Test #1

Question 1

St. Ambrose

Answer 1

339-397, Converted Augustine, asserted Church’s moral authority over state; was from a well-connected senatorial family; was elected bishop of Milan in 374, but he wasn’t baptized until 8 days later; he defended the Nicene orthodoxy, which was the idea that Jesus is coequal with the Father; converted and baptized Augustine; he was an activist and model bishop, paved the way for church-state relations.

Question 2

St. Jerome

Answer 2

340-420, translated the Bible into Latin (AKA the Vulgate), which became the official version of the scriptures; had a dream on Lent in 375 accusing him of not being Christian which led him to become a hermit; he learned Greek and Hebrew and became a noted scholar; he was accused of Sabellianism (belief against the trinity as three separate beings) leading to his deference to the Bishop of Rome; after going back and forth from East and West, he eventually settled in the Holy Land until his death.

Question 3

Theodoric

Answer 3

The first medieval king, aka Theodoric the Great (r. 471-526), king of the Ostrogoths; spent his childhood in Constantinople; was appointed Magister by Zeno in 484 because it made it easier to control him, enlisted him to defeat King Odoacer of Italy; with his success, he became the sole king of italy; he continued the power of roman culture; was Arian but didn’t persecute Nicene’s, he was hands off; set up a system of parallel law romans follow roman law, Goths follow germanic folk law

Question 4

Clovis

Answer 4

ruled from 481-511, a pagan who married a Christian, which demonstrated the concept of domestic conversion where pagan/Arian kings brought into Nicene Christianity bc of their wives, but he did not really want to be Christian until he told God that if he saved him from one of his battles he would convert, and he won, so he was baptized. known for putting the Franks on the map bc of all of the battles he won, continual conquests, defeated the Visigoths in 507 and annexed Aquitaine and gained imperial consulship, made Paris the capital.

Question 5

Leo the Great

Answer 5

Bishop of Rome, r. 440-461; advocated the authority of the papacy and the suppression of Heresy; talked to Attila the Hun and convinced him to stop fighting; wrote “The Tome” in 449, arguing that Christ is both human and divine, argued in the Council of Chalcedon that the Bishop of rome has a unique role of protector of the apostolic position.

Question 6

The Benedictine Order

Answer 6

Allowed for a more open approach to monastic life, did not require reports; autonomous monasteries spread, which allowed for more local communities and colonization to occur; Dominant rule in W. euro by 9th cent.; the motto is “Prayer and Labor” because the monks are initially the ones working, but as more communities spring up near them, the monks work more on copying (from the 9th century on) and let the peasants farm, keeping much classical literature alive; also developed new farming techniques, such as supposedly the three-fields system. There was no centralized order, just lots of separate houses following the same order

Question 7

The Synod of Whitby

Answer 7

a Christian administration gather in Northumbria in 664, where Roman clergy were deemed to have the best tradition going back to Peter, thus the need to observe the monastic tonsure according to the rules of Rome, not Ireland, including calculating Easter the Roman way

Question 8

Reccared I

Answer 8

Visigoth king of Hispania who ruled from 586-601, a previous Arian who converted to Catholicism in 587, his conversion caused the conversion of a lot of Arian aristocracy and clergy with him, solving the problem of shared faith in the kingdom, this mass conversion opened the way for the integration of the Roman and Visigothic landholding classes; authorized holding of the Council of Toledo (in his capital) where Arianism was extinguished.

Question 9

Pepin III

Answer 9

Pepin the Short (r. 741-768), Charlemagne’s dad; gained his father’s entire kingdom because his brother didn’t want his share; he supported St. Boniface the missionary, because of the belief that missionary work was the best way to deal with the barbarian threat in C. Euro; Pepin had power but not the title of King of the Franks, so he asked Pope Zacharius to lead his coronation, Pope agreed because he needed a new protector; the Pope Stephen II needed help fighting the Lombards, Pepin helped and won and appointed him King, thus no more arguing about his power; Pepin continues conquering, and donating some land to the papacy, cementing his alliance with papal Rome

Question 10

Treaty of Verdun

Answer 10

occurred in 843, after years of struggles between the three sons of Louis the Pious, an agreement was made to split the land between the sons; the Western Franks were given to Charles, the Eastern Franks (Modern-day Germany) to Louis II, and the middle section in between them to Lothair. While ending the fraternal struggles, this “solution” was problematic, as there was still internal division, and each part was weaker than the whole. The vikings arrived for conquest, especially in the West, and by the late 9th century, disintegration occurred. Marked the beginning of the end of the Carolingian Empire/Charlemagne’s empire.

