In three generations the cultural renewal radiating from the court under Charlemagne had brought its fruits in the entire area of Carolingian rule. In the episcopal cities and in the monasteries libraries were created, many of them with hundreds of volumes. All important churches possessed splendid liturgical manuscripts in precious bindings which had been painted in carolingian workshops. But already, from the mid ninth century onwards, the security of the empire was under threat from Vikings and Saracens, and shortly after the turn of the century almost annually repeated attacks by the Hungarians began. Even cities like Trier (882) were set ablaze and many monasteries were destroyed; the monks in their flight were able to save the libraries of some of them, together with the relics of the monastic patron. In large parts of Germany, as a result of the Hungarian threat, cultural life could be eked out only with difficulty, or else it ceased entirely. Only after the victory against the Hungarians in 955 could a new resurgence get slowly under way, which was aided by the Gorze monastic reform. In Bavaria, which had been devastated, the reconstruction was undertaken by bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg with the help of monks trained at Trier. Among the centres that had remained untouched was St Gall, and because its monastic school was much visited and was also able to send teachers to various places such as Mainz, Speyer, and Salzburg, there was disseminated a minuscule with ligatures of an Irish kind, as well as the St Gall initial style and St Gall neumes. This wave also touched Freising, where Italian and Lotharingian influences came together.