The question of theological studies within the Franciscan order has generated much interest in recent years, largely through the work of William J.Courtenay and Bert Roest. The work of these distinguished scholars is complemented by Neslihan Şenocak, assistant professor of history at Columbia University, whose articles and contributions to monographs have created a favourable impression in the world of Franciscan scholarship in the last decade. A substantial prologue is followed by five chapters which dwell on the question of studies in the formative years of the order (1219–44), study as a route to evangelical perfection, the rationale for the friars' schools, the criticisms of the educational practices and the condition of learning in the prelude to the Council of Vienne. The prologue, ‘The challenges to the historian’, summarises earlier writing on the schools and its impact on the evolving order. It offers an excellent survey of how the question of studies has been viewed through the lens of the Franciscan question, the tensions between the Spirituals and the Community or Conventuals, the history of the Dominican order and contextualisation. For example, the remarkable expansion of the order and its transformation raised certain questions about identity and fidelity, leading some of il poverello's early companions to challenge the lines of development. The author distances herself from some approaches taken by earlier scholars and she is wary of regarding study solely as a faithful development of the founder's wishes or its contrary. The ambiguity of the term ‘Spiritual’ is noted, as is its polarising tendency among historians. The early fragmentation of the order into Spirituals and Conventuals has divided historians according to their sympathies for one party or the other. For example, English historians such as A. G. Little, Fr Cuthbert ofmcap., G. G. Coulton and J. R. H. Moorman were favourably inclined towards the Spiritual tradition. Although the Dominicans and Franciscans were frequently engaged in the same papal projects, the temptation to view them as twin orders is unhelpful. The early Dominican constitutions do not necessarily mirror evolving Franciscan constitutions, especially in view of the recent recovery of Franciscan constitutions promulgated between 1239 and 1260.

Gregory of Naples, minister-provincial of France, pursued a policy of engagement with the University of Paris and this gave rise to opportunities for preaching and recruiting masters, bachelors and students. His reception of the four masters at Saint-Denis on Good Friday vindicated this policy. Haymo of Faversham and Simon of Sandwich were named as two of the four masters; the other two were probably Bartholomew Anglicus and Simon Anglicus. The Parisian convent shaped the contours of the mission across the Channel, which bore the hallmarks of the planning of Gregory of Naples and his policy of making foundations close to cities and towns with significant schools. The Parisian convent served as a source of lectors for the provinces in northern Europe and the Mediterranean in the 1220s. Thus, Bartholomew Anglicus was appointed to lecture at Magdeburg in 1230 at the request of the minister-provincial. Theological study was becoming more important in the order from the mid-1220s and that transition was complete by 1240 when Haymo of Faversham became the first minister-general to combine ordination to priesthood, education in the new universities and fidelity to evangelical poverty. His successors were masters of theology. Later reformers became very critical of the role played by the studium generale at Paris. The observations of Ubertino da Casale targeted abuses which were also tackled in the order's constitutions and provincial statutes at the turn of the fourteenth century. The order's growing search for respectability in social, ecclesiastical and educational terms informs the hagiographical tradition, the incipient constitutions and chronicles. For instance, Thomas of Celano relates that ‘quidem litterati viri et quidam nobiles’ were received into the order by the founder. The early constitutions regarding the admission of friars underlined the candidates' educational suitability. Thomas of Eccleston takes some provincial pride in announcing the credentials of many recruits, including senior clerics, a bishop and an abbot. The admission of Alexander of Hales provided the order with some intellectual capital, as Roger Bacon attests. While the growth in theological studies among the friars is traditionally linked with preaching and hearing confessions, Şenocak rightly points out that the order needed educated men to occupy positions of leadership within the general curia and in the provinces. This interpretation would have earned the approval of Salimbene de Adam who railed against the undue influence exercised by the lay brothers in the 1230s. Despite the swelling ranks of the priests in the order from the close of that decade, the impact of the writings of Abbot Joachim of Fiore illustrated the need for discernment in theological matters to avoid further brushes with the papacy which had deposed two ministers-general by 1257. This monograph brings a freshness to the debates about the founder's views on the appropriateness of theological studies. The first generation of masters and lectors had swapped wealth and a life of security for the ideals of St Francis and they were prominent in the mounting opposition to the excesses perpetrated by Brother Elias of Cortona. In the second half of the thirteenth century it was the lectors who were attracting a great deal of criticism from Jacopone da Todi, Ubertino da Casale and Angelo Clareno. Şenocak's persuasive monograph questions some of the traditional assumptions regarding the rise of theological study among the friars and provides a wider perspective. It will challenge scholars to review their interpretation of much-studied materials regarding the rise of the friars' schools.