The Perfection of Solitude. Hermits and Monks in the Crusader States by Andrew Jotischky (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 537 nevertheless cautious. He states, as a wise example for the profession, that "because of the paucity ofthe evidence available the most that can be expected of any interpretation is a reasoned and coherent hypothesis" (X/16). Although the subject matter it contains is less comprehensive, the wealth of references to the sources makes this volume a more useful historical tool than his recent work, The Military Orders (1992), which was apparently intended for undergraduates and a wider general readership. On the other hand, the fact that all quotations from the sources are, with the exception of his essay on the ransoming of captives, reproduced in the language of the original, makes a vital part of the present publication inaccessible to that same audience. Both specialist and other readers would best be served ifthe quotes were given in translation in the text and the original reproduced in the notes. The volume would also have profited from the incorporation of subjects into the existing index of persons and places, and a bibliography. Of the many well-documented hypotheses put forward in this book, two may be singled out for comment. The first concerns the author's contentions that the favor experienced by the Templars after receiving ecclesiastical approval at the Council ofTroyes (1 129) should not be "regarded as a serious threat to the fortunes of the Hospital" QX/86) and that the Hospitallers entered into a military role as early as the 1 130's. It was, in this reader's interpretation of the evidence , precisely because the Hospitallers received so little patronage as a purely charitable institution compared with the military role envisaged from the start by the Templars, that the former were obliged to compete for funding by taking on military responsibilities themselves. There is little indication that the Hospitallers had the manpower or financial means to do so in the 1130's but a sharp rise in western patronage from the ll40's suggests that militarization may be associated with events surrounding the Second Crusade. The other contention deserving further research and debate is Dr. Forey's concluding remark that, to the detriment of the movement, the thirteenth-century papacy was itself largely responsible for diverting crusading energies away from the Holy Land: "The crusade was tending in fact to become just another means of obtaining men and money for any undertaking which had the support of the Church. . ."(???/247). Michael Gervers University ofToronto The Perfection ofSolitude. Hermits and Monks in the Crusader States. By Andrew Jotischky. (University park: The Pennsylvania State University Press. 1995. Pp. xviü, 198. $35.00.) Despite the problems caused by the large gaps in the documentation, the uneven progress of archaeology, and the mythologies developed both then and since, the many facets of the unique society created by the Latins in Syria and 538 BOOK REVIEWS Palestine in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries continue to attract historians. Although Peter theVenerable warned that "it is better to serve God in perpetual humility and poverty, than to complete the journey to Jerusalem in pride and luxury," it is clear that many twelfth-century Western Christians were so seduced by the prospect ofliving as a monk or a hermit in or near the holy places of the East that they were prepared to take the risk. Evidence is not abundant, but Andrew Jotischky has established a solid base for his study in the writings of Gerard of Nazareth, Bishop of Latakia between ca. 1140 and ca. 1161 (the subject of a fine reconstruction by Benjamin Kedar in 1983), and in his own research into the historical truth behind the Carmelite traditions. At the same time he has taken care to place these men in the context of both western monastic developments of the twelfth century and the long-established Greek and eastern Christian communities which had been part of the Syrian scene since the time of the desert fathers. The result is that crusade historians now have a convincing picture of the monks and hermits of the East which complements Bernard Hamilton's study of the secular church. Gerard of Nazareth's cast of characters is especially fascinating, ranging from Bernard of Blois...