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A rich study of what medieval Christianity meant for ordinary people, and how it changed across the middle ages, arguably as profound as changes in the Reformation period, providing a wider context for medieval Christianity by focusing on southern France in a period mainly known for heresy and for the Church's attack upon heresy.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Part I
- 1: Christianity and Local Churches, c. 1000-c. 1150
- 2: Peace, Violence and Saints, c. 1000-c. 1150
- 3: A Re-formed Landscape, c. 1100-c. 1200
- 4: Towns and the Holy, c. 1100-c. 1250
- 5: Papal Interventions, c. 1200-c. 1350
- Part II
- 6: Space and Materiality
- 7: Instruction and Storytelling
- 8: The Discipline of Belief
- 9: Negotiations of the Faith
- 10: Being Christian
- Conclusion
- Appendix: The New Cathar Wars
About the author
John H. Arnold trained at the University of York, worked at UEA, and then for many years at Birkbeck, University of London, before becoming chair of medieval history at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of King's College, in 2016. He has published extensively on various aspects of the cultural and social history of medieval European history.
Summary
A rich study of what medieval Christianity meant for ordinary people, and how it changed across the middle ages, arguably as profound as changes in the Reformation period, providing a wider context for medieval Christianity by focusing on southern France in a period mainly known for heresy and for the Church's attack upon heresy.
Additional text
The attention paid to ordinary people in John H. Arnold's The Making of Lay Religion in Southern France, c. 1000-1350 makes it stand out among histories of medieval religion. Writing a history 'from below' of developments often exclusively viewed as imposed 'from above', Arnold mines the archives ofthe Languedoc to show how lay people and their communities shaped - as well as suffered - a watershed moment in Christian doctrine and practice.
