Cathars and the Friars

Seminar and Essay Questions

• Why did some medieval Christians seek forms of religious life outside established Church structures?
  Why did heresy become a major concern for the medieval Church after c.1100?
• Is it more useful to think of medieval heresy as a problem of belief, authority, or social control?

Documents

• The Conversion of Peter Waldo and The Testament of St Francis
• Bernard Gui on the Cathars and Bernard Gui on inquisitorial procedure
• Arnaud Cogul de Lordat and Agnes Francou
• For other documents on the inquisition: see Inquisition Records of Jacques Fournier
  

Essential Reading

Bernard Hamilton, 'The Albigensian Crusade and Heresy' in The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 5, pp. 164 - 181.

R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (2007), pp. 1 - 25; 94-116.

McGuire, B, Monastic and Religious Orders (c.1100-c.1350) in The Cambridge History of Christianity. Volume 4 Christianity in Western Europe, c.1100–c.1500. eds. Miri Rubin, Walter Simons (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) pp. 54-72

Book Reviews

Mark Pegg's Review of Claire Taylor, Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais, 1000-1249 and Claire Taylor, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy. Heresy and the Inquisition in the
Middle Ages.

Peter Biller's Review of R.I. Moore's The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe
(scroll down for R. I. Moore's response)

Claire Taylor's Review of R.I. Moore's The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe (pp.628-688)

Further Reading

John H. Arnold, 'Heresy and Gender in the Middle Ages', The Oxford Handbook of Women and Gender in Medieval Europe, J.M. Bennet and R.M.Karras (eds) (Oxford University Press, 2012),

John H. Arnold, Belief and Unbelief in Medieval Europe (2005)

R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (2007).

R.I. Moore, The War on Heresy (2012)

Peter Biller, 'Through a Glass Darkly: Seeing Medieval Heresy', in Peter Linehan and Janet Nelson (eds.), The Medieval World (London, 2001), pp. 308-326.

Peter Biller, The Waldenses, 1170–1530 (2001).

M.D. Lambert, The Cathars (1998).

B. Hamilton, The Medieval Inquisition (1981).

Mark Pegg, The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition of 1245–1246 (2001).

Claire Taylor, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy (2013)