Pierre de la Palud was a friar of aristocratic birth who was appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem in 1329. Dunbabin's scholarly and penetrating study traces the career of de la Palud from his early reflections on contemporary moral issues, including papal prerogatives, contraception, and usury, to his political and diplomatic activities as Patriarch of Jerusalem. From Dominican friar to French courtier, the variety of de la Palud's experience and the range of his writings reflect the turbulence of the fourteenth-century Christian church.