The Carolingian Dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire wanted to restore the Western Roman Empire but with a Christian dynasty. The government would be similar to the emperors of Rome, but the ruler would be called the Holy Roman Emperor. The capital was the German city of Aachen, the home of Charlemagne’s palace. Charlemagne hired artists, writers, and builders from every city he visited to build great structures. Alcuin of York, who was an Englishman, became a key advisor to Charlemagne and became Abbot of Tours, where he translated many works into Latin. In 787, Charlemagne told every abbot and bishop to establish a school in all monasteries and cathedrals, so the clergy could learn to read and write. 

Saint Patrick of Ireland was one of the most influential Saints of all, converting Ireland from Druidism to Christianity without violence, and established many churches and monasteries. After its conversion in the 5th century, Ireland was known as the “Isle of Saints.” Many of the greatest missionaries of the Early Church were from Ireland and were converted by Saint Patrick. Irish Saint Columbia built a monastery on the Scottish Island of Iona and set out to Christianize England. Moreover, Columbanus (born 546) established monasteries throughout Gaul and Italy. 

Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) used the famines, plagues, and wars to help convert thousands of people. By the 7th century, most of Europe was Christian even in the formerly pagan countryside. The Anglo-Saxons had been the most violent against conversion, killing many missionaries who tried to convert them. 

Saint Augustine of Canterbury approached King Ethelbert of Kent (leader of the Anglo-Saxons) with 40 monks and convinced him to marry a Christian queen from France, so he could baptize his people. By 597, a substantial portion of England had been converted. Once the Anglo-Saxons accepted the Faith, the Celts refused to convert because of their hatred of the Anglo-Saxons. In 626, Irish missionaries convinced the Celtic King Edwin to accept Christianity, but in 633 Edwin was defeated in battle by the Welsh, which meant the Celts were no longer Christian. In 634, Edwin’s nephew, Oswald, came to power and made his kingdom Christian again. 

In 686, Pope Conan sent three Irish monks on a missionary trip to Germany, which still had a large pagan population. Killian, one of the Irish monks, was made the first Bishop of Germany. Bishop Killian baptized the Duke Gosbert of Franconia but was martyred in 689. Saint Willibrord and 11 other Irish monks went on missions to the Netherlands and Germany. Subsequently, Pope Sergius I made Willibrord Bishop of Frisia, and as bishop, Willibrord traveled to Wurvburg in 704 and converted the Rhineland. 

Saint Boniface (675-754) was an Englishman from Wessex, was sent by Pope Gregory II to continue the work of Killian. In Thuringia and Hesse, Boniface converted two chieftains along with their whole tribe and he succeeded Killian as Archbishop of Germany. As bishop, Boniface built many monasteries and churches in Germany, and even chopped down a large tree dedicated to the pagan god Thor. 

During the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, the Kingdom of the Franks and the Holy Roman Empire had a golden age known as the Carolingian Renaissance, in which they were the most influential kingdom in Western Europe. They had more control over the Church and the pope than the Byzantines, and this would eventually cause tension. 

The Apostles of Jesus wrote four books about Jesus’s time on earth: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books are similar, although they have some differences, but all tell the same story. Known as the Gospel, they make up the first part of the New Testament of the Bible. Unlike other classical literature, the Bible is historical not mythological. Its historical accuracy is even agreed upon by some atheist historians. 

God the Father sends his only Son, Jesus, to earth as a man to show his love for the world. Jesus is both the Son of God and a man at the same time. Born in the town of Bethlehem, Jesus’s mother, Mary, remained a virgin after she gave birth and bore the Son of God. Jesus lived in the town of Nazareth most of his early life and first preached at the age of 12. John the Baptist (or John the Forerunner) announced that the Son of God was coming soon. John baptized Jesus around AD 30. When Jesus was baptized, he was confirmed as both the Son of God and a man. After his baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus started his public ministry. 

Jesus’s first miracle occurred at a wedding, when the hosts ran out of wine for the meal, so Jesus miraculously turned water into wine. He began preaching to large crowds and healing dozens of people. He recruited 12 disciples to help spread His message across Israel, and also gave them the power to heal. When Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath Day (Saturday) this angered the Jewish religious leaders (the Pharisees) because they claimed it was against the Law. Jesus stated that he was the fulfillment of the Law, and that certain practices did not need to be followed anymore. Consequently, the enraged Pharisees proclaimed that he was a false prophet and sought to destroy him. 

During this time, Jesus did some of his greatest miracles, such as calming a stormy sea, walking on water, feeding 5,000 men with only five bread loaves and two fish, and healing the daughter of Roman Centurion. King Herod thought Jesus was a resurrected John the Baptist, who he had put to death. After Jesus forced a legion of demons into a herd of swine, the local residents did not let Jesus stay because they feared the Pharisees. The Jewish religious leaders hated Jesus because he preached against them and against the Law. 

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths controlled most of what would be modern-day Italy. They were led by the relatively enlightened king Theodoric from 493-526. Theodoric even tried to keep the Roman culture and customs alive, and preserve some sort of hierarchy. The Vandals claimed most of the Roman colonies in North Africa. Unlike the Ostrogoths, who treated the former Romans fairly, the Vandals ruled with an iron fist, killing out many of the old Romans living in North Africa. Under their ruler Genseric (428-477), the Vandals murdered hundreds of Christians before being defeated in battle by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 533. 

In 493, Theodoric, the leader of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, declared himself the “King of Italy.” However, the Goths and Christians resisted the Ostrogoth oppressors, and the Byzantine Empire invaded and conquered Italy in the 560s. Soon, the barbarians, who were previously pagan, converted to Christianity, making much of France, Germany, and Britain Christian. 

Even after Rome fell, it continued to influence Europe for centuries, in literature, language, and government. Many European languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, came directly from Latin. Rome also helped preserve Greek architecture, art, and philosophy. Amazingly, the ruins of Roman roads, bridges, aqueducts, and dams still stand today throughout Europe. 

Originally a manichaeist, Saint Augustine (354-430) believed that he was trapped in a world of evil. Augustine wanted to know the origin of human thought, and the reason for the good and evil. In 386, Augustine converted to Christianity and was baptized by the bishop St. Ambrose of Milan. Between 397 to 398, Augustine wrote his book “Confessions,” which continues to be a studied Christian book. In “Confessions,” Augustine stated that original sin affects everyone, and we need to turn to God in order to be saved from this punishment. The ultimate moral perfection is to find God, he explained, and the ultimate sin is to turn away from God. By the 6th century Western Europe became more Christianized, due to the influence of Saint Augustine and other christian scholars during the early Middle Ages.