1. Under what circumstances did towns reemerge after 1050 as a vital force? What effect did they have on medieval society?
2. What steps toward unified statehood were taken in England, France, and Germany? What were causes of lingering divisions in some or all of these countries?
3. How did the papacy try to extend the authority of the church over the spiritual and secular life of Europe? Who were the popes who most notably led this effort, and what steps did they take? What function did the sacraments play in this effort? What role did the Crusades play?
4. What opposition did the assertive church face from secular authorities and from heretical reformers? How did the church respond to these opponents? What role did the Franciscans and Dominicans play in advancing the church's interests?
5. How did Jewish culture flourish during the High Middle Ages? What role did Moses Maimonides play in that cultural flowering? On what grounds were the Jews persecuted by European Christians, and what role did the church play in that persecution?
6. What conditions enabled the revival of learning during the Twelfth Century Awakening? What forms of learning emerged? What institutions led this movement, and what role did they play in medieval society?
7. How did scholasticism seek to unify rational philosophy in the Greek tradition with Christian faith? Who were the leading figures in this movement, and what did they contribute?
8. What problems did the recovery of Aristotle's philosophy create for medieval Christian thinkers? How did conservative theologians respond to this problem? How did Thomas Aquinas work to synthesize Christian belief and Aristotelian philosophy? How did the strict Aristotelians challenge his synthesis?
9. What was Joachim of Fiore's view of history, and how did it conflict with the Augustinian view? What radical ideas grew from Joachim's view?
10. Who were the major figures of high-medieval science? What did they contribute, and in what ways did their work confirm the medieval world view? In what ways did some of their contributions point toward modern science?
11. How was Roman law recovered during the High Middle Ages? How did Roman legal theory influence both secular and canon law?
12. What were the basic principles of the medieval world view? How did the medieval mind structure the universe and understand the condition of the individual?