Chapter 11

Exploring Concepts B

1) The Byzantine Empire endured frequent attacks on its borders. Emperors

had to maintain a powerful military and build defensive walls around

Constantinople. After empire was extended to its greatest, a period of

decline began because of the numerous conquests made by enemies.

2) The crusades showed that the church in Europe was very influential and

had a lot of power. It shows that most people were Christian and believed

strongly in the church, so when the church told them to go fight for the

Holy Land, they did. Going against the church’s wishes was probably unheard

of. The church was very powerful in the Middle Ages.

3) The crusades opened up a lot of Europeans to the world outside their

towns. People became interested in other cultures and demand for goods from

these cultures rose. European poetry, literature, and music grew after

crusaders heard Arabic love poetry and music. Warfare changed also, because

during the crusades, more advanced ways of fighting were introduced.

4) Christians might have considered the crusades a failure because a lot of

time, money, and lives were put into them and in the end, they were lost.

The Muslims ruled the Holy Land, which is what the Christians were trying to

prevent in the first place.

5) The establishment of religious orders and universities helped to expand

the church and community in many ways. First of all, in a religious order,

people could live a normal town life and still be seriously devoted to their

religion. Universities helped people expand their knowledge. This was partly

sparked by the Muslim’s expanded knowledge. This helped the church gain

followers and learn more about other cultures.

6) Church was a large part of daily life for Christians. Church bells

announced time for work, meals, rest, and for mass. Churches served as

gathering places for town meetings and places of refuge during wars or

storms.

7) Abbot Suger was appointed regent by King Louis VI in 1147 because Suger

had prevented a previous war by loaning Louis a banner to rally French

nobles. Louis and Suger were good friends and this was probably Louis’ way

of paying him back for preventing an unnecessary war.

8) Eastern and western churches were both Christian, but Byzantines

tolerated much more discussion and debate over religious matters, and

services were conducted in Greek, which was the people’s native language. In

the west, services were in Latin which was only known to the priests and

well-educated.

9) Byzantines used icons in many ways, such as praying or lighting candles

before them or carrying them in religious processions. Some Byzantines

thought that it was going too far and that people worshipped the icons

themselves as gods, whereas others thought the icons helped them worship God

better. In the case of Emperor Leo III and Pope Gregory III, Leo believed

that icons were bad, while Gregory thought they were useful.

Critical Thinking

1) This statement is a reasoned judgment. In my opinion, it is true for most

Europeans of the Middle Ages. The people saw and were sometimes willing to

accept new and different ways of doing things. They saw new things from

different cultures and, in many cases, liked and wanted more of them.

2) Christians could make a relatively safe pilgrimage to Jerusalem until the

Seljuks began invading the area and it became less safe. European leaders

saw this as a chance to win Holy Land and began preparing for the crusades.