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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What contrast does Abelard describe between early practice and current practice?
(a) Humble women celebrating Christ and current bishops strutting in robes.
(b) Saints and serving women.
(c) Serving women and saints.
(d) Martyrs and bureaucrats.

2. What news about Abelard does the sender of Letter 9 relate?
(a) That he is instituting progressive reforms.
(b) That he is becoming a popular leader.
(c) That he is accused of heresy.
(d) That he has proposed an order for nuns.

3. What does Letter 7 describe to Heloise?
(a) Reasons why women should receive lighter burdens.
(b) Reasons why women should not receive lighter burdens.
(c) Examples of women who bore more than men could bear.
(d) Examples of women favored by the church.

4. What should the practice of silence result in, according to Abelard?
(a) Concentrating the mind.
(b) Emptying the mind.
(c) Purifying the mind.
(d) Ascending to God.

5. Who were monks and nuns imitating, according to Abelard?
(a) The sun and moon.
(b) The oldest gods.
(c) Christ.
(d) The pope.

6. What does Peter the Venerable say is his estimation of Abelard?
(a) Truly a great man.
(b) A brilliant religious thinker.
(c) An effective bureaucrat.
(d) A skilled manager.

7. Who received Letter 9?
(a) Heloise.
(b) The Abbott of Cluny.
(c) The pope.
(d) Abelard.

8. How does God view virtue in pagans, according to Abelard in Letter 7?
(a) He honors it.
(b) He does not recognize it.
(c) He sees but does not reward it.
(d) He is hostile to it.

9. What does Abelard say life becomes in poverty?
(a) A community.
(b) A firm law.
(c) A resource.
(d) A common store.

10. What does Abelard say in Letter 7 about the virtue of women?
(a) It is more pleasing to God.
(b) It is only appropriate for certain things.
(c) It is the same as men's virtues.
(d) It is useful for different things in religion.

11. What did the sender of Letter 9 advise Abelard to do?
(a) Get a judgment from the Abbot of Citeaux.
(b) Gather supporters.
(c) Flee the country.
(d) Appeal to the pope.

12. What did the woman do, whom Abelard cited in Letter 7?
(a) Took Christ down from the cross.
(b) Anointed Christ with oil.
(c) Prepared for the Last Supper.
(d) Discovered Christ's empty tomb.

13. What is continence, as mentioned in Letter 8?
(a) Travel.
(b) Modesty.
(c) Restraint.
(d) Chastity.

14. Which role is not mentioned by Abelard when he describes the roles necessary to run a convent?
(a) A shepherd.
(b) A cellaress.
(c) A portress.
(d) A wardrobe.

15. How does Heloise say that the thing that pleases God is manifested?
(a) Differently in different people.
(b) In each according to his talents.
(c) The same in everyone.
(d) In each according to his weakness.

Short Answer Questions

1. What request of Heloise's does Abelard fail to fulfill in Letter 7?

2. How would you describe Abelard's method of arranging Letter 7?

3. Why did the sender of Letter 9 think that the action Abelard took was appropriate?

4. How does Abelard describe wisdom in his Rule?

5. What does Peter the Venerable say Abelard's last days with him were devoted to?

(see the answer keys)

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