This volume provides a record of the response, by eight expert scholars in the field of medieval monastic studies, to the question "To what extent did abbots and abbesses contribute as a `human resource' to the development of reformed monastic communities in the ninth- to twelfth-century west?" Covering a broad geographical area, papers consider one or several of three key points of interest: the direct contribution of abbots and abbesses to the shaping of reformed realities; their influence over future modes of leadership; and the way in which later generations of monastics relied upon the memory of a leader's life and achievements to project current realities onto a legitimizing past.

Steven Vanderputten is a full professor in the History of the Early and High Middle Ages at Ghent University (Belgium). His research is mainly concerned with the social and cultural development of monastic groups in the ninth to twelfth centuries, including such subjects as leadership, identity formation, and reform.