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In the 7th- 11th centuries the culture of the early Britons changed greatly under the influence of Christianity.The monasteries where the art of reading and writing was practiced became the centres of almost all the learning and education in the country.No wonder many poets and writers imitated those Latin books about the early Christians, and they also made up many stories of their own about saints Though the poets were English, they wrote in Latin.

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A writer of this time was Bede. His famous book "The History of the English Church" was well known in France and in Italy because the people of the Middle Ages considered it to be a scien- tific book. The book is important and interesting for us because it shows what the country was ike thirteen hundred years ago and how men acted and thought at that time.

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Most of the British writers and poets about whom we are going to speak were educated at Universities. In 1168 some professors founded schools at the town of Oxford, which formed the first university. A second university was formed in 1209 at Cambridge.

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The greatest writer of the 14th century was Geoffrey Chaucer He was born in 1340 in London. At 17 he was a page to a lady at the court of Edward III. At 20 he was in France and was then taken prisoner by the French. When he returned to England, his education was none the worse for that, though he had not been to a university.Chaucer's earliest poems were written in imitation of the French romances.During 1373 and the next few years, Chaucer traveled much and lived a busy life.He went to France, and made three trips to Italy.

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Chaucer was well read in the old Roman authors. Italian literature taught him the meaning of national literature. In 1384 Chaucer wrote his masterpiece the "Canterbury Tales".