This volume provides a record of the response, by eight expert scholars in the field of medieval monastic studies, to the question "To what extent did abbots an

This collection of studies investigates how people of the 10th to early 12th century experienced and represented processes of intentional change in the Church,

From the deserts of Egypt to the emergence of the great monastic orders, the story of late antique and medieval monasticism in the West used to be straightforwa

The fact that certain cultures and religions produced a way of life which, for the sake of self-perfection, expected its adherents to withdraw from various obli

The Council of Constance and the conclusion of the Papal Schism released long pent-up energies of reform throughout the Church and in the religious Orders in pa