This book offers a new perspective on the late antique beginnings of monasticism and the monastic world of the Middle Ages, based on years of research. Gert Melville vividly describes the founding and reform of monasteries, rules and customs, spiritual movements, and ascetic practices, allowing the reader to better understand a fascinating way of life that may seem foreign and distant. The history of medieval monasteries and orders forms a web of new foundations, splits, declines, and reforms. Gert Melville traces the reasons and motivations for these developments from the late antiquity to the beginning of the modern era. Special attention is given to the Benedictines, the eremitic movements of the 11th and 12th centuries, the Regular Canons, the Cistercians, and the Mendicant Orders. Additionally, he describes the key structural elements.