For a thousand years the monasteries and religious orders played a major role in the society, economy and culture of the west. This book traces the Western monastic tradition in its social context, from its fourth-century origins in the deserts of Egypt and Syria through to the many and various forms of religious life it assumed during the Middle Ages. This new edition contains new work on: monastic studies and the relationship between the cloister and the schools; on the controversy between the Benedictines and the spokesmen of the reformed monasticism of the twelfth century; and on the social composition of the nunneries and the particular problems that confronted women in the religious life.