Few individuals in church history have straddled the fault line between insider and outsider quite so capably as Francis of Assisi – a reality that lies at the heart of Volker Leppin’s evenly paced treatment of the medieval saint.
Defined against the bourgeoisie of his day and distinguished from the nominalism and excesses of the 12th- and 13th-century church, Francis cut a singular though not solitary figure in the ecclesiastical climate in which he found himself. In Leppin’s account, restlessness marks the man before his personal religious experience and his mission thereafter.
Leppin is a skilled historian, and his instinct for scholarly rectitude is evident on almost every page of this volume. Sources are fastidiously referenced, and the events of Francis’s life are only collated once the hard demands of coherent historiography have been satisfied. While stunting the flow of the text at times, Leppin’s insistence that events and dogma only be established on clearly demarcated lines of evidence and source gives the reader confidence that actual history is recorded on these pages and that sound methodology is never overlooked.
The sections on Mission and Order are well rendered and rescue the intellectual and practical legacy of Francis from modern folklore. Francis’s posture towards the natural environment, his engagement with the burgeoning movements of his day (the Crusades in particular), and his relationship to the overarching authority of the church are deftly and painstakingly handled. Good account is given of how the Franciscan Order maintained cordial relations with the church, in distinction from the fate of other groups such as the Cathars.
Bezzant’s translation is, on the whole, admirable, although there are sections where English syntax is strained by the demands of remaining faithful to the German source text. Such instances are mercifully few, and, given the amount of historiographic referencing in each chapter, the text reads fluently in most places.
Francis is a figure whose legacy continues to capture the popular imagination in 21st-century Europe, and this well-researched volume will go a long way towards grounding his true legacy on the bedrock of sound historiography and informed, empathetic scholarship.
