The beginnings -- The Benedictine Rule and its longevity -- The flowering of the Benedictines -- Return to the desert -- The regular canons: the clergy's new self-understanding -- The Cistercians: collegiality instead of hierarchy -- The success of the Cistercian model -- Diversity and competition -- New concepts of belief -- The Franciscans: a mendicant order with the whole world as its monastery -- The Dominicans: holy preaching and pastoral care -- Transformations of eremitical life -- A new chapter in the story of the Vita religiosa -- Mendicant orders in conflict: struggles over poverty and observance -- Reformers and reforms at the end of the Middle Ages -- A look back -- Fundamental structures of the Vita religiosa in the Middle Ages.

This book surveys the full panorama of ten centuries of Christian monastic life. It moves from the deserts of Egypt and the Frankish monasteries of early medieval Europe to the religious ruptures of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the reforms of the later Middle Ages. Throughout that story, the book balances a rich sense of detail with a broader synthetic view. It presents the history of religious life and its orders as a complex braid woven from multiple strands: individual and community, spirit and institution, rule and custom, church and world. The result is a synthesis that places religious life at the center of European history and presents its institutions as key catalysts of Europe's move toward modernity.

Includes bibliographical references.