- Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Department for the Study of Religions, Arna Nováka 1, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
David Zbíral
Masaryk University, Department For The Study Of Religions, Faculty Member
- Medieval heresy, Catharism, Inquisition, Interdisciplinary History, Social Networks (History), Diffusion of Innovations, and 59 moreDigital Humanities, History of Religion (Medieval Studies), Religious Dissent, Christian Heresies, Heresy, Digital History, Network Theory, Social Network Analysis (SNA), Historiography of Medieval Heresy, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Heresy and Inquisition, Cathars, Inquisition (Law), Albigensian Crusade, Religious Polemics, Jewish-Christian Polemics, Demonology, Witchhunts and Inquisition, Theories of Rationality, Waldensians, Lollards, Lollardy, Bogomils, Paulicians, Paulicianism, Languedoc, Carlo Ginzburg, Marguerite Porete and Meister Eckhart, Skepticism, Witch Hunt Studies, Witch Hunts, European Witch Trials, Early Modern European Witchcraft, Cognitive Historiography, History of Materialism, Doubts and Disbelief, History of Atheism, Historical Materialism, Medieval Christianity, Early Christianity, Religious Change, Rumors, Urban Legends, Archaeological GIS, Heresy and Religious Dissent, St. Guglielma, Heresy of the Free Spirit, Medieval Religion, Historical network analysis, Historical Geographical Information Systems, Computational Historical Sience, Historical Network Research, Cliodynamics, Historical Anthropology, Rumor and Gossip, Medieval Languedoc, Historical Data Analysis using Social Networks, Historical road networks, Medieval Demography, and Quantitative Narrative Analysisedit
- I am a historian of religion interested in different aspects of medieval Christianity and in the practice of interdis... moreI am a historian of religion interested in different aspects of medieval Christianity and in the practice of interdisciplinary history, informed mainly by anthropology and the computational humanities. My special focus is religious nonconformism and its repression in medieval Europe, Catharism and its theological culture, and the social, spatial, and discursive patterns of dissidence, heresy trials, and inquisitorial records. I am the principal investigator of the ERC-funded Dissident Networks Project (DISSINET).edit
This book presents an original overview of Cathar Christianity followed by Czech translations of a representative selection of the most important sources. The overview is based on close work with the original Latin and Occitan texts and... more
This book presents an original overview of Cathar Christianity followed by Czech translations of a representative selection of the most important sources. The overview is based on close work with the original Latin and Occitan texts and pays just as much attention to variation within Cathar religious culture as to its widely shared components. It introduces the development of Catharism as a religious culture; its rituals; the rules of life; the development of organizational structures; the practical management of Cathar groups; and the richness of Cathar beliefs, understood not as a rigid dogmatic system but as a repertoire of representations which nonetheless display some central tendencies.
Research Interests: Theology, Medieval Studies, Inquisition, Biblical Theology, History of Religion (Medieval Studies), and 13 moreHeresy, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Cathars, Catharism, Heresy and Inquisition, Biblical Exegesis, Historical Sources, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Medieval Languedoc, Medieval heresy, Waldensians, and Anti-heretical polemics
Did a secret Cathar Church exist in twelfth- to thirteenth-century Europe? Is it possible to identify this Church on the basis of dualism, understood as the belief in the creation of the material world by the devil or in the eternal... more
Did a secret Cathar Church exist in twelfth- to thirteenth-century Europe? Is it possible to identify this Church on the basis of dualism, understood as the belief in the creation of the material world by the devil or in the eternal existence of two opposed principles, good and evil? This book reopens the classical canon of texts on the Cathars, from Ebervin of Steinfeld’s letter (1140s) to Bernard of Clairvaux all the way up to the register of Jacques Fournier (1318-1325), carefully organizing these texts by genre and period, and narrating the intriguing story of the endeavour, medieval and modern, to define the Cathar heresy in terms of dualistic tenets. With the aim rather of understanding than dismissing it, the book cautiously dismantles the curious conglomerate of ideas modern scholars called “dualistic”, and demonstrates that the construction of dualist heresy was, in fact, a collaborative enterprise in which Catholic polemists, imbued with patristic images of Manicheism and striving to define the orthodox position in opposition to its enemies, interacted with the processes of self-definition and doctrinal evolution of various nonconformist groups, mainly in the Rhineland, northern Italy, and southwestern France. Growing knowledge of dissident ideas, rituals, and networks transformed the original patristic habits of the writers on heresy, while these networks themselves underwent deep changes due to their internal dynamics as well as to the way they were conceived by their Catholic opponents. The book argues that, for Catholic thinkers, dualist heresy was a preeminent “other” whose function in the culture of its time was to delegitimize some old Christian ecclesiological ideas and radical ascetic behaviours, and to define a new, relatively world-affirming version of urban Christianity. At the outset, therefore, dualist heresy was a polemical caricature, but never a simple invention. The knowledge on heresy described very real myths and practices, and it was constantly growing and changing. Far from being a simple transposition of patristic polemics, the concept of dualist heresy is nothing less than an important indicator of deep doctrinal and social transformations in Western Christendom between 1140 and 1330.
Research Interests:
A structured and partly annotated bibliography of the medieval Christianity and Middle Ages in Europe (over 640 standard pages).
Research Interests:
A structured and partly annotated bibliography of religious non-conformism / dissent / heresy / heterodoxy and its repression in the history of Christianity (now around 750 standard pages) intended to update and supplement, among others,... more
A structured and partly annotated bibliography of religious non-conformism / dissent / heresy / heterodoxy and its repression in the history of Christianity (now around 750 standard pages) intended to update and supplement, among others, Grundmann, Herbert, Bibliographie zur Ketzergeschichte des Mittelalters (1900-1966), Rome 1967, and Berkhout, Carl T. – Russell, Jeffrey Burton, Medieval Heresies: A Bibliography 1960-1979, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies 1981. All headings are now also in English; some annotations are in Czech.
Research Interests: Inquisition, Inquisition (Law), Witch Hunt Studies, European Witch Trials, Heresy, and 18 moreWitchcraft (Anthropology Of Religion), Witchcraft, Religion and Magic, Religious Persecution, Heresy and Inquisition, Early Modern European Witchcraft, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Medieval heresy, Witch Hunts, Late medieval popular religion, heterodoxy and heresy, memory in the later Middle Ages., Persecution, Historiography of Medieval Heresy, religious dissent in Early modern Europe, Sociology of Heresy, Heresy and Religious Dissent, Religious Dissent, Witchhunts and Inquisition, History of Witchcraft Persecutions, and Persecution of Witches
The “Historical Geocoding Assistant” is an open-source browser-based application for assigning geographic coordinates in a more convenient and faster way than copy-pasting them from services such as Google Maps. The application was... more
The “Historical Geocoding Assistant” is an open-source browser-based application for assigning geographic coordinates in a more convenient and faster way than copy-pasting them from services such as Google Maps. The application was designed with historical projects in mind but is suitable for any geocoding work. Essential features:
- works online with a live Google Spreadsheets table;
- gathers suggestions of coordinates from gazetteers for instant use (GeoNames, Wikipedia, Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names, Pleiades, and China Historical GIS);
- integrates search services (Google Maps, Google Search, Peripleo);
- supports multiple base layers (OpenStreetMap, satellite images, Imperium, etc.);
- supports multiple overlay layers;
- allows setting relevant spatial extent;
- allows spatial uncertainty levels.
- works online with a live Google Spreadsheets table;
- gathers suggestions of coordinates from gazetteers for instant use (GeoNames, Wikipedia, Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names, Pleiades, and China Historical GIS);
- integrates search services (Google Maps, Google Search, Peripleo);
- supports multiple base layers (OpenStreetMap, satellite images, Imperium, etc.);
- supports multiple overlay layers;
- allows setting relevant spatial extent;
- allows spatial uncertainty levels.
Research Interests:
This interactive map application presents the most complete available digital data set of Christian religious houses in the Czech lands from the beginnings up to the present day. The data were manually compiled on the basis of the... more
This interactive map application presents the most complete available digital data set of Christian religious houses in the Czech lands from the beginnings up to the present day. The data were manually compiled on the basis of the extensive, so far nine-volume encyclopedia by Milan Buben, Encyklopedie řádů, kongregací a řeholních společností katolické církve v českých zemích.
The map covers 782 records and thus represents a very comprehensive resource on the development of Christian monastic life in the Czech lands. However, a crucial gap is the absence of female religious houses, because the volume on those has not yet been published. Female houses are thus covered only insofar as they were described as part of a record in the hitherto published volumes.
The map allows users to explore monasteries and other religious houses throughout history and relate the data points to other relevant spatial and historical datasets. The records can befiltered by religious order (Benedictines, Jesuites, etc.),status (abbey, priory, etc.) and time (for instance, only showing monasteries which were in place in the medieval period).
Each record is accompanied by an info box, which lists the namesunder which the religious house is known, the communities which lived in that religious house (order and time interval), and the changing status of the religious house. The info box also allows the copying of geographic coordinates. Finally, a vast proportion of the records are complemented with original photographic documentation of the present state of the building (or, in the case of unpreserved buildings, the location).
The map covers 782 records and thus represents a very comprehensive resource on the development of Christian monastic life in the Czech lands. However, a crucial gap is the absence of female religious houses, because the volume on those has not yet been published. Female houses are thus covered only insofar as they were described as part of a record in the hitherto published volumes.
The map allows users to explore monasteries and other religious houses throughout history and relate the data points to other relevant spatial and historical datasets. The records can befiltered by religious order (Benedictines, Jesuites, etc.),status (abbey, priory, etc.) and time (for instance, only showing monasteries which were in place in the medieval period).
Each record is accompanied by an info box, which lists the namesunder which the religious house is known, the communities which lived in that religious house (order and time interval), and the changing status of the religious house. The info box also allows the copying of geographic coordinates. Finally, a vast proportion of the records are complemented with original photographic documentation of the present state of the building (or, in the case of unpreserved buildings, the location).
