Defenders and Critics of Franciscan Life ─ Essays in Honor of John V. Fleming

The papers presented here come from a conference held at Princeton University in 2004, in honor of historian John Fleming. Cusato (Franciscan studies, St. Bonaventura University) and Geltner (medieval history, University College, Oxford) have assembled a stellar group of scholars to discuss the varied attitudes toward the Franciscan Order throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. Articles discuss the ways that Franciscans interpreted their own history and the involvement of the order in education and politics before turning to negative opinions of the order expressed by contemporaries. The criticisms of the Friars came both from within the order and from outsiders. Many, including the Spiritual Franciscans, later deemed heretical, wished to return to the simplicity of the life of St. Francis. Others felt the order should be abolished. The study ends with an examination of the legacy of St. Francis among clerics and lay people as well as the case of Louis IX, who preached to the mendicants, either as King or saint. This is an excellent addition to this series of Franciscan Studies. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael F. Cusato, O.F.M. is Director of the Franciscan Institute and Dean of the School of Franciscan Studies at St. Bonaventure University in New York State. He is a specialist on the history of the Franciscan Order in the Middle Ages, with particular expertise in the contexualization of the Franciscan sources of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries and the role played by apocalypticism in Franciscan identity.G. Geltner is a Lecturer in Medieval History at University College, Oxford. He has recently published William of Saint Amour’s De Periculis Novissimorum Temporum: A Critical Edition, Translation and Introduction (2008) and The Medieval Prison: A Social History (2008). He is currently writing a social history of medieval antifraternalism.