For researchers of the period when romantic love was being invented in spite of a period of brutality and passionate Crusading, this gives some insight into the life and times of an ordinary point of view. The language could be richer and a sense of the history deeper, but I still found my used version of this which I got from Amazon a worthwhile addition to my research.

Tons of citations, tons of primary-source documentation. It's a gorgeous book, full of information about life in a very specific time-period. This isn't a general "medieval" resource -- it is a resource about London and Paris of the years 1150-1200 and that.. is.. it. I wish it went into more detail in places (such as how women lived), but one can't argue that it's probably the best book of its kind concerning this time period. There are recipes, instructions for planting gardens, herbalism and medicine notes, information on how ironsmiths and goldsmiths worked, architectural notes, and loads of tidbits about how students lived (since the book's primary source is a 12th-century student's writings), stuff about jousts.. you name it, just about. The author sounds like he might have lived there, he's so familiar with his material. Effortlessly, he spins his stories, and his writing style is quite pleasant to read. I'd certainly and without reservations consider this book a must-have for anybody interested in this time period. I just wonder that it took me so long to find it -- it was written in the 50s!

This book also comes out in softcover from Wisconsin Press and is currently in print.

To most modern people, Europe's Middle Ages consisted of jousting tournaments of knights, damsels in conical headgear awaiting rescue, and Arthur's Round Table. In fact, specific details of life for peasants, artisans, and even kings in the so-called Dark Ages from the 9th to the 15th centuries are relatively few, scarcer by far than those culled from the Athens of Pericles or the Rome of the Caesars. Of seeming necessity, most books about life in the days between Charlemagne and Henry VIII present facts about European life in the 9th century alongside details of life in the 14th, a method that is about as reliable as discussing commoners and lords in the reign of Elizabeth I by using anecdotes about France under Napoleon. Daily Living in the Twelfth Century by Urban Tigner Holmes, Jr. is a rare exception to this situation. It is an account of what Alexander Neckam, a cleric from Dunstable, England saw and experienced in the months of 1177-78 on a journey to Paris where he would study and teach for a number of years. While the author's technique is novelistic, he draws on materials dating from the time, notably observations written by Neckam himself. In the narrative, Neckam travels from Dunstble, 34 miles northwest of London, through that great bustling capital, and on to Dover where he sets sail across the channel and traverses crumbling Roman roads, visits minor barons, and copes with student housing in the great city of Paris. Holmes artfully weaves in details from water porters to straw-covered floors, presenting a you-are-there sensory experience that illuminates Neckam's bond with the modern reader as much as it illustrates their differences.

This book is an effort by a noted Episcopalian educator and priest to describe his "understanding of what it means to be an Anglican." By "Anglican," Dean Holmes meant "nothing more than those Christians who worship according to some authorized edition of the Book of Common Prayer and who are in communion with the see of Canterbury." As an Anglican who is trying very hard to understand what is happening in the Anglican Communion today, I looked forward to reading this book. It is loosely organized into 12 chapters, each dealing with the author's assessment of the Anglican perspective on key issues in the church, such as authority, the Bible, the Liturgy, Episcopacy, and like topics. Each chapter could stand alone as an essay on the subject at issue, which makes reading the book less challenging than it might otherwise be. The author is articulate and his prose is generally understandable in a single reading. He delights in using vivid imagery to describe the theological topics he is examining; for example, Dean Holmes writes that "the Sacraments are to life in the church as sexual intercourse is to a marriage. They do not encompass it, they guarantee nothing, but out of them springs the possibility of lives changed by an intimacy with God at the deepest level." I was nevertheless very frustrated by the book. It is less a description of Anglicanism than its 20th century American incarnation; a better title would have been "What is Liturgical Liberalism?" The author neglects the Anglican tradition of the last five centuries as well as that evolving in the rest of the world in favor an "Anglican attitude" that is, as another writer has observed, "averse to the truth claims, disciplines, and passions that make for mission." It is also interesting that an author who repeatedly stresses the need for imaginative approaches to theology and "the penultimate nature of our answers to the character of God and his will for us" can speak so derisively of those who do not share his positions. Dean Holmes refers to the "simplemindedness of Pietism," characterizes the worship of Protestants as "homogenized," refers to those who think that the Gospel of Matthew could possibly support the infallibility of the Pope as "foolish," and labels as "absurd" the views of those who see in the book of Revelation prophecy about our present circumstances. So much for tolerance! The reader in search of an objective answer to the question of "What is Anglicanism" should, quite frankly, look elsewhere.

This is not an insubstantial book, in spite of its modest size of 95 pages. The author goes to some effort to dispel any notions and impressions that the Anglican Communion is socially and financially upper class. He also refrains from denominational triumphalism. There is a great deal of interesting reading on issues of missionary work, prophetic witness, the Sacrements, Bishopry and administration, and Biblical interpretation. The writing style is quite heavy but not overwhelmingly so, and is closely and coherently argued. Certain readers might find his exposition rather stiff and humorless, but very thoughtful and well researched.

This book was written I believe in 1982 and it reflects issues affecting the Anglican church at that time. It is due for an updated edition, in light of recent developments. Perhaps surprisingly, there is no commentary or opinion on the Anglican position - at least in Canada from my direct experience - on the issue of encouraging participation of Baptized but not Confirmed Christians in the Eucharist. The Anglicans have come in for some criticism on this matter, even from Pope John Paul II.

I enjoyed this book so much that I read it twice. For Anglicans and Episcopalians it is an excellent read, although it is not suited for novices to Christianity. Considering there is not a great deal of literature in this specific branch of worship, it is recommended.