Research Interests:
This interactive map application presents the most complete dataset of early cases of heresy in the West, ca. 1000–1150, compiled from original Latin sources. It shows locations, heresy cases linked to those locations, and mentions in the... more
This interactive map application presents the most complete dataset of early cases of heresy in the West, ca. 1000–1150, compiled from original Latin sources. It shows locations, heresy cases linked to those locations, and mentions in the sources, on which the description is based. The application allows filtering by time, religious aspects (beliefs and practices), and intervention (type of action against heresy, outcome of the case).
Research Interests:
This interactive map visualizes a dataset of Premonstratensian houses in France from the foundation of the order up to the present. The dataset is a digital adaptation and formalization of the most complete catalogue available, edited by... more
This interactive map visualizes a dataset of Premonstratensian houses in France from the foundation of the order up to the present. The dataset is a digital adaptation and formalization of the most complete catalogue available, edited by Bernard Ardura (Abbayes, prieurés et monastères de l’ordre de Prémontré en France des origines à nos jours: Dictionnaire historique et bibliographique, 1993).
- 181 records (localised either to the precise site or, approximately, to the level of the commune);
- filtering by time, gender of the community (male, female, double monastery), and status (abbey or priory);
- a choice of base maps, including the Cassini;
- an infobox under each object showing the ID number of the record, place name, the earliest and latest possible dates for both foundation and dissolution, certainty of localisation, dedication, and a link to a Wikipedia entry (if available).
Available at https://dissinet.cz/publications.
- 181 records (localised either to the precise site or, approximately, to the level of the commune);
- filtering by time, gender of the community (male, female, double monastery), and status (abbey or priory);
- a choice of base maps, including the Cassini;
- an infobox under each object showing the ID number of the record, place name, the earliest and latest possible dates for both foundation and dissolution, certainty of localisation, dedication, and a link to a Wikipedia entry (if available).
Available at https://dissinet.cz/publications.
Research Interests:
This interactive map shows settlements in Languedoc in which Cathar religious are attested to have dwelt publicly in houses they owned or rented. The period covered ranges from the oldest memory going as far back as 1175 up until the fall... more
This interactive map shows settlements in Languedoc in which Cathar religious are attested to have dwelt publicly in houses they owned or rented. The period covered ranges from the oldest memory going as far back as 1175 up until the fall of the castrum of Montségur in 1244. The dataset on which the map is based constitutes the most extensive list of settlements with “houses of heretics” in Languedoc available to date.
Click for the URL of the interactive map (under the Files link). The raw dataset (stored in Google Sheets) is also available from the map.
Click for the URL of the interactive map (under the Files link). The raw dataset (stored in Google Sheets) is also available from the map.
Research Interests:
This interactive map is based on the Lollard trials. It shows the places of origin of English dissidents under investigation for taking part in the revolts of 1414 or 1431, related to Lollardy, or holding various heterodox opinions that... more
This interactive map is based on the Lollard trials. It shows the places of origin of English dissidents under investigation for taking part in the revolts of 1414 or 1431, related to Lollardy, or holding various heterodox opinions that are commonly referred to as Lollard. In addition, it shows in which of these places the owners of unauthorised English religious books were uncovered.
A total of 260 sites were transferred from the Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte by Jedin et al. (data compiled by M. Lambert based on the analysis of trial records by J. A. F. Thomson and J. Fines). The map shows all sites from Jedin et al., including those mentioned only in the accompanying text (by M. Lambert), but excluding three sites which could not be localised with enough certainty. The plotted sites indicate only the presence of suspected Lollards and revolt participants, not their numbers or importance.
The period covered ranges from 1414 until 1522. After this date, it becomes hard to distinguish between Lollardy and the various forms of Protestantism that came over from the continent. The map plots only those locations mentioned in extant trial records and should not, of course, be considered a “complete” map of Lollardy.
Click to get a link to the online interactive map (under the Files link). The raw dataset (stored in Google Sheets) is also available from the map.
A total of 260 sites were transferred from the Atlas zur Kirchengeschichte by Jedin et al. (data compiled by M. Lambert based on the analysis of trial records by J. A. F. Thomson and J. Fines). The map shows all sites from Jedin et al., including those mentioned only in the accompanying text (by M. Lambert), but excluding three sites which could not be localised with enough certainty. The plotted sites indicate only the presence of suspected Lollards and revolt participants, not their numbers or importance.
The period covered ranges from 1414 until 1522. After this date, it becomes hard to distinguish between Lollardy and the various forms of Protestantism that came over from the continent. The map plots only those locations mentioned in extant trial records and should not, of course, be considered a “complete” map of Lollardy.
Click to get a link to the online interactive map (under the Files link). The raw dataset (stored in Google Sheets) is also available from the map.
Research Interests: Historical GIS, Reformation History, Reformation Studies, English Reformation, Inquisition, and 10 moreHeresy, Heresy and Inquisition, Historical Cartography, Lollards, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Medieval heresy, Late Medieval England, Lollardy, Late Medieval Popular Piety, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
This freely available online interactive map (link under the Files menu) visualizes a database of Christian baptisteries built between the 3rd and 12th centuries. The database is a digital adaptation and formalization of the most complete... more
This freely available online interactive map (link under the Files menu) visualizes a database of Christian baptisteries built between the 3rd and 12th centuries. The database is a digital adaptation and formalization of the most complete (as of 2018) catalogue of baptisteries by Sebastian Ristow (Frühchristliche Baptisterien, Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1998).
Research Interests: Near Eastern Archaeology, Historical GIS, Early Christianity, Mediterranean Studies, Eastern Christianity, and 15 moreBaptism, Early Christian Art, Mediterranean archaeology, Mediterranean and North Africa, Early Christian Architecture, Archaeology of churches, Early Christian Archaeology, Sacred Architecture, Christian Archaeology, Baptismal Fonts, Oriental Churches, Early Christian baptisteries, Archeology of baptism, Ancient Baptisteries, and Baptisteries
The records of medieval heresy inquisitions have been a subject of controversy ever since their rediscovery by historians. The detail they convey of specific social interactions has continued to inspire generations of scholars, while the... more
The records of medieval heresy inquisitions have been a subject of controversy ever since their rediscovery by historians. The detail they convey of specific social interactions has continued to inspire generations of scholars, while the coercive conditions of their production have placed strong caveats over their interpretation. This article offers a comprehensive review of the debate on the uses of inquisition records, encompassing scholarship across multiple languages and schools of thought. It also highlights some shortcomings in that debate, e.g., the overrepresentation of inquisitors’ choices; the claim that the use of torture led automatically to reproducing outlandish inquisitorial fears; and the idea that exceptional detail correlates with reliability. The article concludes with the proposal of the Dissident Networks Project (DISSINET) to use structured data within a new variety of quantitative history. This method, founded on the Computer-Assisted Semantic Text Modelling approach that DISSINET has pioneered, is well-suited to addressing the biases of inquisition documents and opening them to scrutiny, thus providing a significant complement to close reading.
Research Interests:
This article presents a proposal for data collection from textual resources in history and the social sciences. The data model and data collection practice we propose is based on detailed, yet flexible semantic encoding of the original... more
This article presents a proposal for data collection from textual resources in history and the social sciences. The data model and data collection practice we propose is based on detailed, yet flexible semantic encoding of the original natural-language syntactic structure and wording: translating texts line by line into structured data while preserving all of their vagaries, complexities, conflicting testimonies and the like. Our use case is the study of medieval Christian dissent and inquisition, founded on heresy trial records. We propose a thorough way of modelling the sources in order to make them accessible to all manner of quantitative and computational analyses. We frame our approach as "serial and scalable reading". Representing a new variety of "serial history", it allows us to understand and model texts as never before, and helps bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative research in consequential ways.
Research Interests:
The growing use of geographic information systems (GIS) and geographical analyses in different areasof the digital humanities highlights the need for geocoding, i.e. assigning geographic coordinates torecords in a dataset. Such... more
The growing use of geographic information systems (GIS) and geographical analyses in different areasof the digital humanities highlights the need for geocoding, i.e. assigning geographic coordinates torecords in a dataset. Such spatially-referenced datasets are a precondition for any spatial analysis andvisualization. While GIS in general is a dynamically evolving branch of software development, thereis a need for specialized applications which would assist researchers in geocoding datasets in history,archaeology, and the digital humanities. Therefore, we developed the ‘‘Historical Geocoding Assistant’’,an open-source web tool that meets the specific needs of historical research and brings a solution togeocoding historical data in a convenient, fast, and reliable way.
Research Interests:
Zbíral, David, “Hédonistické křesťanství, sexuální morálka a vyjednávání o identitě: Případ Grazidy Lizierové (1320)” [Hedonistic Christianity, Sexual Morals and the Negotiation of Identity: The Case of Grazida Lizier (1320)], Pantheon:... more
Zbíral, David, “Hédonistické křesťanství, sexuální morálka a vyjednávání o identitě: Případ Grazidy Lizierové (1320)” [Hedonistic Christianity, Sexual Morals and the Negotiation of Identity: The Case of Grazida Lizier (1320)], Pantheon: Religionistický časopis 8/2, 2013, 5-18.
This article is a case study of sexual morals and identity construction in 14th-century Europe based on the trial records of Grazida Lizier, extant in the register of Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers. Grazida’s worldview is Christian but hedonistic, and is not based on the concept of sin but on the concept of pleasure. Sexual intercourse that pleases both partners cannot really displease God; indeed, such intercourse cannot be sinful. I try to show that this view is not a haphazard excuse for Grazida’s extramarital relationship with the priest Peter Clergue, but an organic part of her wider system of beliefs. Later, I argue that even if Grazida finally admitted to having taken this view from Peter, it was by no means something alien to, or superficial in her thinking, and I track such a claim back to a unilateral model of interaction where dominant actors are considered to be the producers and subordinate actors the consumers of cultural resources. I question this model, and strive to demonstrate that Grazida was not a mere object of other people’s strategies but claimed her own space for agency.
