A Bishop's Tale Mathias Hovius Among His Flock in Seventeenth-century Flanders Craig E. Harline, Eddy Put

This delightful book recreates the busy, colourful world of a Catholic bishop and his flock from 1590-1620. Based upon the recently discovered daybook of Mathias Hovius, the book focuses not only on his life but also on key events and characters of the period, giving us a rare insight into the experiences of monks, nuns, pilgrims, peasants, saints, and others.

Craig Harline is professor of history at Brigham Young University. Eddy Put is senior assistant at the Belgian National Archives and lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain.

"An elegantly written and absorbing microhistory... It brings to mind The Return of Martin Guerre and The Cheese and the Worms." Carlos M. N. Eire "The most amazing book since Johan Huizinga's Waning of the Middle Ages." Heiko Oberman "The history book of the year - and perhaps simply the book of the year." Russell Hittinger, Weekly Standard "The stories entertain as they educate, offering a close-up of day-to-day Catholicism, village life, and the bawdy humour generated by human frailty and feistiness. A Bishop's Tale is an historical feast." Debra Bendis, Christian Century "Practically every page is as encrusted with detail as a jewelled medieval reliquary." Michael Joseph Gross, Boston Globe "An extraordinary work of historical biography." Amazon.com (2000 Editor's Choice)