1. About 3500 years ago the Jewish people settled in the country we now call what?

Ans: Israel.

2. What were the beliefs of the Jewish people?

Ans: They were very strict in their religion and believed in one god who was very stern, but fair.

3. What did their religious writings say?

Ans: Their religious writings said that one day God would send a holy man –the Messiah- who would
save Israel from all her troubles.

4. Who conquered Israel?

Ans: In 63 BC Israel was conquered by the Romans.

5. What did the Romans call Israel?

Ans: They called it Palestine and made it part of their empire.

6. What did the Jews hate?

Ans: They hated the Roman governor and Roman soldiers.

7. Where was Jesus born?

Ans: He was born to a Jewish family in the town of Bethlehem.

8. How old was Jesus when he began to preach a new religion?

Ans: He was 30 years old.

9. What did Jesus’s religion teach?

Ans: His religion taught people should love one another, even the enemies, just as god loved and
forgave them. People should live in peace, but, first of all, they must worship and obey god. Only then
should they obey their rulers.

10. How old was Jesus when he got arrested?

Ans: He was 33 years old when he got arrested.

11. Why was Jesus arrested?

Ans: Because he was found guilty of saying things against the Jewish religion.

12. How did the Romans punish serious criminals?

Ans: They were nailed to a cross of wood and left there to die. (Crucifixion)
13. What did Jesus’s disciples say?

Ans: Jesus had a number of followers, called disciples who travelled with him and helped him to teach
his religion. These disciples said that three days after his execution, he rose from the dead. For the next
forty days he was seen by many of his friends, He told them they must go out and teach the other
people about his ideas. Then he went back to heaven.

14. What would happen to Christians when they died?

Ans: Jesus’s followers taught that when the world ended everyone would rise from the dead. If they had
been good in life they would go to Heaven. If they had not done the things that Jesus had told them,
they would go to hell.

15. Where did Christianity spread?

Ans: The Christian religion spread slowly from Israel to some parts of Asia Minor and North Africa. Finally
it reached Rome itself.

16. Who was Christianity mainly popular with?

Ans: At first it was mainly popular with working people, slaves and women.

17. Why was Christianity mainly popular with working people, slaves and women?

Ans: Because many of the religions of the time did not allow women or slaves to take part. Christianity
gave people some hope of a better life after death. Most other Roman religions were just concerned
with ceremonies.

16. For how many years were the Christians persecuted?

Ans: 250 years.

17. What were done to the people when they got persecuted?

Ans: Thousands were thrown to wild animals in the arena. The mosaic above was made in North Africa
about AD 150. It shows Christians being killed in an arena near the town of Tripoli.

18. Because of the danger of persecution, what did the Christians use?

Ans: Christians had secret signs which let them know who else was a Christian.

19. What were the signs which the Christians used?

Ans: One of these signs was a drawing of a fish because the first letters of ‘fish’ in Greek stand for ‘Iesus
Christos’. Another sign was the chi-rho. This is the two Greek letters for X and R. Again the sign stands
for ‘Christos’.

20. What did Constantine do to help the Christians?

Ans: Constantine passed a law which stopped the persecution of the Christians. He later became a
Christian himself, and he also made Christianity become the state religion of the Roman Empire.
21. What does the word ‘Catholic’ mean?

Ans: For everyone.

22. Who was at the head of the Church?

Ans: Bishop of Rome, who after AD 600 was called the Pope.

23. Who were under the Pope?

Ans: The chief bishops of each province of the empire.

24. Who were under the chief bishops?

Ans: The lesser bishops of the different cities and districts of the province.

25. Who were under the lesser bishops?

Ans: Priests in each church, monks and nuns.

26. Who had the great power all over Europe?

Ans: The Pope.

27. Where did Constantine move his new capital and what did he name it?

Ans: Constantine moved the capital of the empire from Roma to Byzantium and he called the new
capital Constantinople, after himself.

26. Where is Byzantium now?

Ans: Today it is the city of Istanbul in Turkey.

27. Where are the capitals of the two Roman empires?

Ans: There were now really two Roman empires- the east with its capital at Constantinople, and the
west, with its capital at Rome.

28. Who became the most powerful man in the western half of the empire?

Ans: The emperor lived in the Eastern Empire so that the Bishop of Rome now became the most
powerful man in the western half of the empire.

29. Write the name of the churches of the Eastern and Western Roman Empire.

Ans: The Church in the east became the Orthodox Church, with its own leader in Constantinople. The
Church in the west remained the Catholic Church under the Pope.

30. Which countries joined the Orthodox Church in the 11th century?

Ans: In the 11th century, Russia and much of Eastern Europe joined the Orthodox Church.

31. By the 5th century AD many people all over Western Europe had become what?

Ans: Christian.
32. Which countries did the barbarians conquer?

Ans: Many barbarians from the east conquered Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

33. By who were these countries punished?

Ans: They were punished westwards by the Xiong-nu moving from Central Asia.

34. What did the Xiong-nu worship?

Ans: All of them worshipped different, and often very fierce, gods.

35. What was the old Roman Empire broken up by?

Ans: The old Roman Empire was now broken up into many separate countries, each with its own king
and religion.

36. All of this made who even more powerful?

Ans: All of this made the Pope and the Catholic Church even more powerful.

37. In AD 768, who became the king of Franks?

Ans: Charlemagne.

38. Which countries did Charlemagne conquer and what did he call it?

Ans: He conquered modern France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and large parts of Germany and Austria and
he called it the Holy Roman Empire.

39. In AD 800, why did Charlemagne ask the Pope to crown him?

Ans: By asking the Pope to crown him, Charlemagne showed that he thought the Pope was above even
kings and emperors.

40. Why was the step of Charlemagne very important?

Ans: Because before this kings had always put the crown on their own heads.

41. Which cities remained Christian?

Ans: Cities like Rome, and parts of some countries like Ireland and Wales, had remained Christian.

42. Who was Clovis and why did he become a Christian?

Ans: Clovis was the king of Franks (roughly modern France), became a Christian because his wife told
him that God had let him win a great battle.

43. By the end of the 7th century most of Western Europe belonged to which church?

Ans: Catholic Church.

44. Which countries were the last to become Christian?

Ans: The people of Scandinavia, eastern Germany and central Europe were the last to become Christian.