ABSTRACT
Christianity and the Roman church provided the unifying force that distinguished Europe from the rest of the world from the eleventh to the fourteenth century in the period known as the High Middle Ages. As in Eastern Europe, Christianity provided literate clerics to record written documents and laws and an effective model for organizing the kingdom; both Norway and Sweden were based on previous archbishoprics established by the Roman church. Since early church fathers especially St. The Crusades bred increased intolerance between Christians and Muslims and brought turmoil to the Middle East, even as they diverted violent activity away from Europe. Pope Boniface VIII would assert even stronger claims for papal prerogatives at the expense of temporal rulers, only to face opposition from the kings of France and England that was just as hostile and determined as that offered by Henry IV to Gregory VII in the eleventh century.
