In the early Middle Ages, the invasions of the Germanic tribes, the vikings, the magyars and the muslims as well as the ruralization  led to the dissappearance of cultural centres in Europe.

Cultural activity was reduced to the monasteries where monks copied ancient manuscripts by hand to prevent their loss.

Monastic schools and cathedral schools were the only places where teaching took place. The monastic schools were next to the monasteries whereas cathedral schools were located close to main churches and cathedrals.  These schools followed the models of the Palatine Academy at Aachen from the Carolingian times. The main subjects taught were Latin grammar, music, mathematics and sciences.

As time went by some of the cathedral schools escaped from the influence of the church and became universities. However, the first universities were founded by the church as the University of Bologna (1088) and the University of Oxford (1086).  The language used in the universities was Latin and there were not fixed courses to complete the studies.