André Vauchez

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) has been a doctor of the church since 1970. History recalls that she was outspoken, as well as being a mystic, visionary, and prophet. This is a portrait of a driven women who never ceased giving her life for her faith and the well being of her fellow man. What results is a real life portrait of a woman who experienced monumental crises such as the black plague, the Hundred Year War, internecine fighting in Italy, and papal exile in Avignon. This tertiary Dominican, who did not know how to read or write, became the confidant and critic of the powerful: princes, kings, bishops, and popes.

Concise and detailed articles on all aspects of the period from the fifth to the fifteenth century. It explores art, architecture, religion, law, science, language, philosophy, and theology, as well as cultural, religious, intellectual, social and political history. With a focus on focus on Europe and Christendom, the Encyclopedia also covers the rise of Islam and people of other cultures with whom Europeans came into contact.

In these lively and incisive essays, Andre Vauchez, a leading French historian of medieval religious life, explores the religious beliefs and devotional practices of laypeople in medieval Europe. Vauchez's previous books established him as an authority on medieval sanctity. In The Laity in the Middle Ages he turns his attention to the various forms of devotion that flourished on the fringes of officially recognized sanctity. The recurrent theme is the struggle, never entirely successful, of the Christian laity to carve out for themselves a religious role that would confer spiritual dignity on the circumstances and concerns of their daily lives. This volume grapples with some of the most important and most difficult issues in medieval history: the nature of popular devotion, the role of religion in civic life, the sociology of religious attitudes and practices, and the relationship between the intersecting spheres of lay and clerical culture. The essays that examine how spiritual ideals of chastity shaped the social practice of marriage and how the intimate experiences of female visionaries and mystics impinged on the formal structure of the Church are a noteworthy addition to the rapidly growing body of literature on women in the Middle Ages.

this is NOT the book by Karen Armstrong. Its author is Adrian House