1112 Reviews itinerant lifestyle which threatened some practices of the established clergy (such as simony and marriage, against which Robert was preaching in conformity with the Gregorian Reform), Robert's allegedly poor appearance (compared to that of Johnthe Baptist), his presumption, his failure to sustain his converts in their new-found faith, unwanted pregnancies among his followers, and, worst of all, his personal practice of syneisactism. The latter signifies an ancient practice of lying chastely in bed with a woman in order to face and dispel the temptations of the flesh. Robert's practice seems less eccentric when set in the context ofeleventh- and twelfth-centurymonastic experimentation with double monasteries, which eventually proved too fraught with risk to succeed. Similarly, Robert's itinerant lifestyle was justified by the commission he received, in 1096, fromPope Urban II to go out and preach. A major setback lies in the scarcity of miracles attributed to him. Baudri of Dol does mention in the firstvita that Robert healed the sick, cleansed lepers, and raised the dead (p. 19) in a regular imitatio Christi following the conventions of hagiography. Yet the real miracles which Robert did perform, such as forgiving his enemies (e.g. William of Aquitaine and the bandits who attacked Robert himself), effecting reconciliation between enemies (especially potentates ofthe region), and saving women from lives of prostitution, go unappreciated as such. Minor irritations do hinder a smooth read. Some wonderfully poetic translations, such as 'word-scatterer', reminiscent of the Anglo-Saxon kenning, are marred by typographical errors elsewhere. Some of the background information is introduced haphazardly. For example, the identification of Robert as the 'son of a village priest', which pops up unexpectedly (p. xxv), is explained only in a note interpreting an ambiguous allusion to him as 'son and heir of the Christian profession' in the first Life (p. 10, p. 122 n. 16). That said, the bookas a whole is an exciting introduction to the religious problems of the eleventh century, when the clergy were suddenly cut off from marriage while divorce remained inadmissible. It also justifies Peter Abelard's paranoia in Brittany. University of Toronto K. Janet Ritch The History of the Holy War: Ambroise's (Estoire de la Guerre Sainte'. Vol. i: Text, ed. by Marianne Ailes and Malcolm Barber; vol. ii: Translation, by Mari? anne Ailes with notes by Marianne Ailes and Malcolm Barber. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. 2004. Vol. 1: xv + 211 pp.; vol. 11:xix + 2i4pp. ?70. ISBN 1? 84383-001-9. This is the firstedition of Ambroise's verse chronicle of the Third Crusade to be pub? lished since that of Gaston Paris in 1897, and on that account alone is very welcome. It is also very welcome since it combines a solidly competent edition of the Old French and a plain but readable translation into English prose. It is clearly aimed at two totally differentaudiences, as can be deduced from the organization ofthe two volumes: one is that of students of medieval French language and literature, the other of historians of medieval England lacking skills in the original language. Not only are the original text and the translation in differentvolumes, but each volume has its own introduc? tion, notes (purely relating to rejected readings in volume 1,predominantly historical and biographical in volume 11), and index. Both indexes are essentially of proper names, but they are treated in differentways: in volume 1references are to lines ofthe chronicle; in volume 11they are to pages of that volume. Moreover, entries are treated differently.In volume 1there is a heading for 'Richard', glossed as 'Richard I, king of England' (which is the heading in volume 11),with no spelling variants and forty-six subentries, six of which have furthersubentries (three of which are clearly misplaced MLR, 100.4,2005 1113 'main' subentries) relating to narrative episodes; in volume 11there are twenty-three much broader subentries which are not furtherdivided. The entries for Saladin show even greater discrepancies of approach (presumably between the two editors): in vol? ume 1he has twenty-fournarrative subentries, the main heading giving two variants of his name from the chronicle, but in volume 11the sole heading, giving his full Muslim name, is not divided...