Question 11

Battle of Lechfeld

Answer 11

A three-day mil engagement from Aug 10-12, 955, where Saxon King Otto I defeated a large Magyar army at Lechfeld. Before King Otto I, the Middle Kingdom was in political shambles, but his victory at Lechfeld demonstrated his royal power and claimed him as the true defender of the German states. He secured the Eastern borderlands, which were opened to the gradual penetration of Christianity, and King Otto ruled as the greatest monarch since Charlemagne. This battle also decisively ended the Magyar/Hungarian invasions of Latin Europe, they were intially the strongest military horsemen invaders, but this ended their reign.

Question 12

Alfred the Great

Answer 12

King of the Anglo-Saxons who ruled from 871-899, defeated the Danish invasion (876-878), which decisively stopped further Danish invasion. He was a king who looked towards the future, and issued a far-reaching legal code, systemized mil. recruitment, a navy, and built defensive strongholds throughout his lands to both strengthen and unify England. He was also a scholar, and encouraged the translations of Latin works into Old English, and encourage literacy among the laity and clergy. He himself translated books as well, such as Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples.” Also started writing the history of the Anglo-Saxons in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

Question 13

Feudalism

Answer 13

It is difficult to pin down a single definition, but it is generally a decentralized system of societal organization based on manorial agricultural production. The day-to-day power was local, and it was very unspecialized because there was no market for specialized goods, so not a ton of productivity. It was a building block of political centralization, Included vassalage, a granting of a fief (land) in exchange for military service to a Lord; and Manorialism/Seigneurialism, where the landowning elite governed ordinary people and had more of an economic aspect to it. Feudalism was rooted in loyalty, but it was questionable as to where one’s loyalty lay, your immediate lord or his lord? (usually the first one).

Question 14

Eusebius of Caesarea

Answer 14

c.265-340, became Bishop of Caesarea in 311, a scholar, a church historian, and a friend and advisor to Constantine. Wrote “Ecclesiastical History” in 325, which told the 1st chronological history of the church up to the 4th Century and extends the story of the Christian community after the book of Acts, told the Apostolic Succession of Bishops and the Anti-Apostolic succession of Heresiarchs, such as Simon Magus the Magician, the suffering of the Martyrs, etc. Also wrote the “Life of Constantine” in 337. He is known as the father of Christian History and Christian triumphalism, the idea that history is about the successes, triumphs, and spread of the Christian faith.

Question 15

The Battle of Adrianople

Answer 15

Occurred August 9, 378, where the Goths essentially eliminated the Eastern Roman Empire’s field army and King Valens died. He allowed the Visigoths to cross peacefully into his kingdom which immediately caused problems and led to the Battle. It took his successor Theodosius to pacify the Visigoths. This battle revealed the Roman vulnerability to barbarian attacks, and marked the beginning of barbarian/german inroads into Roman territory.

Question 16

Cassiodorus

Answer 16

490-585, was a roman scholar and politician who advised Theodoric and Athalaric. He helped preserve classical literature, and his patronage sponsored lots of monks copying classical literature. He laid the foundations for medieval scholarship, and urged the preservation of both pagan and christian works. He wrote “History of the Goths”, a fake and glorious history which helped people accept a Gothic king of Rome, displaying that the Roman legacy and cult will survive, even among non-romans or with a non-roman King. It did not survive, but we have a summary of it

Question 17

St. Gregory of Tours

Answer 17

c. 538-594, bishop of Tours, he was a major chronicler of the Merovingians, called Clovis the King of the Romans in his tales, Wrote “History of the Franks” which is a source of history for the reigns of Clovis and his successors, wrote in ungrammatical Latin, had a lot of political bias, and dwelled on improbable miracles and events

Question 18

Gregory the Great

Answer 18

the most important Pope of the early middle ages who ruled from 590-604. He was from a decently upper-class background and became disillusioned by the worldliness of society and so he became a monk at the Benedictine Monastery of St. Andrews, where he was known for the severity of his ascetic assertions, such as extreme fasting, but he also gained a reputation as a sincere holy man. He became an ambassador to Constantinople from 579-585, but he returned to Rome with lots of suspicions about the worldliness of the Eastern imperial court. He was elected the bishop of Rome against his wishes but took his role seriously. He defended the Papal supremacy of Rome, worked for administration reform where he wrote at least 850 letters giving judgments and resolves; worked to rid corruption from the church, and was adamant about monks following the rules. He was very influenced by Augustine, such as his ideas of charity, Holy Wars, and protecting the jews. Created the Gregorian Chant, sent missions to the pagans and Arians (aka. Angles and Saxons); Defended syncretism, wrote a book in 595, “Liber Pastoris Curae” which was a Bishop guidebook.

