These essays deal with physical labour - exhausting, demeaning, demanding - in the middle ages, viewed against the background of the familiar division of medieval society into those who ruled, those who prayed, and those who worked. The work of work is shown, in varied ways, to have been directed to one end - to maintaining the status quo. Subjects investigated include the opus Dei of monastic life and the sense of 'vocation' in religious work; litigation...