The authors, who are amateur historians, owe a debt to four professional historians for invaluable criticism and assistance: Dr. Sylvia L. Thrupp, Alice Freeman Palmer professor of history at the University of Michigan; Dr. John F. Benton, professor of history at the California Institute of Technology; Dr. J. Lee Shneidman, assistant professor of history at Adelphi College; and Dr. Peter Riesenberg, professor of history at Washington University, St. Louis. The debt is especially large to John Benton, a leading authority on medieval Champagne, who made many valuable suggestions, supplied otherwise unobtainable reference material, and read the manuscript not once but twice.
Most of the research was done in two great libraries: the Sterling Library of Yale University, and the Newberry Library of Chicago.
Special acknowledgment is due to four people who helped make the construction of a Gothic cathedral come to life: Rowan and Irene Le Compte, stained-glass artists and creators of windows for the Washington Cathedral; and R. T. Feller and John Fanfani, Clerk of the Works and Assistant Clerk of the Works at the Washington Cathedral.
Finally, mention should be made of the numerous French citizens, from archivists to First World War widows in charge of national monuments, who helped us during our research in France.