leave out other smaller mendicant groups – the Ordo Apostolorum, the Williamites,and the various Orders of the Cross – so that ultimately the title is misleading: onlysome, not all of the smaller mendicant associations are represented. Andrews arguesthat the Friars of the Cross (Crosiers) and the Servites can be excluded because theydid not beg, other historians, however, regard them also as mendicants, echoing theviews of many contemporary lay supporters. It was by no means unknown thatcontinental mendicant houses – including some belonging to the Franciscans andDominicans – would accept rents and retain real estate given to them, so that the roleof begging in their economy became considerably reduced. Economy is not the onlypoint at which the concept of ‘mendicant’ becomes fuzzy at the edges. Many housesestablished a network among their lay and even ecclesiastical surroundings, withcommunities of lay penitents forming part of a third order as well as associatedfraternities, penitents – groups of Beguines and Beghards – looking to them forspiritual guidance; in fact, this formed the context in which the mendicant orderstypically operated. The ability to create such a network could mean success or failurefor a house or even a whole order. On this point a more extended discussion wouldhave been helpful, and the publishers would have done better to allow space for it.

University of Birmingham, UK Jens Rohrkasten

The Contemplative Church: Joachim and his Adversaries. By George H. Tavard. Pp. 147,Milwaukee, Marquette University Press, 2005, $17.00

This book is hard to categorize. Not for the non-specialist, though written in anadmirably lucid style and avoiding theological jargon, it is hardly intended for thehistorian because what he has to say about the background and context, thoughhelpful, is avowedly sketchy. It is probably more of a theological pamphlet, aimed atthose interested in the history of prophecy and its present influence. To any whomightsuppose that, because Joachim was never formally condemned for heresy, his ideasare therefore orthodox, Tavard is adamant that they are not. In the introduction heexpresses alarm at a move in 2002 to have Joachim canonised. As he points out, thegreat contemporary theologians Aquinas and Bonaventura condemned Joachim’sdoctrines as unorthodox, though few moderns have noticed this. Tavard is critical ofthe popes of the time who, he thinks, did not give sufficient doctrinal guidance,though they did condemn the ideas of Gherardo of Borgo San Donnino (d. 1276) whocarried Joachite ideas much further than their originator.Joachim of Fiore (c1130–1202) was a former Cistercian, who founded his own order

in Fiore in 1191. He seems to have reacted to excessive rationalism by taking wing intoimaginative interpretation of scripture. In response to what he considered a privaterevelation he produced a vivid and complicated schema for understanding scripture.In this the Old Testament represented the actions of God the Father, the New theaction of the Son and evolving out of that was the Age of the Spirit. This last, the endtime, would dawn about 1260 and would be characterised by a monastic andcontemplative church, responding to a new revelation. This vision was based on aparticular (and erroneous) theology of the Trinity and an idiosyncratic way of readingscripture which allowed one to fortell the future. He saw the history of the church as aseries of ages which superseded one another. Though Joachim himself sincerelyintended to remain orthodox and was willing to have his ideas examined, the workbecame explosive when it was used by Gherardo to identify the Third Age with thearrival of the Franciscans. To him the (new) Eternal Gospel was manifested inJoachim’s Liber Concordiae. Thus other religious orders were about to becomeredundant and ideals of Franciscan poverty appeared to be the norm for the dawningNew Age. The seculars in the University of Paris, lead by Guillaume of St Amour,

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launched a full-scale attack on the Friars, but Tavard points out that Joachim wasattacked also by his fellow Friars, not least by Aquinas and Bonaventura. The rest ofthe book is essentially devoted to showing that, in different ways, works of both Friarsundermined Joachim’s whole schema and revealed it to be unorthodox, especially onthe Trinity. Probably the most important part of the book concerns Bonaventura,where Tavard shows in some detail that much of his work was implicitly attackingJoachim’s ideas. Tavard considers that Bonaventura was in fact more concerned withthis strand of thought than with Averroeism, which is usually thought to be his maintarget. Chapters 7 and 8 are devoted to detailed consideration of his ideas, aboutcontemplation for instance, to prove the point. This discussion involves interestingconsideration of Bonaventure’s theories about the Dionysian vision of the heavenlyhierarchies and their influence on the Church on earth.In the Epilogue Fr Tavard notes the virtual end of Dionysian ways of looking at the

church among orthodox theologians after the Reformation since the work was finallyrealised not to be by the Areopogite. He points out, however, that visionary Utopiashave not died; presumably part of his reason for writing is to warn well-meaningwriters and readers that imaginative work should be based on sound doctrine, or itwill lead down troubling paths.

Durham Margaret Harvey

Crusading in the Age of Joinville. By Caroline Smith. Pp. xii, 216, Aldershot/Burlington,VT, Ashgate. 2006, $100.00.

The crusader states in the Holy Land suffered a severe blow with Saladin’s capture ofJerusalem in 1187, but it was not mortal. Over the hundred years until its extinctionwith the fall of Acre in 1291, the Latin presence in the east was sustained by thecontinuing appeal of crusade, undertaken both in formal expeditions and by smallergroups and individuals. In discussions of crusading in that thirteenth century,attention usually focuses on the expedition of Louis IX of France in 1248–54,primarily because of the lively record offered by John of Joinville in his life of the king.Caroline Smith places Joinville’s work at the heart of her discussion of thirteenth-

century crusading, although her interests wage more widely. Her concern is not withthe expeditions as such, or even with the Holy Land as a western outpost – sheprovides no detailed narrative of events, no discussion of governmental structures andmilitary options. Rather, her concern is with ‘the way in which thirteenth-centurylaymen like Joinville may have perceived crusading, and how they involvedthemselves with the crusading cause’ (p.1). Her aim, then, is to reconstruct thementality and ethos of crusading, as it was received and manifested by the eventualparticipants from the west. ‘How they involved themselves’ suggests some discussionof the practicalities of participation, and some is indeed offered; but generally‘involvement’ centres on the crusaders’ response to the crusading message. Attentionis concentrated on French crusaders, with the rest of Europe receiving almost nomention.In dealing with the dissemination of the crusading message and the creation of a

crusading mentality, Smith follows in the tracks of ChristopherMaier, building on hisanalysis and integrating a wider range of sources. Indeed, a large part of her volumedeals with sources and their messages. The range of material is the main concern ofher first chapter, following an introduction which sketches the context and the issues,and establishes the historiographical background. The sources considered includesongs, sermons, and chronicles; but Joinville’s Vie de Saint Louis is saved for moredetailed and specific consideration in chapter 2. There it is the sole concern, Smithusefully discussing its origins and production in some detail.

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