WHI.10a - "A World After Rome" Guided Reading Q&A

Which factor best explains why Germanic rulers kept Latin clerks in post-Roman cities?

• Latin scribes ensured continuity of tax administration

• Latin clerks produced illuminated Gospel manuscripts

• Latin speakers commanded Viking trade fleets

• Latin scholars organized monastic choir schools

The passage compares early medieval society to a “three-legged stool.” What would happen if one leg—Roman law—were removed?

• Administrative cohesion would weaken, risking legal fragmentation

• Warrior honor codes would disappear entirely

• Christian rituals would lose sacramental meaning

• Viking raids would cease along coastal regions

Why did missionaries translate Scripture into vernacular tongues during the 6th–7th centuries?

• To embed Christian morals within Germanic kinship culture

• To replace Latin completely in the liturgy

• To persuade Vikings to abandon seafaring

• To revive classical Greek philosophy in monasteries

Which consequence followed Viking settlement rather than mere raiding?

• Creation of hybrid political entities like Normandy

• Decline of river commerce into Byzantium

• Collapse of Iceland’s Althing assembly

• Abolition of silver as a medium of exchange

Angles and Saxons strengthened ties to continental Christendom mainly through…

• Augustine of Canterbury’s mission in 597 CE

• Frankish conquest of Northumbria

• Visigothic alliances with Mercia

• Umayyad patronage of English monasteries

How did wergild schedules shape concepts of justice?

• They monetized personal injury, replacing blood-feud vengeance

• They enforced imperial Roman statutes verbatim

• They instituted trial by ordeal in every case

• They introduced papal courts into Viking territories

Charles Martel’s victory at Tours (732 CE) mattered chiefly because it…

• Preserved Western Europe’s emerging Christian identity

• Ended Merovingian dynastic disputes

• Converted Scandinavian pagans en masse

• Eliminated all Frankish taxation on pilgrims

Standardization of Caroline minuscule under Charlemagne primarily advanced…

• Legible duplication of classical and Christian texts

• Naval signaling across the North Sea

• Development of runic stone inscriptions

• Collection of wergild fines in silver coin

Which inference about cultural exchange is supported by Viking fingerprints on Russia’s early principalities?

• River trade corridors linked Norse and Slavic worlds

• Scandinavian climate forced migration into steppes

• Byzantine law codes replaced Germanic custom there

• Papal bulls directly governed Novgorod

Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Burgundians adopted the civitas tax system mainly to…

• harness existing Roman urban administration

• fund crusades to the Holy Land

• subsidize Viking exploration of Greenland

• abolish silver currency in Mediterranean trade