First-Year Seminar: Inquisitors, Heretics and Witches

Catalog description

When and why did medieval European Christians develop anxieties about the beliefs of others, and what did they do to grapple with this anxiety? This course will explore the development of ideas of right and wrong belief in medieval Europe, and the various concerns and practical reactions that developed in response. We will begin by examining how notions of orthodoxy and its concomitant deviations developed from late Antiquity to the medieval period. We will then turn to the criminalization of the latter and development of the “inquisitors of heretical depravity," individuals assigned by the pope to inquire into heresy, and the various methods they used to identify and punish those they considered to hold wrong belief. Combining the zeal of faith with the power of law, inquisition was Europe's most infamous institution and co-opted judicial procedure in the fight against heresy. Ultimately the course aims to provide a deeper understanding of the development of orthodoxy, dissent, intolerance and persecution.