Humanitas Early Middle Ages is designed as a one-semester, high school history course. With the rise of Christianity and the foundering of Rome, the medieval period begins in crisis. The Early Middle Ages books move from pressing questions about the relationship between the Church and state to the establishment of a Holy Roman Empire. Students will discover that the medieval period, commonly known as “the Dark Ages,” was anything but dark as these books chart the maturation of the liberal arts, the advances of science and culture that accompanied a renaissance of learning, and the development of political theory and practice as various states and kingdoms are established. The 50 chapters include: - Accounts of religious developments - Documents from the court of Charlemagne that chart the spread of imperial power and the flowering of the Carolingian Renaissance - Historical chronicles that relate political developments in what will become England and France - Poetic and literary texts that help provide national identities