Heresy in Transition: Transforming Ideas of Heresy in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

by Nederman,Cary J.; Hunter,Ian

• ISBN13: 9780754654285
• ISBN10: 0754654281
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-12-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The concept of heresy is deeply rooted in Christian European culture. The palpable increase in incidences of heresy in the Middle Ages may be said to directly relate to the Christianity's attempts to define orthodoxy and establish conformity at its centre, resulting in the sometimes forceful elimination of Christian sects. In the transition from medieval to early modern times, however, the perception of heresy underwent a profound transformation, ultimately leading to its decriminalization and the emergence of a pluralistic religious outlook. The essays in this volume offer readers a unique insight into this little-understood cultural shift. Half of the chapters investigate the manner in which the church and its attendant civil authorities defined and proscribed heresy, whilst the other half focus on the means by which early modern writers sought to supersede such definition and proscription. The result of these investigations is a multifaceted historical account of the construction and serial reconstruction of one of the key categories of European theological, juristic and political thought. The contributors explore the role of nationalism and linguistic identity in constructions of heresy, its analogies with treason and madness, the role of class and status in the responses to heresy. In doing so they provide fascinating insights into the roots of the historicization of heresy and the role of this historicization in the emergence of religious pluralism.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii
Series Editor's Preface	xi
Acknowledgements	xii
Introduction	1	(8)
Ian Hunter
John Christian Laursen
Cary J. Nederman
Before the Coming of Popular Heresy: The Rhetoric of Heresy in English Historiography, c. 700-1154	9	(20)
Paul Antony Hayward
Heresy, Madness and Possession in the High Middle Ages	29	(14)
Sabina Flanagan
Accusations of Heresy and Error in the Twelfth-Century Schools: The Witness of Gerhoh of Reichersberg and Otto of Freising	43	(16)
Constant J. Mews
William of Ockham and Conceptions of Heresy, c.1250-c.1350	59	(12)
Takashi Shogimen
A Heretic Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret History of Marsiglio of Padua's Defensor Pacis in the Thought of Nicole Oresme	71	(18)
Cary J. Nederman
Seduced by the Theologians: Aeneas Sylvius and the Hussite Heretics	89	(14)
Thomas A. Fudge
Heresy Hunting and Clerical Reform: William Warham, John Colet, and the Lollards of Kent, 1511-1512	103	(12)
Craig D'Alton
Curtailing the Office of the Priest: Two Seventeenth-Century Views of the Causes and Functions of Heresy	115	(14)
Conal Condren
Historicizing Heresy in the Early German Enlightenment: `Orthodox' and `Enthusiast' Variants	129	(14)
Thomas Ahnert
What is Impartiality? Arnold on Spinoza, Mosheim on Servetus	143	(12)
John Christian Laursen
Thomasius on the Toleration of Heresy	155	(14)
Ian Hunter
Exporting Heresiology: Translations and Revisions of Pluquet's Dictionnaire des heresies	169	(12)
Gisela Schluter
Radical Heretics, Martyrs, or Witnesses of Truth? The Albigenses in Ecclesiastical History and Literature (1550-1850)	181	(14)
Sandra Pott
Index of names	195