The Monastic World: A 1,200-Year History

A major new history of medieval monasticism, from the fourth to the sixteenth century

From the late Roman Empire onwards, monasteries and convents were a common sight throughout Europe. But who were monasteries for? What kind of people founded and maintained them? And how did monasticism change over the thousand years or so of the Middle Ages?

Andrew Jotischky traces the history of monastic life from its origins in the fourth century to the sixteenth. He shows how religious houses shelter...