In his new trilogy, Max Gallo—whose author Bertrand Brasil has already published the Patriots and Victor Hugo series—presents a fascinating historical saga set in the Middle Ages. *The Christians* depicts the emergence of Christian France through three pivotal characters: Martin, the first evangelizer of the Gauls; Clovis, the converted barbarian who unified Gaul and became the first Christian king; and Bernard of Clairvaux, the great founder of the Cistercian order who advocated the Second Crusade. The final volume of the trilogy, *The Monk's Crusade*, finally addresses the life of Bernard of Clairvaux, the third pillar of Christian France. During the Middle Ages, men still fought with words and weapons in the name of imposing their faith. The Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux found himself at the center of the great controversies that shook Christianity: the Church, divided between two popes; the Crusades, which sought to bring Christ beyond borders and regain control of the Holy Places; and the early philosophical disputes that pitted the monk against Abelard. Before his death, Bernard of Clairvaux wrote his spiritual testament to tell how he became, guided by God, the prolific founder of some 350 abbeys that followed a lineage of severe discipline and the loquacious preacher of Christianity.
