A Companion to Pastoral Care in the Late Middle Ages (1200-1500)

The study of pastoral care in the Middle Ages has seen a resurgence in recent years. Scholars are making an effort to understand the significant role pastors (secular and religious) had in the shaping of medieval society at large and so from several angles: theology, preaching, catechesis, and the analysis of many other useful sources such as confessional literature, Episcopal visitation records, monastic cartularies and the like. This work has helped eliminate or refine certain clich s about the medieval pastor, modern and medieval, as the bumbling parson who can barely make his way through the Sunday Mass. 17 scholars from North America and Europe present new scholarship in the field of medieval pastoral care, showing the many ways in which pastoral care came to play such an important role in the day to day lives of medieval people, whether through the regular preaching of sermons, or through the confessional, or with regard to the pastoral care of monks and nuns and even the pastoral care of the clergy. And it aims to encourage the continued expansion of this field.