"Warrior monks"--the misnomer for the Iberian military orders that emerged on the frontiers of Europe in the twelfth century--have long fascinated general readers and professional historians alike. Proposing "ecclesiastical knights" as a more accurate name and conceptual model--warriors animated by ideals and spiritual currents endorsed by the church hierarchy--author Sam Zeno Conedera presents a groundbreaking study of how these orders brought the seemingly incongruous combination of monastic devotion and the practice of warfare into a single way of life. Providing a detailed study of the...