ABSTRACT
The young Emperor Otto III made Rome his capital and the revival of the Roman Empire as his motto. From that day to this, both Poland and Hungary have been frontier nations having ties with Eastern Europe and Byzantium and with the Orthodox Churches. Their most splendid production, the Gospel Book of Otto III, reflects his aspirations by displaying symbolic figures for the peoples coming to do homage to him Sclavinia, Francia, and Germania, and above all Roma. It was then that papal monarchy came to have some meaning. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the middle Ages were the ages of faith, and that medieval folk were exceedingly credulous. Thus in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries it was possible for Christian rulers to give friendly protection to Jews and for leading theologians to have sympathetic discussions. From this we pass on to an analysis of its economic, social and constitutional organisation.
