, demanding social and economic reforms, _Luther

A) urged the princes to suppress them with the sword.
B) called for the adoption of all the peasants' demands.
C) ignored the issue, and concentrated on religious questions.
D) succeeded in persuading the princes to make some concessions.

Question 16

The English Reformation was peculiar because the government broke with Rome

A) when there was no theological dispute between king and pope.
B) after the pope took the side of the nobility against the king.
C) after Protestantism had already come to dominate English religious life.
D) after it took the side of France in a political dispute.

Question 17

The pivotal Catholic Council of Trent

A) affirmed virtually all of the Catholic practices rejected by Protestants.
B) adopted many Protestant policies but rejected others.
C) asserted that church councils constituted an authority superior to that of the pope.
D) proclaimed the pope's infallibility.

Question 18

What socio-economic, political, and environmental developments in the fourteenth century undermined the prosperity and stability of medieval society?

Question 19

Compare and contrast the Italian Renaissance with the northern Renaissance. What were the lasting contributions of each?

Question 20

How did conceptions of the human experience during the Renaissance compare with early Christian ideas?

Question 21

How did the secular philosophy of the Renaissance influence the arts?

Question 22

How did Machiavelli's political philosophy reflect the political weaknesses of Renaissance Italy? How did Machiavelli propose to resolve those weaknesses?

Question 23

What strategies did the Tudors, the Valois, and Ferdinand and Isabella share in undertaking the consolidation of their rule? How did the Habsburg empire present different challenges to consolidation than those facing the other major European monarchies?

Question 24

What was the significance of the Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism? What did both events indicate about problems within the Roman Catholic church?

Question 25

What beliefs did the Protestant groups have in common? How did they differ? What were the bases for their differences?

Question 26

What was the role of Lutheranism in the social upheavals that occurred in Germany on the heels of Luther's revolt against Rome? How did Luther react to the demands of those participating in the upheavals?

Question 27

Compare and contrast the impact of the Renaissance on the lives of women to that of the Reformation.

Question 28

The Roman Catholic church had accommodated reformers before Martin Luther. Why could it not do so between 1515 and 1560?

Question 29

Why did the Renaissance, the rebirth of the ideals and achievements of ancient Greece and Rome, occur first in Italy?

Question 30

Why did mysticism not constitute as decisive a break with the Catholic Church as did Protestantism?

Question 31

What was the relationship between the new ideas about the human experience that emerged during the Italian Renaissance and the economic activities of the Italian city-states?

Question 32

Describe life in Calvin's Geneva. Why was it considered a model community?

Question 33

Explain the origins of the Church of England.

Question 34

What were the problems and issues facing the Council of Trent? Did it extensively reform the Roman Catholic Church?

Question 35

How did the Jesuits act to counter the spread of Protestantism? What role did they play in European society in the centuries following their founding?

Question 36

Under Charles V, the Habsburg empire controlled much of Europe. How effectively did Charles rule in the far-flung reaches of his empire? Were European fears of Habsburg predominance justified?

Question 37

How did the Protestant Reformation impact the Habsburg empire? What was the relationship between Protestantism and resistance to Habsburg rule?