Southern's
The Making of the Middle Ages (1953) was a seminal work, and established Southern's reputation as a
medievalist. This pioneering work, sketching the main personalities and cultural influences that shaped the character of Western Europe from the late tenth to the early thirteenth century and describing the development of social, political, and religious institutions, opened up new vistas in medieval history, and has been translated into many languages. The final chapter of the book (a chapter dedicated to spirituality) has often been credited with helping to popularize the thesis that in the 11th century
Anselm of Canterbury "was the founder of the new type of ardent and effusive self-disclosure", epitomizing a broader tendency to "a greater measure of solitude, of introspection, and self-knowledge" that "ran like fire through Europe in the generation after his death and produced an outburst of meditations and spiritual soliloquies". Southern's ideas were seminal for generations of scholars of medieval spirituality, helping them to build a picture of what they called
affective piety – emotionally charged prayer and meditation mostly focused on the Passion of Christ. Southern made major contributions to the areas he studied, and was not afraid to attack long-held views. Southern's monographic studies of
St Anselm and
Robert Grosseteste, for example, have had significant influences on their historiography. Never afraid of controversy, Southern's interpretation of Grosseteste made a dramatic attempt to revise the chronology of Grosseteste's life. Further, Southern saw him as a particularly English figure (in contrast to earlier scholarship, which had seen Grosseteste's connections to French schools as being of particular importance). Southern also took a revisionist line in his re-interpretation of the
School of Chartres, an argument stated first in his
Medieval Humanism and then refined in his
Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe. Southern argued that scholars in the 19th and early 20th centuries had built the "School of Chartres" into a romanticised edifice out of all proportion with the documentary record. The figures in the School of Chartres were actually much more active in Paris than in Chartres itself, according to Southern; Chartres did indeed have a school, but it did not surpass the usual level of
cathedral schools of the time. Southern's revisionist or iconoclastic approach was continued by some of his students.
Valerie Flint, for example, attempted to make significant revisions to the interpretation of
Anselm of Laon. Southern's final major work,
Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe, was unfortunately destined to remain unfinished at his death. Southern never managed to finish the third volume of the work. The first two volumes do, however, represent a major contribution to medieval scholarship. In the work, Southern argues that, from the 12th century on, medieval scholars aspired to systematise all human knowledge in a comprehensive system. Furthermore, this scholarly vision (the "scholastic humanism" of the title) was to have a major influence on Western culture beyond the schools, as scholars and school-educated men moved out of the schools and took important roles in the government and the church. In addition to these major works, Southern also wrote several works that have not had quite as much influence on medieval scholarship. His brief
Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages represents a relatively early effort to describe medieval attitudes towards Islam, identifying three stages in their development. His
Medieval Humanism and Other Studies states first several themes that would be later developed in
Scholastic Humanism. His
Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages is a textbook survey like
The Making of the Middle Ages but has not received quite as much attention as his earlier work. ==Works==