Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages - Paperbackby C. H. Lawrence (Author), Janet Burton (Author) Medieval Monasticism traces the Western Monastic tradition from its fourth century origins in the deserts of Egypt and Syria through the many and varied forms of religious life it assumed during the Middle Ages. It explores the relationship between monasteries and the secular world around them. For a thousand years, the great monastic houses and religious orders were a prominent feature of the social