Wayward Monks and the Religious Revolution of the Eleventh Century

Book info: Wayward Monks and the Religious Revolution of the Eleventh Century (Leather Bound, 320 pages) – Brill, 1997. Language: English.

Examining a central change in European religious thought, this study investigates the changing roles of monks in society to help understand the reform of Christian ideology. It is based on extant monastic writings, including hagiography and polemics.The book explains the diversification of monasticism in this period as an outgrowth of a shift toward greater interest in lay religious life. Focusing on the German Empire, it examines monastic values in such areas as missionary work, public preaching, pilgrimage, and the polemics of the gregorian reform.The sections on the role of polemic as a catalyst and reflection of monastic change and on missionary activities as part of ecclesiastical reform are especially important for the historian of religion. The book fills an important gap in the study of central European monasticism. Editorial Reviews Review "...a provocative and wide-ranging examination..."
John W. Bernhardt, The Catholic Historical Review, 1999.
About the Author Phyllis G. Jestice, Ph.D. (1989) in History and Humanities, Stanford University, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. She has published several articles on monastic thought in the tenth and eleventh centuries.