 Before the 8th century AD there were several Christian rites in Western Europe.Such diversity of practice was often considered unimportant so long as Rome's primacy was accepted.Gradually the diversity tended to lessen so that by the time of the final fusion in the Carolingian period the Roman Rite, its Ambrosian variant, and the Hispano-Gallican Mozarabic Rite were practically all that were left.