Spirituality and politics in the works of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim

"A Saxon canoness in the convent at Gandersheim, Hrotsvit studied and wrote during those decades of the tenth century when Otto the Great was consolidating his rule over Saxony and neighboring German principalities, expanding it eastward into Slavic lands, and exerting a powerful influence over affairs in northern Italy. Stephen L. Wailes has produced a study of the sixteen extant works of Hrotsvit and has shown that she believed the basic duty of a Christian ruler was to defend and extend the Church, and that in her writing she offered several models of correct political behavior for the benefit of both Otto and the noblemen who constituted his base of power.

All of her sixteen works are analyzed in this book to make clear her messages concerning the spiritual lives of individuals and the political lives of the powerful."--BOOK JACKET.