of a reformed (and highly bureaucratised) Papacy; the nearest
approach to the notion of one central secular rule and headship over
western Europe which the consistent policy of emperors supported
by the massive propaganda of theorists could bring about; the
apogee of secular and Christian monarchies in the reigns of Frederick
II in Sicily and Louis IX in France; the sermons of St. Bernard;
the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas; the exemplification of
modern scientific method in Robert Grosseteste's and Theodoric
of Freiberg's work on optics; the Divine Comedy of Dante; the
"description of all England" in the Domesday Book; the univer-
sities; the building of the great cathedral and monastic churches
of north-west Europe -- all these things, many of which we think of
as characteristically medieval, were the products of this age.

We shall be concerned in this book with an account of the nations
and kingdoms forming what is now Britain, during these centuries,
and within the context of this frequently creative and always restless
activity. It would be surprising if this brilliant flowering of Euro-
pean life had not been reflected in the remote, yet rich and busy
island of Britain. In Roman times she had experienced close
integration in a Mediterranean culture. Since the sixth century,
she had been drawn more and more effectively into the orbit of the
continental society which slowly grew from the interaction of
barbarian peoples with classical civilisation. In fact, Britain was
affected deeply by the "renaissance of the twelfth century", ¹ by
the tremendous expansion of human energy in greatly diverse
pursuits, military, commercial, industrial, and intellectual, which
made possible, though it does not explain, the greatness of the age.
Britain drew inspiration and confidence from the fresh thought and
experiment and new institutions of the continent; but also, in turn,
she herself contributed much to the enduring work of medieval
Europe, and for herself devised institutions that have lasted to the
present day. The geologist's dictum that "the present is the key
to the past" may here be applied to human history. The British
Parliament, the Common Law, much of the pattern and structure
of local government, the preservation of the separate identities of
England, Scotland, and Wales, the organisation of the Church of
England, even in a sense the concept of limited monarchy in Britain,

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