1. The late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries saw a tremendous invigoration of European culture with the rise of universities, the development of scholastic theology, the evolution of Romanesque architecture into the soaring Gothic style, and the creation of an elaborate court culture.
2. The kings of England, France, and Iberia used their legal prerogatives to enhance their power by formalizing feudal principals into governmental ones. The German emperors, in contrast, traded their legal prerogatives in Germany for support of their futile campaigns in Italy.
3. The English barons forced King John to recognize his own subordination to the law in the Magna Carta, the foundation of English, and American, civil rights.
4. The Church faced its first major heretical challenges since antiquity, and responded with organizational innovation, repression, and a reaffirmation of its fundamental tenets.
