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So Great a Light, So Great a Smoke: The Beguin Heretics of Languedoc (Conjunctions of Religion and Power in the Medieval Past)

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Louisa Burnham has shed light on a previously little-known heretical movement in southern France. Not to be confused with the Beguines and Beghards of the Low Countries, these Begins were involved in the conflict over spiritual Franciscanism and the apocalyptic prophecies of John Olivi (in which St Francis had inaugurated the "Third Age" of the Holy Spirit, perfecting and completing the earlier historical ages of the Father (OT) and Son (NT-St Francis).

What is most amazing about this book is its eminent readability: she had such a storyteller's knack that even abstruse theology and complicated doctrinal arguments become an exciting, page-turning read! Then, every so often, I'd step back and realize that one delicious paragraph might be the distillation of months in an archive. Turning piles of dusty documents into thrilling, dynamic prose is certainly one of the greatest challenges a historian must face; Louisa Burnham succeeds magnificently at this.