The worldly culture of northern Europe in the two centuries between the end of the Carolingian Empire and the “renaissance of the twelfth century” is, in the words of Claudio Leonardi, an “age without a name.” The difficulty of naming the period might be a lack of coherence among its parts and, at the same time, a lack of conceptual apparatus for formulating a synthesis.

C. Stephen Jaeger argues that such a synthesis of culture from 950 to 1150 emerges from the humanism of the early cathedral schools that proliferated from the second half of the tenth century and from the educational innovations closely tied to the rule of Emperor Otto I, the Great. Its thought and teaching takes its character from the fusion of ancient Roman philosophy and ethical ideals with Christian teachings. Its influence in church and imperial administration is as profound as it is in philosophy, literary style, and social mores. A humanist educated class emerges from these schools that reaches deep into clerical, monastic, and worldly spheres.