"International, multinational and yet intimately local, the Church was the central institution of the European Middle Ages. No aspect of the medieval world was untouched by its influence: it shaped the daily round of peasant and magnate alike, from cradle to grave; it was a key actor in the high politics of kings and emperors; it ordered the relations of man and woman, the individual and the group, the ruler and the ruled; it was the driving force behind many of the economic and administrative advances of the age; it was the source and stimulus of western learning; and the immortal souls of everyone, from the lowest to the highest, were in its care. Anyone who wishes to understand the lives and outlook of our medieval forebears must begin and end with it." "A new up-to-date survey, within the covers of a single manageable volume, has been a long-felt need - both to explain the history of the Church as an institution and also to explore its all pervasive role in medieval life. Joseph H. Lynch's splendid book now convincingly fills the gap. Written by a scholar for student and non-specialist readers, it is both authoritative and accessible, and its appearance will be widely welcomed." "The book traces the development of Christianity, and the Church that embodied it in western Europe, from the decline of the Roman Empire to the fifteenth century. The emphasis throughout is on change and development, for medieval society was no more static than is the society of today. Indeed, in the course of the thousand years covered in the book, we see it evolve from primitive and complex roots into a dynamic culture that, as the book closes, is poised on the threshold of the remarkable expansion of early modern times, when European civilization began to figure in a new world role. The Western Church evolved along with that society, sometimes in opposition to it, sometimes incorporating its structures and values into itself, and always ordering and shaping them in the process.".

"Although the book is richly informative, Professor Lynch is more concerned with movements and ideas than names and dates. His frame is Western Europe, though attention is given to both Byzantine Christianity and the impact of Islam. The treatment is broadly chronological but at the heart of the book are separate parallel discussions of monastic life, heretics, friars, and the schools, and two key chapters which deal which deal with the framework of the Christian life, and with the sacraments - those points of contact between Church and the individual men and women who made up Western Christendom itself."--BOOK JACKET.