From The High Middle Ages To The Eve Of The Reformation

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.

The Handbook of European History 1400-1600 brings together the best scholarship into an array of topical chapters that present current knowledge and thinking in ways useful to the specialist and accessible to students and to the educated non-specialist. Forty-one leading scholars in this field of history present the state of knowledge about the grand themes, main controversies and fruitful directions for research of European history in this era. Volume 1 (Structures and Assertions) described the people, lands, religions and political structures which define the setting for this historical period. Volume 2 (Visions, Programs, Outcomes) covers the early stages of the process by which newly established confessional structures began to work their way among the populace.

Christianity in the later Middle Ages was flourishing, popular and vibrant and the institutional church was generally popular - in stark contrast to the picture of corruption and decline painted by the later Reformers which persists even today. Norman Tanner, the pre-eminent historian of the later medieval church, provides a rich and authoritative history of religion in this pivotal period. Despite signs of turbulence and demands for reform, he demonstrates that the church remained powerful, self-confident and deeply rooted. Weaving together key themes of religious history - the Christian roots of Europe; the crusades; the problematic question of the Inquisition; the relationship between the church and secular state; the central role of monasticism; and, the independence of the English church - "The Ages of Faith" is an impressive tribute to a lifetime's research into this subject. But to many readers the central fascination of "The Ages of Faith" will be its perceptive insights into popular and individual spiritual experience: sin, piety, penance, heresy, the role of the mystics and even 'making merry'. "The Ages of Faith" is a major contribution to the Reformation debate and offers a revealing vision of individual and popular religion in an important period so long obscured by the drama of the Reformation.

This book describes and explains the conditions and changes happening in Germany from 1050-1200.