The phrase "Suicide and the Middle Ages" sounds like a contradiction. Was life too short anyway, and the Church too disapproving, to admit suicide? And how is the historian supposed to find out? In addressing these questions Alexander Murray takes the reader on a remarkable odyssey through medieval law, social life, literature, and religion. He examines a wide range of suicides and explores how the living reacted to them--a topic that will be examined in more detail in Volumes II and III of this masterly trilogy.