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With reference to the suggestion that Francis represented a vision of non-violent Christian ethics in contradistinction to crusading thought, I recommend Christoph Maier, Preaching the Crusades: Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1994), who argues very cogently that the Franciscans were sympathetic to crusading from the early days. More broadly, Elizabeth Siberry, Criticism of Crusading (Oxford, 1985) is instructive: it is significant that the overwhelming majority of contemporary criticisms of crusading were NOT root-and-branch, but along the lines of good idea but could do better. M.Bull Bristol %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%