This is a study of the crusading movement between 1274 and 1314. Based on a wide range of contemporary sources, it explores the concept of the crusade and its place in politics and religion. The idea of the crusade is examined within the context of the period, to uncover themes such as the policies of the papacy and of temporal rulers, economic enterprises and interests, "Pastoraux" and religious movements, the activities of individual crusade - planners, and events in the Levant. Sylvia Schein challenges the view that the fall of Acre in 1291 was a watershed dividing the "Classical Age" of the crusade from the late middle ages, when the ideal had become sterile, the obsessive dream of a handful of individuals. She show instead that the desire to recover the Holy Land remained powerful and pervasive, and was an important consideration in the policy-making of European rulers. Whether mystical or materialistic, the crusade mentality was a significant force in medieval Europe.