Question 19

The Venerable Bede

Answer 19

c. 672-735, who was an Anglo-Saxon monk at Jarrow. He wrote an “Ecclesiastical History of the English Peoples”, where he began dating from the Incarnation, a unique dating system in the West. This book also displayed a critical sense that many other works during the time lack, which established him as the foremost Western intellect since Augustine of Hippo. The “Ecclesiastical History” is our chief source for early English history

Question 20

The Heptarchy

Answer 20

The idea that a “nation” did not mean a political entity, and thus there were seven different English kingdoms because it was based on ethnicity, from the 5th century to around the 8th century. There was no political unity among the different tribes, yet it still flourished. There were many rulers in each tribe, but the most notable ones were Edwin of Northumbria (r.616-632), Oswald of Northumbria (r.633-642), Aethelbard of Mercia (r.726-757), and especially Offa of Mercia (r. 757-795), who had a diplomatic relationship with Charlemagne and unified all of the South six kingdoms together, just not Northumbria.

Question 21

The Battle of Rio Guadalete

Answer 21

The first major battle of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania, from 711-712, occurred between Christian Visigoths and Muslim Umayyads, with a Muslim victory. The Visigoth King Roderic was killed, which opened the way for the capturing of Visigothic Toledo. This battle led the way for Muslim conquest of Spain which would hold for centuries

Question 22

Charles Martel

Answer 22

“The Hammer” ruled from 715-741, was the Son of Carolingian Pepin, thus he inherited the office, but he still had to defend it to keep it as King of the Franks. He defeated the Neustrians in 724, supported the missionary activities of St. Boniface, and is most famous for his victory at the Battle of Tours (Oct. 10, 732) which stopped the advance of the Moors in Europe and gave him the nickname “The Hammer.” It was more like a tactical draw though, kind of a Muslim against Christian War, and it was the high water mark of Islamic expansion in the West. He is also the grandfather of Charlemagne.

Question 23

Alcuin of York

Answer 23

was a Northumbrian scholar and monk c. 732-804, who is known as as the greatest scholar of his time, introduced Charlemagne to Boethius’ seven liberal arts. He brought from Britain ideas and skills that stimulated the intellectual development of Carolingian Francia and helped work to build a revitalized Christian society. He sought to preserve Christian classical cultural tradition, and produced a new edition of the Latin Vulgate Bible which had been corrupted, and encouraged the preservation of a lot of literature which otherwise may have been lost. Worked with Charlemagne to continue Boniface’s reforms of the Frankish Church and monastic reforms, which didn’t create radical changes, but made improvements.

Question 24

Otto I

Answer 24

Founder of the Ottonian dynasty, the ablest of the Saxon Kings (r. 936-973), almost made a centralized monarchy in c. Europe; looked up to Charlemagne, wanted to follow in his steps; Invaded Italy from 951-52, his son rebelled against him 953-54, defended the German States against the Magyar invasions at the Battle of Lechfeld (Aug 955), recovered royal lands and powers that dukes had seized, and extended royal control into the Middle Kingdom. In 962 the Pope hailed Otto as “Roman Emperor,” marking the genesis of the Holy Roman Empire. Used Bishops to help him with localities, and helped get a Pope he deemed capable elected, making a New development that a corrupt Pope can be deposed by a council summoned by the Emperor and a new precedent for imperial intervention in Rome.

Question 25

The Peace of God

Answer 25

There was too much feudal violence, so it was a movement formalized in 990 which helped stabilize things, helped improve feudal violence; Bishops to priests all proclaiming protection for certain protected classes on pain of excommunication; it was fairly broad protection for non combatants (clerics, priests, monks, nuns, pilgrims, peasants); Not always honored, but the idea was if there’s gonna be feudal violence, keep it w/in the knightly and nobles classes; Certain places and times should be protected too, like churches, pilgrimage sites, sundays, christmas, etc.; Couldn’t really be enforced just by priests, but they got some nobles/knights on their sides, so it was more enforced, and created this kind of acceptance of the rules of fighting. Paved way for chivalric code

Question 26

al-Mansur

Answer 26

“The Victorious” (fl. 976-1002), was chief advisor to the Caliph and came closest to Muslim unification in Southern Iberia. Played the Jihad card, told the Muslims that they shouldn’t be fighting each other when they have a common enemy up north, the Christians. Launched a series of raids, not conquerings, up north; got Barcelona in 985, Leon in 988, and Santiago in 997, etc. He died in 1002 because of a battle wound.

Question 27

Seigneurialism

Answer 27

Also known as manorialism, dealt with the control of land and labor to equip the aristocratic knightly elite, dealt with how pieces of land were given out. This had a more economic aspect than feudalism or Vassalage, there was low productivity, and minimal surpluses, but what surpluses there were equipped a small group of highly trained warriors, aka. knights. As a whole, this system dealt with the ownership and tenure of land. Its defining features were a manor with the Lord of the manor in the middle with a population of serfs who worked the surrounding land for themselves and their lord. Land was divied out to different people for different purposes, including common pastures for everyone to use, but also each peasant had their own little pieces of land.