Christopher Brooke is Dixie Professor Emeritus of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Cambridge and a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. His numerous previous publications include From Alfred to Henry III, 871-1272 (1961), Europe in the Central Middle Ages (Third Edition, 2000), The Twelfth Century Renaissance (1969), The Structure of Medieval Society (1971), The Monastic World 1000-1300 (with Wim Swaan, 1974) and The Medieval Idea of Marriage (1989).