Heresies and Inquisitions

Catalog description

Taught by DSPT. Students in this seminar will read and discuss the sources for Christian dissenting movements during the period 1000-1400. Focus will be on "popular" heresies: Cathars, Waldensians, Joachites, Fraticelli, Dolcinites, Free Spirits, witches etc. We shall also examine how Orthodoxy responded to dissent: persuasion, coercion, repression, and inquisition. The goal of this course will be acquiring the background and techniques needed to understand and interpret original sources on dissent and its repression in the middle ages. The outcome will be that the student is able to write an original research paper, potentially publishable as an article, on some aspect of medieval dissent or its repression, using original sources and showings control of modern scholarly literature on the topic. [10 max enrollment]