The people of 14th-century Europe were no different from those of other cultures and centuries who marked, or continue to mark, transitional periods in life with ritual. These eight essays, plus an introduction, originated at the Second York Interdisciplinary Conference on the 14th Century held in 2001 which drew scholars from a range of fields to examine the varied and rich array of ritualized events and actions in the lives of late medieval people'. Subjects include the peculiar funeral' of Edward II, the accession of boy kings, becoming a priest, becoming a man, rites of passage in English and French romances, Chaucer's women, Gower's Confessio Amantis , and initiation in Froissart's Dits amoureux .