Introduction

Heter Howes is a medievalist at City University of London. She was chosen as a BBC AHRC New Generation Thinker for 2017. In our April edition she's written an article about medieval mystics, exploring some of the extreme and occasionally disturbing ways that people in the middle ages sought to get closer to God. We'll hear from her on how common were mystics in the medieval period? Was religious fervor at this time unusual?