According to the central theory presented in this book the Franciscan order identified martyrdom primarily as death at the hand of Muslims, a preoccupation with Islam which was based on the popularity of the image of the Muslim persecutor. The role of the Franciscan martyr only came to prominence at a time when the order was in crisis in the fourteenth century, specifically as a response to internal division. The author points out that this focus on Islam was at odds with the friars’ practice because they neglected to develop programmes of conversion. MacEvitt also states that martyrdom was an ambiguous concept for the friars. The four Franciscans executed as heretics in Marseille in 1318 were regarded as martyrs by the Spirituals and at least one of four Franciscans killed in India in 1321 was a Spiritual. The ambiguity of the concept of martyrdom is seen as the reason for the delay in the canonisation of the five Franciscans who died at the hands of Muslims in 1220; their sanctity was only pronounced by Pope Sixtus iv in 1481.

The first chapter offers an excellent summary of the origins and early history of Christian martyrdom and the author is able to demonstrate the flexibility inherent in the concept of death for the faith. The second chapter begins with a review of relevant sections in the Franciscan rules of 1221 and 1223, followed by an important discussion of Francis's desire for martyrdom. MacEvitt not only deals with the famous encounter with the sultan but points to other episodes of persecution in the saint's life, the conflict with his father, the treatment suffered at the hands of the citizens of Assisi, after his conversion. Receiving the stigmata and enduring the torments of his final illness, Francis came closest to martyrdom. However, martyrdom did not become an important value for the thirteenth-century friars and by no means all Franciscans who died at the hands of Muslims were considered to be martyrs.

The third chapter presents the mendicants as agents of the papacy, as ambassadors and diplomats as well as preachers in non-Christian regions. Dominicans and Franciscans were equally involved as ‘papal avatars’ (p. 79) although the focus remains on the Minorites, whose bishop in partibus for a time even supported the Almohads and organised the ministry for Christian mercenaries and merchants in the lands of Islam. The conversion of Muslims was rarely attempted and hardly ever achieved.

In the fourth chapter MacEvitt analyses the ways in which the context shaped Franciscan accounts of martyrdom. The first fully developed accounts of the order's martyrs are dated to the 1320s, a time of crisis in the order. Central sources are letters with accounts of the Tana martyrs and Odorico of Pordenone's Relatio. The fact that Tommaso of Tolentino, a first generation Spiritual, was among the martyrs, gave Odorico's text a degree of subversive potential. This potential to interpret all forms of persecution of Franciscans, even the measures taken by the Church against the Spirituals, as martyrdom, is underlined by two factors, the chronological coincidence of the stories with the dispute over poverty and by the emergence of visual representations of the martyrs in frescoes and window glass at the same time.

The dissemination of the stories of Franciscan martyrdom is studied in the fifth chapter. Among the texts discussed are Franciscan catalogues of saints from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. MacEvitt offers a significant observation: the lists from the thirteenth century do not contain references to the order's martyrs while those of the fourteenth century do. This finding strengthens the argument which includes the claim of a steady increase of the attention given to martyrs in the order's historiography, culminating in the Chronica XXIV generalium, which is at the centre of chapter vi. It is seen as a key text because its creation coincided with the official recognition of the Observants and because it contains the largest collection of passiones of Franciscan martyrs in the Middle Ages. The chronicle is particularly noteworthy because evangelisation in Christendom and beyond is given a prominent place in the narrative. It can be shown how the story of the Moroccan martyrs evolved from the thirteenth century (BL, ms Cotton Nero A IX) to the fourteenth-century Chronica XXIV generalium. Even though it is acknowledged that this long narrative also contains stories of Franciscan martyrs killed by schismatics and heretics, MacEvitt maintains that the main focus was on Muslims and Islam.

This is an important book, full of interesting ideas and thoughts. MacEvitt is prepared to test his argument and acknowledges that the Chronica XXIV generalium portrays the eremitical existence of Br Giles as a more perfect form of the Vita religiosa than martyrdom. He also states that the interest in martyrdom fades after the end of the fourteenth century so that this chronicle is the only large Franciscan collection of their stories. Perhaps MacEvitt could have done more to support his argument. The figure of Ramon Llull, and the foundation of the Franciscan house of Miramar which was dedicated to the study of Arabic, do not feature in the volume. The failure of Llull's proposals supports the argument that evangelisation was not a priority in the order. Less convincing is the heavy reliance on two English manuscripts (BL, ms Cotton Nero A IX, and Bodleian Library, Oxford, Lat. misc. C 75), traced back to the convents of Hereford and Oxford. If there had been an immediate link between stories of martyrdom and the divisions between the Community and the Spirituals, one would expect these texts to be a reflection of this: however, such problems did not exist in the order's English province.

Even if the sources do not allow the construction of an entirely conclusive argument, one can only agree with MacEvitt's statement that more attention needs to be paid to the connections between the focus on the order's martyrs and the crisis in the order. There are excellent old editions on the activities of the friars outside Christendom and it is to be hoped that MacEvitt will continue this exploration of an often neglected aspect in the history of a complex religious order.