Crusaders and Heretics, 12th-14th Centuries (review)

152 Reviews the historian, philologist or, indeed, anyone with a passing interest. The next few years should see it become a standard text on troubadour music in the same w a y Van der Werf's of the seventies and eighties have become. David Cashman Sydney Conservatorium University of Sydney Barber, Malcolm, Crusaders and Heretics, 12th-14th Centuries (Collect Studies Series 498), Variorum, Aldershot, 1995; cloth; pp. x, 289; addenda; index; R.R.P. £42.50. All scholars and students interested in the related areas of the Order of the Militia of the Temple, the crusades, and heresy will rejoice in the appearance of this collection. It contains thirteen of Malcolm Barber's articles which were originally published between 1970 and 1994 in a wide variety of journals, some of them not readily available. In the Introduction, Barber writes that "The central theme of these articles is the study of a society which believed itself to be threatened'. M a n y of them would be considered essential contributions in their field. The first two articles follow a common, theme: 'The origins of the Order of the Temple' traces a sure path in the controversial founding of the Templar order. The second, on James of Molay, provides a realistic and objective account of Molay in his role as last grand master of the order. Barber entered a different field with the third article on women and Catharism. A s he points out here, women's activities within this movement belied the passive and powerless role usually ascribed to them in the thirteenth century. Still on the Cathars, the eleventh article looks at Catharism in connection with three noble families in the Languedoc. O n a similar subject, the examination of marginal people, the fourth article investigates the supposed plot by lepers, Jews and Muslims to overthrow Christendom in 1321. Another little known affair, the so-called Shepherds' Crusade of 1320, is the subject of the Reviews 153 next article, and also of the ninth, which looks at the crusade of the shepherds in 1251. Article Six returns to the Templars in a wise rebuttal of the association of the Shroud of Turin with the order. The way in which Philip IV saw the world is the subject of the seventh article. The eigth continues this theme and explores the social context of the Templars. While not specifically on the Order of the Temple, the tenth article does discuss the vexing problem of just what those in the West thought about Frankish Greece in the thirteenth century. It is an excellent background to any study of the area, or of interaction or hatred between Latins and Greeks in the region. Article Twelve is a masterful examination of what role the Templars played in supplying the crusader states, whilst the thirteenth article discusses the role of the Order of St Lazarus in the crusades. Many of the Variorum reprints do not have a unified index, making them rather difficult to consult. This volume has been provided with an excellent one, primarily to persons and places, though also to important themes. In the 'Addenda', Barber corrects any errors which have come to bght in more recent studies, and also adds other works to the bibliographical details for each article. Barber has provided a marvellous collection in this volume. Any crusades historian, historian of the Latin East, or specialist in heresy or the military orders would omit this material at his or her peril. The exhaustive notes, especially to primary sources, make these articles a veritable treasure trove. Anne Gilmour-Bryson Department of History University of Melbourne Bloch, R. Howard and Stephen G. Nichols, ed., Medievalism and the Modernist Temper, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996; cloth; pp. 504; R.R.P. US$60.00 (cloth), US$19.95 (paper). Word is out: something is happening in French medieval literature.' In 1983, Alexandre Leupin opened his study in Diacritics ot the work of Roger Dragonetti, 'The Middle Ages, the Other', with this ...