1. Carolingian Era

2. Charlemagne 742-814 Power shifts among Franks from Merovingian line to Carolingian Power in 771 and ruled until 814 a new civilization -- a European civilization -- came into existence Rome + Germanic culture + Christianity Society: Peasants, Nobility, Clergy Reign marked by expansion, conversion and constant warfare Extraordinarily violent period of history Pope Leo III = crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor (first since 476)

3. Renaissance? Anglo-Saxon scholar, Alcuin; Lays basis for medieval monastic culture Monasteries grow from poor, marginal communities to place of influence Alcuin devised a course of study that was intended to train the clergy and the monks. Here we find the origins of the seven liberal arts: the trivium comprised grammar (how to write), rhetoric (how to speak) and logic (how to think) while the quadrivium was made up of the mathematical arts, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music. All of this meant a classical and literary education. Students read Homer, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Juvenal, Plato and Cicero. By the 9th century, most monasteries had writing rooms or scriptoria. It was here that manuscripts were copied, and efforts made to correct and establish good manuscripts respublica Christiana, a Christian republic Charlemagne unified empire, elevated education, standardized coins, handwriting and even scholarly Latin