This course is designed to expose students to the major intellectual trends in European mystical and religious thought from Antiquity to the fifteenth century. Students will read primary sources and secondary sources that analyze the meaning and context of several prominent mystics. Because piety and mysticism were so central to many institutions and practices of medieval Europe, the course will also locate the role of the mystic and of the changing trends in mysticism within the larger political and cultural context.  Eras to be highlighted include: the desert fathers, the Commercial Revolution and expansion of monasticism, the 12^th century Renaissance, urbanization and the expansion of religious poverty, the transitional 14^th c. and the great women mystics and heretics of the late medieval period. I am grateful for the generous support and funding I received from the Elizabeth Ann Bogert Memorial Fund for the Study and Practice of Christian Mysticism to help develop this class.