Introduction: Medieval, Western - Mystical and Monastic

Abstract

The early medieval period in the West we may take to follow the death of Pope St. Gregory (604) up to the death of St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1153), followed by the High Middle Ages (late twelfth through thirteenth centuries) and the Late Middle Ages (fourteenth through fifteenth centuries). Writers and representatives of the higher end of the Christian spiritual life in the early medieval period include Bede, Hincmar of Reims, Paschasius Radbertus, John Scotus Eriugena, Anselm, the great Cluniac abbots, the Cistercian Fathers, and many others.