IMC 2013: Sessions
Session 1224: Goodbye to Heretics?: Discussing Polemical and Inquisitional Discourses on Heresy, III
Wednesday 3 July 2013, 14.15-15.45
| Sponsor: | Turku Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Studies (TUCEMEMS), University of Turku |
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| Organiser: | David Zbíral, Department for the Study of Religions, Masarykova univerzita, Brno |
| Moderator/Chair: | Justine Trombley, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews |
| Paper 1224-a | Weaving Yarn into Fabric: The Beguin Communities of 14th-Century Languedoc and Their Reflection in Inquisitorial Sources (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Lay Piety, Religious Life, Social History |
| Paper 1224-b | 'Secta Pauperum de Lugduno est orta in hoc modo': Origins and Etymologies of the Waldensian Movement in Context (Language: English) Index terms: Economics - Urban, Lay Piety, Religious Life, Social History |
| Paper 1224-c | Waldensian Participation in Catholic Cult: False or Genuine Piety? (Language: English) Index terms: Daily Life, Lay Piety, Religious Life, Social History |
| Abstract | At the IMC 2012, twenty-five years after the publication of The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 by Robert I. Moore, we revisited the topic of the 'formation of persecuting societies'. At this year’s sessions, we will focus on polemical and inquisitional discourses on heresy. We fully acknowledge the contribution of 'deconstructionist' trends in the study of medieval dissident movements, but we will try to show that some conclusions put forward are exaggerated. On the basis of a close reading of the sources - very much in the spirit of Peter Biller’s 'Goodbye to Waldensianism?' (Past and Present, 192, 2006, 3-33) which has inspired the title of the session - we want to show that 1) many polemical and inquisitional sources yield valuable data related to the identities, everyday lives, forms of organization, rituals, and beliefs of the dissidents; 2) polemical and inquisitional discourses on heresy are sometimes being oversimplified; they cannot be reduced to one clear image of heresy, but generate multiple, sometimes even competing images. |