The nature of the ‘Christian Middle Ages’ in Europe and the interaction of ‘heretical groups’ operating within France is anything but the simplistic model that we conjure in our minds when we hear the terms ‘Christian’ Europe and ‘heretics’.
From Other Worldly to Worldly: Materialism, Anomie, and the Decline of Catharism’s Charismatic Appeal
April 29, 2012 By
The Cathars believed in a dualist cosmology that posited the existence of two coeternal gods, one good and one evil.
Lollard Theology: A Soteriological Analysis of the English Wycliffite Sermon Cycle
April 17, 2012 By
Prototestant ideas are evident throughout Wyclif’s later works and the flood of Wycliffite tracts and writings
which were published in the late 1370′s and 80′s; but they are most clearly and systematically communicated in the collection of English Wycliffite sermons which were compiled, one sermon for each of the services in the church calendar year, sometime near, or soon after, the end of Wyclif’s life.
“The World on the End of a Reed”: Marguerite Porete and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations – a reassessment
February 20, 2012 By
Central to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete „fit‟ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not „fit‟ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period.
“Neither Mine Nor Thine”: Communist Experiments in Hussite Bohemia
February 20, 2012 By
Because of such circumstances the intoxicating influence of idealism and utopia continued to be pressed forward. One pervasive ideal was communism.
Retroactive Heresy: The influence of early Christian heresies on the identification and reaction to heretical sects
February 20, 2012 By
The medieval Church viewed itself as Defender of the Faith, the destroyer of the unbelievers, the wrong believers. These heretics were to be reviled and feared as perverters of God’s word. The perverters of orthodoxy were, ultimately, not to be distinguished from one another, but rather known by catchphrases.
Bogomilism: An Important Precursor of the Reformation
December 11, 2011 By
Our particular task here is to give proof of the presence of Bogomil and Cathar ideas and motivations in the works of the brightest reformation triad: John Wycliffe — Jan Hus — Martin Luther, by means of facts, documented links and associations.
Primary Sources and Context Concerning Joan of Arc’s Male Clothing
December 7, 2011 By
A number of the clergy who had served on the tribunal later testified, during the posthumous investigations and appeal of the case (1450, 1452, and 1455-56) after the English were expelled, that the transcript and judges had misrepresented the circumstances and hence the theological implications.
Miracle or Magic? The Problematic Status of Christian Amulet
December 7, 2011 By
The Church Fathers and intellectuals made the distinction between the miracle of the relics and sacred words of the Bible, verba sacra….
CATHARISM AND THE TAROT
November 27, 2011 By
The idea of heretical origins for the Tarot still attracts attention because the Medieval heresies share two important traits with modern Tarotists.
The Friar of Carcassonne
October 15, 2011 By
The Friar of Carcassonne: Revolt against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars By Stephen O’Shea Douglas and McIntyre, 2011 ISBN 978-1-55365-551-0 Publisher’s Synopsis: The dramatic story of a courageous friar who battled king, pope and Inquisition in his search for justice. Nearly a century had passed since the French region of Languedoc […]
Speakerly Women and Scribal Men
September 12, 2011 By
I want to begin my discussion of oral tradition and manuscript authority by drawing attention to the term ‘old wives’ tale.’
Herbal healers and devil dealers: a study of healers and their gendered persecution in the medieval period
September 10, 2011 By
Herbal healers and devil dealers: a study of healers and their gendered persecution in the medieval period McPhee, Meghan Thesis: M.A., (History), California State University, Sacramento (2009) Abstract Long before written record, men and women have known the healing properties of herbs and medicinal arts have been practiced even before the first civilizations emerged. This ancient […]
Blood and body : women’s religious practices in late medieval Europe
September 10, 2011 By
Blood and body : women’s religious practices in late medieval Europe Tudesko, Jenny L. Thesis: M.A., History, California State University, Sacramento (2009) Abstract Religious women in thirteenth and fourteenth-century Western Europe developed forms of pious practice that were unique in their extreme devotions to the blood and body of Christ and unique in their use […]
An Introduction to Olympia Morata, a Forgotten, Feminist Voice from Sixteenth Century Italy
September 8, 2011 By
An Introduction to Olympia Morata, a Forgotten, Feminist Voice from Sixteenth Century Italy Webb, Val (Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN) Sea Changes, Vol.1 (2001) Abstract I met Olympia Morata in the British Library while searching for women lost from history. My search word ‘heroine’ uncovered an 1864 inspirational collection Heroines of the Household. Olympia was the […]
Bohemia in English Religious Controversy before the Henrician Reformation
September 4, 2011 By
Bohemia in English Religious Controversy before the Henrician Reformation By Michael Van Dussen The Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, vol. 7: Papers from the Seventh International Symposium on the Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, Vila Lanna, Prague, Czech Republic, 21-23 June 2006, edited by Zdeněk V. David and David R. Holeton (Prague, 2009) Introduction: In […]
In her voice: The destruction of the Cathars in Languedoc
August 21, 2011 By
“More Glory than Blood”: Murder and Martyrdom in the Hussite Crusades
July 28, 2011 By
“More Glory than Blood”: Murder and Martyrdom in the Hussite Crusades Fudge, Thomas A. (Christchurch, New Zealand) Bohemian Reformation and Religious Practice, Volume 5, Part 1 (2004) Abstract In 1418 Pope Martin V urged the ecclesiastical hierarchy in east-central Europe to proceed against the Hussite heretics in all possible manner to bring their dissent […]
The Templar Trials: Did the System Work?
July 25, 2011 By
Although the trials in general were held with enormous personal expenditures and by obviously careful observation of procedural rules, the ’system did not really work’; it was undermined by the dynamics of a legal instrument (that is, torture), which in the end was based on the use of violence.
Wellsprings of Heresy: Monks, Myth and Making Manichaeans in Orleans and Aquitaine
July 24, 2011 By
The execution of a number of clerics at Orléans in 1022 is viewed as a watershed moment in the history of heresy in the West.
The Polemical use of the Albigensian Crusade during the French Wars of Religion
July 18, 2011 By
The Polemical use of the Albigensian Crusade during the French Wars of Religion Racaut, Luc French History 13, 3 (1999) Abstract From the outset of the Reformation, Catholic authors had sought to draw parallels between Protestantism and earlier heresies. In France, members of the Sorbonne took arguments from controversies against a variety of heretical groups which […]
Amor vs. Roma: Cathars and the Birth of the Inquisition
June 16, 2011 By
Amor vs. Roma: Cathars and the Birth of the Inquisition From the CBC Radio series Ideas, this 2-part show examines the rise and fall of the Cathars, medieval Christians who were pacifist, ecstatic, feminist, and contrary to the Catholic Church of thirteenth century France. They were exterminated in a classic crusade and Inquisition, invented to […]
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