The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250(Oxford History of the Christian Church)

The two centuries covered in this volume were among the most creative in the history of the Church. Colin Morris charts the emergence of much that is considered characteristic of European culture and religion, including universities and commercial cities, the crusades, the friars, chivalry, marriage, and church architecture. In all these developments, the Roman Church played an important and often fundamental role. A re-evaluation of that role is now particularly apt given the dissolution of Christendom in its old form witnessed by today's generation.

Table of Contents:
I: The Papal Reform Movement and the Conflict with the Empire (c. 1046-1122): Christian Society in the Middle of the Eleventh Century; The Pattern of Social Change; Monastic Growth and Change; The Papal Reform (1046-1073); The Discord of Empire and Papacy (1073-1099); Greeks and Saracens; The Conflict Renewed: The Question of Investiture (1099-1122); II: The Growth of Christendom: The Roman Church and the Empire in the Twelfth Century; The Government of the Church in the Twelfth Century; The New Monastic Orders; The Christian Frontier; The Message of the Churches; Christianity and Social Ideas; Dissent; The Formulation of Faith; Property, Privilege, and Law; III: The Thirteenth Century: The Pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216); Friars, Beguines, and the Action Against Heresy; Proclaiming the Faith; Reason and Hope in a Changing World; The Structure of Government; The Roman Church and the Lay Power in the Thirteenth Century; Conclusions.

Review :
`Professor Morris has written a massively impressive book. It is difficult to know what to praise first: its comprehensive coverage, its masterful synthesis, its relentless good sense, or its felicitous prose ... a superb book that will for a very long time dominate teaching and thinking about the church in the high Middle Ages.' Times Higher Education Supplement `Professor Morris has written a massively impressive book. It is difficult to know what to praise first: its comprehensive coverage, its masterful synthesis, its relentless good sense, or its felicitous prose... Colin Morris has writtten a superb book that will for a very long time dominate teaching and thinking about the Church in the high Middle Ages.'Times Higher Education Supplement `At last, a comprehensive survey of the more notable develoments in the western churches in the time of the more ambitious medieval popes.' Theological Book Review `outstandingly successful ... a masterpiece of compression ... although there is much delightful writing, much apt quotation, much helpful explanation and some ample narrative, so much is kept in view that there is no sense of waste or unbalance ... a major work of scholarship ... This is a very refreshing and rewarding book, and a splendid addition to a noble series.' C.N.L. Brooke, Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, English Historical Review July '90 `Professor Morris sets out to given an account of the religious history of the Latin west ... he has done so comprehensively, and with a magnificent deployment of historical scholarship and literary skill ... The book is superbly organized, and as one expects from its author it is a model of lucidity ... a thought-provoking as well as a comprehensively informative survey. It triumphantly succeeds in satisfying the needs of the expert, the student and the general reader; may it soon be made available at a less formidable price.' H.E.J. Cowdrey, St Edmund Hall, Oxford, History No.245 October 1990 `the field is a vast one, both lit and darkened by great controversies, conducted by some of the greatest of medieval historians over the last century, and fed by innumerable recent studies. Professor Morris is a master of this literature, and the substantial bibliography is a valuable critical guide through it....Professor Morris has written a book to which one will return over and over, to be challenged and enlightened, for a long time to come.' Martin Brett, Journal of Theological Studies. 'Teachers and other historians owe Colin Morris a very real debt of gratitude for having written this long, inclusive, seemingly impartial, and so author-sacrificing, generous book...he has given us and those to whom we must explain things a source as rich as an encyclopedia. It is hard to think of teaching the history of any part of the book's period without its help again.' Robert Brentano, Speculum - A Journal of Medieval Studies, October 1992