...This chapter examines why some institutions (Friday mosques and sermons) motivated Iraqis to coordinate, while others (e.g., tribes, occupation authorities, political parties, other religious organizations) could not. In the immediate aftermath of state collapse, local clerics in Iraq controlled...

..., political, and cultural turbulence taking place in the region and the empire more broadly in the decade prior to World War I. Monastic communities appeared to many Orthodox clerics and lay believers to provide both vital bastions for the preservation of the faith and Russian cultural identity and important...

...This chapter demonstrates that clerics learned early on in their clerical training that violence, conflict, dominance, and sexual unions were not only accepted social norms for clergy but needed to be publicly exercised in front of other men. The most convincing evidence of how clerical masculinity...

... with an account of the greatest war Livonia had ever seen, one that was accompanied by mass starvation, a terrible epidemic, and a flood of nearly Biblical proportions that devastated the city and left its survivors in misery. Readers will learn about Riga's people—merchants and clerics, craftsmen and builders...

...This chapter looks at relations of friendship among clerics. Friendship was as important for religious leaders as it was for their secular counterparts. They needed faithful supporters to enact their plans. Yet, in contrast to what have been seen in secular circles, friendship continued to play...

... that Shiʻi and Sunni clerics held before the invasion. In the 1990s, the Baʻth's support for loyal tribal leaders increased, and many sheikhs saw their status elevated as they were brought into state patronage networks through personal relations with Saddam, security agencies, or party offices. The chapter...

...This chapter highlights the Rule of Grandmont. What was the reality regarding clerics and converts at Muret and then at Grandmont? The Book on Doctrine reveals no trace of such a division. If the Book on Doctrine does not attest to a distinction of status between...

...This chapter compares the clerical structure of the Sunni Arabs to that of the Shiʻa. Following state collapse, Sunni clerics also facilitated intracongregational coordination, but the preexisting network structure of Sunni clerics did not provide a comparable institutional capacity to disseminate...

...This chapter reflects on the Order of Preaching Brothers (better known as the Dominicans). The clerical preachers were well aware of the tribulations roiling Stephen of Muret's foundation, and they explicitly referred to them as a deplorable example to be avoided. Dominic, the Castilian canon...

...This chapter demonstrates the pervasiveness of clerical unions and the proclivity of parish priests to form de facto marriages with women. These were enduring unions in which clerics were fully committed to their women and children. Moreover, maintaining a family did not hinder the careers...