Between 1050 and 1250, a time referred to as “the long twelfth century,” the Irish Church underwent a restructuring of episcopal jurisdiction, the introduction of continental monastic orders (most notably the Cistercian order), and a renovation and renewal of ecclesiastical practices, which reached into the politics and society of medieval Ireland—a movement of reform that would bring the Irish Church in line with the universal ideals of the Continental Church. Although the Irish clergy seemed to see these changes not in terms of renewal rather than reform, their aims and attempts at instigating change followed the European church reform movement. Hitherto, historians of this reform movement within the Irish Church have concentrated on the structural changes in dioceses and episcopal authority, on Cistercian monasticism, and on relations with the Church of Canterbury largely because the source material for this period is so limited and these are the areas that have the most in the way of documentary evidence. Marie Therese Flanagan here seeks to go beyond that focus on “institutional restructuring”; instead, she aims “to chart changes in religious culture experienced by laity as well as clergy and to take account of the particular Irish experience within the broader European context of reform” (xii). To do this, she makes use of a broader range of source material than has previously been exploited, including hagiography, secular texts, and the records of the continental Schottenklöster, among others, which relate to the reform movement. The result is the most comprehensive and sustained account of the twelfth-century Irish Church to date, not only with respect to its changes within but also with respect to its effect on religious culture and lay society.

Chapter 1 offers a review of the available sources for the twelfth-century Church, both the well-used and the little used. Flanagan admits that the sources are often disparate and fragmentary; there is less surviving material from the twelfth century than from the seventh and eighth centuries. As she remarks, “As far as Irish churchmen are concerned, an identification of their aims and achievements in the twelfth century is severely hampered by the haphazard survival of the evidence, much of it externally generated and preserved” (33). Chapters 2 and 3, under the rubric of “Bishops and dioceses,” looks beyond the synod of Ráith Bressail (1111) and the synod of Kells (1152), which together are usually taken to be the landmarks of episcopal restructuring of the Irish Church, and the conventional view that the pre-twelfth-century Church was one dominated by monastic institutions, with abbots holding greater power than bishops. Flanagan draws upon recent scholarship, which has changed such a view, to examine more closely the role of bishops and the organization of dioceses, which, although unstable and changing, did exist. She directs her attention to Gillebertus, bishop of Limerick (ob. 1145), both his career (such as is known) and his treatise on ecclesiastical grades, which is preserved in two English manuscripts of the twelfth century, as a means, not so much to uncover episcopal achievements, as to explore the concerns of the episcopate, thus offering some insights into the aims and ideology of episcopal reformers.

Chapter 4, under the rubric of “Varieties of Monasticism,” similarly focuses on St. Malachy, his career and his Life by Bernard of Clairvaux in order to examine, in the wider sphere, the changes to monastic culture with the introduction of continental monastic orders, and particularly the impact of Augustinian and Cistercian usage. Flanagan's use of hagiography in these and other chapters is sensitive to the conventions of the genre, as well as to the linguistic and literary changes evident in twelfth-century Lives, and she is able to point to the relevant elements which relate to the changes in the Church.

Chapters 5 and 6, under the rubric of “Lay Society,” are perhaps the most fascinating, if only because so little attention has been paid to the impact of the reform movement on the laity. Evidence for this is even more scant, as the majority of lay people were illiterate, but letters and charters of kings, secular writing such as the satiric Vision of Mac Conglinne, and hagiographical sources yield some clues. The main concerns of reformist churchmen, apart from advocating “rules and good conduct” (170), were the high levels of war and violence in Irish society and the irregularities of Irish marriage practices. The Church sought to bring about peace and stability within a society that was fractured by feuding and warfare, and to bring Irish marriage practices into line with canon law. That it was not always successful is made clear; nevertheless, the intent was there. More evidence and success appears in royal and aristocratic patronage of churches and monasteries through land grants, almsgiving, and endowments by kings and commoners seeking to secure their place in the heavenly kingdom. Chapter 6 focuses on the clergy's expectations of religious practices by the laity, including the observance of Sunday rest, attendance at Mass, compliance with canon law regarding marriage, and due regard to baptism, penance, periods of fasting, and almsgiving, for example, along with burial practices and pilgrimage.

Flanagan concludes that the reforming initiatives in the Irish Church began at the local level, without “direct papal input,” although Irish clergy were eager to secure it. This is in line with the European church reform movement as a whole; there, as in Ireland, “individual episcopal endeavours preceded papal direction and oversight” (246). An extensive bibliography reveals the admirable range and depth of Flanagan's research. Marie Therese Flanagan is already an established and prestigious scholar of the Irish Church in the twelfth century. This book marks an important point in the historiography of that period in Irish Church history, providing us with an invaluable narrative of the Irish Church's transformation.