This article is a case study of sexual morals and identity construction in 14th-century Europe based on the trial records of Grazida Lizier, extant in the register of Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers. Grazida’s worldview is Christian but hedonistic, and is not based on the concept of sin but on the concept of pleasure. Sexual intercourse that pleases both partners cannot really displease God; indeed, such intercourse cannot be sinful. I try to show that this view is not a haphazard excuse for Grazida’s extramarital relationship with the priest Peter Clergue, but an organic part of her wider system of beliefs. Later, I argue that even if Grazida finally admitted to having taken this view from Peter, it was by no means something alien to, or superficial in her thinking, and I track such a claim back to a unilateral model of interaction where dominant actors are considered to be the producers and subordinate actors the consumers of cultural resources. I question this model, and strive to demonstrate that Grazida was not a mere object of other people’s strategies but claimed her own space for agency.
Research Interests:
This article reconsiders all the additions and marginalia and some of the reader marks in the Cathar manuscript J.II.44 held by the National Central Library of Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conv. soppr., ms. J.II.44,... more
This article reconsiders all the additions and marginalia and some of the reader marks in the Cathar manuscript J.II.44 held by the National Central Library of Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conv. soppr., ms. J.II.44, also known under the shelf mark I.II.44), revises the identification of scribal hands, and draws some conclusions concerning the genesis and use of the codex. The additions and reader marks were undervalued and partly misinterpreted in Antoine Dondaine’s, Arno Borst’s, and Christine Thouzellier’s classical presentations of the manuscript. A careful reassessment of the reader marks and additions shows that these important witnesses to further use of the manuscript do not come from an inquisitorial milieu, as Borst and Thouzellier hypothesized for some of them, but mostly point to the milieu of the Cathar Church of Desenzano in the mid-thirteenth century. The additions reveal at least two rather unexpected strands in the thought of the readers of the compilation, the first being moralistic and sapiential, and the second, apocalyptic. This identification of sapiential and apocalyptic tendencies in the Florence codex significantly enriches available knowledge of the religious culture within the Desenzano Church.
Research Interests: Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Medieval Studies, Apocalypticism, Manuscript Studies, Codicology, and 13 moreLatin codicology, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Cathars, Catharism, Biblical Exegesis, Marginalia, Medieval heresy, Reading Practices, Reading practices and marginalia, Medieval Biblical Exegesis, Catharisme, and Sapiential Literature
This article presents a reconsideration of the origin of the manuscript Lyon, Bibliotheque municipale, ms. PA 36, containing a complete Occitan translation of the New Testament and a Cathar text known as the Ritual of Lyon. The codex of... more
This article presents a reconsideration of the origin of the manuscript Lyon, Bibliotheque municipale, ms. PA 36, containing a complete Occitan translation of the New Testament and a Cathar text known as the Ritual of Lyon. The codex of Lyon is important not only for the history of dissident Christian traditions, but also for the history of medieval vernacular translations of the Bible. Despite scrutinizing the manuscript since mid-nineteenth century, scholars have fallen short of suggesting convincing arguments concerning its genesis. The dates proposed for the codex and the Ritual of Lyon vary significantly as well. Building upon earlier linguistic findings and considering internal as well as external evidence, we argue that far from being the witness of the supposed golden age of Occitan Catharism at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the codex as well as the Ritual of Lyon itself are connected with a spirited early-fourteenth-century attempt at restoring Cathar Christianity in Languedoc, headed by a former notary of Ax, Peter Autier. This finding is an important contribution to the history and interpretation of the manuscript, the Ritual of Lyon, and the oldest extant translation of the New Testament in Occitan.
Research Interests: Catalan Translations of the Bible, Bible Translation, Manuscript Studies, Occitan Literature, Bible Translations, and 25 moreCodicology, Heresy, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Cathars, Catharism, Heresy and Inquisition, Medieval Occitan Literature, Manuscripts, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Medieval heresy, Paleography and Codicology, Manuscript studies, codicology, palaeography, medieval paper, Chaucer, circulation of texts and books, history of the book, electronic editing and digital humanities, Occitan Language, Early Bible Translations, Late medieval popular religion, heterodoxy and heresy, memory in the later Middle Ages., Heresy and Religious Dissent, Old Occitan, Vernacular Bible, Old French and Old Occitan Literature, Late Medieval Popular Piety, Latin and Vernacular Literature, Catharisme, Bible Manuscripts, and Occitan translations of the Bible
The manuscript J II 44, held by the National Central Library of Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conventi soppressi, ms. J II 44, also known under the shelf mark I II 44), contains several theological treatises... more
The manuscript J II 44, held by the National Central Library of Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conventi soppressi, ms. J II 44, also known under the shelf mark I II 44), contains several theological treatises originating in the heterodox milieu of mid-thirteenth-century Lombard Cathars from the Desenzano Church who were also called Albanenses. The main works in the manuscript – The Liber de duobus principiis and the Florence Ritual – were competently edited by Antoine Dondaine and Christine Thouzellier in the 1930s and 1970s. However, smaller pieces, additions, and marginalia in the manuscript have attracted less attention. Some of them remain unpublished and have passed almost unnoticed in recent scholarship. Probably the most interesting of these unpublished parts is a compilation from Old Testament sapiential books on fol. 51v-53r. This article provides an edition of this piece with an introduction and commentary explaining its interest. The compilation is by no means a result of the haphazard copying of biblical passages. Quite to the contrary, it shows careful and focused theological work. Albeit written down and most probably also compiled by the Cathar redactor of the Florence manuscript, this collection of quotes departs from what we know about Catharism, and serves as a warning against interpreting Catharism as a theological system limited to dualism, soteriology, and the criticism of the Catholic Church. No less importantly, however, this sapiential compilation and the Florence manuscript in general also help us to avoid the other extreme: interpreting Catharism merely as a popular movement with virtually no elements of theological learning.
Research Interests: Manuscript Studies, Codicology, Manuscripts (Medieval Studies), Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Cathars, and 13 moreCatharism, Heresy and Inquisition, Wisdom Literature, Biblical Exegesis, Sapiential Theology, Paleography and editions of medieval manuscripts vs. print-culture editions of medieval texts, Marginalia, Medieval heresy, Reading Practices, Biblical Wisdom literature, Heresy and Religious Dissent, Reading practices and marginalia, and Religious Dissent
In this article, I focus on the state of research in inquisitional records and evaluate the biases and limits of this type of sources, including not only those generally mentioned (the inquisitor’s questionnaire, his power over the... more
In this article, I focus on the state of research in inquisitional records and evaluate the biases and limits of this type of sources, including not only those generally mentioned (the inquisitor’s questionnaire, his power over the written record, his terminology and learned background, etc.), but also various deponent’s strategies of self-presentation and identity construction. I plead for detailed individual study of different inquisitional registers, indeed even of different depositions, instead of inferring of their reliability from any general ideas about the inquisitional procedure. I identify three main “strategies of reading” (J. H. Arnold) which might help us to use data from inquisitional records: 1) mapping of the space of agency that the individual deponent has, 2) mapping of different “surpluses” (C. Bruschi) or “excesses of speech” (J. H. Arnold) in the inquisitional records, and 3) narrative analysis of the depositions, inspired by the theoretical frameworks of narratology and narrative psychology. I also stress that the question of reliability of inquisitional records exceeds the field of source criticism, indeed it has complex relations to some central discussions in epistemology of historical and social sciences, mainly the discussions about the relationship between reality and representation connected with the “linguistic turn”. Here, I argue that in the system of relations between the historian, the inquisitor, and the deponent, none of the parties involved does automatically hold the right to authenticity. Narrative psychologists have shown that there is nothing like “authentic” or “real” identity. Instead, any identity is created in a particular discursive situation. Therefore, seeking for the “authentic voice” of the deponent leads us nowhere. Another consequence of this is that there is no automatic or necessary difference of reliability between trial records and literary texts about one’s self, or between “direct” and “indirect” sources. Any source, inquisitional or not, is biased by a certain policy of representation and identity construction.
Research Interests:
La Charte de Niquinta, texte qui rapporte un grand rassemblement hérétique à Saint-Félix de Lauragais en 1167 et qui se réclame de la provenance dissidente, est un enjeu essentiel de la recherche actuelle sur le catharisme et le... more
La Charte de Niquinta, texte qui rapporte un grand rassemblement hérétique à Saint-Félix de Lauragais en 1167 et qui se réclame de la provenance dissidente, est un enjeu essentiel de la recherche actuelle sur le catharisme et le bogomilisme. La Charte est le seul document dissident à témoigner d’une organisation assez solide de la dissidence cathare dans le Midi dès le XIIe siècle et à postuler les liens des hérétiques méridionaux avec la dissidence orientale. L’hypothèse d’un faux moderne se montre plutôt improbable. Mais il reste plusieurs autres hypothèses de sa rédaction au Moyen Âge, donc de son interprétation : il peut s’agir d’une stylisation antihérétique, d’un document relatant largement des faits historiques, d’un faux dissident, d’une légende dissidente du XIIIe siècle. Cet article résume l’état actuel de la discussion et apporte des arguments pour et contre les différentes hypothèses.
Research Interests:
A new critical edition of the Charter of Niquinta taking into account all the three extant versions (two newly discovered manuscripts by Besse from the 1650s and the 1660 edition).
