Here is the first general account of the religious and irreligious ideas entertained by the populace at large in the Middle Ages. Between 1000 and 1300, vital changes took place in thought and art and religious inspiration, and the renewal of urban life in a world still centered on the feudal knight and peasant. How can we enter the minds of the mass of the people during those centuries? How did laymen look upon bishops and popes, the Bible, the saints; how did they regard judgment, heaven and hell? The answers to such questions lie in what remains of the churches in which people worshipped, in the images of stone and glass they valued, in contemporary poems and songs, and in other scattered sources. But the evidence requires careful and imaginative interpretation, and this the authors have provided, bringing each theme to life in text and pictures and expertly supplying the framework of a historical context.--From publisher description.

This new edition is a marvelous teaching tool and true feast for the intellectually curious. - Daniel Bornstein, Texas A&M University

Comprising a variety of translated documents from the 11th to the early 16th centuries John Shinners' book demonstrates the rich diversity of religious life led by people in medieval Western Europe.

Religious experience in the European Middle Ages represented an intersection of a range of aspects of existence, including everyday life, relations of power, and urban development, among others. As such, religion offered a reflection of many facets of life in this period. This book brings together scholars from different parts of the world who use a variety of different examples from the medieval era to show this specific path through which to reach a renewed perspective for understanding the European Middle Ages.

These ten essays by John Van Engen situate religion in the history of medieval Western Europe: as an unavoidable presence in everyday life, as a conceptual framework for social and political life, as a force integral to its historical dynamics. Four of the essays are bibliographical and retrospective in nature, reviewing the field broadly, but also pointing toward a more dialectical approach to understanding the interaction of religion and society in the European middle ages. Other studies deal with large topics usually subsumed under the abstract term 'Christianization'. They grapple with learned sources as well as those associated with 'popular' religion, and show what can be gained from an imaginative use of all that lawyers and theologians said about religion in their society. The essays, finally, look for the quality and dynamic of change, even inventiveness, released by religious action and conviction in medieval European society.

Christianity in the later Middle Ages was flourishing, popular and vibrant and the institutional church was generally popular - in stark contrast to the picture of corruption and decline painted by the later Reformers which persists even today. Norman Tanner, the pre-eminent historian of the later medieval church, provides a rich and authoritative history of religion in this pivotal period. Despite signs of turbulence and demands for reform, he demonstrates that the church remained powerful, self-confident and deeply rooted. Weaving together key themes of religious history - the Christian roots of Europe; the crusades; the problematic question of the Inquisition; the relationship between the church and secular state; the central role of monasticism; and, the independence of the English church - "The Ages of Faith" is an impressive tribute to a lifetime's research into this subject. But to many readers the central fascination of "The Ages of Faith" will be its perceptive insights into popular and individual spiritual experience: sin, piety, penance, heresy, the role of the mystics and even 'making merry'. "The Ages of Faith" is a major contribution to the Reformation debate and offers a revealing vision of individual and popular religion in an important period so long obscured by the drama of the Reformation.

Western European civilization in the medieval centuries was a time of significant development as the ascendency of the Roman Catholic Church spread Christianity throughout Europe. This book examines the religious life of this formative period, the history of the institutional Church, and focuses on the interaction between the Church and secular members of society. This new edition has been updated, and includes new visual evidence and a glossary of technical terms.