This volume features 22 essays on the medieval European Catholic Church: the emergence of the laity within the church from the 11th to the 13th centuries, religion in concept and practice, women's choice, and mystics.

In these lively and incisive essays André Vauchez explores the religious beliefs and devotional practices of laypeople in medieval Europe and grapples with some of the most difficult issues in medieval history: the nature of popular devotion, the role of religion in civic life, the sociology of religious attitudes and practices, and the relationship between the intersecting spheres of lay and clerical culture.