Overview

The Medieval Clergy gives voice to the so-called secular clergy in the Central Middle Ages -- a group that included priests, bishops, deacons, and canons, whose primary responsibilities included ministering to laypeople. For most medieval people, these clergy stood at the center of religious life: they served as the face of the church and the link between the faithful and God, between this life and the next. These clerics administered the sacraments, and their churches sheltered the poor, housed the relics of the saints, and offered places of protection and community. The documents collected here allow readers to explore the richness of the lives of these clergy: the ideals they strove to emulate, the complexity of their lived experiences, and the multifaceted roles they played -- pastoral, sacramental, familial, social, educational, liturgical, memorial, military, economic, legal, and civic. Most of the documents here appear for the first time in English; the collection also includes dossiers of interconnected documents that allow students and non-specialists to explore individuals, ideas, and historical contexts in depth.