Unit 8: The Middle Ages
Study Guide
Chapter 17: The Early Middle Ages
(be familiar with all key terms and people for chapter 17)
Instructions: Correctly answer the following questions.
Section 1
1. What is the boundary between Europe and Asia?
2. Where are most of Europe’s major rivers located?
3. How is the topography of southern Europe different from that of the Northern European Plain?
4. What kind of crops do people in southern Europe grow?
5. What city was built on an island in a river to make it hard for raiders to reach?
6. Why have so many different ways of life developed in Europe?
Section 2
1. In what parts of Europe was Christianity common at the beginning of the Middle Ages?
2. What are missionaries?
3. Why was Saint Patrick important?
4. How were medieval monks and missionaries different?
5. How did monks influence life outside of the monasteries?
6. What changes did the Franks make under Clovis?
7. How did Charlemagne create a large empire?
8. Which of Charlemagne’s accomplishments do you think had the most lasting effect?
9. Of the groups that invaded Europe in the 700s and 800s, which was the most feared?
10. What damage did the invasions cause?
Section 3
1. Under the feudal system, what type of exchange took place between lords and vassals?
2. How could a vassal become a lord?
3. Where did feudalism first emerge?
4. Who was William the Conqueror?
5. How did feudalism spread in the 1000s?
6. What was a manor?
7. Why didn’t knights farm the land they received?
8. How did peasants differ from serfs?
9. What did serfs get in return for working the fields on their lords’ land?
10. What responsibilities did the lord have in running his manor?
11. What role did women play in medieval society?
12. What is trade? When did towns start becoming cities and new towns start appearing?
13. Why did Europe’s population increase?
Section 4
1. According to the code of chivalry, how were knights required to behave?
2. How did knights and samurai react when faced with difficult odds?
3. How were the feudal systems of Europe and Japan different?
4. What was the main difference between medieval Europeans and Japanese?
5. How did the subjects of European art and Japanese art differ?
6. Which were greater, the similarities or the differences between European and Japanese societies in
the Middle Ages?
Chapter 18: The Later Middle Ages
(be familiar with all key terms and people for chapter 18)
Instructions: Correctly answer the following questions.
Section 1
1. Whom might a pope choose to excommunicate?
2. Why did some popes eventually being to live like royalty?
3. How did becoming king in England and France differ from how it was done in the Holy Roman
Empire?
4. In what region did many bishops not recognize the pope’s authority?
5. Why did Pope Leo IX believe that all church officials should answer to him?
6. What might have happened if Leo IX had not excommunicated the bishop of Constantinople?
7. What compromise solved the conflict over who had the right to choose bishops?
8. Why do you think a king would want to select bishops himself?
Section 2
1. What were the Crusades?
2. What was the Holy Land? What present-day country is the Holy Land in?
3. Who was fighting?
4. Why were they fighting?
5. How long did the wars last?
6. What was the goal of the Crusades?
7. What is another name for the 3rd Crusade? Why is Richard the Lion Heart important?
8. What did the Crusaders do to the Jews on the way to Jerusalem?
9. Who united the Muslims in the 2nd Crusade?
10. Which Crusade were the Christians successful?
11. Was the overall goal of the Crusades successful? Why or why not?
Section 3
1. Nearly everyone living in Europe during the Middle Ages was Christian. Give specific ways
Christianity affected their lives?
2. What is the clergy and what did they do in Christian Society?
3. When going to the local church was not enough, completely explain what people would do to
show they were deeply religious?
4. Why is Canterbury, England and The Canterbury Tales important?
5. Why do you think people left land to the church when they died, making the church the largest
landholders in Europe?
6. Explain how the clergy was involved in political matters.
7. Why were the people unhappy with the clergy being involved with political matters?
8. Why did monks start a monastery in the town of Cluny? Study the picture and schedule on pages
534-535 and explain life of a Cluny monk.
9. What is a religious order? How did the order of Cluny monks change things?
10. Draw and complete the diagram below. (4, 4, 2)
Monk
Friar
s
11. Who created the first universities? Who were the teachers? What was the language of scholars
and the church? What did they learn besides religion?
12.
13.
14.
15.
As people studied at universities, what new ideas surfaced?
Who proposed the idea of natural law? What was he trying to say?
What is a cathedral? How did Gothic churches differ from earlier churches?
How did the church influence art and architecture?
Section 4
1. In 1215, the nobles forced King John of England to sign the ____ ____ or the _____ _____.
2. The document forced the king to honor certain rights. List and explain at least 2 rights within the
document.
3. To further limit the king's power, a group of nobles created ________, a law-making council that
governs England today.
4. What was the key step in bringing democracy to England?
5. Why did the king of England invade France, staring the Hundred Years War?
6. Who helped France win the Hundred Years War? What did the English do to her?
7. How did the governments of England and France change after the Hundred Years War?
8. While the English and French were fighting the Hundred Years War, another crisis, ______
______ or _______ _______ swept Europe.
9. Where did the plague come from? How was this passed to people?
10. What effect did the plague have on in Europe?
Section 5
1. In 1100, why had some Christians began to question the church?
2. _____ were ideas that opposed the church and the people were called ____. What would happen
to people that committed this crime?
3. In France, how did Pope Innocent III try to stop this crime in the early 1200s?
4. Who did the Christians drive out of Spain and Portugal? This effort was called the ______.
5. Leading with victory of the largest Spanish Kingdom, ________, the Christians pushed the Moors
out of Europe, except in ______.
6. Through a marriage alliance, who ruled all of Spain? Where were they from?
7. What 2 things did the king and queen of Spain do in 1492? What was the overall goal of these
actions?
8. Ferdinand and Isabella created the Spanish Inquisition, what was the purpose of the inquisition?
9. What happened if the Inquisition caught a heretic or other offenders?
10. How were the Jews discriminated against in the Middle Ages?