In these lively and incisive essays André Vauchez explores the religious beliefs and devotional practices of laypeople in medieval Europe and grapples with some of the most difficult issues in medieval history: the nature of popular devotion, the role of religion in civic life, the sociology of religious attitudes and practices, and the relationship between the intersecting spheres of lay and clerical culture.

André Vauchez is the former director of the French School in Rome and member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, master of studies at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and professor of medieval history at the University of Rouen (1980-1982) and at the University of Paris X Nanterre (1983-1995). He was awarded the Balzan Prize for Medieval History in 2013.