Religion and Devotion in Europe, c. 1215-c. 1515 by R. N. Swanson (review)

book reviews785 ics embedded in the text. Nelson is especiaUy good at showing that the seemingly ecclesiastical quarrel was in fact a complex socio-poUtical struggle among kinsmen and their supporters in a smaU city. A teacher could use this weUtranslated and richly annotated book for many purposes in an undergraduate class. My only reservation is that in the extensive notes, the translator is occasionally very judgmental about the moral behavior of these long-dead people. Joseph H. Lynch The Ohio State University Religion and Devotion in Europe, c. 1215-c. 1515- By R. N. Swanson. [Cambridge MedievalTextbooks.] (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xv, 377. $6995 clothbound; $18.95 paperback.) This volume presents a general survey of Latin Christianity from the Fourth Lateran CouncU to the eve of the Reformation. Aimed at a general audience of undergraduates and scholarly non-specialists, it eschews aU but essential footnotes and documentation.Yet by condensing the disparate themes of late medieval Christianity into a compact and orderly synthesis, it also offers speciaUsts many useful reminders of how particular issues and movements reflected the underlying dynamics of the era. As the title suggests, the book focuses less on institutional Christianity than on the ways people understood and lived their reUgion. However, the Church as "the body of the faithful" stiU plays the dominant role in Swanson's approach: for him the crucial dialectic involved "the reactions of the widely defined Church to the demands and dictates of Christianity" (p. 7), especiaUy as they affected spiritual Ufe.As the desire for more satisfying and reassuring forms of devotion increased among the laity, old practices were transformed and new ones arose to challenge clerical control over the Church as a whole. Thus for the clergy the major problem was how to satisfy, limit, and direct the upsurge of lay spirituality which threatened to escape their immediate influence and control. Ultimately the need for supervision and control meant that tension between the prescriptive religion of the clergy and the increasingly individualized "religiosity " of the laity dominated the spiritual life of the era. The book's organization correspondingly moves from the "dictates of Christianity " to the devotional needs of the laity.Two chapters consider the content of the Christian feith and its dissemination to the feithful.Three more survey the structures of religious life, the rituals of devotion, and the concerns of charity and salvation.Another two address the issues of lay piety and the need for clerical control, and it is here that Swanson returns to the idea that late medieval Christianity was not imposed from above, but "created from the bottom upwards " (p. 90). In his view, many of the religious innovations of the era were the result of lay invention, and the clergy struggled to keep up and control the proliferation of popular devotions. As a result, distinguishing between orthodoxy 786book reviews and heresy became more critical than ever, and the need for exclusion led to the creation of scapegoats. The final chapter sums up the state ofWestern Christianity circa 1515, and in Swanson's judgment the situation was far from bleak. Considered in its own terms rather than anachronisticaUy, late medieval reUgion was a vibrant and dynamic form of Christianity, which, despite many problems, responded in many ways to the needs of the people. Doubt and skepticism existed, but had Uttle overaU impact.There was a hope for some major reform,but no general sense of crisis.The Reformation was probably unforeseeable, and medieval Christianity was neither decadent nor on the verge of collapse. However, once the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517) failed to accommodate reformist pressures, more strident voices seized the initiative and put an end to the development of the medieval Church. Scholars wUl certainly find much to consider and chaUenge in this assessment of late medieval reUgion. Nevertheless, the author has produced a masterful survey of a large and dUficult field which deserves the attention of everyone concerned ¦with these issues. Steven D. Sargent Union College Laienfrömmigkeit im späten Mittelalter: Formen, Funktionen, politischsoziale Zusammenhänge. Edited by Klaus Schreiner with the aid of Elisabeth MüUer-Luckner. [Schriften des Historischen KoUegs, KoUoquien, 20.] (Munich: R. OldenbourgVerlag. 1992.Pp...