Heresy in the Later Middle Ages. The Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, c. 1250–c. 1450 by Gordon Leff (review)

588 BOOK REVIEWS (which rs true of many other Christian confessions). Faith itself is a supernatural gift of God to be preserved by active fidelity. The entire rationalistic presupposition of Sandmel (cf. p. 196) militates against the Catholic laudatory and grateful acceptance of the author's integral work. There are many items, insights, conclusions in this work which Catholics will receive with joy and thanks. But scholarship is not enough to perceive, or to understand, or to express the integrity of the whole N. T. as the work of the Spirit operating in the Church and in the churchmen who wrote the Books. For us to say or think that "Mark ... openly repudiates and disowns them [the disciples of Christ]" (p. ~10, note # ~9) is ridiculous, unfaithful. For us to perceive that Luke argues against Matthew and John argues against both Matthew and Luke (p. 185) is an act of blindness. For us to conceive of Luke and Matthew envisioning the Church as an entity directed by purely human leadership, while only John sees divine guidance in the Church, (p. 186) would be the contradiction of the bases (all of them) on which our faith is founded. Scholarship which reaches such conclusions is really not scholarship, or it is suffering from a malaise. Dr. Sandmel is honest, learned, and as open as he can be; all will admit this description. But that Dr. Sandmel is correct is something else again. The bibliography is only of those books and articles read by the author, very extensive indeed. There are subject and author indices. A few editoral imperfections are present: p. 1~5, 1.~3 appears to omit an "is "; p. 15~, Dibelius is spelled Dibelious; p. 16~, Apollos is spelled Apollass. Dominican House of Studies Washington, D. C. THOMAS L. FALLON, 0. P. Heresy in the Later Middle Ages. The Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, c. 1250-c. 14/50. By GoRDON LEFF. ~ vols. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1967. Pp. 800. $15.00. Dr. Leff, who has already written good studies of Thomas Bradwardine, Gregory of Rimini and Richard Fitzralph, as well as a best seller on Medieval Thought, has now produced a very lengthy survey of heresy in the latter Middle Ages that is as important as it is impartial. His real mterests, of course, lie in the fourteenth century, but he is all too aware that many of the " heresies " in vogue then have their roots in the thirteenth. Hence his first volume is devoted to the thirteenth century (and in particular to Joachism, to internal disputes of the Franciscans and to the heresy of the Free Spirit), while his second is largely occupied with Wyclif, the Lollards and the Hussite reformation. BOOK REVIEWS 589 The great strength of Leff's book is that the author is thoroughly familiar with the vast literature, whether primary or secondary, of his subject. On some points, of course, he is content, perhaps too content, to repeat uncritically the conclusions of the many scholars who have worked on individual topics of his area-a rather obvious instance occurs in the chapter on Wyclif where, without any recourse to St. Thomas himself, Leff takes over Workman's rather simplistic presentation of St. Thomas'il expression of Transubstantiation. Almost on every page, however, there is evidence that Leff has read and re-read original sources. From this point of view his pages on Olivi are the most original, especially pp. 100139 , where he uses the unpublished Postilla in Apocalypsim to telling effect when showing that it was with Olivi that the problem of poverty first turned into a dispute over the usus pauper introduced by St. Bonaventure. However, the lengthy treatment (pp. 52-255) of the disputes within the Franciscan Order is somewhat overburdened with data and tends to sag H little towards the end. Perhaps the most interesting pages in this first volume are those on " The Heresy of the Free Spirit." The origins of the movement are still uncertain, as Herbert Grundmann, whose Religiose Bewg1mgen im Mittelalter (Hildesheim 1961) is the best study of unorthodoxy before 1300, has forcefully pointed out. Yet it was one of the most pervasive as well as subtle of...