ABSTRACT
The intellectual and educational excitement in twelfth-century Europe reflected the crucial nature of the period when a new focus on human problems led scholars to question traditional concepts, which in turn brought the church itself under scrutiny. The relative calm of monastic learning, or even that of the tenth- and eleventh-century cathedral schools, was a feature of the past. Education and the life of the intellect became prominent. Medieval political theory up to that time drew almost exclusively from Augustine's City of God where the principles of kingship were stated clearly. Meanwhile some of the most significant intellectual developments in Europe were taking place in Spain. Since the beginnings of the eighth century that region had been under Moslem domination. Moslem theologians in their early centuries of activity absorbed all of those notions and in the writings of Avicenna there appeared the concept of a single active intelligence, external to man, enlivening his consciousness.
