From then until the Renaissance, a span of some six centuries, Europe was a comparative backwater. There, tribal groups who had migrated from Asia, and scattered people once ruled by the Romans, slowly came together, first into feudal kingdoms ruled by families, then into nations with fixed territories and (usually) languages. They believed there had been a time of Paradise, of natural abundance, but that the sin of the original people had plunged the world into a ‘fallen’, miserable condition, to be ended when Christ returned and when judgement was passed on human behaviour. After this, time would cease. Meanwhile, though they were excellent builders in stone and increasingly interesting thinkers, their civilization lagged behind others. To today’s educated European this may seem a grotesque idea. After all, these centuries include the rise of the papacy, the creation of Charlemagne’s empire of now misty magnificence, the Crusades, and the emergence of many nations still clearly visible in today’s world.
