No subject in medieval history is changing as rapidly as crusade studies. Even so, the Second Crusade has been oddly neglected. The present volume is the first ever to have been devoted to it in English and one of the few which has appeared in any language. Particular attention is paid to the key role played by St.Bernard and the Cistercians in this crusade and their relations with the Military Orders. An interdisciplinary approach is taken, incorporating history, art and music. The Volume contains unparalleled bibliography, listing over 700 primary and secondary sources.

Part 1 Background and ideology: the Second Crusade and the redefinition of Ecclesia, Christianitas and papal coercive power, Y. Katzir; the Pomeranian missionary journeys of Otto I of Bamberg and the crusade movement of the 11th to 12th centuries, K. Guth; St Bernard and the Jurists, J.A. Brundage; crusade eschatology as seen by St Bernard in the years 1146 to 1148, H-D. Kahl; militia and malitia - the Bernadine vision of chivalry, A. Grabois; the influence of St Bernard of Clairvaux on the formation of the Order of the Knights Templars, M.L. Bulst-Thiele; singing the Second Crusade, M. Switten. Part 2 The crusade: the origins of the Second Crusade - Pope Eugenius III, Bernard of Clairvaux and Louis VII of France, J.G. Rowe; the origin of the Second Crusade, G. Ferzoco; family traditions and participation in the Second Crusade, J. Riley-Smith; Louis VII and the Counts of Champagne, T. Evergates; the crusaders' strategy against Fatimid Ascalon and the "Ascalon Project" of the Second Crusade, M. Hoch. Part 3 The aftermath: the Cistercians and the aftermath of the Second Crusade, B.M. Bolton; the frescoes of Schwarzrheindorf, Arnold of Wied and the Second Crusade, A. Derbes; donations to the Hospitallers in England in the wake of the Second Crusade, M. Gervers; looking back on the Second Crusade - some late 12th-century English perspectives, P.W. Edbury; reflections on art in crusader Jerusalem about the time of the Second Crusade, J. Folda; Cistercian houses in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, D. Pringle; the Cistercians in Cyprus, J. Richard.