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This article summarizes previous debates on the relationship between myth, biblical exegesis and theology in Catharism, and studies the different configurations of these forms of thinking in all extant Cathar texts. In the mid-20th... more
This article summarizes previous debates on the relationship between myth, biblical exegesis and theology in Catharism, and studies the different configurations of these forms of thinking in all extant Cathar texts. In the mid-20th century, the relationship was discussed mostly as a question of the origin and nature of Catharism, understood either as a continuation of Gnostic or Manichean mythology within medieval Europe, or Christian evangelical reformism based primarily on the Scripture. However, myth, biblical exegesis and theology need not be seen as mutually exclusive, and the interpretation of larger Christian culture now acknowledges the important part myth plays in biblical exegesis and theology. In Cathar Christianity the relationship of these forms shifts during the 13th century, just as in the larger family of 13th-century Western Christianity it belongs to, but still these forms neither contradict each other nor does one replace the other. Today the question is not which of these forms was earlier or more important in Cathar Christianity but how different extant texts interpret and enrich previous thought using these forms inherited from the wider Christian tradition.
Keywords: Catharism; biblical exegesis; theology; myth; legend; rationalization of myth.
Keywords: Catharism; biblical exegesis; theology; myth; legend; rationalization of myth.
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L’objectif de ce travail est de revenir aux sources et d’en traduire quelques passages pour offrir au lecteur tchèque les arguments soutenant que le bogomilisme et le catharisme sont deux branches de la même religion. L’étude focalise sur... more
L’objectif de ce travail est de revenir aux sources et d’en traduire quelques passages pour offrir au lecteur tchèque les arguments soutenant que le bogomilisme et le catharisme sont deux branches de la même religion. L’étude focalise sur les thèmes suivants : 1) la comparaison du récit de la chute des anges dans les sources orientales et occidentales, dont le trait distinctif que représente l’emploi de la parabole de « l’économe de l’iniquité » semble trahir une filiation ; 2) la comparaison des formes du consolament, analogues de l’Est à l’Ouest ; 3) les possibilités théoriques des contactes (les voyages des marchands italiens en Byzance et dans les Balkans, les moines, les pèlerins) ; 4) les contactes entre les bogomiles et les cathares, relatés dans les sources (entre autres le voyage de Nicétas) ; 5) la question de la véridicité des renseignements sur les contacts entre les cathares et les bogomiles (en tenant compte de la critique présentée dans le livre L’histoire du catharisme en discussion : Le « concile » de Saint-Félix (1167), dir. Monique Zerner).
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Zbíral, David, “Vztah bogomilství a katarství” [The Relationship between Bogomilism and Catharism], Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 12/1, 2004, 77-94.
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Zbíral, David, “Vztah bogomilství a katarství” [The Relationship between Bogomilism and Catharism], Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 12/1, 2004, 77-94.
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The terms “Arians”, “Messalians”, and “Manicheans” were widely used in Christian medieval anti-heretical writing to describe contemporary dissidents. These terms were often part of wider typologies and genealogies. To a varying degree,... more
The terms “Arians”, “Messalians”, and “Manicheans” were widely used in Christian medieval anti-heretical writing to describe contemporary dissidents. These terms were often part of wider typologies and genealogies. To a varying degree, medieval terms and ideas about continuity and the origins of heterodox groups have influenced modern research. Mainly, alleged analogies between catharism and bogomilism, on the one hand, and manicheism, on the other, and genealogical narrations about the Manichean origins of some medieval heterodox movements have been recycled by modern historians. The polemical origin of these ideas does not, in itself, necessarily mean that they are irrelevant or unscientific. However, the paper argues that there are some rules to be observed while creating or taking over any term, typology, or genealogy. It also argues that the terms and typological or genealogical ideas presented here do not observe such rules. The paper points to three basic rules: (1) terms, methods, and theories used must not be influenced by aims whose compatibility with the aims of science cannot be shown; (2) scientific terms, typologies, and genealogies have to be based on a transparent and consistent argument; (3) any piece of knowledge has to be relatable to the used theories and methods.
Keywords: Christian heresy; Manicheans; Messalians; Arians; Cathars; Bogomils; terminology; typology; genealogy; theory and method.
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Zbíral, David, “Označení, typologie a genealogie středověkých herezí: Inspirace a výzvy pro teorii religionistiky”, Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 18/2, 2010, 163-190.
Keywords: Christian heresy; Manicheans; Messalians; Arians; Cathars; Bogomils; terminology; typology; genealogy; theory and method.
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Zbíral, David, “Označení, typologie a genealogie středověkých herezí: Inspirace a výzvy pro teorii religionistiky”, Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 18/2, 2010, 163-190.
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Armanno, nicknamed Pungilupo, from Ferrara, Italy, was considered a religiously active person during his life. After his death in 1269, he became venerated as a saint in the cathedral of Ferrara. However, the inquisitors knew that they... more
Armanno, nicknamed Pungilupo, from Ferrara, Italy, was considered a religiously active person during his life. After his death in 1269, he became venerated as a saint in the cathedral of Ferrara. However, the inquisitors knew that they had received his confession and abjuration in the matter of heresy in 1254 and they had serious suspicions that his heretical contacts had continued even after his abjuration. They gathered a significant body of evidence against him. The canons of Ferrara cathedral reacted and struggled to defend Armanno’s reputation as a holy man. There are several sources on Armanno – among others, detailed notarial testimonies from both parties: on Armanno’s “heretical” statements and practices, on his miracles, on his going to confession and communion. The sources can be read in more than one way. In this paper I attempt to reconstruct Armanno’s individual religiosity (his representations, emotions, and practices) and I confront the results with the concept of religion understood in the Durkheimian way, i.e. as a system of representations and practices where affiliation is understood as membership. I conclude that Armanno’s religiosity was non-doctrinal, practical, indefinite, and anchored in particular situations. Indeed, some of his practices clash with others or with some of his beliefs, and they do not respect the borderlines between religious communities (Cathar vs. Catholic). Armanno’s religiosity was not at all systematic and contrasts deeply with the usual concepts of religion and membership.
Keywords: Armanno Pungilupo; Ferrara; inquisition; inquisitional records; individual religiosity; representations; emotions; practices; concept of religion; concept of membership.
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Zbíral, David, “Osobní religiozita, náboženství a členství: Případ Armanna ‘Pungilupa’ z Ferrary” [Individual Religiosity, Religion, and Membership: The Case of Armanno “Pungilupo” from Ferrara], Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 19/2, 2011, 147-178.
Keywords: Armanno Pungilupo; Ferrara; inquisition; inquisitional records; individual religiosity; representations; emotions; practices; concept of religion; concept of membership.
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Zbíral, David, “Osobní religiozita, náboženství a členství: Případ Armanna ‘Pungilupa’ z Ferrary” [Individual Religiosity, Religion, and Membership: The Case of Armanno “Pungilupo” from Ferrara], Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 19/2, 2011, 147-178.
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This article presents the first Czech translation, with introduction and notes, of the Summa de catharis et leonistis seu pauperibus de Lugduno written in 1250 by the Do-minican friar Raniero Sacconi, who was soon to become – or was... more
This article presents the first Czech translation, with introduction and notes, of the Summa de catharis et leonistis seu pauperibus de Lugduno written in 1250 by the Do-minican friar Raniero Sacconi, who was soon to become – or was already at that time – inquisitor in Lombardy and one of the pillars of papal anti-heretical policy in the 1250s and early 1260s. The translation is based on the critical edition of the text by François [Franjo] Šanjek (ed.), “Raynerius Sacconi O. P. Summa de Catharis”, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 44, 1974, 30-60. The article identifies the reference to a New Testament prophecy (p. 59, lines 24-25, of Šanjek’s edition), unidentified by the editor of the text, as a reference to 1 Timothy 4:1-3. It also interprets the mention of the “ecclesia Philadelfie, in Romania”. The motif of the “Church of Philadelphia” was probably first used in Cathar foundation myths referring to the “Churches of Asia” from the Revelation (in this case, Revelation 1:11 and 3:7-13) in order to provide Ca-thar Episcopal ordination and the consolamentum with a guarantee of apostolic succes-sion. This reference was then taken over by Raniero, himself a Cathar for seventeen years, and later expanded by his continuator Anselm of Alessandria in his Tractatus de hereticis, this time as part of a polemical narrative on the Manichean origin of the Ca-thar Churches.
Keywords: Raniero (Rainier) Sacconi; Summa de catharis et leonistis seu pauperibus de Lugduno; Cathars; Catharism; Waldensians; Waldensianism; Lombardy; treatises on heresy.
Zbíral, David, “‘Suma o katarech a leonistech’ od Raniera Sacconiho (1250) a katarské skupiny ve druhé čtvrtině 13. století” [“Summa de catharis et leonistis” by Raniero Sacconi (1250) and Cathar Groups in the Second Quarter of the Thirteenth Century], Pantheon: Religionistický časopis 9/2, 2014, 54-86.
Keywords: Raniero (Rainier) Sacconi; Summa de catharis et leonistis seu pauperibus de Lugduno; Cathars; Catharism; Waldensians; Waldensianism; Lombardy; treatises on heresy.
Zbíral, David, “‘Suma o katarech a leonistech’ od Raniera Sacconiho (1250) a katarské skupiny ve druhé čtvrtině 13. století” [“Summa de catharis et leonistis” by Raniero Sacconi (1250) and Cathar Groups in the Second Quarter of the Thirteenth Century], Pantheon: Religionistický časopis 9/2, 2014, 54-86.
