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The Medieval Church

Seminar and Essay Questions

Why did criticisms of clerical corruption emerge so frequently during the later Middle Ages?
Why were popes, from the time of Gregory VII onwards, so keen to reform the Church?
Was the late medieval Church a vibrant institution enjoying widespread lay support, or an increasingly criticised one whose weaknesses made reform inevitable?

Documents

Odo of Rigaud, The Habits of Priests in Normandy

Essential Reading

Biller, Peter, 'Through a Glass Darkly: Seeing Medieval Heresy', in Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson (eds), The Medieval World (London, 2001), pp. 308-326.

Ozment, Steven, The Age of Reform 1250-1550: An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe (New Haven, 1980), pp. 1-39.

Swanson, R.N., 'The Pre-Reformation Church' in A. Pettegree, ed., (London, 2000), pp. 17-24

Other resources

Gregory VII, 1090
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on and .
Nelson, Lynn H.,
(includes English translations of important texts such as the full text of )
St Francis of Assisi: The Canticle of the CreaturesLink opens in a new window
Rule of St Benedict: extracts (from )

Further Reading

General

Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c.1400-c.1580 2nd edn, (New Haven, 2005), Introduction and Chapter 1.

Gorski, Philip S., , American Sociological Review 65 (2000), 138-67.

Head, T., and R. Landes (eds), The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response in France Around the Year 1000 (Ithaca, 1992)

Lynch, Joseph H., The Medieval Church: A Brief History (Harlow, 1992)

Oakley, Francis, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1980)

Ozment, Steven, The Age of Reform 1250-1550 (New Haven, 1980)

Southern, Richard, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth, 1970)

Tellenbach, Gerd, (Toronto, 1991)

Van Engen, John, , American Historical Review 91 no. 3 (1986), 519-52.

Religion and Religious Life

Arnold, John H., The Making of Lay Religion in Southern France, c.1000-1350 (Oxford, 2024), available as an e-book

Barber, Malcolm, The New Knighthood: A History of the Order of the Temple (Cambridge, 1994)

Bossy, John, Christianity in the West, 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985)

Brooke, C.N.L., and Brooke, R.B., Popular Religion in the Middle Ages: Western Europe 1000-1300 (London, 1984)

Brown, Peter, (Chicago, 1981)

Burgess, Clive, 'The Right Ordering of Souls': The Parish of All Saints' Bristol on the Eve of the Reformation (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2018), particularly Chapter 6 on pp. 193-222.

Bynum, Caroline Walker, (Berkeley, 1982)

Goldberg, P.J.P., 鈥楩rom Tableaux to Text: The York Corpus Christi Play c.1378-1428鈥�, Viator, 43 (2012), pp. 247-76.

French, Katherine L.,The Good Women of the Parish: Gender and Religion After the Black Death (Philadelphia, 2008), Chapter 5.

Hamilton, Bernard, Religion in the Medieval West (London, 1986)

Lawrence, C. H., Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Harlow, 1989)

Le Goff, Jacques, The Birth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (London, 1984)

Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1984)

Swanson, R.N., Religion and Devotion in Europe c.1215 - c.1515 (Cambridge, 1995)

Vauchez, Andre, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1997)

Vauchez, Andre, The Laity in the Middle Ages: Religious Beliefs and Devotional Practices (Notre Dame, 1993)

The Papacy

Barraclough, Geoffrey, The Medieval Papacy (London, 1968)

Burns, J.H., and Thomas Izbicki (eds. and trans.), Conciliarism and Papalism (Cambridge, 1997)

Duffy, Eamon, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes (New Haven, 1997)

Morris, C., (Oxford, 1989)

Partner, Peter, The Lands of St Peter (London, 1972)

Robinson, I.S., The Papacy 1073-1198: Continuity and Innovation (Cambridge, 1990)

Sayers, Jane, Innocent III: Leader of Europe 1198-1216 (London, 1994)

Ullmann, Walter, A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages (London, 1974)

Ullmann, Walter, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (London, 1970) []

Heresy

Barber, Malcolm, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages (Harlow, 2000)

Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium, rev. ed. (London, 1993)

Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose, trans. William Weaver (London, 1984)

Hamilton, Bernard, The Medieval Inquisition (London, 1981)

Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision (New Haven, 1998)

Kieckhefer, Richard, Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century (University Park, 1998)

Kieckhefer, Richard, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989)

Kors, Alan, and Edward Peters, eds., Witchcraft in Europe, 1100-1700: A Documentary History (Philadelphia, 1972)

Lambert, Malcolm, The Cathars (Oxford, 1998)

Lambert, Malcolm, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1992)

Leff, Gordon, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages, 2 vols (Manchester, 1967)

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, Montaillou, trans. Barbara Bray (London, 1978)

Wakefield, W, (London, 1974)

Wakefield, Walter L., and Evans, Austin P. (eds. and trans.), Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York, 1969) [An important collection of documents]

The Friars

Armstrong, Regis J., and Brady, Ignatius C. (eds.), Francis and Clare: The Complete Works (New York, 1982)

Armstrong, Regis J., et al. (eds. and trans.), Francis of Assisi: Early Documents: The Saint (Hyde Park, NY, 1999)

Eco, Umberto, The Name of the Rose, trans. William Weaver (London, 1984)

Hamilton, Bernard, The Medieval Inquisition (London, 1981)

Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision (New Haven, 1998)

Lawrence, C.H., The Friars (Harlow, 1994)