Customer Reviews

The Devil's World: Heresy and Society 1100-1300

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is about heresy in an area the author call "the bannana",an oval type area from Rome to London from 1100-1300.Spain is not included in this study and little mention of the Spanish Inquisition.Explored in readable detail is the Waldensian and Cathar "heresies" and how the Catholic Church from Rome and other European environs, tried to deal with them.There are alot of politics involved because there is no separation of church and state at the time.Some of these persecutions are obviously instigated to take property and influence from the persecuted.The different tactics the church used to quell the Cathars are explored including imprisonment,torture and even a crusade called the Albigensian Crusade. This crusade was used by the pope to put an end to the Cathars,so not all Crusades were aimed to regain the Holy Land.You can feel that the church is trying to use the right combination of persuasion and violence when necessary.Alot of the Monastic orders that came out of this period such as the Dominicans and the Franciscans were attempts by the church to use reasoning and persuasion to overcome the heresies.The Inquisition was used when the first methods failed. As I've heard before, a person was allowed freedom of thought and expression in religious matters,that is if they kept their ideas to themselves.If a persons'religious ideas boiled over into the political arena or high visiblity area,the Inquisition was quick to act with some of the religious orders the leading edge of the persecutions.

The author points out the Cathar movement came about as the result of a rising middle class and a stong desire by the laity to run their own church affairs.Ideological matters of belief may not have been important as political and economic ones. The Cathars were never completely crushed but retreated to mountainous regions such as Switzerland.(Is it coincidental that Calvin and his church reform movement come from this area later.)Did the Cathars go underground and wait for a more advantageous time to reaasert themselves.The Cathars could then be the first Protestants?The book also goes into some details about women and their new roles as church reformers and lay leaders.There is almost no mention of the Devil in the book despite the title and little of witchcraft.You won't find a cloved hoof in the book only the usual cast of saints and sinners.Some are pretty twisted and interesting to read about but wouldn't be much fun to deal with in real life.