Rise and Fall of the Medieval Monastery

First published in 1974 as a study of the monastic world, this history of Western monasticism concentrates on the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, when Benedictine houses, Cluny, the Cistercians, regular canons, and the new friars reshaped European religion. Brooke describes the rule, the daily office, the economy of estates, the planning of cloister and church, and the roles of monks, nuns, and lay brothers. He follows the expansion of orders across Europe and the later strains of wealth, war, and criticism that weakened the older monasteries. Architecture, liturgy, and community life are treated together. The book is an institutional and social history, not a collection of saints' lives.

Bound in dark red buckram with blocked gilt design. Dark red slipcase.