This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity's first thousand years of history features a new preface, additional color images, and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown's vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power.
Clear and vivid history of Christianity's rise and its pivotal role in the making of EuropeWritten by the celebrated Princeton scholar who originated of the field of study known as 'late antiquity'Includes a fully updated bibliography and index
Peter Brown is Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University. He is a celebrated scholar and author of numerous seminal historical works, which includeAugustine of Hippo (1967, 2000),The World of Late Antiquity (1971),The Cult of the Saints (1982),The Body and Society (1988), Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire (1992),Authorityand the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman World (1995),Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire (2002), and the forthcomingThrough the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD (2012).
List of Illustrations ix
Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Revised Edition xi
Preface to the Second Edition xlviii
Introduction 1
Part I Empire and Aftermath: A.D. 200500 35
1 The Laws of Countries: Prologue and Overview 37
2 Christianity and Empire 54
3Tempora Christiana: Christian Times 72
4Virtutes sanctorum . . . strages gentium: Deeds of Saints . . . Slaughter of Nations 93
5 On the Frontiers: Noricum, Ireland, and Francia 123
Part II Divergent Legacies: A.D. 500600 143
6Reverentia, rusticitas: Caesarius of Arles to Gregory of Tours 145
7 Bishops, City, and Desert: East Rome 166
8Regimenanimarum: Gregory the Great 190
Part III The End of Ancient Christianity: A.D. 600750 217
9 Powerhouses of Prayer: Monasticism in Western Europe 219
10 The Making of aSapiens: Religion and Culture in Continental Europe and in Ireland 232
11Medicamenta paenitentiae: Columbanus 248
12 Christianity in Asia and the Rise of Islam 267
13 The Changing of the Kingdoms: Christians under Islam 295
14 Christianities of the North: Ireland 321
15 Christianities of the North: The Saxons of Britain 340
16 Micro-Christendoms 355
Part IV New Christendoms: A.D. 7501000 381
17 The Crisis of the Image: The Byzantine Iconoclast Controversy 383
18 The Closing of the Frontier: Frisia and Germany 408
19 To Rule the Christian People: Charlemagne 434
20In ger dagum, In Days of Yore: Northern Christendom and its Past 464
Notes 490
Coordinated Chronological Tables 573
Bibliography 578
Primary Sources 578
Secondary Sources 589
Index 632
