Monasticism and Intellectual Life

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…and used ribbed vaulting with flying buttresses for support. Many of these structural masterpieces are still standing today. Religious life in the middle ages was relatively unstable most of the time. Only when certain reform efforts were made did any unity and progress exist. Schools seemed to make slow but steady progress, at least for men. Throughout all of the changes and reform, Christianity and intellectual life survived and spread to most people in Europe.