Medieval Culture

This quiz is timed. You will have 120 minutes to complete 40 multiple choice questions and 5 essay questions.

Theme related to this chapter/module:

Discuss Charlemagne’s important role in medieval society. he site of the battle involving Charlemagne’s army and a Muslim force?

Describe elements of Gregorian Chant and its role in Church history. What are the basic symbols to notate these chants?
Describe elements of the monastery and its influence on medieval society. What is the honorarium in the monastery? What is asceticism?
Why might someone living in a monastery turn to creating illuminated manuscripts?
The “seven liberal arts” are divided into the trivium and the quadrivium. How much of the trivium lingers in primary education today? What has been added to those “trivial” subjects?
Two subjects studied in the quadrivium were music and astronomy. Those subjects were quite different from what we understand them to be today. How were they understood in the Carolingian period and how do we understand them now?
One feature of the Carolingian period was the central place of monasticism. Why was monasticism exceptionally suited to a time when there was little urban life?
Many scholars have argued that monasticism is the living out of a utopian ideal. How is monasticism a “utopian” behavior, and to what degree is it also a form of countercultural living?
Why is plainchant (Gregorian chant) ideally suited for congregational singing, especially for the unaccompanied voice? What is it called when one sings without musical accompaniment?
What does memento mori mean?
What architectural term means barbarous or rude?
Discuss the lives the following saints: St. Francis, St. Bridget, St. Benedict, and St. Patrick.
Why was calligraphy significant during the Medieval Period?
What is the site of Charlemagne’s palace and royal chapel?
In constructing Charlemagne’s royal chapel at Aachen, which building served as its model?
Describe these cathedrals: Strasbourg, Chartes, Beauvais, and Amiens
What is the chanson de geste celebrated the battle between Charlemagne’s army and a Muslim force at the Spanish border?
What is polyphony?
Who were Dante’s guides in the Divine Comedy?
Who was Thomas Aquinas?
What is a tall, pointed window found in Gothic cathedrals?
Describe a motet.
What are the elements of the Ordinary Mass?
Who was Petrarch? What did he do?
What were moral stories told during the Medieval Period?
Why is the “Messe de Notre Dame ” important?
Who wrote Lives of the Artists and why is this work important?
On a Gothic cathedral, what sculptured arches form an outline for the scene depicted in the tympanum?
Contrast the place of books in early medieval culture and in our own (beyond the obvious issue of our better production technologies).
Drama evolved out of worship in the early medieval period just as Greek tragedy evolved out of worship in its time. Speculate on why there should be this connection between worship and drama.
Byzantine churches tended to lavish their decorative efforts on the insides of churches, whereas Romanesque churches tended to decorate the outsides, especially the façades. Suggest reasons for this widely observable fact.
From Hildegard of Bingen: On Women’s Physiology
Bingen attempts to describe the act of intercourse and conception. How does she characterize men’s sexuality? Women’s?
How does Bingen describe how men and women view one another? How is this related to the creation story in Genesis from Chapter 6?
According to Bingen, what determines the gender and the personality of a child?
What are the four temperaments of women described? How do you think the author came to these conclusions? Is this a kind of stereotyping or a scientific categorization? What is the difference?
From Everyman
To whom is the Messenger speaking? (lines 1–21)
Who is God here? What did God do for man and how has man repaid him? (lines 27–34 and lines 35–60)
In the exchange between Death and Everyman, Everyman tries to negotiate his way out of the journey. What does he say and offer? (lines 118–124) What is he allowed to do? (lines 153–162)
Who does Everyman visit? How is each personified and how does each respond to his request? (See lines 206, 393, 486, 523, 553, 670, 675, 690, and 695.)
What is the dramatic function of the doctor at the end of the play?
From The Song of Roland
How does Roland personify the ideal knight?
Compare the fighting scenes in The Song of Roland to those in the Iliad. How are they similar?
What does The Song of Roland reveal about allegiances and hierarchy in the Middle Ages?
Consider the contributions of early universities to scholarship in the West.
Consider the architectural accomplishments of the Gothic cathedrals.
Consider Dante’s influence on modern religious thought.
Identify three 21st-century social factors that explain why few church buildings similar to the Gothic cathedrals are not undertaken today.
Is it possible to think of a building or complex of buildings serving as an organizing metaphor for a contemporary city in the way a cathedral served in the Middle Ages?
What positive and/or negative outcomes do you see resulting from the medieval cult of the Virgin?
Compare the use and role of light in the atmosphere of Hagia Sophia and the Cathedral of Chartres.
Describe some of the technological problems medieval builders had to solve in an age with limited power sources, no tempered metals, no computers or slide rules for calculations, and so on.
The medieval university was organized around the body of scholars who made up the faculty. To what degree does that model hold up today? What is the organizing principle of the modern college or university?
A good deal of medieval education utilized dialectics. What does that word mean? Where does dialectics, broadly understood, find its usefulness today?
