Religion and Devotion in Europe, C.1215- C.1515

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Cambridge University Press, Jun 29, 1995 - History - 377 pages
This is the first one-volume survey in English of religion and devotion in Europe between 1215 and 1515. Intended primarily as a student textbook, it provides essential background for a proper appreciation of medieval Western society. Avoiding the history of institutional structures, the book concentrates on the spirituality that the medieval Church sought to promulgate and control. Its thematic structure provides accessible surveys of major themes, and addresses recent debates about key aspects of medieval Catholicism.

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Contents

Introduction
1
Latin Christendom
2
Defining the church
6
The Faith and its demands
10
Creeds church and Christianity
15
expanding definitions in the thirteenth century
21
instruction for the laity
25
Sacraments
30
Death
199
Prophecy and apocalypse
203
Caritas
206
Charity and social imperatives
207
Rich and poor
209
death and life
212
fraternities
215
Indulgences
217

saints and Purgatory
35
Tensions and authority
39
Access to the Faith
42
Structures of authority and channels of communication
43
Authority and uniformity
51
training
52
manuals for clergy and laity
59
sermons and preaching
64
Modes of acquisition
71
The Bible
73
Books and literacy
78
Drama
82
Icons and iconography
85
Localism
90
Religious life
92
Liturgical experience
93
The mass
98
A structured life
102
The laity and the regular orders
106
Quasiregular lay movements
108
Guilds and fraternities
116
Domestic regularity
122
undows hermits and anchorites
126
Devotion
136
The mass
137
Intercessors
142
Mary
144
Saints and their making
145
Creation of a cult
153
Relics
158
Images
161
Miracles
162
Pilgrimage
165
names and naming
168
Collective cults and guardian angels
170
Man and God
172
Humanism
175
Mysticism
177
Superstition
182
Elite and popular religion
184
Cosmology
188
The pilgrimage of life and death
191
The pilgrimage
193
Pray for me
225
post mortem commemorations
226
The dead and the living
232
Priests people and power
235
The priests and their roles
236
Lay expectations
241
The laity in control?
244
The problem of anticlericalism
249
Who controls piety?
252
Inclusion and exclusion
257
Bring them in
259
Problems of conversion
260
Crusades
264
The enemy within
267
Overenthusiasm
270
Heresy
272
Greeks and other denominations
275
Jews
278
Islam
285
The problem of scapegoats
289
The devil and his disciples
291
Christian society
293
excommunication and interdict
295
Lepers
298
Serfs and slaves
299
Women
303
Men
306
A summing up
308
The reality of religion
311
The nature of religious experience
312
Vitality and change
314
Living faith
318
Deathbed religion
322
Lifetime religion
327
Dubius in fide infidelis est?
329
The nature of doubt
333
Ignorance
336
Ambiguity
338
Things to come
340
Bibliography
343
Index
359
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