James D. Mixson is an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama. His recent publications include Poverty’s Proprietors: Ownership and Mortal Sin at the Origins of the Observant Movement (Brill, 2009) and several essays on the history of late-medieval religious reform. He is also the editor (with Bert Roest) of A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond (Brill, 2015).

"The fruit of long study of medieval monks, ascetics, mystics, and the rules that they lived by, The World of Medieval Monasticism is a lively and erudite companion for any reader interested in exploring the many astonishing forms of Western religious life."Barbara H. Rosenwein, Loyola University Chicago

• Contents Foreword by Giles Constable    xiPreface    xiiiList of Abbreviations    xvTranslator’s Note    xvii1. The Beginnings    1Retreat from the World    1The Establishment of Monastic Communities    7The First Monasteries in Europe    132. The Benedictine Rule and Its Longevity    24Benedict as “Textual Trace”    24The Rule of Saint Benedict    29The Career of Benedict and His Rule    34The Second Benedict and the Reform of the Frankish Monasteries    383. The Flowering of the Benedictines    50A New Beginning in Lotharingia    50Cluny: The Establishment of Monastic Liberty 5   4The “Cluniac Church”: A Congregation of Monasteries    63Ordo Cluniacensis    67Church for the World    72Monastic Life in Service of King and Nobility, Pope and Bishop    804. Return to the Desert    89The New Hermits    89 To Live by One’s Own Law    94Charismatic Preaching and Religious Movements    109A Return to the Institutions of the Church    1205. The Regular Canons: The Clergy’s New Self-Understanding    1256. The Cistercians: Collegiality Instead of Hierarchy    136Robert’s Path from Molesme to Cîteaux and Back    136The Measure of the Pure Rule    141The Charter of Charity and the Invention of the “Order”    1467. The Success of the Cistercian Model    158From the Premonstratensians to the Gilbertines and the Carthusians    158Cluny, Knights, and Hospitals: The Reform of Older Congregations and the Creation of New “Functional” Orders    1668. Diversity and Competition    1809. New Concepts of Belief    186The Search for Religious Identity    186Beguines and Humiliati: A New Lay Piety    193“Holy Preachers” and “Lesser Brothers”    20010. The Franciscans: A Mendicant Order with the Whole World as Its Monastery    206Francis of Assisi and His Community    206The Legacy of Francis 216 Clare of Assisi    22511. The Dominicans: Holy Preaching and Pastoral Care    232Dominic and the Building of a New Order    232Rationality and Constitution in the Service of the Salvation of Souls    23912. Transformations of Eremitical Life    249The Carmelites: From the Mountain into the Cities    250The Augustinian Hermits    256 13. A New Chapter in the Story of the Vita Religiosa    263The Three Ages of Salvation History    263Eremitical Congregations and the Work of Peter of Morrone    267Devotio Moderna    276The Revelations of Birgitta    28014. Mendicant Orders in Conflict: Struggles over Poverty and Observance    28615. Reformers and Reforms at the End of the Middle Ages    298Reform from Above: Pope Benedict XII    298Reform from Below: The Rise of the Observants    30616. A Look Back    31317. Fundamental Structures of the Vita Religiosa in the Middle Ages    316The Individual and the Community    318The Monastery and the Law    332Institutional Forms: Establishment and Preservation    342Constructing Particular Pasts    349Cloister and World    353Temporalia    359On the Search for God toward Knowledge of the World    364Chronology    373Map 382 Bibliography    384Image Credits    432Index of People and Places    433Index of Monasteries, Congregations, and Orders    440