The Middle Ages span a period of well over a millennium: from the emperor Constantine's Christian conversion in 312 to the early sixteenth century. David Luscombe's clear and accessible history of medieval thought steers a clear path through this long period, beginning with the three greatest influences on medieval philosophy: Augustine, Boethius, and Pseudo-Denis, and focusing on Abelard, Anselm, Aquinas, Ockham, Duns Scotus, and Eckhart among others in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries.

The collected letters of Peter Abelard and Heloise provide an extraordinarily vivid account of one of the most celebrated love affairs in the western world. It was an affair that developed into a vigorous quarrel and raised fundamental questions about love, marriage, and religious life, and also provided a uniquely valuable illustration of the intellectual and religious ferment that is called the Renaissance of the twelfth century.
Abelard was the leading philosopher of his time and a very public figure in France, as well as being a fiercely attacked theologian and unpopular abbot....

The importance of the themes of rulership and rebellion in the history of the Anglo-Norman world between 1066 and the early thirteenth century is incontrovertible. The power, government, and influence of kings, queens and other lords pervaded and dominated society and was frequently challenged and resisted. But while biographies of rulers, studies of the institutions and operation of central, local and seigniorial government, and works on particular political struggles abound, many major aspects of rulership and rebellion remain to be explored or further elucidated. This volume, written by...

The second 'political' part of the fourth volume of The New Cambridge Medieval History.

The first 'religious and cultural' part of the fourth volume of The New Cambridge Medieval History.