The Franciscans in the Middle Ages, Michael Robson (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge and New York first published 2006, reprinted in paperback 2009) xiv, 239 pp., paperback £16.99, ISBN 978 1 8436 35158

This book, by the Director of Studies in Theology at St Edmund's College, Cambridge, surveys the history of the Franciscan order between 1200 and 1450.  St Francis of Assisi who died in 1226 only twenty years after his conversion was among the most attractive characters of the Middle Ages.  His voluntary poverty in imitation of Jesus Christ and his disciples' sacrifice was symbolised by the cord around the waists of Franciscan friars signifying by its three knots the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

The movement spread rapidly, reaching almost every other diocese of Christendom .They brought the Gospel to the laity in colourful dramatic and intelligible terms, preaching and hearing confessions anywhere and denouncing usury in their sermons.Their churches were centres of devotion and instruction.

The lives of many friars are unrecorded but the comments of contemporaries testify that the members included men of exceptional skill - craftsmen, artists, scientists and missionaries. The book begins with the conversion of Francis and concludes with the death of John of Capistrano the reformer in 1456.  It is deliberately concise as against Moorman's great work but as such a most useful account of a significant part of the Church in medieval times.

Intended for both the general and specialist reader, it is written in an easily assimilable style. It is fully foot-noted, based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources from the UK, USA and Europe. A chronological table and a most useful glossary of terms are provided as well as an index, and bibliography and three maps of the thirteenth century journeys.

G.R. Batho