 Under the Visigoths, culture was not as highly developed as it had been under Roman rule, when a goal of higher education had been to prepare gentlemen to take their places in municipal and imperial administration.With the collapse of the imperial administrative super-structure above the provincial level (which was practically moribund) the task of maintaining formal education and government shifted to the Church from the old ruling class of educated aristocrats and gentry.The clergy, for the most part, emerged as the qualified personnel to manage higher administration in concert with local powerful 'notables who gradually displaced the old town councils.