Religion, Power, And Resistance From The Eleventh To The Sixteenth Centuries: Playing The Heresy Card (the New Middle Ages)

Addressing the myriad ways in which heresy accusations could fulfill political aims during the Middle Ages, this collection shows acts of heresy were not just influenced by religion. Essays examine individual cases, in addition to the close relationship of orthodoxy and political dominance in medieval games of power. Cover 1 Title 10 Copyright 11 Dedication 12 Contents 14 Acknowledgments 16 A Note about Citations to Texts of the Canon Law 18 Introduction 19 Part I “Razing” the Stakes: Personal Trials and Political Tribulations 28 1. Standing in Abelard’s Shadow: Gilbert of Poitiers, the 1148 Council of Rheims, and the Politics of Ideas 29 2. Secular Politics and Academic Condemnation at Oxford, 1358–1411 53 3. “O Cursed Judas”: Formal Heresy Accusations against Jan Hus 70 4. Questions of Due Process and Conviction in the Trial of Joan of Arc 96 Part II Joker’s Wild: Misappropriations of Orthodoxy and Misrepresentations of Heterodoxy 116 5. Making a Heresiarch: Guido Terreni’s Attack on Joachim of Fiore 117 6. The Papal Condemnation of Marsilius of Padua’s Defensor Pacis: Its Preparation and Political Use 140 7. Tarring Conciliarism with the Brush of Heresy: Juan de Torquemada’s Summa de ecclesia 152 8. Ockham, Almain, and the Idea of Heresy 165 Part III The House Always Wins: Power Politics and the Threat of Force 181 9. Hints and Allegations: The Charge of Infidelity in Papal and Imperial Propaganda, 1239–1245 182 10. Autonomy, Dissent, and the Crusade against Fra Dolcino in Fourteenth-Century Valsesia 205 11. Religious Dissent in Premodern Islam: Political Usage of Heresy and Apostasy in Nizam al-Mulk and Ibn Taymiyya 224 List of Contributors 245 Index 247 Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction....Pages 1-9 Front Matter....Pages 11-11 Standing in Abelard’s Shadow: Gilbert of Poitiers, the 1148 Council of Rheims, and the Politics of Ideas....Pages 13-36 Secular Politics and Academic Condemnation at Oxford, 1358–1411....Pages 37-53 “O Cursed Judas”: Formal Heresy Accusations Against Jan Hus....Pages 55-80 Questions of Due Process and Conviction in the Trial of Joan of Arc....Pages 81-100 Front Matter....Pages 101-101 Making a Heresiarch: Guido Terreni’s Attack on Joachim of Fiore....Pages 103-125 The Papal Condemnation of Marsilius of Padua’s Defensor Pacis: Its Preparation and Political Use....Pages 127-138 Tarring Conciliarism with the Brush of Heresy: Juan de Torquemada’s Summa de Ecclesia....Pages 139-151 Ockham, Almain, and the Idea of Heresy....Pages 153-168 Front Matter....Pages 169-169 Hints and Allegations: The Charge of Infidelity in Papal and Imperial Propaganda, 1239–1245....Pages 171-193 Autonomy, Dissent, and the Crusade Against Fra Dolcino in Fourteenth-Century Valsesia....Pages 195-213 Religious Dissent in Premodern Islam: Political Usage of Heresy and Apostasy in Nizam Al-Mulk and Ibn Taymiyya....Pages 215-235 Back Matter....Pages 237-242 Accusations of heresy did not arise in a vacuum during the Middle Ages. Polemicists and inquisitors had their own agendas, often involving lay or ecclesiastical politics. Heresy and treason became equated by the thirteenth century, opening the way for stronger measures against dissenters. The present volume addresses the myriad ways in which heresy accusations could be employed to fulfill political aims, from managing the effects of intellectual dissent on popular movements, to manipulating the heresy topos, to mediating the large-scale relationship between ecclesiastical and secular politics, both in Christendom and in the Islamic world