Miika Tamminen's book is dedicated to the ideas present in model crusade sermons and manuals for preachers of the thirteenth century addressed both to would-be crusaders and to those who had already taken the cross. Since the author is not a supporter of a ‘traditionalist’ definition of the crusades, he studies all types of expeditions, first of all the crusades to the Holy Land and the Albigensian crusades. The choice of the thirteenth century is not accidental: there are many more sources on crusade preaching than for the previous century.

The main question posed by the book is new: Tamminen wants to discover how crusade preachers defined the ‘true’ crusader. He correctly notes that previous studies concentrated on the ways in which preachers made the crusade more attractive for the would-be crusader; he wants to look at the issue from another perspective: to understand how preachers guided potential and actual crusaders to ‘true crusading’. It should however be noted that the content of these sources has already been examined in a general way in summary works on crusade preaching. The author uses an extensive amount of mostly well-known sources, and also two crusade sermons by Federico Visconti, archbishop of Pisa, which have not previously been referred to in crusade studies, even in basic monographs on crusade preaching by Penny J. Cole and Jean Flori. Furthermore, Tamminen uses several of Philippe le Chancelier's unpublished sermons promoting the Albigensian crusade. Nicole Bériou and Christoph Maier were preparing an edition of these sermons, but, as far as I know, this work is still in progress.

The main part of the book consists of three chapters: ‘The crusader and the Bible’, ‘The crusader and God’ and ‘The crusader and the world’. Tamminen wants to demonstrate which biblical personages were deemed to be suitable examples for crusaders, and what was their supposed behaviour towards God and people. The chapter on the Bible provides a detailed summary of different biblical allegories present in sermons. The main examples for imitation are those which one could naturally expect: Joshua and Judas Maccabaeus. The omnipresence of parallels with the Maccabees in a variety of sources related to crusading was already noted by Nicholas Morton and other historians. It should however be noted that quotations related to Joshua discussed in the book are not really related to the image of the ‘true’ crusader, but represent just a set of parallels present in sermons. Tamminen usually does not put biblical quotations in sermons in the broader context of how they were understood at that time, but there is a very interesting summary of different medieval interpretations of the angel from Revelation vii.2 (pp. 77–83). Speaking about relations between crusaders and God, Tamminen is right to stress that crusading was presented as at the same time a voluntary service and a feudal obligation towards God. He is also correct in noting that the papacy took over the idea of a feudal obligation between the people and God, but only from Innocent iii onwards, although he does not mention that the idea was clearly formulated only at the end of the twelfth century even by preachers. One of the examples seems to be incorrect: contra Tamminen I do not think that Roland is depicted by Humbert of Romans (p. 107) as a true vassal of God. Here Humbert only provides fragments of the chronicle by Pseudo-Turpin without giving any personal interpretation. In the same chapter Tamminen also discusses different examples of the need for crusaders to imitate Christ, the need for contrition and confession to be free of purgatory and hell, and the need for perseverance from the beginning to the end of the expedition. Finally, there is an issue which does not deal directly with the image of a ‘true crusader’, but is rather useful when seeking to understand the status of crusaders as presented in sermons: to what extent were crusaders considered to be martyrs? However, I have noted some statements in this part of the book which are open to doubt: Jacques de Vitry does not necessarily follow Innocent iii's bull Quia maior (1213) in his sermon (p. 170), the ideas are pretty different; Humbert of Romans does not really make repeated references to martyrs and martyrdom in his treatise on the preaching of the cross (p. 171)– and the legends of famous saints quoted in this treatise are not focused on martyrdom itself, but on the sign of the cross. The last chapter is intended to illustrate how crusaders were guided to deal with questions related to everyday life, but many of the points discussed are not directly to this issue and seem to be superfluous. For example, it is stated that preachers welcomed crusaders of any age and status: this is not a question of guidance, but of image.

The bibliography of the book is rich, but unfortunately an important publication is missing: Tamminen does not mention Jean Flori's Prêcher la croisade (Paris 2012), which is the most recent general work on the history of crusade preaching.