A rich study of what medieval Christianity meant for ordinary people, and how it changed across the middle ages, arguably as profound as changes in the Reformation period, providing a wider context for medieval Christianity by focusing on southern France in a period mainly known for heresy and for the Church's attack upon heresy. The attention paid to ordinary people in John H. Arnold's The Making of Lay Religion in Southern France, c. 1000-1350 makes it stand out among histories of medieval religion. Writing a history 'from below' of developments often exclusively viewed as imposed 'from above', Arnold mines the archives ofthe Languedoc to show how lay people and their communities shaped - as well as suffered - a watershed moment in Christian doctrine and practice.