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This article reconsiders the origin of the codex Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. PA 36 (also known under the shelf-mark fonds Adamoli, ms. A.I.54), containing an Occitan translation of the New Testament and a Cathar text known as the... more
This article reconsiders the origin of the codex Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. PA 36 (also known under the shelf-mark fonds Adamoli, ms. A.I.54), containing an Occitan translation of the New Testament and a Cathar text known as the Ritual of Lyon. The codex of Lyon is important not only for the history of dissident Christian traditions in the Middle Ages, but also for the history of vernacular translations of the Bible. Despite scrutinizing the manuscript since the mid-nineteenth century, scholars have fallen short of suggesting convincing arguments concerning its genesis. The dates proposed for the codex and the Ritual of Lyon vary significantly as well. Building upon earlier linguistic findings and considering internal as well as external evidence, we argue that far from being witnesses of the supposed golden age of Languedocian Catharism at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the codex as well as the Ritual of Lyon are connected with a spirited early-fourteenth-century attempt at restoring Cathar Christianity in Languedoc, headed by a former notary of Ax, Peter Autier. The Ritual of Lyon was clearly produced in a context very similar to the one in which Peter Autier and his companions operated. In contrast with the older Ritual of Florence, it presupposes permanent itinerancy and institutionalises the extension of ritual competences from the ordained ministers to the “elder one” and, in the case of the consolamentum of the dying, even to ordinary “good men”. This group, moreover, was remarkably attached to books and had the means of ordering copies of the Bible. Besides such general convergences, there are five quite distinctive parallels connecting the Ritual of Lyon with the circle of Peter Autier as portrayed in inquisitional registers, while unknown to any other source: two very specific rules of conduct, one regarding money found when travelling, and the other, a snared animal; a distinctive distributive use of the Occitan word “be” (the good) in the description of the consolamentum in the Ritual of Lyon and in the recollection of an eye-witness of a consolamentum conferred by Peter Autier himself; the insistence on using a tablecloth during the consolamentum, known only from the group of Peter Autier; and the use of the word covenesa (i.e. convenensa) in the context of the consolamentum, again unknown outside the circle of Peter Autier. These connections, some of which are quite strong and distinctive, indicate that the codex of Lyon is one of those portable Bibles that we know were used by Peter Autier and his companions.
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This article reconsiders all the additions and marginalia and some of the reader marks in the Cathar manuscript J II 44 held by the National Central Library of Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conventi soppressi, ms. J II... more
This article reconsiders all the additions and marginalia and some of the reader marks in the Cathar manuscript J II 44 held by the National Central Library of Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conventi soppressi, ms. J II 44, also known under the shelf mark I II 44), revises the identification of scribal hands, and draws some conclusions concerning the genesis of the codex. The additions and reader marks, underestimated and partly misinterpreted in Antoine Dondaine’s, Arno Borst’s and Christine Thouzellier’s classical presentations of the manuscript and in Dondaine’s and Thouzellier’s editions of the main works it contains, are in fact important evidence of further use of the manuscript. Careful reassessment of the reader marks and additions shows that they do not come from an inquisitorial environment as Borst and Thouzellier argued for some of them, but mostly point to the context of Lombard Catharism in the mid-thirteenth century. The additions exhibit at least two rather unexpected strands in the thought of the scribes/readers of the compilation, the first being moralistic and sapiential, the second, apocalyptic. Finally, a reconsideration of the content suggests (1) disconnecting the part “On Striking the Shepherd” from the part “On Persecution”, which helps partly to resolve an important codicological issue concerning the composition of the manuscript, and (2) disconnecting both of these parts from the Liber de duobus principiis proper and drawing it nearer to later additions and marginalia in the codex.
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Zbíral, David, “Geneze rukopisu ‘Knihy o dvou principech’ a katarský výklad Bible v jeho doplňcích a margináliích”, Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 23/1, 2015, 25-56.
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Zbíral, David, “Geneze rukopisu ‘Knihy o dvou principech’ a katarský výklad Bible v jeho doplňcích a margináliích”, Religio: Revue pro religionistiku 23/1, 2015, 25-56.
Research Interests: Apocalypticism, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Eschatology and Apocalypticism, Medieval Literacy, Heresy, and 19 moreManuscripts (Medieval Studies), Codicology of medieval manuscripts, Cathars, Catharism, Heresy and Inquisition, Biblical Medieval Exegesis, Wisdom Literature, Biblical Exegesis, Heresy and Orthodoxy, New testament exegesis, Sapiential Theology, Medieval heresy, Anthropology of Dissident Movements, Manuscript studies, codicology, palaeography, medieval paper, Chaucer, circulation of texts and books, history of the book, electronic editing and digital humanities, Old Testament Exegesis, Medieval Lay Piety, Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism, Catharisme, and Reader Marks
In the current scholarly debate, the concept of Catharism proved less solid than it had seemed. Many ideas on what is called “Catharism” have been revisited, even if much of what have been said remains rather an outline of an... more
In the current scholarly debate, the concept of Catharism proved less solid than it had seemed. Many ideas on what is called “Catharism” have been revisited, even if much of what have been said remains rather an outline of an investigation to be carried out. Even more ideas still wait to be rethought. In any case, it seems reasonable to be-gin a critical analysis of the concept of Catharism with a revision of the underlying concepts that define it. Among those, dualism is one of the most important. A specific category of sources, the inquisitional registers, allow outlining of one aspect of the topic. In this type of sources dualist statements are found that are not inspired by the preaching of the Good Men (or, “Cathar Perfecti”) and that do not match the polemical and inquisitorial idea of “Manichean heresy”. It seems therefore that the concept of dualism, without other specification, is too vague and insufficient to justify the concept of Catharism.
Research Interests: Inquisition, Heresy, Folk Religion, Folk Christianity, Catharism, and 11 moreHeresy and Inquisition, Popular religion, Dualism, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Medieval heresy, Late medieval popular religion, heterodoxy and heresy, memory in the later Middle Ages., Heresy and Religious Dissent, Popular Christianity, Catharisme, Invention of Heresy, and Inquisitional Records
The inquisitional register of Jacques Fournier from the years 1318-1325, well known thanks to the book Montaillou by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, reaches far beyond the topic of heresy. It encompasses various details about the common life,... more
The inquisitional register of Jacques Fournier from the years 1318-1325, well known thanks to the book Montaillou by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, reaches far beyond the topic of heresy. It encompasses various details about the common life, including sexuality and sexual morals. This case study reconsiders the norm-deviation model on the basis of four Fournier’s trials dealing with sexual morals: that of Beatrix of Lagleize, Peter Vidal, Arnold of Verniolles, and Grazida Lizier. Sexual morals of these four people are certainly very different from the morals required by Jacques Fournier, but they are rather independent systems and norms than simple deviations from another system or norm, i.e. the official sexual morals. The paper suggests that the norm-deviation model distorts the field of medieval sexual morals.
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Plutôt qu’un faux du XVIe ou XVIIe siècle, la Charte de Niquinta semble être un récit sur les commencements, rédigé au XIIIe siècle. Si nous écartons l’hypothèse d’un faux catholique des années 1220, qui se heurte à l’ensemble du... more
Plutôt qu’un faux du XVIe ou XVIIe siècle, la Charte de Niquinta semble être un récit sur les commencements, rédigé au XIIIe siècle. Si nous écartons l’hypothèse d’un faux catholique des années 1220, qui se heurte à l’ensemble du document, il reste trois hypothèses principales sur la nature du document. Il peut s’agir : (1) d’un rapport historique, (2) d’un faux de Pierre Pollan et/ou Pierre Isarn, destiné à soutenir les intérêts de l’église du Carcassès, ou (3) d’un récit légendaire sur les commencements des églises dissidentes dans le Midi, influencé par les légendes sur les origines des églises d’Italie, dont nous connaissons, de toute évidence, des versions remaniées et « complétées » par les polémistes grâce au De heresi catharorum et au Tractatus de hereticis. Cette narration a pu incorporer un acte de bornage authentique, dressé à un rassemblement de portée locale.
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"La Charte de Niquinta est un enjeu essentiel, car elle est le seul document à témoi-gner d’une organisation assez solide de la dissidence dite « cathare » dans le Midi déjà au XIIe siècle et – parmi les sources qui se présentent comme... more
"La Charte de Niquinta est un enjeu essentiel, car elle est le seul document à témoi-gner d’une organisation assez solide de la dissidence dite « cathare » dans le Midi déjà au XIIe siècle et – parmi les sources qui se présentent comme provenant du milieu dis-sident – à postuler la filiation « bogomile » des hérétiques méridionaux. Inconnue par un manuscrit médiéval quelconque et publiée seulement en 1660 par l’historien Guil-laume Besse, la Charte n’a pas tardé à éveiller de graves soupçons. Selon M. Zerner, il s’agirait d’un faux du XVIe ou XVIIe siècle, dont la rédaction finale serait due à Besse lui-même.
L’édition du document d’après le ms. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds Baluze 7, 40-42 v est suivie de quelques remarques qui mènent à conclure contre la rédaction du document au XVIe ou XVIIe siècle, notamment : 1) les neuf ligatures trompeuses de et dans Baluze 7, mal lues par Besse comme quod dans la plupart des cas ; 2) le nom de Raimond de Bauniaco ; 3) la cooccurrence des noms de Pierre Isarn et Pierre Pollan."
L’édition du document d’après le ms. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds Baluze 7, 40-42 v est suivie de quelques remarques qui mènent à conclure contre la rédaction du document au XVIe ou XVIIe siècle, notamment : 1) les neuf ligatures trompeuses de et dans Baluze 7, mal lues par Besse comme quod dans la plupart des cas ; 2) le nom de Raimond de Bauniaco ; 3) la cooccurrence des noms de Pierre Isarn et Pierre Pollan."
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The notion of the “distrustful spirits” in the Bogomil apocryphon Interrogatio Iohannis seems to be connected with the verses 1 Peter 3:18-20, that at least some of the Cathars believed to be said about angels (which is attested by Moneta... more
The notion of the “distrustful spirits” in the Bogomil apocryphon Interrogatio Iohannis seems to be connected with the verses 1 Peter 3:18-20, that at least some of the Cathars believed to be said about angels (which is attested by Moneta of Cremona). In the distinction between the “spiritus increduli” and the “iusti” we may glimpse the widespread Cathar belief that there is a category of fallen angels intended to be saved (Rainer, De heresi, Tractatus de hereticis, Jacques Fournier). This observation is supported by the testimony in the Tractatus de hereticis that some Cathars linked a special type of angels to the quotation of John 10:16, which immediately follows the mention of the “distrustful spirits” in the Interrogatio.
