History of the Catholic Church
In 530, Saint Benedict wrote his Rule of St Benedict as a practical guide for monastic community life. Its message spread to monasteries throughout Europe. Monasteries became major conduits of civilization. They preserved craft and artistic skills and maintained intellectual culture. They functioned as  spiritual , agricultural, economic and production centers. During this period the Visigoths and Lombards moved away from Arianism for Catholicism. Pope Gregory the Great reformed the ecclesiastical structures and administration. Then, he launched renewed missionary efforts. Missionaries such as Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent to begin the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, others took Christianity into northern Europe. They spread Catholicism among the Germanic, and Slavic peoples. The Synod of Whitby of 664 was decisive for the reintegration of the Celtic Church of the British Isles into the Roman hierarchy,. And in Italy, the 728 Donation of Sutri and the 756 Donation of Pepin left the papacy in charge a sizable kingdom. The Donation of Constantine further consolidated  the papal position over the western part of the former Roman Empire.