Unceasing Strife, Unending Fear

This learned reflection on the French monarchy and papacy in the reign of Philip IV is a wonderful book. The work of a mature scholar thoroughly at home in the period and the source materials, it is an exemplary model of how to blend the biographical, political, and religious-intellectual into a comprehensible account of ideas relating to political action. It has the air of a novel; the writing is graceful, vigorous, and subtle, and always crystal clear. -- Theodore Evergates, McDaniel College, editor of "Aristocratic Women in Medieval France" Unceasing Strife, Unending Fear represents a very intelligent, clearly written, and original look at big and important events in fourteenth-century France through the eyes of a scholar-abbot whose life turns out to be far more interesting than even Noel Valois might have fancied. It is quite difficult to play a single life and line of thought and interest through a political and ecclesiological artillery barrage that ought to dwarf them, but Jordan does this again and again. This book ought to stimulate a lot of discussion and interest among both teachers and their students. -- Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania, author of "Limits of Thought and Power in Medieval Europe"

Explores the tensions within the Roman Catholic church and between the church and royal authority in France in the period 1290-1321. This book traces the emergence of King Philip the Fair's (1285-1314) almost paranoid style of rule and its impact on church-state relations, which makes the expression of Jacques de Therines' views more courageous.This absorbing book explores the tensions within the Roman Catholic church and between the church and royal authority in France in the crucial period 1290-1321. During this time the crown tried to force churchmen to accept policies many considered inconsistent with ecclesiastical freedom and traditions--such as paying war taxes and expelling the Jews from the kingdom. William Jordan considers these issues through the eyes of one of the most important and courageous actors, the Cistercian monk, professor, abbot, and polemical writer Jacques de Therines. The result is a fresh perspective on what Jordan terms "the story of France in a politically terrifying period of its existence, one of unceasing strife and unending fear." Jacques de Therines was involved in nearly every controversy of the period: the expulsion of the Jews from France, the relocation of the papacy to Avignon, the affair of the Templars, the suppression of the "heresies" of Marguerite Porete and of the Spiritual Franciscans, and the defense of the "exempt" monastic orders' freedom from all but papal control. The stands he took were often remarkable in themselves: hostility to the expulsion of Jews and spirited defense of the Templars, for example. The book also traces the emergence of King Philip the Fair's (1285-1314) almost paranoid style of rule and its impact on church-state relations, which makes the expression of Jacques de Therines's views all the more courageous.