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In the last quarter of the 13th century, a group was formed in Milan around memories of Guglielma, considered as a holy woman. Besides mainstream forms of cult, esoteric beliefs about Guglielma came into being, and a small network of... more
In the last quarter of the 13th century, a group was formed in Milan around memories of Guglielma, considered as a holy woman. Besides mainstream forms of cult, esoteric beliefs about Guglielma came into being, and a small network of people began to claim that Guglielma was a female incarnation of the Holy Spirit. Her followers had the project of establishing a new order in the Catholic church with new gospels, new apostles, a new hierarchy and a female pope. This article aims at a reconstruction of the group in the process of its emergence, reconsiders the source basis of various statements in existing literature, and arrives at the following conclusions: (1) by her way of life, Guglielma stimulated the birth of a congregation venerating her memory, but she was not the author of teachings associating her with the Holy Spirit; (2) in spite of the obvious importance of Andrea Saramita and Mayfreda da Pirovano, there are also other devotees of Guglielma who creatively contributed to the group’s conversations and activities, but were overshadowed by the inquisitors’ search for heresiarchs and by subsequent historiography; (3) there is no other evidence for the Bohemian and royal origin of Guglielma besides the trial records, and this alleged origin is likely to be a pious legend of her followers; (4) contrary to the suggestions of several historians, the devotees of Guglielma did not intend to establish a purely female hierarchy in the Church; and (5) in their conversations, Guglielma’s followers discussed the question of why the Holy Spirit could not incarnate in a man, and for the most part, they saw the female incarnation of the Holy Spirit as a logical outcome of the process of human salvation. In addition to our assessments of these issues, we use the records to draw some conclusions about the precarious process of group formation.
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In this article, I analyze the religiosity of Bompietro of Bologna as reported in the register of the inquisition of Bologna, 1291-1310. I attempt to show that Bompietro’s religiosity was above all practical; its doctrinal content seems... more
In this article, I analyze the religiosity of Bompietro of Bologna as reported in the register of the inquisition of Bologna, 1291-1310. I attempt to show that Bompietro’s religiosity was above all practical; its doctrinal content seems to be scarce, and it was not focused on support of any church (Roman or Cathar). Bompietro’s case reveals a non-confessional type of religiosity, one still underrepresented in the image of medieval Christianity. This case also encourages wider reflection on the relations between beliefs, practices and membership. Far from having direct causal links, these relations can sometimes prove quite intricate.
Keywords: Bompietro of Bologna; inquisition; practical religiosity; non-confessional religiosity; concept of religion; concept of membership; heresy and orthodoxy; Catharism.
Keywords: Bompietro of Bologna; inquisition; practical religiosity; non-confessional religiosity; concept of religion; concept of membership; heresy and orthodoxy; Catharism.
Research Interests: Inquisition, Heresy, Catharism, Heresy and Inquisition, Membership Categorisation Analysis, and 9 moreConfessionalization, Religious Studies, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Medieval heresy, Concept of Religion, Belief Inconsistency, Group Memberships and Intergroup Behaviour With Particular Reference to Multiple Group Memberships, Medieval Religious Practice, and Concept of Membership
This paper focuses on the state of research in the medieval inquisition. After a brief sketch of the history of research, it highlights and summarizes seven main areas of development in the contemporary study of the medieval inquisition:... more
This paper focuses on the state of research in the medieval inquisition. After a brief sketch of the history of research, it highlights and summarizes seven main areas of development in the contemporary study of the medieval inquisition: (1) new editions of sources, (2) new developments in source criticism of inquisitional records, (3) interest in the worlds and motivations of the inquisitors, (4) a significant revision of the traditional concept of “the Inquisition” as an organization or network of tribunals, (5) putting of medieval inquisitio heretice pravitatis into the context of development of trial procedures in the 12th-13th centuries, (6) the conception of inquisition as discourse, inspired by theories of discourse, and (7) a re-description of power relations between the inquisitor and the deponent not in terms of unidirectional exercise of power but rather in terms of dialogue, even if unbalanced, and of a negotiating about the space for agency. In the end, the author summarizes some of the perspectives and tasks in the research in medieval inquisitional records.
Key words: medieval inquisition, inquisitio heretice pravitatis, state of research, perspectives, trial records, source criticism, theories of discourse, distribution of power.
Key words: medieval inquisition, inquisitio heretice pravitatis, state of research, perspectives, trial records, source criticism, theories of discourse, distribution of power.
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This article presents a Czech translation with commentary of the anonymous text entitled De heresi catharorum in Lombardia by its finder and editor, Antoine Dondaine. The translation is based on the edition of the Basel manuscript (Basel,... more
This article presents a Czech translation with commentary of the anonymous text entitled De heresi catharorum in Lombardia by its finder and editor, Antoine Dondaine. The translation is based on the edition of the Basel manuscript (Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, ms. C.V.17, fol. 85r-87v) in Antoine Dondaine (ed.), “La hiérarchie cathare en Italie I: Le De heresi catharorum”, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 19, 1949, 306-312. The introduction summarizes and develops the arguments in favor of a very early date for the text, between 1190 and 1215. Besides notes on particular passages of the text, one topic is commented on in greater detail: the image of Cathar churches as having very definite teachings and a solid awareness of their own identity, history and succession in the episcopal ordination. Against the background of current discussions on the “invention of heresy” and on the deconstruction of anti-heretical discourses, the article argues that there are good reasons not to consider the narrative in the De heresi a mono-vocal polemical fable – as Jean-Louis Biget has claimed, following and slightly simplifying Gabriele Zanella’s ideas – but a relatively fair poly-vocal narrative trying to make sense of Cathar groups using not only polemical knowledge but also the narratives of the non-conformists themselves. This conclusion deliberately counters the current deconstructionist trend, eye-opening in many ways but highly ideological when transformed into a dogma sweeping away what interpretive historical work should remain in the first place, i.e. the patient and close reading of sources.
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In June 1299, James (Giacomo) Flamenghi, monk of the Monte Armato abbey near Bologna, was reported to the inquisitor Guido of Vicenza for his lack of observance of ordinary Christian practices. For many years, he avoided fasting,... more
In June 1299, James (Giacomo) Flamenghi, monk of the Monte Armato abbey near Bologna, was reported to the inquisitor Guido of Vicenza for his lack of observance of ordinary Christian practices. For many years, he avoided fasting, confession, communion, the liturgy of the hours, and Mass. He was also known for his radical ideas: on many occasions, he was heard questioning the existence of the afterlife, paradise, hell, and the immortal soul. In this article, I analyze James Flamenghi’s thought and behavior as portrayed in the register of the Bologna inquisition, and place it in the context of different forms of religious skepticism in medieval Europe. I conclude that his skepticism was less a philosophical system than a practical worldview linked to a hedonistic lifestyle. Nevertheless, it seems highly consistent, and difficult to reduce to a simple expression of anticlericalism.
Keywords: religious skepticism; criticism of religion; materialism; James (Giacomo) Flamenghi; inquisition of Bologna.
Keywords: religious skepticism; criticism of religion; materialism; James (Giacomo) Flamenghi; inquisition of Bologna.
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This article is a case study of medieval religiosity based on trial proceedings against Peter Vidal, extant in the register of Jacques Fournier, bishop of Pamiers. The case of Peter Vidal shows that not all medieval Christians conceived... more
This article is a case study of medieval religiosity based on trial proceedings against Peter Vidal, extant in the register of Jacques Fournier, bishop of Pamiers. The case of Peter Vidal shows that not all medieval Christians conceived of all moral questions in eschatological terms. In fact, Peter Vidal’s opinion about the legitimacy of intercourse with a prostitute is conceived of purely in terms of fair trade. Different as they were from the morals required by Jacques Fournier, Peter Vidal’s morals were, I argue, not a deviation from another norm but evidence for the coexistence of various norms in 14th-century Languedoc. This does not mean, however, that all coexisting norms were equally tolerated in all contexts, and Peter’s case indeed points more to the severe multi-level control of speech and thought than to tolerance. Finally, Peter’s case offers an intriguing insight into the inquisitorial redefinition of the relationship between speech, action, and inner belief.
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This note summarizes the main arguments concerning the date of the treatise De heresi catharorum, which deals with the early development of Cathar Christianity in Lombardy and Tuscany and the beliefs of Cathar groups. (Slightly revised... more
This note summarizes the main arguments concerning the date of the treatise De heresi catharorum, which deals with the early development of Cathar Christianity in Lombardy and Tuscany and the beliefs of Cathar groups. (Slightly revised version published 22 December 2018.)
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Par son contenu, le seul texte connu à représenter la véritable scolastique cathare, le Liber de duobus principiis, semble apparenté au volumen magnum de Jean de Lugio, résumé par Rainier Sacconi en 1250. Il reste plus probable que Jean... more
Par son contenu, le seul texte connu à représenter la véritable scolastique cathare, le Liber de duobus principiis, semble apparenté au volumen magnum de Jean de Lugio, résumé par Rainier Sacconi en 1250. Il reste plus probable que Jean de Lugio n’ait pas écrit le Liber, mais certaines arguments de G. Rottenwöhrer sur la distance entre le Liber et le volumen magnum sont imprécis, discutables ou interprétables par la différence entre la doctrine ésotérique et exotérique. Le manuscrit conservé n’est pas l’autographe du Liber. L’auteur reste inconnu ; il n’existe aucune raison suffisante pour l’attribuer à l’un des scribes, ni même au scribe B qui semble pourtant avoir une instruction théologique plus ou moins vaste et réclamer une autorité pour modifier le contenu du texte.
