The medieval Church: a brief history (review)

200 Reviews suggestion to proceed and paint frescoes in tbe dependent parish churches of the coenobium. After all, who was better placed to depict the mysteries of the faith than a regular? Turning to Kupfer's views on the activity of the artist, the reader may find some comments enlightening and others obscure. She writes: 'The tasks of initiating and overseeing painting campaigns appear to have been handled locally, hence at the point at which the structures of authority were clearly the most atomized. Such delegation ofresponsibilityis consistent with an analysis of the stylistic evidence, which reveals at least seventeen distinctive painting styles from a regional corpus of nineteen ensembles' (p. 148). As for tbe source material at the disposal of the artists, she believes that: 'they merely reproduced models derived from authoritative works (unfortunately no longer extant) and disseminated by pattern books' (p. 60). It is widely accepted that the latter are rare. In a few cases extra-regional connexions are adumbrated but, on the whole, the pictural traditions available to artists at that time are not clearly delineated. There are instances of infelicitous English usage; however, stylistic torpor aside, the study is thefirstmonograph in English to treat the corpus of twehth-century wall-painting in the old province of Berry. Peter Rolfe Monks TownsvUle Lynch, Joseph H., The medieval Church: a brief history, London and N.Y., Longman, 1992; paper; pp. xiv, 385; 7 maps; R.R.P. AUS$38.99. In spite of all the many books written about the Christian Church in medieval Europe, it is hard to find one that offers an up-todate historical account suitable for the student who has no background in this subject. R. W . Southern's Western society and the Church in the Middle Ages (1970) expects considerable knowledge from its readers, while Bernard HamUton's Religion in the medieval West (1986) is topical and thematic, rather than historical. Joseph Lynch aimstofillthis gap with a book specifically for beginners, which presupposes very litde knowledge. The references and suggested readings are almost entirely limited to works in English on the grounds that presupposing some knowledge of m o d e m European languages or Latin would be inappropriate for the kind of audience he is addressing. Reviews 201 After an introductory chapter dealing with the nature and origins of Christianity, Lynch covers the whole medieval history of the Church in the West from about 350 through to about 1500. For the most part this is a chronologically ordered narrative, with several important exceptions: a survey of the structures in the Church in the year 1000, and two chapters looking at the framework of Christian belief and the sacraments in the thirteenth century. His theme is the development of what he calls 'normative Christianity' Christianity as the official or 'state'religion,with special emphasis on the 'typical' medieval Church of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Within this framework he ranges quite widely, looking at such topics as the Carolingian Renaissance, the role of kings in the structure of the Church, and the schools and universities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Though he deals with differing medieval views of the nature of society, there is comparatively litde on the social and economic context, beyond a chapter on the demographic and economic growth of the twelfth century, and a similar one on the crisis of the fourteenth century. An important limitation, which he readily acknowledges, is the absence of any treatment of the eastern Church. Lynch also emphasizes that he has concentrated on ideas and trends,ratherthan personalities. This would certainly make a good textbook for an introductory undergraduate course on medieval Europe. It is written in a clear and uncomplicated style, covers a great deal of ground without ever overburdening the reader, and has plenty of good suggestions for further reading. Each chapter is divided into easily readable sections of about three or four pages. There is a glossary of about 80 English terms and seven maps showing such things as the Crusades, the major monasteries, and the universities. The production of the book is a litde disappointing, however. The typeface is quite dense and small, the maps are somewhat amateurish, and...