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Medieval Monasteries: Centers of Learning and Culture
How medieval monasteries worked as centers of study, manuscript copying, farming and hospitality, and why so much of the written record passed through them.
Faith and Health
Monasteries and Orders
Monks, monasteries and the military religious orders.
Medieval Military Orders: A Study of Chivalry and Service
How the Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights joined religious vows to fighting, and how each order ended, survived or changed form.
Medieval Monasticism: A Study of Spirituality and Community
The Rule of St Benedict, the daily round of prayer, the monastic vows and the main orders, and the spiritual aims that held a medieval community together.
Medieval Pilgrimage: A Journey of Faith and Devotion
Why medieval people went on pilgrimage, the great destinations of Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago, and how travelers found shelter and some protection on the road.
The History of the Inquisition
How the church's inquisitorial courts began in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who ran them, and how an inquiry moved from summons to sentence.
The History of the Inquisition: A Study of Persecution and Intolerance
An overview of how medieval churchmen and rulers persecuted heretics such as the Cathars, what we cannot know about numbers and methods, and how the Spanish Inquisition differed.
The History of the Medieval Monastic System
How medieval monasteries were organized across regions, from independent Benedictine abbeys to Cluny and Cistercian networks, and how land and wealth sustained them.
The Role of the Monasteries in Medieval Society
Monasteries served their neighbors as inns, hospitals, almshouses and landlords, and this guide explains what that help looked like and where it fell short.
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Medicine and Healing Doctors, herbs, theories and beliefs about illness and magic. Philosophy and Theology How medieval thinkers joined faith and reason. The Black Death The plague of the 1300s and its effects on society. Inquisition and Heresy How medieval church courts pursued heresy, and what the records really show. Saints and Mystics Holy men and women, visionaries and a martyr. Theologians and Reformers Thinkers who shaped and challenged Church teaching. The Church and Its Power How the medieval church was organized and how it used its influence. Afterlife and Purgatory What people believed about death, heaven, hell and purgatory. Sin, Salvation and Virtue Medieval ideas about sin, salvation, providence and the virtues. Jews in Medieval Europe Jewish communities, scholarship, restrictions and expulsions. Pilgrimage, Relics and Shrines Holy journeys, saints bones and the shrines that drew travelers.