Heresies of the High Middle Ages

This volume presents in English translation an extensive collection of sources for the history of the popular heresies in Western Europe during the Middle ages. More than seventy documents, ranging in date from the early eleventh century to the early fourteenth century and representing both orthodox and heretical viewpoints are included. Chronicles and letters reveal the emergence of heretical sects, while other sources show the varieties of heresy, the alarm felt by the Church, and the attempts to combat heresy by persuasion and argument. Orthodox polemical tracts, describing the great heresies of the Cathars and Waldenses as seen by the Catholics, demonstrate the intensity of the religious debate. Among . these polemical works, the treatise of the inquisitor Rainerius Sacconi, a former heretic, is translated in full, as is the fifth part of Bernard Gui's Practica inquisitionis, describing sects of the early fourteenth century. In addition, alI known writings of Cathars are translated, including the whole of the Liber de duobus principiis, fragments of a treatise written by an Albigensian heretic, and the two versions of the ritual used by the Cathars.
The Introduction sketches the characteristics of the heresies, the appearance and spread of the many sects, and the historical controversies that have arisen over their origins. The beliefs, organization and rites of the heretics are also described. Another section of the introduction surveys the kinds of source materials useful in the study of medieval heresies and discusses the literary activity of the heretics themselves. An appendix lists the known polemical treatises by Catholic authors of the ~ twelfth and thirteenth centuries, an important source of information about heretical movements.
Before his death in 1962 Austin Patterson Evans was a Professor of History at Columbia University. He was elected president of the Medieval Academy of America in 1957.
Walter L. Wakefield is a Professor ! of History and Political Science at the State University College at Potsdam, New York.