Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia, c. 1095–c. 1187 by William J. Purkis (review)

REVIEWS 318 While they are both “usurpers of the office of preacher,” their status as fallible authors is actually quite different because the fallibility of the Pardoner is remediable , and hence temporary, whereas the fallibility of the Wife of Bath was permanent—an effect of her gender (246). After a brief discussion situating the Wife of Bath among various types of medieval authorities, Minnis overturns the interpretation of the Wife as a model of Lollard beliefs and then explains how Chaucer challenges two stereotypes of the old woman (in the tale) and the widow. If there is anything to criticize in this masterful work, it is that Minnis seems overly restrained in expressing his opinions in Chapter 1, and to a certain extent in Chapter 3. In his paraphrase of many, many sources which elaborate on the complexity of the issues behind authority, several pages often pass before Minnis responds to the implications of the arguments of his authorities. He preserves the back and forth of scholastic argument, but does not always connect it to an argument of his own making. Yet, it is Minnis’s questioning and response to these medieval authorities that are the most exciting part of the book—often highlighting the modern relevance and disservice that previous generations of Protestant critics have done in their interpretations of Lollardy, indulgences, and other issues relating to late medieval religion. The refreshing candor of his remarks at the start of Chapter 2, when he declares his intentions to “[recuperate ] the idealism which marks the foundational theology of indulgences, its affirmation of divine love and expression of religious communality and mutuality ,” (103) are precisely the sort of critical transparency that is so desirable. Perhaps Minnis’s reluctance to synthesize in certain areas is due to his own hesitation to essentialize any aspect of late medieval England. He makes this point especially clear in his discussion of Lollardy and orthodoxy (30–31). The absence of a conclusion for the book itself further exhibits Minnis’s tendency to open up the complexity behind medieval authority without foreclosing additional discussion. These critiques, however, are minor compared to the overall value of the book. It is a carefully constructed and organized volume in every way. The organization of the chapters and the subdivisions within them act as effective guide through the complex of medieval ideas and manifestations of authority. Fallible Authors is that rare text that is able to contribute both to Chaucerian studies and the study of medieval religion . JENNIFER A. T. SMITH, English, UCLA William J. Purkis, Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia, c. 1095–c. 1187 (Suffolk: Boydell Press 2008) xi + 215, maps. Crusade historians are often divided into four schools of thought first devised by Giles Constable: traditionalists, generalists, pluralists, and popularists.1 Recently , however, the relative merits of these schools, and the neat distinctions between them, have been called into question.2 William Purkis in Crusading 1 Giles Constable, “The historiography of the crusades,” in A. E. Laiou and R. P. Mottahedeh , eds., The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World (Washington, DC 2001) 1–22. 2 Norman Housley, Contesting the Crusades (Oxford 2006) 1–23. REVIEWS 319 Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia makes an important contribution to this discussion by arguing for what he calls “a modified form of pluralism”(5). The book is divided into two parts: the first, which consists of four chapters, is dedicated to the Holy Land, while the second, consisting of two chapters, is dedicated to Iberia. Like other pluralists, he emphasizes the importance of pilgrimage and penitential warfare in the genesis and development of the crusades . Yet he advances the spiritual dimension of early crusading by calling attention to the Jerusalem pilgrimage as a Christo-mimetic endeavor, a theme that appears in the various versions of Pope Urban’s speech at Clermont as well as in chronicle sources. Noting the prevalence of references to “taking up the cross,” “worshiping in the place where his [Christ’s] feet have stood,” and even of miracle accounts of cruciform stigmata, Purkis asserts that “with the First Crusade, the idea of ‘following the Way of Christ,’ like the idea...