i have six middle ages guestions?

Question

whoever gets them all right gets the best answer
1.generate three important reasons why the Byzantine Empire was important to the middle ages?

2.give two reasons why reading and writing declined in the middle ages?

3.name the two church leaders inthe crusade period and the church they represented?

4.what system of government was used in the middle ages?

5.evaluate the results of the crusades. tell how these results might have benifited us today?

6.why are the crusades specifically called "war for the cross"?

Answer 1

1. Generate three important reasons why the Byzantine Empire was important to the middle ages?

a. It was a center of commerce and as a result the richest city in the world.

b. It sat in a strategic location at the entrance to the Black Sea, thus guarding the Balkans.

b. It was the seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople and therefore an important religious center. When it was attacked by the Seljuk Turks (probably because of it's wealth and position (reasons a & b above) and the Basilik (Emperor) asked Rome for aid, Pope Urban couched it as a *religious* mission rather than a military one, and thus the Crusades were launched.


2. Give two reasons why reading and writing declined in the middle ages?

This is a bad question. Literacy did NOT in fact decline; it increased. Entire people groups, like the Irish, who had no system of writing before the advent of Christianity in the middle ages, both learned to read and write and embraced it with a passion. Not everyone was literate, of course; there was not the nearly universal literacy there is today, but then there wasn't universal literacy in the ancient world, either. There are, in fact, notable examples of leaders* who were not literate. However, taken as percentage of total population, there were MORE literate people during the Middle Ages than there had been during the Roman period in Europe.

The myth of an illiterate Europe was spread during the Enlightement as part of the campaign to treat everything prior to 1600 as the "Dark Ages" - a smear campaign that really only served to make philosophers like Voltaire look better in their own eyes.

(*ironically, one of the classes least likely to be liteate in the middle ages, is the one class, we as modern people would expect to be literate: the knights, leaders of their day. However, knights often trained from the age of 7 or 8 and this training took precedence in their education. Their sisters and younger brothers (especially the ones who entered the church) were generally taught to read.

As for the church, there are stories from the _late_ middle ages of priest swho could not perform the Latin mass, but that is not the same as not being literate in the venacular, i.e. their own language).


3. Name the two church leaders in the crusade period and the church they represented?

Bernard of Clairvaux was a member of Cisternians - a reform movement in the 12th century. Several of his influential letters about the Crusades survive.

Pope Urban II, the man who preached the First Crusade from the pulpit of Clermont (in France). As Pope he, of course, represented the mainline Catholic Church.


4. What system of government was used in the middle ages?

Several actually. You have to remember that the "Middle Ages" spans an entire millenium (1000 years) and more than a dozen countries. However, if you are writing this for school, your teacher is probably looking for "Feudalism", a system most closely associated with France and places France (and the Normans) ruled (like England (after the Conquest), Sicily and parts of Germany). Be aware, however, that this is a simplistic answer. Google the word "Althing" and find out about the rather advanced system of government the Norse (aka "Vikings") had during the middle ages. Or the "Witan" council system of the Anglo-Saxons.

5. Evaluate the results of the crusades. tell how these results might have benifited us today?

Wow. This is a HUGE question. I don't know even know where to begin. Again, your teacher is probably looking for something like "Greek learning was re-introduced to Europe from books brought home from the Middle East". However, this answer, although it is the standard "party line" in a lot of school text books is not entirely accurate and I'm loath to point you in that direction.


6. Why are the crusades specifically called "war for the cross"?

Because the "crus" in "Crus-ade" is the Latin word for "Cross". The men (and women! Look up Eleanor of Aquitaine) who went to war in the East following Pope Urban's urging "took the cross" (that is, they sewed it onto thier clothing) and were thus called "Crusaders".

Answer 2

1.) It was an heir to the Roman empire, thus, for a time, more civilized than any other European nation.
It also preserved the traditions of the orthodox church and kept the Muslims from going too far north in their general direction.

2.) The "barbarians" who replaced the Roman empire had little or no need of writing systems. Until much latter, they were not complex enough to need them and when they did, they usually just used Latin.

3.) I think the Roman Catholic pope was Urban the 2nd, and the orthodox patriarch was Alexius the 2nd, but I'm not sure.

4.) Feudalism until later, when absolute monarchies were set up.

5.) The crusades gave the Muslims a reason to unify and brought new ideas to Europe from the east, which was one of the things that sparked the Renaissance.

6.) I don't know if this is correct, but the crusaders were fighting (or at least said they were fighting) to capture Jerusalem, perhaps the holiest cities in Christianity.

You really should be doing your own homework...

Answer 3

hey man I agree with the other answer,get your book out and do your own homework.

Answer 4

That's WAY too much work for ten lousy points.

Do your own homework.

Answer 5

Do you own homework Skippy!