Description
This Oxford Studies in Medieval European History volume provides a comprehensive analysis of lay religious life in southern France during the crucial centuries between 1000 and 1350. John H. Arnold investigates how ordinary people practiced faith outside formal ecclesiastical structures, examining the development of lay confraternities, pilgrimage practices, and devotional communities.
Arnold demonstrates that lay religion was not simply imposed from above by the Church, but actively constructed by communities responding to their spiritual needs and social circumstances. The work challenges traditional narratives about medieval religious conformity by revealing the diversity and dynamism of popular religious expression in this region. Through careful examination of primary sources, Arnold traces how lay spirituality evolved alongside church reforms, heretical movements, and social transformations.
Essential for scholars of medieval religion, social history, and European spirituality, this book offers insights into how ordinary people negotiated their relationship with the sacred in daily life.
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