La Somme de Rainier Sacconi et le Liber peuvent encore fournir des précisions à propos de Jean de Lugio et son cercle. Il est possible que Rainier lui-même ait jadis été membre de ce groupe (il en connaissait la doctrine ésotérique et il est entré en possession du volumen magnum), ce qui n’exclue toutefois pas qu’il ait appartenu un certain temps aux Concorezzenses.
On manque d’indications à propos de la formation de Jean de Lugio, sauf peut-être le fait qu’il citait le Digeste dans un contexte assez spécifique, où l’emploi du passage en question n’est pas un choix évident : peut-être Jean a-t-il au moins touché l’étude du droit. Dans le Liber, il y a deux autres citations de sources judiciaires, dont une a été ajoutée postérieurement par le scribe B.
La Somme de Rainier Sacconi et le Liber peuvent encore fournir des précisions à propos de Jean de Lugio et son cercle. Il est possible que Rainier lui-même ait jadis été membre de ce groupe (il en connaissait la doctrine ésotérique et il est entré en possession du volumen magnum), ce qui n’exclue toutefois pas qu’il ait appartenu un certain temps aux Concorezzenses.
On manque d’indications à propos de la formation de Jean de Lugio, sauf peut-être le fait qu’il citait le Digeste dans un contexte assez spécifique, où l’emploi du passage en question n’est pas un choix évident : peut-être Jean a-t-il au moins touché l’étude du droit. Dans le Liber, il y a deux autres citations de sources judiciaires, dont une a été ajoutée postérieurement par le scribe B.
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Cette communication reconsidère la totalité des additions et marginalia et une partie des signes de lecteur présents dans le manuscrit cathare J.II.44 de la Bibliothèque nationale centrale de Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale... more
Cette communication reconsidère la totalité des additions et marginalia et une partie des signes de lecteur présents dans le manuscrit cathare J.II.44 de la Bibliothèque nationale centrale de Florence (Firenze, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, Conv. soppr., ms. J.II.44, connu aussi sous la cote I.II.44), révise l’identification des mains et pose de nouvelles conclusions sur la genèse et l’usage du manuscrit. Les additions et signes de lecteur ont été sous-estimés et en partie mal interprétés dans les présentations classiques du manuscrit dûes à Antoine Dondaine, Arno Borst et Christine Thouzellier. Un réexamen des signes de lecteur et des additions montre que ces importants témoins de l’usage du manuscrit ne proviennent pas d’un milieu inquisitorial, comme Borst et Thouzellier le conjecturaient pour certains d’entre eux, mais renvoient, pour la plupart, au milieu de l’Église cathare de Desenzano au milieu du XIIIe siècle. Les additions révèlent au moins deux tendances assez inattendues dans la pensée des lecteurs de la compilation : une tendance moraliste et sapientielle et une tendance apocalyptique. L’identification de ces deux tendances approfondit considérablement notre connaissance de la culture religieuse au sein de l’Église cathare de Desenzano.
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The role played by women in medieval dissident movements has been intensively discussed for decades and various powerful examples, mainly from inquisitorial records, have been cited to illuminate this issue. However, the focus on... more
The role played by women in medieval dissident movements has been intensively discussed for decades and various powerful examples, mainly from inquisitorial records, have been cited to illuminate this issue. However, the focus on individual cases necessarily leaves the larger questions unresolved. We lack entirely the big picture of women’s actual involvement and have no idea whether it was any different from that of men. Quantitative studies remain extremely scarce, and they rely on counting numbers of women (and men) or instances of preaching by women (and men). Social network analysis seems to be an extremely relevant approach capable of revealing the social microstructure of medieval dissident Christianity’s networks and shedding new light on this issue. The global question in this paper is whether there is any significant difference between the roles played by men and women as approximated by various network measures. The data is three large sets of inquisitorial records (1378, 827, and 1466 nodes) from Languedoc in 1270s-1320s when this area was an important laboratory of the early inquisition. The paper explores the possibilities and limits of social network analysis of data from inquisitorial records, automatically extracted from indices of personal names, and evaluates the validity of this method.
Research Interests: Women's Studies, Medieval History, Gender History, Medieval Studies, Inquisition, and 15 moreSocial Network Analysis (SNA), Gender and religion (Women s Studies), History of Religion (Medieval Studies), Heresy, Cathars, Catharism, Heresy and Inquisition, Social Network Analysis (Social Sciences), Women and Gender Studies, Medieval heresy, Waldensians, Heresy and Religious Dissent, Religious Dissent, Social Network Analysis, and Inquisitorial Records
Paper presented at the International Medieval Congress 2016 (Leeds). Presentation only - article forthcoming only in 2020.
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This paper focuses on how thirteenth- and fourteenth-century inquisitors conceived of the beliefs, practices, and workings of non-conformist Christian groups. The inquisitors’ view of what constituted a heretical sect and how it worked... more
This paper focuses on how thirteenth- and fourteenth-century inquisitors conceived of the beliefs, practices, and workings of non-conformist Christian groups. The inquisitors’ view of what constituted a heretical sect and how it worked was remarkably modern in at least three respects. First, it was strikingly historical and geographical: the inquisitors were interested in the historical and geographical dimensions of heretical sects, including the changes that particular heretical rituals, doctrines, and communities underwent over time. Second, the inquisitors were deeply interested in distinguishing different groups and subgroups, and produced elaborate classifications and comparisons. Finally, the inquisitors, driven by their need for hard evidence meeting procedural requirements, somewhat shifted the notion of heresy from inner beliefs to observable rituals and habits. At the same time, however, inquisitional trial records abundantly demonstrate that they were well aware of how precarious it is to draw a straightforward causal link between inner beliefs, words, and outer actions. Based on examples from three early inquisitorial descriptions of heresy, including the Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis by Bernard Gui, this paper examines how medieval inquisitors conceived of heretical sects, their changes over time, and the relationship between religious beliefs and actions, and how they headed towards a peculiar, and in many ways familiar, religious theory of religion.
Research Interests: Inquisition, History of Religion (Medieval Studies), Heresy, Heresy and Inquisition, Heresy and Orthodoxy, and 14 moreMedieval heresy, Late medieval popular religion, heterodoxy and heresy, memory in the later Middle Ages., Medieval Religion, High Medieval Religion, Historiography of Medieval Heresy, Heresy and Religious Dissent, Concept of Religion, Religious Polemics, Polemics and Apologetics, Medieval Religions, Inter-Religious Polemics, Bernard Gui, History of the concept of religion, and Classification of religions
Several texts from the 12th and 13th centuries (Ebervin of Steinfeld's letter to St. Bernard, 1143/1147; De heresi catharorum, 1190/1215; Charter of Niquinta, 1220s?; Tractatus de hereticis, 1250/1280) depict the beginnings of various... more
Several texts from the 12th and 13th centuries (Ebervin of Steinfeld's letter to St. Bernard, 1143/1147; De heresi catharorum, 1190/1215; Charter of Niquinta, 1220s?; Tractatus de hereticis, 1250/1280) depict the beginnings of various dissident groups labeled Cathar by some modern scholars. These narratives have been studied mostly as either historical facts or polemical fictions. In this paper, I try to refine this sharp division. In the light of current discussions on the "invention of heresy", and in line with Peter Biller's article "Goodbye to Waldensianism?" (Past and Present, 192, 2006, 3-33), I argue that there are good reasons not to consider these narratives mono-vocal polemical fables, as Jean-Louis Biget has claimed following (and slightly simplifying) Gabriele Zanella's thoughts, but a poly-vocal narrative trying to make sense of Cathar groups also using their own narratives. This view deliberately counters the current deconstructionist trend, eye-opening in many ways but ideological when transformed into a dogma sweeping away what interpretive historical work should continue to be, i.e. the patient and open-minded reading of sources.
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This paper, presented at the International Medieval Congress 2014 in Leeds, UK offers a critical review of the research programme of "invention of heresy", mostly focusing on flaws in the work with sources.
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Since the debates between Protestant and Catholic thinkers and historians in the 16th and 17th centuries, the right to plurality vs. the right to coercion in religious matters has been a contentious issue in the historiography of... more
Since the debates between Protestant and Catholic thinkers and historians in the 16th and 17th centuries, the right to plurality vs. the right to coercion in religious matters has been a contentious issue in the historiography of Christianity. Discussions on religious tolerance were further developed in the era of the Enlightenment, and continue to arise – with more or less significant variations – in 20th-century scholarship. This paper investigates the major contributions of 20th-century theoretical thought on the repression of heresy in medieval Europe and offers an analytical overview of the state of research. Its ambition, however, is not only to introduce relevant scholarship but also classify it and identify the deeper underlying tendencies and legacies in the layers of sedimentary knowledge on heresy and its repression.
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This paper presents a theory of the function of Cathar heresy in the intellectual cul-ture of 13th-century Western Christendom, based on previous scholarship about the transformation of Western Christendom from 11th century onwards (Max... more
This paper presents a theory of the function of Cathar heresy in the intellectual cul-ture of 13th-century Western Christendom, based on previous scholarship about the transformation of Western Christendom from 11th century onwards (Max Weber, Her-bert Grundmann, Norman Cohn, Lester K. Little, Robert I. Moore, Dominique Iogna-Prat, Pilar Jiménez Sanchez etc.). It interprets the polemical image of Cathar heresy, defined by dualism, rejection of the world, of marriage, of purgatory etc., as a negative self-image of a particular intellectual elite linked to universities and mendicant orders and struggling for intellectual and political hegemony. This image of “the other” was used as a tool to define a new Christian identity emerging in the 12th-13th century, based on positive view of the world and of marriage, on the integration of Christian society by the idea of purgatory, and on a new ecclesiology. Dualist beliefs, actually emerging in dissenting groups, were systematized, transformed and hyperbolized by polemists in order to restate what Christendom should – and should not – look like. In this view, Cathar heresy can be understood as a sort of “cultural waste”, incarnating radically ascetic ideas and practices undergoing a process of marginalization.
