A History of the Church in the Middle Ages

"Conceptually well organized, stylistically clear, intellectually thoughtful, and pedagogically useful."
- Thomas Head, Speculum
"For its humane and learned approach to its enormous canvas, as well as for the cogency with which it penetrates at speed to the essentials of a vanished historical epoch, this History of the Church in the Middle Ages deserves a very wide audience indeed."
- Barrie Dobson, English Historical Review
"To have written a scholarly and very readable history of the Western Church over a millennium is a remarkable tour de force, for which Donald Logan is to be warmly congratulated."
- C.H Lawrence, The Tablet
"A feat of historical synthesis, most confident in its telling of the coming of Christianity. Books like Logan's are needed more than ever before."
- Miri Rubin, TLS
In this fascinating survey, F. Donald Logan introduces the reader to the Christian church, from the conversion of the Celtic and Germanic peoples to the discovery of the New World. He reveals how the church unified the people of Western Europe as they worshipped with the same ceremonies and used Latin as the language of civilized communication. From remote, rural parish to magnificent urban cathedral, A History of the Church in the Middle Ages explores the role of the church as a central element in determining a thousand years of history.
This new edition brings the book right up to date with recent scholarship, and includes an expanded introduction exploring the interaction of other faiths - particularly Judaism and Islam - with the Christian church.

F. Donald Logan is Professor Emeritus of History at Emmanuel College, Boston, and Honorary Fellow of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. His previous publications include The Vikings in History (third edition, 2005), The Medieval Court of Arches (2005), and Runaway Religions in Medieval England (1996).

Preface. Introduction. 1. The Pre-Medieval Church 2. The Beginning of the Middle Ages 3. Justinian and Mohammed 4. The Scene is Set: St Gregory the Great to St Boniface 5. Church, Carolingians and Vikings 6. The Church in Disarray, c.850–c.1050 7. Reform, the East, Crusade 8. The Twelfth Century 9. Three Twelfth-Century Profiles 10. The Age of Innocent III 11. The Emergence of Dissent and the Rise of the Friars 12. Two Legacies: Universities and Cathedrals 13. Developments and Fulfilments: the Later Thirteenth Century 14. Death and Purgatory 15. Exile in Avignon and Aftermath 16. The Great Schism 17. The Fifteenth Century. Epilogue: 1492: the anatomy of a year. List of popes, 500–1500