This reference work contains over 3000 articles, ranging from a few sentences to 10,000 word essays, which provide information on all aspects of the Middle Ages, from the fifth century to the 15th. Cultural, religious, intellectual, social and political history is covered, and while the main concentration is on Europe and Christendom, the rise of Islam and Arabs, and of other civilizations with which Europeans came into contact is also extensively treated. Art and architecture (including the building of the great cathedrals), the growth of universities, developments in law and scientific...

Defining spirituality as 'the dynamic unity between the content of a faith and the way in which it is lived by historically determined human beings', Vauchez steps outside the clerical world usually studied to trace the religious mentality of the laity, the ordinary and often illiterate majority of Christians.