Offering an interpretation of the relationship between the church, society and religion across five centuries of change, this book examines how the teachings of an increasingly universal Church were applied at a local level and how social change shaped the religious practices of the laity. Its approach encompasses the structures of corporate religion, the devotional practices surrounding cults and saints, the effects of literacy (not least on the development of heresy), and how gender, "class" and political power affected and fragmented the expression of religion.