The constituent parts of the title of this book, Icons of the Middle Ages: Rulers, Writers, Rebels, and Saints, bear some explication and close reading. In its use here, “icons” is a very new term indeed and reflects the modern age, its psyche, and its fascination with celebrity. Consider some recent instances of “icon” in the press: “Then there is [Barry] Bonds, 46, never a media darling and hardly a sympathetic figure, but a looming icon in this city” ( New York Times, March 21, 2011); 1 “An icon of old and new Hollywood, she [Elizabeth Taylor] defined modern celebrity—and America couldn’t take its eyes off her” (sub-headline, USA Today, March 24, 2011, 1A); “PopEater’s Rob Shuter recently reported that Lindsay Lohan wants to drop the ‘Lo’ in ‘LiLo’ and transform into a new pop icon known simply as Lindsay” (online post at PopEater.