The third volume in Hughes Oliphant Old's multivolume history of the reading and preaching of Scripture focuses on the Middles Ages. Surveying the development of preaching over the span of a thousand years, Old explores the preachers of sixth-century Byzantium, the church's mission to the barbarians, the preaching of the gospel during Charlemagne's Holy Roman Empire, the era of the great monastic orders, and the prophetic preachers of Renaissance Italy. Giving special attention to preaching greats like Bernard of Clairvaux and Bonaventure, Old also provides extensive analyses of several sermons from the period in order to show how the church presented the gospel in this little-known era.