This learned reflection on the French monarchy and papacy in the reign of Philip IV is a wonderful book. The work of a mature scholar thoroughly at home in the period and the source materials, it is an exemplary model of how to blend the biographical, political, and religious-intellectual into a comprehensible account of ideas relating to political action. It has the air of a novel; the writing is graceful, vigorous, and subtle, and always crystal clear.—Theodore Evergates, McDaniel College, editor of Aristocratic Women in Medieval FranceUnceasing Strife, Unending Fear represents a very intelligent, clearly written, and original look at big and important events in fourteenth-century France through the eyes of a scholar-abbot whose life turns out to be far more interesting than even Noël Valois might have fancied. It is quite difficult to play a single life and line of thought and interest through a political and ecclesiological artillery barrage that ought to dwarf them, but Jordan does this again and again. This book ought to stimulate a lot of discussion and interest among both teachers and their students."—Edward Peters, University of Pennsylvania, author of Limits of Thought and Power in Medieval Europe