Catherine M. Mooney's study is researched, well-written, and responsibly balanced—an indispensable guide enabling a reader to navigate this turning point of the religious life of women. Mooney's work approaches the writings by, to, and about Clare chronologically. The importance of this approach becomes obvious in light of the important role of Cardinal Hugo and his successors as protectors of Francis, Clare, and their followers—especially the more vulnerable women. The author's sensitivity to the grammatical fine points and easily overlooked nuances gives evidence of the objectivity and respect of a true scholar.

Chapter 1 is devoted to Clare's conversion and childhood from 1193 to 1211 and underscores the discrepancies in the Acts of the Process, the Legend of Saint Clare, and the Verified Legend. Mooney reserves judgment on these documents since each has its own peculiar difficulties requiring critical editions, particularly the Legend, whose authorship continues to be debated. Mooney navigates the “temporal, social, and geographic” details of Clare's early life in ways making the reader comfortable with her “peripatetic journey from penitence at home to San Damiano” and her “family dynamics” (14–29).

Chapter 2, “The Early San Damiano: A House of Penitents, 1211 to ca.1216,” introduces controversial materials, such as the forma vivendi, which Clare claimed Francis himself had given to her and her companions, and, more particularly, Jacques de Vitry's 1216 “Witness” letter and its distinction between “Lesser Brothers” and “Lesser Sisters” (30–53). These pages are enlightening as Mooney breaks Jacques's text into five periscopes, which she analyzes in translation and, through the original Latin, teases out their implications. This chapter concludes with observations on the reminiscences of Clare's companions in the Acts about the internal life of San Damiano between 1211 and circa 1216. The author's astute scholarship, objectivity, and powers of observation once again emerge.

Those first two chapters presage the text's “shibboleth”: “The House of Penitents Becomes a Monastery, ca. 1211 to 1228” (54–66). When the dwelling of the penitent women, San Damiano, evolved into a monastery, it was placed under a religious rule and became subjected to constitutions touching the details of daily life. Mooney begins by contrasting “a traditional portrait” with a “revised” one in which she proposes five considerations for scholars, which form the basis of her interpretations of the role of Clare and the Ladies of San Damiano. This chapter focuses on Cardinal Hugo's forma vitae, its insistence on enclosure, and its continuing issues as it stressed separation from the world, silence, fasting, and abstinence. Rigorous, harsh, and severe: there is general agreement in contemporary literature in using such adjectives to describe this document and to understand why it became so contentious. At this point, Mooney raises important questions concerning the relationships that San Damiano had with both Hugo and Francis. While not arriving at definite answers, she suggests the important shifts occurred in the years under consideration.

Chapter 4, “Turning Point: Negotiating San Damiano's Singularity, ca. 1226–1230,” begins with Francis's death in 1226, the growing influence of Hugo—who, in 1227, became Pope Gregory IX—and the rise of Cardinal Rainaldo, the “turning point” of the book (67–88). The author navigates the significant number of texts from this period: Gregory's 1228 Letter to Clare, Rainaldo's 1228 Letter, Gregory's Privilege of Poverty, Thomas of Celano's Life of Saint Francis, and Gregory's Quo elongati from 1230. Each is placed into a context overshadowed by the death of Francis and the rise of Pope Gregory, that is, Hugo. While most modern commentaries on Gregory's Quo elongati and his interpretation of Francis's Regula bullata (the Later Rule), Mooney examines it through the Later Rule's eleventh chapter forbidding the entrance of the Lesser Brothers into the convents of nuns. She shows how Gregory's teaching, its interpretation of the ministry of the Lesser Brothers, and Clare's corresponding challenge to the pope himself impacted all concerned and influenced San Damiano's status.

Chapter 5, “Clare's Letters to Agnes of Prague, ca. 1234 to 1238,” treats each of Clare's letters, including a consideration of Clare's Latin literacy, the dating of the letters, and the spiritual teaching they contain placed in historical context (89–116). The author's contextualization of this material reveals her astute, perceptive grasp of the issues as well as the interlocutors involved—namely, the papacy, the Cardinal Protector, the Lesser Brothers, and the Sisters themselves. The next chapter builds upon this for an understanding of Innocent IV's forma vitae. Tackling Innocent IV's initiative presumes an appreciation of the religious rules influencing the Poor Ladies: those of Benedict and Francis. The role of the Lesser Brothers was growing in prominence, especially before the promulgation of Innocent's forma vitae (141–151). The following section provides a balanced, objective treatment of its reception by the Order of San Damiano, by Clare herself, by the Lesser Brothers, and by Cardinal Rainaldo, all of whom were key players in the unfolding drama of Clare's 1253 forma vitae.

The last three chapters tackle the thorny issues of this document. Was it a confirmation of previous papal concessions or an actual forma vitae? How then do the Acts of the Process testimony of Sister Filippa, the only extra-textual reference to the document, and Pope Innocent IV's curious confirmation of Cardinal Rainaldo's confirmation see it? In the eighth chapter, dedicated to the authorship of the 1253 forma vitae, Mooney revives questions that touch on this document, on the Later Rule of Francis, and even the time-honored Rule of Benedict.

Finally, chapter 9, “Clare's Last Words, ca. 1253,” begins with Clare's last letter to Agnes of Prague, followed by Clare's Testament and Blessing (196–221). In all three, Mooney raises questions and suggestions about possible authors and/or scribes—for example, Cardinal Rainaldo, Brother Leo, and others. As Mooney summarizes:

The final pages provide a masterful conclusion to Mooney's contribution to contemporary studies of Clare of Assisi. Her invaluable, painstaking, objective, sensitive work placed these pieces of spiritual literature in this misunderstood context and did religious women and, the followers of Saint Clare in particular, a great service.