How was medieval Europe held together? People of dissimilar occupations and economic interests, living in widely separate parts of western Europe, came to recognise and act upon a common set of cultural beliefs. This framework of shared social customs and values, that is distinctively medieval and European, arose from the interaction between secular and ecclesiastical power, but these developments can no longer be convincingly viewed as arising solely from events such as the Wars of Investiture and the Fourth Lateran Council. The historiography of this study shows that the medieval mental framework was not solely concerned with the great struggles between Rome and lay rulers, but neither can we assume that local communities were islands of cohesion in a wider world of chaos and conflict. The case studies presented demonstrate how texts were used as weapons by ecclesiastical authorities in defining their relationships with lay powers. Other studies here focus upon how land and kinship was used to define the social relations between the laity and the clergy.The concluding section concentrates upon the solution of conflicts.

A revelatory account of the nouvelle thŽologie, a clerical movement that revitalized the Catholic ChurchÕs role in twentieth-century French political life. Secularism has been a cornerstone of French political culture since 1905, when the republic formalized the separation of church and state. At times the barrier of secularism has seemed impenetrable, stifling religious actors wishing to take part in political life. Yet in other instances, secularism has actually nurtured movements of the faithful. Soldiers of God in a Secular World explores one such case, that of the nouvelle thŽologie, or new theology. Developed in the interwar years by Jesuits and Dominicans, the nouvelle thŽologie reimagined the ChurchÕs relationship to public life, encouraging political activism, engaging with secular philosophy, and inspiring doctrinal changes adopted by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Nouveaux thŽologiens charted a path between the old alliance of throne and altar and secularismÕs demand for the privatization of religion. Envisioning a Church in but not of the public sphere, Catholic thinkers drew on theological principles to intervene in political questions while claiming to remain at armÕs length from politics proper. Sarah Shortall argues that this Òcounter-politicsÓ was central to the mission of the nouveaux thŽologiens: by recoding political statements in the ostensibly apolitical language of doctrine, priests were able to enter into debates over fascism and communism, democracy and human rights, colonialism and nuclear war. This approach found its highest expression during the Second World War, when the nouveaux thŽologiens led the spiritual resistance against Nazism. Claiming a powerful public voice, they collectively forged a new role for the Church amid the momentous political shifts of the twentieth century.