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  • Defenders and Critics of Franciscan Life: Essays in Honor of John V. Fleming
  • J.A. Wayne Hellmann O.F.M. Conv.
Defenders and Critics of Franciscan Life: Essays in Honor of John V. Fleming. Edited by Michael F. Cusato and Guy Geltner. [The Medieval Franciscans, Vol. 6.] (Leiden: Brill. 2009. Pp. xv, 255. $147.00. ISBN 978-9-004-17630-0.)

This volume consists of thirteen essays, which are divided into four sections: Franciscan Exegesis; Students and Scholars; Franciscan Critics and Critics of the Franciscans; and Franciscan Legacies. The essays were presented at an April 2004 conference held at Princeton University in honor of John V. [End Page 132] Fleming and revisited his classic study, An Introduction to the Franciscan Literature of the Middle Ages (Chicago, 1977). Thus, the breadth of the material treated extends beyond the somewhat limiting title of the volume. This is duly noted in the editors' introduction: The essays "engage in a multifaceted exploration of the Franciscans' impact on medieval life and culture" (p. ix).

In the exegesis section (pp. 9–54) there are two essays:"Francis of Assisi, Deacon?: An Examination of the Claims of the Earliest Franciscan Sources 1229–1235" by Michael F. Cusato, and "Tobit's Dog and the Dangers of Literalism: William Woodford O.F.M. as Critic of Wycliffite Exegesis" by Alastair Minnis. The first focuses on a text by Thomas of Celano and the second on complicated biblical hermeneutic. The first moves forward discussion on whether or not St. Francis of Assisi was a deacon. The second examines John Wyclif's thought on biblical literalism.

The second section (pp. 55–104) is more focused. The first essay, "Franciscan Learning: University Education and Biblical Exegesis," by William J. Courtenay demonstrates how the mendicant orders "carried the principal weight of biblical instruction"(p. 59). The second essay, "Using, Not Owning—Duties, Not Rights: The Consequences of Some Franciscan Perspectives on Politics," by Janet Coleman revisits long-discussed questions. The third essay, "Langland and the Franciscans on Dominium," by Lawrence M. Clopper pursues the question of "perfect poverty," "dominium," and the necessities of life "that God out of his grace made … common to all" (p. 102).

The third and longest part of the book (pp. 105–94) has five essays. Three are on well-known topics:"William of St. Amour's De Periculis Novissimorum Temporum: A False Start to Medieval Antifraternalism" by Guy Geltner, "History as Prophecy: Angelo Clareno's Chronicle as a Spiritual Franciscan Apocalypse" by David Burr, and "Two Views of John XXII as a Heretical Pope" by Patrick Nold. The two other remaining essays open new areas:"Kicking the Habit: The Campaign against the Friars in a Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia" by Penn Szittya and "'Si Sind All Glichsner': Antifraternalism in Medieval and Renaissance German Literature" by Geoffrey Dipple. In the former, the friars were criticized for undermining "productive labor as the foundation of society" (p. 171), and in the latter essay the friars were "identified as partisans of an unpopular papacy" (p. 192). Friars are troublesome.

The fourth and last section offers diverse topics. First, "Imitatio Francisci: The Influence of Francis of Assisi on Late Medieval Religious Life," by Lester K. Little investigates the influence of Francis on late-medieval religious life. The combination of images, which this essay integrates, is indeed remarkable. The second essay of this last section is on "Louis IX: Preaching to Franciscan and Dominican Brothers and Nuns" by William Chester Jordan. Who ever heard of Louis IX, king and saint, as a preacher? Did his affection for mendicant preaching orders lead him "to think of himself as something akin to them, a preacher himself"? (p. 233). And again, on preaching, there is the final [End Page 133] essay in the volume, "Preaching as Playwriting: A Semi-Dramatic Sermon of the Fifteenth Century," by Katherine L. Jansen. This essay brings the reader up to date on new studies on the performance of late-medieval preaching, especially as preaching became both spectacle and theater, through the popular Observant Franciscan friars. Ventriloquism helped. In fact, again in view of the diverse voices and ring tones heard throughout this entire collection of essays, a little ventriloquism will...

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