The Church was the central institution of the European Middle Ages, and the foundation of medieval life. Professor Lynch's admirable survey (concentrating on the western church, and emphasising ideas and trends over personalities) meets a long-felt need for a single-volume comprehensive history, designed for students and non-specialists.

This essay is unique in that it presents the mediaeval church not merely as a major proponent in the struggle for temporal power, but as an all-pervasive aspect of mediaeval life itself. The papacy was no more the church than the empire was feudalism. The church was Christendom and Christendom was the totality of European civilization. It was a way of life which had for its first purpose the worship of God and after that the civilization of man. Its members were the inhabitants of western Europe led and comforted by their parish priests, ruled—and according to chance—abused or protected by their lords and bishops, who together glimpsed only occasionally and from afar the passing might and splendor of emperors and popes. It is this church which Professor Baldwin has described with a skill and accuracy grounded in the most rigorous historical discipline and m a sympathy and understanding which can derive only from deep religious faith.

Why does one's concept of the medieval church have a direct bearing on one's attitude toward ecumenism? How was Europe evangelized? Why is it essential to understand the different relationships of church-to-state between the West and Byzantium in order to understand the church's role in Eastern culture today? What common practices of public worship and personal piety have their roots in the medieval church? The Medieval Church: From the Dawn of the Middle Ages to the Eve of the Reformation addresses these questions and many more to demonstrate the pervasive influence of the past on modern piety, practice, and beliefs. For many years the Medieval period of church history has been ignored or denigrated as being the "dark ages," an attitude fostered by Enlightenment assumptions. Yet not only does this millennium provide a bridge to the early church, it created modern Europe and its nations, institutions, and the concept of Christendom as well. The Medieval Church, written in an easily accessible style, introduces the reader to the fascinating interplay of authority and dissent, the birth and development of doctrinal beliefs, the spirituality of the common person, and the enduring allure of Christian mysticism. The Medieval Church is a companion to The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages by E. Glenn Hinson and The Modern Church: From the Dawn of the Reformation to the Eve of the Third Millennium by Glenn Miller.

Although the Church played a major role in the development of towns and cities from the earliest times, many important aspects of the early stages of urbanization in England are still poorly understood.Urban Growth and the Medieval Church employs a wealth of historical and archaeological evidence from two key towns - Gloucester and Worcester - to provide a comprehensive picture of their respective developments throughout the medieval period. Only then can the crucial role played by the Church, in shaping the spiritual, social, economic and cultural development of the urban environment, be discovered.

Illustrations in liturgical books, such as breviaries and missals, as well as books of private devotion, such as psalters and books of hours, reveal the world of the Church in the Middle Ages in vivid detail.

A classic history of the church from the accession of Gregory the Great to the Reformation.

Alexander Murray has long had an intellectual interest in the history of religion - struggling between his inbuilt anti-clericism and his pronounced monastic leanings. The five essays in Conscience and Authority in the Medieval Church take on this dialectic, addressing the difficult relationship between private conscience and public authority in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In any organization, political, military, commercial, or religious, the relationship of conscience and authority is always potentially fraught, and can create dilemmas both for those in authority and those without. This volume records how our European predecessors approached and dealt with the same dilemmas as we face in the modern world.

Originally published in 1925. The detailed contents also deal with both the social and personal aspects of church history. Contents include: Gregory the Great - The Secular and Monastic Clergy 600-750 - The Missionaries - The Carolingian Renaissance - Relations of Eastern and Western Churches - Growth of Papal Power - The Crusades - Twelfth Century Monasticism - Canon Law - The Friars - Scholastic Philosophy - Avignon Popes - Fourteenth Century Diocese and Parish in England - Medieval Heresy - The Conciliar Movement - Etc. Plus two maps. Many of the earliest books on religion, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Home Farm Books are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.