ABSTRACT
With the dawn of the Dark Ages roads and cities rapidly deteriorated. Civilization itself received a great setback, as may be gathered from the small number of great teachers who date from this time. Between 400 and 800, when the relatively stable control of Charlemagne gave peace to western Europe, there are hardly half a dozen learned men. Boethius (died 524), Bede (733), and Alcuin (804) kept the light of civilization burning, for the most part in monasteries; but few others illuminate the Dark Ages. Pagan tribes invaded what had been flourishing communities. In England the Anglo-Saxons at first despised the civilized Romanized Briton; indeed the Angles ignored the towns, and developed many small settlements, largely on the loams and better soils of the eastern vales (see p. 147). London itself-a great town under Romewas practically deserted for a generation or two. Not until 600 did the
Saxons become Christians, and begin to acquire a civilization equal to that of the earlier Britons.
