The reformation of the twelfth century /

This exhaustive volume embraces in synchronic detail one fascinating era of intense, rapid, and self-conscious change in human endeavor in Western Europe, from about 1040 to 1160. A watershed in the history of the church and of Christian society, the period reexamined the very definition of the word "Christian." Dean of studies in monastic spirituality (Princeton), Constable offers a well-written work--with arguments demonstrated principally by perusal of authentic texts themselves--that will surely become a classic. Eight chapters compose a journey to know the reformers in all their diversity, the circumstances, types, and rhetoric of reform, then the various monastic activities, both within the community and in secular society. More than 30 years in the writing, the study ponders the reforming ways of monks and nuns, as well as hermits, recluses, and wandering preachers, among others. Complementary to Constable's more diachronic Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social Thought (CH, Feb'96), the present work looks in depth at an epoch of passionate and ebullient enthusiasm in religious and spiritual life and sentiments that anticipates the later Reformation. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates, graduates, and researchers. R. Cormier; Longwood College