Thomas Aquinas had no doubt that all knowledge was both interrelated and capable of being synthesized into a whole. For Aquinas, everything from science and philosophy to theology would fit into this synthesis. Would such a view find many supporters today? If not, why not?
If you were to organize a contemporary hell for the great villains of our day, would you use Dante’s classification or would you construct another schema? On what basis would it be organized?
Dante looks back to Virgil as the model for his great work of poetry. If we were to write a work today to celebrate our culture and destiny, would we feel the need to invoke a past model to do so? If so, who might it be? If not, why not?
From Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae
How does the construction the Summa Theologiae demonstrate Aquinas’ dedication to the Greek philosophical system of inquiry?
What is the conflict inherent in his explorations? Consider the inherent conflict between faith and reason.
Consider Aquinas’ Article 10 (“Can one passage of holy Scripture bear several senses?”) and his presentation of the topic. How is this issue still being argued today within Christian communities?
From Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy — Hell
Canto I : What is the journey that Dante must make, and why must he make it? (See lines1–9.) Why can’t he go the “direct” route? What is blocking his way? What do these beings symbolize? (See lines 33–54.)
Who is his companion? Why can he only guide Dante through the first hell and purgatory? (See lines 115–120 and notes.)
Canto III : What beings populate the Vestibule of Hell? How are they depicted (lines 49-66)?
Canto V : Who decides to which level of hell each soul must descend? How does he indicate this (see lines 1–15)?
What is the story of Francesca and Paolo? Why are they in hell (lines 88–135 and notes)?
Canto X: Why are Farinata degli Uberti and Cavalcante dei Cavalcanti in hell? What Greek philosophy did they subscribe to (lines 13–15 and notes)?
Canto XXXIII : In the Dante’s hell, sinners are subjects to specific tortures which are the consequences of their particular sin. How is this most clearly demonstrated in the figures of Ugolino and Ruggieri (lines 1–90 and notes)?
From Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy — Purgatory
Canto I: What is the difference between hell and purgatory? Who decides whether a soul should be in purgatory or not? (See notes for lines 1-6.)
Why must Dante be purified?
From Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy —Paradise
Canto XI: Who does Dante meet in The Fourth Sphere? How does this discussion of St. Francis and Aquinas underscore the significance of these two figures in the Christian world of the time? What criticism is made of the Dominicans?
Canto XXXIII: In this canto, two of the most distinctive elements of the Christian church of the Middle Ages are present: that of the heightened reverence for the Virgin Mary and the mysticism of light. Find a passage which clearly demonstrates both of these elements.
Consider how the controversies within the Church during the 14th century affected Western culture.
Comment on the consequences of a century of virtually continuous military conflict.
Discuss the contributions of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to our understanding of medieval life.
What problems might have confronted the Renaissance if the Black Death had not struck Europe?
Compare the literary achievements of Boccaccio and Petrarch. What light does their work shed on the history of their times?
How does Chaucer characterize the participants in The Canterbury Tales? Select two and describe their chief features.
Describe Giotto’s contribution to the history of painting and compare him to his predecessors.
What are the principal characteristics of Northern European art in the fourteenth century? How does it differ from Italian art?
How did musical styles change in the fourteenth century? Discuss the contribution of Guillaume de Machaut.
From Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron
How does Boccaccio urge the reader to continue on through the gruesome descriptions of the plague? What metaphor does he use (paragraph 1)?
How did the city of Florence try to safeguard its citizens from the plague (paragraph 2)?
According to the third paragraph, how long, on average, could a person expect to live once symptomatic?
How was the illness communicated (paragraph 4)?
Paragraphs 5–8 describe the various responses of the people to the epidemic. What response seems most appropriate to you?
How did the plague impact family life (paragraph 9)?
In what circumstances did the infected often find themselves (paragraph 10)?
According to paragraphs 11–13, how did the plague change burial customs and rites?
How did the plague affect agriculture (paragraph 14)?
In the city of Florence, how many died (paragraph 15)?
From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
How would you describe each of the following characters from the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales? Do you believe they are treated with sympathy, good humor, cutting wit, disdain, or admiration?
knight (43)
knight’s son (80)
nun (120)
monk (168)
friar (212)
sea-captain (398
business woman (455)
priest (487)
ploughman (537)
miller(554)
summoner (632)
pardoner (678)
From Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
From the Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale
What are the Wife of Bath’s views on religion and sexuality (lines 28–30)?
How many husbands has she had (line 5)?
What are her thoughts on virginity (lines 98–117)?
What are her thoughts on sexual organs and their purpose (lines 118–138)?
How does the Wife of Bath use the metaphor of bread to her credit (lines 142–149)?
How does she display unabashed sexual power (lines 158–164)?
What overview does she give of her five husbands (lines 200–201)?
Would you say she loves any, some, or none of them?
Was she faithful to them? kind?
In your opinion, if a woman had written this, what would have been the reaction?