1. Common religion Christianity dominated the whole continent and formed the worldview of the Europeans.

2. Theocentrism God was in the centre of all human activities. Theologists believed that if God was the only necessary being, all the rest may not have existed.

3. Common usage of Latin Educated people could communicate within the common code that was Latin. It was used mainly during the liturgies, at schools, universities and in offices.

4. Feudalism After the slavery period, feudalism has become the main political and economic regime based on the hierarchy. The society was divided into estates with the specific tasks assigned to them.

5. Art styles We distinguish two main styles visible in architecture, painting and sculpting of Middle Ages: roman and gothic style

6. Philosophy The most important philosophical concepts of that time were:
– augustianism (the name derives from St Augustine – III/IV century).
– thomism (St Thomas Aquinas – XIII century),
– misticism (based on the idea that God can be only experienced by the enlightement, the illumination coming from Him and it's not possible to discover the truth with one's own mind).

7. The activity of orders It is because of them that the ancient culture has survived the societal collapse (the works were gathered, copied and commented in the monasteries). However, the main task of the Black Monks (VI century), Cisterians (XI century), Franciscans and Dominicans (XIII century) was to promote the religious attitude.

8. Pre-university education The priests and monks had big influence on the organisation and teaching methods. The schooling took place in the parish, cathedral and monastery schools and the universal system of education on the whole continent included seven fields of science called liberal arts¹.

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¹ Seven liberal arts consisted of so-called trivium and quadrivium.To the first group covered grammar, dialectic (logic) and rhetoric. It was the lower educational level. On the higher one– quadrivium –geometry, arithmetic, astronomy and music were taught.

9. University education Since the XIII century, some schools started to change into universities. Law, medicine and theology, considered to be the most important branch of science, were lectured there. One of the teaching methods was scholasticism (the name comes from the Latin word schola - school) presuming that the catechism can be justified in the rational way.

10. Role models The medieval art promoted three role models:
- saint,
- knight,
- lord

11. Anonymity We have only few information about the medieval artists, many of them remained anonymous. It is connected not only with the historical circumstances (many documents were lost). Authors believed that the artwork is made for the God’s glory, not for their own. They thought that the real creator is God and the human is only a reproducer.

12. Benefiting from the ancient culture Contrary to the common belief that the people of the Middle Ages totally rejected the pagan Antiquity, after the V century there were still many visible references to the ancient accomplishments. To the heritage of Antiquity belong for example: Latin, natural science, astronomy, philosophy.