"Brown is able to accomplish as much as he does in this book not only because of the depths he is willing to plumb in the separate analyses of religious institutions but also because of the chronological distance he is willing to travel. This is a rich book....[W]hat [the author] has accomplished here is a thoroughly interesting and compelling study of late-medieval piety in one diocese. It may well serve as a model for other local historians willing to engage in this important inquiry."--Speculum

"An excellent regional study."--American Historical Review

"Brown's study of popular religion in late medieval England is broader in implication than its modest scope initially promises...His writing is unpretentious and gracefully touched with humor...Brown's study of the arcane details of medieval piety has, in the end, the effect of diminishing its strangeness and distance from ourselves. It is, in short, enlightening."--hurch History

"A careful, balanced, and sensible study of a controversial period in church history."--Religious Studies Review

"An excellently researched book..."--The Albion