A History of Medieval Heresy and Inquisition (review)

The past half century has seen the growth of a vast scholarly literature in a number of languages devoted to the subject of religious dissent and heterodox beliefs as well as forms of ecclesiastical discipline in medieval Latin Christianity. Although most of that literature no longer reflects the confessional or secular ethical perspectives that long characterized its earlier stages, it is not without its own internal contentious disputes, and it is not an easy subject to address for an interested student or nonspecialist serious reader. Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane has now written the most intelligent and lucid introduction to these subjects and clearly explained the character of the problems, methods, and means of interpreting them now available. She also includes a very useful and well-connected chapter on superstition and magic, demonology, and witchcraft (chapter 6), setting her articulate and intelligent history fully and intelligibly into the context of our best current understanding of all the relevant facets of the broad, complex, and rapidly changing society of early Europe from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries.

Deane’s introduction briefly and efficiently describes the patristic origins of the term heresy and concentrates on the problem of defining it, according to her definition of “the contours of authority” (p. 1) that involves the nature and methods of using the sources as well as the use of language and labels. She conducts a frank and nonpartisan discussion and synthesis of different scholarly perspectives, presents a brief but illuminating overview of the nature of change in Europe from 1050 to 1300, and concludes with the central question of the book—What did it mean to live as a Christian in such a world? And who said so?

The subsequent chapters trace the problem of the eleventh- and twelfth-century debates over the vita apostolica (chapter 1) and the emergence of dualist beliefs; the role of poverty and lay preaching among the Poor of Lyon (chapter 2); and the various forms of juridical and pastoral discipline that responded institutionally through popes, mendicants, and inquisitors of heretical depravity (chapter 3). Deane is very good at identifying the centers and specific controversies that triggered occasions of dissent and describing the problems of dissent through the eyes of both dissenters and prosecutors. Chapter 4 deals with the problem of poverty among the Franciscans; and Chapter 5 treats mysticism, lay religious women, and the vexing problem of ecclesiastical and spiritual religious authority. Chapter 6 places magic, demonology, and witchcraft squarely in their chronological place from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. Chapters 7 and 8 treat the problems of Lollardy in England and Hussitism and the lay chalice in Bohemia. Short sections on further reading at the end of each chapter indicate the most useful scholarship and collections of (translated) sources, and eleven pages of notes indicate Deane’s sources without overburdening the reader who, by the time the notes are reached, has learned a great deal of very complex history, lucidly and masterfully explained. Deane, whose own research has focused chiefly on the upper Rhineland and eastward, treats virtually all of Latin Europe with immense competence, great clarity, and manageable compass.

This is a valuable book about a controversial subject. It is never easy to write about individuals and institutions possessed of great disparities of force and passion debating about how to define and engage the world around them. Deane’s individuals are vividly depicted, whether dissenters or investigating prosecutors, and her institutions are never as solid and timeless as they often liked to profess.