Demonstrating their lasting importance in Western civilization, this is an account of trends in Western Europe from the 5th to the 13th century. The book sets out to identify the origins of Western civilization in the amalgamation of Classical and Germanic cultures, combined with Christianity, which occurred in the 5th and 6th centuries. The author argues that subsequent developments took place so quickly that everything that matters most in the history of Western Europe had happened by 1300 at the latest, and that the pattern of the future had by then been set. The institutions which still form the basic fabric of life in the West - the Church, the universities and the law - all came into being in this period, and their lasting influence continues to colour attitudes and responses.