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Reviews 241 are attractively printed and well supported by the notes and glossary. Thenotes conveniently repeat some major details from the introductions just as the glossary provides alternative access to the meaning of words glossed in the notes. As Knight makes clear, the original manuscript was a well edited, well selected and well shaped collection and, through the medium of this excellent edition, it can still be enjoyed by modern lovers, academic or not, of the Robin Hood story. Graham Tulloch Department of English Flinders University Lambert, Malcolm, The Cathars, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1998; paper pp. 344; 11 maps, 10 b / w illustrations; R.R.P. AU$S59.85. Malcolm Lambert's brief 'Introduction' indicates the importance of rise and fall of the Cathar heresy for Western Europe, noting that i t motivated the reformist Franciscan and Dominican orders; diverted papal policy toward heresy and influenced the founding of the Inquisition; and had extensive and lasting influence in at least three regions: southern France, northern and central Italy, and Bosnia. His book is the first comprehensive survey of Catharism in English, all previous studies generally concentrating on one geographical region or historical period. Chapter One examines the ignorance of leading churchmen of the eleventh century regarding heresy, and the w a y in which Augustine of Hippo's writings on Manichaeism and Donatism influenced high medieval typologies of 'deviant' beliefs. The movements which began appearing in the early eleventh century were historically quite separate from Mani and Manichaeism, and most did not survive the end of the century. The second half of the eleventh century was dominated by the Gregorian reform, which 'awakened in the laity a n e w sense of responsibility for reform and a higher expectation of moral standards from their clergy' (p. 13). In the twelfth century heretical preachers became more aggressive, with the best-known leaders (Arnold of Brescia, Tanchelm, Peter of Bruys) springing from the clergy. Most of 242 Reviews these movements were reformist, but not Cathar, and the persistent confusion by churchmen of the different groups (Waldensians, Patarines and so on) hampers the certain identification of particular heretical communities. Chapter Two, "The First Cathars', narrows Lambert's canvas from heretical movements in general to the Cathars, beginning with Hildegard von Bingen's vision of the Cathars in 1163. Her contacts included Ekbert, brother of her fellow mystic Elizabeth of Schonau, and a leading opponent of Catharism. He, and Everwin (another monk of Steinfeld), noted that the heresy sprang forth as a fully-formed alternative 'church' in the Rhineland. Lambert then considers the parallels between Bogomilism and Catharism, and notes that while not much is known about how the movement was diffused at this early stage, the Cathars of the Rhineland were not foreigners, but natives, so local leadership had emerged. Chapters Three and Four consider the lineages of Cathar initiation through the personality of Nicetas of Constantinople, who arrived at a great council at S. Felix de Caraman in Languedoc in 1167 and persuaded the Western Cathars that the ordo of Bulgaria, which they had received, was suspect, and that they should accept the ordo ot Dragovitsa or Drugunthia. The spread of Catharism in Western Europe had resulted in divisions: by the later twelfth century there were six Cathar churches in central Italy, and the growth of the movement was dependent on the patronage of the nobility and the petty nobility. Lambert provides evidence of the attractions of Catharism, particularly for aristocratic women in the Languedoc, and he indicates that the slowness of the Catholic Church to respond to the Cathars assisted their growth. However, he i s anxious to dispel false beliefs about the numbers of female perfect, insisting that 'notions of a special appeal of Catharism to women must now be definitely abandoned' (p. 152). The different environs of the southern French and Italian Cathar churches are intriguing, with the Italians being primarily urban and the French rural. Chapter Five examines the official Church response under Innocent III, the Albigensian Crusade and the Fourth Lateran Council, and Chapter Six profiles the f i r s t inquisitors. Chapter Seven, 'The Cathars of Languedoc', contains the lengthiest exposition of Cathar doctrine Reviews...

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