History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2)

The work begins with a theoretical inquiry into the nature and obligations of morals and the shifting standards and hierarchies of virtue, then traces how moral ideas and practices evolved in Europe from the Roman imperial age into the early medieval period. It surveys pagan philosophies and their legal and literary effects, analyzes the Church as a moral agent during conversion and after—considering asceticism, charity, hagiography, monastic influence, and changes in civic and domestic virtues—and follows the moral character of the declining empire and successor barbarian kingdoms, including the rise of military Christianity and transformations in the status of women and sexual relations.