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This paper focuses on the question of whether historians, who essentially deal with long dead people, should nevertheless pay attention to fairness and symmetrical relations in research. I argue that fairness should not be dealt with as... more
This paper focuses on the question of whether historians, who essentially deal with long dead people, should nevertheless pay attention to fairness and symmetrical relations in research. I argue that fairness should not be dealt with as merely a matter of political correctness – unimportant where no real danger of the “objects” striking back at the scholar is perceived – but as having quite some epistemological significance. There are a handful of stimulating reflections on the ethics of research into inquisitional records and on analogies between the historian and the inquisitor (for example by Carlo Ginzburg, Renato Rosaldo and John H. Arnold) showing that ethical issues have to be dealt with seriously in this type of research, as the authentication of information in inquisitorial records by the scholar is in fact a way of empowering certain historical actors, often necessarily against others. This paper takes these reflections as its starting point and addresses some questions about the triangle of power relations being established between the inquisitor, the deponent, and the historian.
Research Interests: Research Ethics, Postcolonial Studies, Inquisition, Postcolonial Theory, Postcolonial theory (Cultural Theory), and 8 moreHeresy and Inquisition, Inquisitorial Process, Subaltern Studies, Heresy and Orthodoxy, Carlo Ginzburg, Postcolonial Thought, Witchhunts and Inquisition, and Power and Empowerment
Session 212 at the International Medieval Congress Leeds 2018 (Monday 2 July 2018: 14.15-15.45) The techniques and the conceptual framework of network analysis have recently found their way into historical scholarship. Several important... more
Session 212 at the International Medieval Congress Leeds 2018 (Monday 2 July 2018: 14.15-15.45)
The techniques and the conceptual framework of network analysis have recently found their way into historical scholarship. Several important endeavours, such as the establishment of the Journal of Historical Network Research, testify to the growing interest of historians in network analysis and more generally in structured relational data. This panel, intended as the inception of a series recurring annually at the IMC, aims at gathering some of the otherwise rather dispersed papers building on network analysis, applying this methodology to medieval material, bringing palpable results of interest to scholars from the respective fields of expertise, and promoting comparison and debate. This year's sessions pay special attention to processes of governance accessed through networks extracted from diplomatic sources, and to medieval learning and intertextuality accessed through networks of manuscripts, authors, and citations.
The techniques and the conceptual framework of network analysis have recently found their way into historical scholarship. Several important endeavours, such as the establishment of the Journal of Historical Network Research, testify to the growing interest of historians in network analysis and more generally in structured relational data. This panel, intended as the inception of a series recurring annually at the IMC, aims at gathering some of the otherwise rather dispersed papers building on network analysis, applying this methodology to medieval material, bringing palpable results of interest to scholars from the respective fields of expertise, and promoting comparison and debate. This year's sessions pay special attention to processes of governance accessed through networks extracted from diplomatic sources, and to medieval learning and intertextuality accessed through networks of manuscripts, authors, and citations.
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Book review of Pilar JIMÉNEZ-SANCHEZ, Les catharismes : Modèles dissidents du christianisme médiéval (XIIe-XIIIe siècles), Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2008, 454 pp., ISBN 978-2-7535-0622-0.
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Detailed instructions (in Czech) for students and tutors of a course based on editing articles on Wikipedia. Normally, B.A. students edit articles, while M.A. students help the teacher to supervise the work of the B.A. students. This... more
Detailed instructions (in Czech) for students and tutors of a course based on editing articles on Wikipedia. Normally, B.A. students edit articles, while M.A. students help the teacher to supervise the work of the B.A. students. This particular syllabus focuses on the history of Christianity but the instructions are general and can be used to create a course of Wikipedia editing on almost any topic. The instructions are distributed under the licence Creative Commons: Attribution - feel free to use the instructions or to get inspired.
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This is the most comprehensive digital dataset of witchcraft trials in the Czech lands since the earliest case in 1491 until as late as 1785. The dataset covers 257 cases. It records the year, the suspects' names, their sex, places of... more
This is the most comprehensive digital dataset of witchcraft trials in the Czech lands since the earliest case in 1491 until as late as 1785. The dataset covers 257 cases. It records the year, the suspects' names, their sex, places of residence (including geographic coordinates), charges, results of the trial, places of interrogation (including geographic coordinates), and the material substances they were charged of using to perform magic. The dataset allows researchers to perform systematic and quantitative research into early modern withcraft trials, crime and punishment, as well as the imagery of magic and evil-doing. It also allows to include the Czech lands in broader quantitative studies of European witchcraft trials on a large temporal and geographic scale. Five B.A. theses have been written at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic on the basis of this dataset.
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Selected corrigenda to the available editions of some sources on Catharism and Bogomilism, based on my reading and translating.
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These guidelines are designed to help scholars who compile indices of persons and places to enhance the machinereadability , hence the usefulness, interoperability, and sustainability , of their work.
Research Interests: Humanities Computing (Digital Humanities), Digital Humanities, Natural Language Processing, Text Mining, Prosopography, and 17 moreIndexing (Information Organisation), Place-Names, Place Names (Cultural Geography), Authority control, Indexing (Library Science), Byzantine prosopography, Place Names, Indexing in Database, Indexing, Medieval Prosopography, Gazetteers, Historical Gazetteers, Indices, Machine Reading, Historical Databases, Index of Persons, and Index of Places
In this paper, we present a dataset of medieval monasteries and convents on the territory of today's France and discuss the workflow of its integration. Spatial historical data are usually dispersed and stored in various... more
In this paper, we present a dataset of medieval monasteries and convents on the territory of today's France and discuss the workflow of its integration. Spatial historical data are usually dispersed and stored in various forms-encyclopedias and catalogues, websites, online databases, and printed maps. In order to cope with this heterogeneity and proceed to computational analysis, we have devised a method that includes the creation of a data model, data mining from sources, data transformation, geocoding, editing, and conflicts solving. The resulting dataset is probably the most comprehensive collection of records on medieval monasteries within the borders of today's France. It can be used for understanding the spatial patterns of medieval Christian monasticism and the implantation of the official Church infrastructure, as well as the relation between this official infrastructure and phenomena covered in other datasets. We open this dataset, as well as scripts for mining, to the public (https://github.com/adammertel/dissinet.monasteries) and provide a map tool to visualize, filter, and download the records
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Our knowledge of the geography of medieval religious dissent and its repression in the Latin West is limited by a lack of systematic study of locational information in inquisition trial records. Spatial analysis of these rich details has... more
Our knowledge of the geography of medieval religious dissent and its repression in the Latin West is limited by a lack of systematic study of locational information in inquisition trial records. Spatial analysis of these rich details has the potential to help build a bottom-up picture of interaction between dissidents and inquisitors that moves beyond institutional perspectives. This task is rendered challenging due to the inconsistencies and uncertainties of what inquisitors and their notaries typically recorded about the spatial associations of suspects. Probably the most common indicator of such associations found in inquisition records are toponymic surnames. They present challenges of coverage (not everybody had a toponymic surname) and interpretation (multiple possible meanings). This study attempts to tackle the challenge of interpreting such surnames within the context of the nine sentencing events held by the inquisitor Peter Seila in 1241 and 1242 in the Quercy region of Languedoc: covering 650 sentenced individuals, the register documenting these events is the earliest extant record of an inquisition of such scale. Rather than taking the interpretative challenges of toponymic surnames as reasons to limit ourselves to qualitative analysis, our approach shows the value of rendering and analysing them as structured data. Firstly, we quantify the context of toponymic surnames, placing them against the background of broader name construction practices and other social factors. Secondly, we plot and analyse the geocoded data derived from toponymic surnames with the benefit of this contextualisation, looking especially at the distance of toponyms from their associated sentencing centres, in order to derive narratives that best explain the generality of their meaning. The results allow us to appraise the actual spatial coverage of the nine sentencing events. The first two, centred on the important towns of Montauban and Moissac, seem most likely to have been primarily urban affairs, with little evidence of rural coverage. The remainder, which took place in castra (fortified villages), appear to have covered more of the surrounding countryside. These results geographically contextualise the reports of dissidence conveyed within Peter’s register, and suggest narratives for how Peter optimised his strategy for impact in the face of constraints.
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Despite significant research on the techniques of repression employed by medieval inquisitors against religious dissidents, the case-level influences on the penances they meted out are understood only vaguely: the extent to which... more
Despite significant research on the techniques of repression employed by medieval inquisitors against religious dissidents, the case-level influences on the penances they meted out are understood only vaguely: the extent to which sentencing "systems" existed is unknown. To overcome this, we apply formal methods-an exploratory analysis supported by crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, and statistical modeling founded on multiple linear regression-to the large and historically significant register of Peter Seila (1241-2), captured as structured data via a statement-based approach entitled "Computer-Assisted Semantic Text Modelling" (CASTEMO). The results show that Peter systematically weighted different types of crimes and dissident interactions when sentencing; they do not suggest, however, that he was influenced by accomplicity or kinship among the sentenced.
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Translation of the text from Sint-Pieters- en Paulusabdij Dendermonde, ms. 9, 170v-173r, into Czech. The text describes the ritual of exorcism assisted by Hildegard of Bingen. Compared to the edition by Laurence Moulinier-Brogi (2000), we... more
Translation of the text from Sint-Pieters- en Paulusabdij Dendermonde, ms. 9, 170v-173r, into Czech. The text describes the ritual of exorcism assisted by Hildegard of Bingen. Compared to the edition by Laurence Moulinier-Brogi (2000), we suggest a few corrections in the reconstruction of the original Latin text. The translation is supplemented with a commentary about the content, context, and origin of the text, where we argue for the dating of its origin in the very late 12th century, perhaps the 1190s.