Review: [untitled] Author(s): Bernard McGinn Reviewed work(s): The Powers of Prophecy.

The 'Cedar of Lebanon' Vision from the Mongol Onslaught to the Dawn of the Enlightenment by Robert E. Lerner Source: The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 71, No. 4 (Oct., 1985), pp. 640-641 Published by: Catholic University of America Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25022168 Accessed: 08/09/2009 08:52
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640

BOOK REVIEWS

The

Powers

the Mongol The Cedar of Lebanon Vision from of Prophecy. Onslaught to the Dawn E. Univer the Lerner. Robert of (Berkeley: By Enlightenment. Press. 1983. Pp. xiii, 249. $32.50.) sity of California Collingwood in terms of detective the in his famous The between hunts out The Idea of History the "scissors and discerns contrasted and paste" the meaning good and bad

R. G history the good uncover Lerner's the

the difference work that

and approach to of clues Robert work clues on are

intentions which

of the criminal.

new book,

is an exercise

fragmentary to cast the mystery he seeks manuscripts; function of apocalyptic prophecy. principally The "Cedrus short and obscure

"mentality" brief

of prophecy and sometimes

an apt one image is in some deft and original in the Middle and beyond. Ages texts light on in scores is the

to describe detective Lerner's

of widely scattered and religious social

alta Libani

long been known erable confusion the basis

in most the words which versions begins with prophecy will be felled") has succidetur" ("The high cedar of Lebanon to the students consid of medieval literature, though apocalyptic time of composition and context. On has existed about its original now in Innsbruck, Lerner that shows from Ottobeuren was as a intended other medieval like many prophecies, in a crisis-situation, in this case the Mongol onslaught was shortly before The time of composition 1240; the place

of a manuscript version, consolation

the original of message

against Europe. most is that he has The of Lerners real originality book, however, likely Hungary. not been content out the meaning version in ferreting of the original (a task in of more than an article), but that he has taken on the more itself not worthy ambitious prophecy The Mameluke 1289 of Acre "Tripoli mented threat century, Professor labor of down original all the twists and turns following the seventeenth century. through about toehold 1290 of this short but long-lived

central

was reworked prophecy on Crusader the last pressure ex eventu the end duly of Christian recorded

to fit

a new

situation, had fallen

the in

in Palestine. version),

(a vaticinium spelled

in the new

Tripoli and in 1291

the fall

on the mainland. the This version, presence was widely and com it was revised, edited, known; proper, Prophecy" to fit varying in terms of the crises, mostly upon for the next two centuries of Islam. when Lerner The no to find an audience in the sixteenth continued prophecy comments it. less a figure than Martin Luther made upon and his manuscript clues with "Sherlockian" pursues persistence summary on

with an all-too-brief his case to its conclusion insight before bringing in medieval and early modern the uses of such prophecies religion. Not all of Lerner's His of these interpretations identification of the "lion who text with as he the returning (e.g., a good pp. piece vatic arises pronouncements out of mountain

convincing. the 1290 Tripoli means as certain concerns

are equally of caverns"

Frederick 52-53, 73).

claims

II is possible, by no though A more serious criticism work and a good detective of reconstructions

the difference Lerner's and

between

of detective

story. Despite texts possible while valuable

style, engaging frequently to various manuscript devoted the lengthy footnotes collections, in the to the specialist, this at times a tedious book, especially make

the detailed

BOOK REVIEWS

641

later chapters. Tripoli prophecy

A chart would

the complex depicting have been a welcome

stemma addition.

of

the many

versions

of the

Bernard Divinity School, University of Chicago

McGinn

The

Italian Christian University In this

Crusades:

The

Papal-Angevin 1254-1343. Press. seeks

Alliance By Norman 1982. Pp.

and Housley. xii, 293.

the

Crusades York:

L\ay Powers, Press/Clarendon Dr.

(New $44.00.)

against Oxford

book

mistaken

political amounted which the contrary, lished defense early

in tending and financial

to persuade Housley to see the "political" Crusades

historians

the Holy See device which to a perversion of the crusading ideal. a consistent and statesmanlike application thirteenth and were century, sometimes not debasing defending in the and used heretical the by

that they in Italy and elsewhere used for short-term In his view of

have

been

as amere ends, and

in the

on they were, estab legal principles in legitimate self the popes rulers. of the Crusade In proclaiming as they had

against such Crusades hitherto in

aggressive the popes understood, and the

secular ideals

been cially

but were

Moreover, which had

Italy the Italian

Papal Crusades before

to be fulfilled effected. The

espe political authority, interests of Christendom. general a necessary were, he argues, political precondition in the East could the Muslims the Crusade against State, Crusades exerted substantial considerable influence in some on coun

their own

be properly

support public opinion arousing in the way in which tries. Though he acknowledges that there were irregularities for the East were diverted funds and supplies intended by the "political" Crusading to the West, the "political" criticized and allows also that contemporaries Crusades on these grounds, Dr. Housley them to have affected Crusades does not consider adversely The to be the course reviewer does of events not in the Latin East. discussion to his main Ages of the nature hypothesis. the Curia very of the Crusade For often example, treated

in favor

of

"political" the popes,

thorough enough he admits that although political obvious

feel Dr. Housley's to give full support in the Later Middle

as heresy, to entertain to the Roman the resistance Church he is unwilling a part of the history of the that the political Crusade is as much corollary, as it is of the Crusade. of heresy Cardinal Gil Albornoz, the great paladin repression a certain was in the mid-fourteenth curial of of the Papal State century, typical attitude also very in treating sparing Markward all those in his who resisted (p. 66) his of discussion authority Innocent as is Housley "patarini." crusade Ill's threatened

against admission Crusade.

crusading was impeding

never is by his of Anweiler took place), which (which probably the prototype of the thirteenth-century curial theory of the "political" a to mention to me It is not at all clear that Innocent chose possible the latter (as Housley says) because indulgence against Markward simply the launch of an Eastern Crusade from Sicily: this was not the

conclusion reached by Elizabeth Kennan

(in Traditio, XXVII

[1971], 231-249).