The friars represented a remarkable innovation in medieval religious life. Founded in the early 13th century, the Franciscans and Dominicans seemed a perfect so

In 1300, the French region of Languedoc had been cowed under the authority of both Rome and France since Pope Innocent III 's Albigensian Crusade nearly a centu

* G. K. Chesterton's classic biographies, 'St. Francis of Assisi' and 'St. Thomas Aquinas', in one volume* Includes a Preface and Introduction to Chesterton and

A guided tour through the fascinating history of Catholic religious orders From their monastic prehistory in the Egyptian desert through their political heyday