The Orthodox Heresies: ‘Lollardy’ and Medieval Culture
This is not Margery Kempe’s first run-in with the law. Already, she has been accused multiple times of heresy, of wantonness, and of being a general pest.
Devil Worship in the Middle Ages
Probably the most reasonable explanation of the Devil worship phenomenon at this time is a combination of both of these hypotheses. Lingering ideas of pre-Christian cults of Diana and the Homed God became entwined with the doctrine of the Catholic Church concerning evil.
Simoniaca Heresis
With Gregory the Great (pope, 590–604) the expression simoniaca heresis becomes a frequently used phrase.
Why Cats were hated in Medieval Europe
Cats in medieval Europe mostly had a bad reputation – they were associated with witches and heretics, and it was believed that the devil could transform himself into a black cat.
Sickness and Sin: Medicine, Epidemics and Heresy in the Middle Ages
Disease was more common, as already unsanitary populations grew more crowded, culminating with the devastating Black Death. With mostly Church chronicles telling the story, and a sense of religion underlying everyday life, comparisons were bound to be drawn between plagues and unruly dissent. On the one hand sickness of the body and the other a corruption of the mind.
Women on Trial: Piecing Together Women’s Intellectual Worlds from Courtroom Testimony
To tease out these issues, I would like to offer an analysis of a specific set of criminal records from the city of Toulouse in the later Middle Ages. In recent years, many scholars have attempted to gain access to the lives of women in medieval Languedoc.
A Comparison of Interrogation in Two Inquisitorial Courts of the Fourteenth Century
The spread of the Cathar heresy in Western Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was perceived as a real challenge to orthodoxy. The Catholic Church soon employed all means possible in a reaction against this dualistic religion, which was especially widespread in the south of France and in central and northern Italy.
Were there heretics in medieval Ireland?
In her article, ‘Heresy in Ireland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries’, Bernadette Williams uncovers some cases where people were accused and convicted of heresy, including insulting the Virgin Mary and denying the Jesus was the son of God.
The attempted trial of Boniface VIII for heresy
How do you accuse a sitting Pope of being a heretic?
Conflict and Coercion in Southern France
This paper endeavors to examine the mechanisms by which the crown of France was able to subsume the region of Languedoc in the wake of the Albigensian Crusade in the thirteenth century.
Jan Hus: The 15th Century Czech Reformer
Neil Fowler performs as Jan Hus (c.1369 – 1415) and depicts his life and teachings.
In search of a missing link: The Bogomils and Zoroastrianism
Both Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism are dualist relig- ions. Implicit in the beliefs held true by these religions is the notion of co-equal and co-eternal principles. Implicit in this notion is the belief that both good and evil exist and are acted upon from the very beginning.
Labyrinth, Part 2
So we continue with the exciting conclusion of last week’s two part mini-series, Labyrinth. Alice is being pursued by unsavory attackers, and Carcassonne has all but fallen.
Abandoned to Love: The Proceso of María de Cazalla and the Mirror of Simple Souls
In comparing the trial of María de Cazalla with Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls, one of the most notable works of medieval mysticism, the present study aims to demonstrate how the main components of alumbradismo may be discerned in a single normative example of medieval mystical theology.
Labyrinth
A review of Part 1 of author Kate Mosse’s, “Labyrinth”. Cathars, Crusaders and the Holy Grail!
Nordic Witchcraft in Transition: Impotence, Heresy and Diabolism in 14th-century Bergen
Within the orbit of witchcraft, what is the relationship between sexuality, heresy, and diabolism?
The myth of Jewish male menses
Several scholars have asserted that medieval Christians believed that Jewish men menstruated. Their arguments, made in support of a grander claim that Jews as a collectivity were gendered feminine in Christian thought, rest on numerous misreadings.
Hot Holiday Reads!
Put down those turkey left-overs and check out some of these hot holiday reads!
Salutare Animas Nostras: The Ideologies Behind the Foundation of the Templars
The meteoric rise of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon (more commonly known as the Knights Templar) and their equally swift fall has fueled fanciful tales and scholarly research. The order promoted their mythological origins and the extreme charges leveled against them by Philip IV of France (1285-1314) created an atmosphere of speculation.
“The Eucharist and the Negotiation of Orthodoxy in the High Middle Ages”
This paper is part of Adam Hoose’s dissertation. It examined the differences between Waldensians and Franciscans in their treatment of the Eucharist. It also explored why the Waldensians were unsuccessful in their bid to become a legitimate religious order and were eventually marginalized as heretics.
Abbot Majolus of Cluny, Ambassador to the Dead
This paper was part of a intriguing session on monasticism entitled: SESSION IV: Abbots between Ideals and Institutions, 10th–12th Centuries. Here, we meet the unsung hero of Cluny’s early history, Abbot Majolus.
Ruthless Oppressors? Unraveling the Myth About the Spanish Inquisition
From its inception to the present, critics of the Spanish Inquisition has characterized the institution as omnipotent and oppressive and highlighted its role in the expulsion, forced conversion, and execution of supposed heretics.
God’s Warriors from the Czech Kingdom – the Terror of Central and Eastern Europe in the First Half of the 15th Century
The aim of this study is to point out a distinct phenomenon in the history of Central And Eastern Europe wherein part of the population of a fairly small kingdom in Central Europe invoked justified fear throughout the majority of Europe. Czech history is not all that popular a theme of study within the framework of European history. One of the few exceptions is the period of the first half of the 15th century in particular.
Waldensians at the turn of the fifteenth century in the Duchy of Austria: Perception of Heresy and Action against Heretics
The other major field of research that pertains to my current investigation is the inquisition; or the repression of heresy, as Richard Kieckhefer asserts. He notes that there was no such a thing as the Inquisition, because it existed only as mere offices, or functions of carrying out the inquisitorial justice, and did not as an institution as such, not even institutions, as was later the case in the sixteenth century.
Dualist heresy in Aquitaine and the Agenais, c.1000-c.1249
This thesis will examine whether the heresy in eleventh-century Aquitaine was dualist and will then discuss twelfth- and thirteenth-century Catharism in an Aquitainian context.