Originally published in 1878, this compilation of text and more than 400 illustrations assembled by the 19th-century bibliophile, librarian and amateur historian Paul Lacroix unfolds a living image of the past to let the reader glimpse the celebrated and the unknown - foot soldiers, explorers, crusaders, noble ladies and impenitent sinners - who peopled an era when the military placed itself at the service of the Church in its task of creating a new society and new institutions. Paul Lacroix was curator of the Imperial Library of the Paris Arsenal. Born in 1806, he was well known during his lifetime as the author of many popular historical works.