The West in the World, 4th Edition (Sherman)

Chapter 8: Order Restored

Critical Thinking Questions

  1. Those Who Work: Agricultural Labor


  1. What were the sources of mechanical power after 1000?


  2. What new agricultural techniques were developed in this period?


  3. What factors led to the doubling of the population in Europe? What were the positive and negative results of the population expansion?


  1. Those Outside the Order: Town Life


  1. What were charters and communes? How did guilds function in town life?


  2. What were the major trade centers in medieval Europe? What kinds of goods were traded? What was the purpose of the Hanseatic League?


  3. What changes in architecture took place in this period? How did Abbot Suger shape those changes?


  4. How and why did universities arise during this period? What was a typical course of study?


  5. What were the main arguments of Anselm and Abelard? Why did Bernard of Clairvaux object to Abelard's ideas? What did Thomas Aquinas teach about faith and reason?


  6. How were women treated within the field of medicine? Consider women as both patients and healers. What was Hildegard of Bingen's contribution to the field of women's health?


  1. Those Who Fight: Nobles and Knights


  1. How were medieval castles designed? How did their design meet the requirements of both defense and daily life?


  2. What were the ideals of chivalry? How did knights demonstrate these values during jousts?


  3. What were chansons de geste? What do they tell us about chivalric values?


  4. Describe courtly love. What does troubador poetry tell us about relations between men and women in this period?


  1. The Rise of Centralized Monarchies


  1. How did William the Conqueror govern his newly-conquered Anglo-Saxon kingdom?


  2. What reforms and innovations in government did Henry I and Henry II implement?


  3. What changes in English government took place as a result of King John's weak rule?


  4. What was the reconquest? How did it contribute to the intellectual reawakening taking place in Europe?


  5. How did the Capetian kings consolidate their rule? What was notable about the reigns of Philip II, Augustus, and Louis IX?


  6. In what ways did Otto I resemble Charlemagne?


  7. How did the Saxon, Salian, and Hohenstaufen dynasties try to create a unified Germany?


  1. Those Who Pray: Imperial Popes and Expanding Christendom


  1. What kinds of reforms did criticizers of the church call for in the 10th and 11th centuries?


  2. What was the investiture controversy? How did the Concordat of Worms resolve the issues raised by this controversy?


  3. What were the struggles between church and secular rulers in England?


  4. Which ideas did the Fourth Lateran Council promote?


  5. What were the needs and motives of the West that led to the Crusades? What were the responses to Pope Urban II's call?


  6. How did crusader states fare over the course of the twelfth century? Why was Saladin a crucial figure in the fate of these states?


  7. What criticisms of the church did the Waldensians make?


  8. What did Francis of Assisi preach? What kind of a lifestyle did his followers embrace?


  9. Who were the Albigensians and why were they targeted by a crusade?


  10. What was the Inquisition? What techniques did the generals use to extract confessions from the accused?


Sherman: The West in the World, Fourth Edition
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