Christendom and its Discontents
Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000–1500

A volume of essays on the sources of dissent and diversity in medieval society.

Scott L. Waugh (Edited by), Peter Diehl (Edited by)

9780521525091, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 July 2002

388 pages
22.8 x 15.3 x 2.6 cm, 0.622 kg

"...well-informed account of the struggle over the definition of the boundaries of tradition in high medieval theology." Glenn W. Olsen, The Catholic Historical Review

From the eleventh century onward, Latin Christendom was torn by discontent and controversy. As the Church and secular rulers defined more clearly than ever before the laws and institutions on which they based their power, they demanded greater uniformity and obedience to their authority. The essays in this book cast new light on the dynamics of repression, highlighting the controversies and discontent that troubled medieval society. Looking especially at the mechanisms underlying the dissemination of heterodoxy and its repression, the religious aspirations of women, the fate of non-Christian minorities in Europe, and changing boundaries between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the authors provide a new understanding of the Church's response to the diversity of belief and practice by which it was confronted.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. Heterodoxy, Dissemination, and Repression: 1. Heresy, repression, and social change in the age of Gregorian reform R. I. Moore
2. Overcoming reluctance to prosecute heresy in thirteenth-century Italy Peter Diehl
3. Social stress, social strain, and the inquisitors of medieval Languedoc James Given
4. The schools and the Waldensians: a new work by Durand of Huesca Mary A. Rouse and Richard H. Rouse
5. The reception of Arnau de Vilanova's religious ideas Clifford R. Backman
6. 'Springing cockel in our clene corn': Lollard preaching in England about 1400 Anne Hudson
Part II. Women's Religious Aspirations: 7. Repression or collaboration? the case of Elisabeth and Ekbert of Schönau Anne L. Clark
8. Prophetic patronage as repression: Lucia Brocadelli da Narni and Ercole d'Este E. Ann Matter
9. Scandala: controversies concerning clausura and women's religious communities in late medieval Sicily Katherine Gill
Part III. Non-Christian Minorities within Medieval Christendom: 10. The conversion of Minorcan Jews (417–418): an experiment in the history of historiography Carlo Ginzburg
11. The deteriorating image of the Jews – twelfth and thirteenth centuries Robert Chazan
12. Monarchs and minorities in the Christian western Mediterranean about 1300: Lucera and its analogues David Abulafia
13. Muslim Spain and Mediterranean slavery: the medieval slave trade as an aspect of Muslim-Christian relations Olivia Remie Constable
Part IV. Christendom and its Discontents: Rethinking the Boundaries: 14. The tortures of the Body of Christ Gavin I. Langmuir
15. The holy and the unholy: sainthood, witchcraft, and magic in late medieval Europe Richard Kieckhefer
16. Transgressing the limits set by the Fathers: authority and impious exegesis in medieval thought Edward M. Peters
Index.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]