Fruits of the most recent research into the "long" thirteenth century. The idea of uncertainty forms a major theme throughout the essays collected here; they tackle aspects of religious, intellectual, political and social history, highlighting how uncertainty, in many and varied forms, was conceptualized, negotiated and exploited in the particular conditions of the long thirteenth century. A number of the contributions explore understandings of the cosmos and personal salvation, probing the search for certainties on the partof ecclesiastical reformers, practitioners of scriptural exegesis and writers of confessional handbooks; there is also an investigation of the exploitation of ambiguities around the fate of excommunicates. Other pieces turn to politics and society, examining strategies of political legitimation and resistance, the unstable politics of identity, gendered experience and means used to regulate social order. As a whole, the collection thus opens up diverse perspectives on, and approaches to, the experience of uncertainty during a period of rapid and often disorienting change. Andrew M. Spencer is an Affiliated Lecturer in Medieval History at Cambridge University and a Fellowof Murray Edwards College; Carl Watkins is University Senior Lecturer in Central Medieval History at Cambridge University. Contributors: Emily Corran, Kenneth Duggan, Lucy Hennings, Felicity Hill, Adrian Jobson, Frederique Lachaud, Amanda Power, Jessica Nelson, Andrew Spencer, Alice Taylor,

The English Franciscan Roger Bacon (c.1214-92) holds a controversial but important position in the development of modern science. He has been portrayed as an isolated figure, at odds with his influential order and ultimately condemned by it. This major study, the first in English for nearly sixty years, offers a provocative new interpretation of both Bacon and his environment. Amanda Power argues that his famous writings for the papal curia were the product of his critical engagement with the objectives of the Franciscan order and the reform agenda of the thirteenth-century church. Fearing that the apocalypse was at hand and Christians unprepared, Bacon explored radical methods for defending, renewing and promulgating the faith within Christendom and beyond. Read in this light, his work indicates the breadth of imagination possible in a time of expanding geographical and intellectual horizons.

The English Franciscan Roger Bacon (c.1214-92) holds a controversial but important position in the development of modern science. He has been portrayed as an isolated figure, at odds with his influential order and ultimately condemned by it. This major study, the first in English for nearly sixty years, offers a provocative new interpretation of both Bacon and his environment. Amanda Power argues that his famous writings for the papal curia were the product of his critical engagement with the objectives of the Franciscan order and the reform agenda of the thirteenth-century church. Fearing that the apocalypse was at hand and Christians unprepared, Bacon explored radical methods for defending, renewing and promulgating the faith within Christendom and beyond. Read in this light, his work indicates the breadth of imagination possible in a time of expanding geographical and intellectual horizons.