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Warriors and Monks

Michael A. Ponzio

Pons, born to a noble family in the south of France in 1075, is given to the Church at the age of four. He becomes a Benedictine monk and thrives in the monastery as a devotee of the Order’s rules, working, praying, and studying. Reaching adulthood, he falls in love with Primavera, a woman in the nearby village, but the Church’s renewed enforcement of celibacy endangers their relationship. It is a lawless time when people of the land are threatened with violence as they cultivate their fields or travel on pilgrimage. The monks are compelled to become warriors, defending themselves with farm tools and walking staves. Pons is elected as Abbot of Cluny Monastery. He is torn amidst his sense of duty as the powerful leader of Cluny, rivaling the Pope, his love for Primavera, and the calling to join the crusade to save Jerusalem.