Cardiff University: Module Description for HS1710

HS1710 - Heresy and Dissent, 1000-1450

Runs over both semesters each year

3 modules: 30 credits

Prerequisites: Any Part One History module
Necessary for: No courses currently build directly on this one
Availability: All history degree schemes (including single, integrated and joint).
Staff: Helen Nicholson

Course content

From 1000 onwards religious dissent became more prominent in Europe. Some religious movements were seen as such a threat to social stability that the authorities went to great lengths to crush them, resorting to crusades, inquisitions and burning those who refused to recant their beliefs. This course will examine who became involved in such movements and explore reasons for their involvement. Why were so many women attracted to heresy? Why did religious dissent become such a problem for the authorities? The course will go on to look at certain large-scale movements such as the Cathars of S. France and the Albigensian crusade which set out to crush them; the Rhineland mystics; the Lollards of England; the Hussites of Bohemia and the disasterously unsuccessful crusades launched against them.

Teaching: 19 one hour lectures and 11 seminars.
Assessment: One essay (25%); one examination (75%).

Aims of the course:

To examine the development of various forms of religious belief and political dissent in Europe during the medieval period, and the development of persecution of these beliefs as heresy;

To examine the factors which led to some forms of religious expression and belief being outlawed by religious and secular authorities, while others were not;

To consider the motivations which attracted certain people to heresy;

To consider why the secular and religious authorities were ultimately unsuccessful in crushing heresy and dissent.

Outcomes

By the end of the period of learning, the student will be expected:

to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of heresy and dissent in the middle ages and an understanding of the historical context and historiography of the subject
to analyse key themes and issues, such as the causes of heresy, in the light of these contexts;
to identify strengths, weaknesses, problems, and/or particularities of alternative historical/historiographical interpretations, such as the involvement of women in heresy;
to compare the relative merits and demerits of alternative views and interpretations and evaluate their significance
to demonstrate an understanding of some of the primary sources and an appreciation of how historians have approached them
to formulate and justify their own arguments and conclusions about a range of issues
to present their arguments clearly and concisely in one non-assessed piece of work of 1000 words and one assessed essay of 2,000 words, in accordance with appropriate scholarly conventions, and in examination answers.

Syllabus content

What was heresy? What was the attraction of heresy? Why did heresy arise and how did outsiders react to it?
Why was heresy regarded as a threat by the authorities?
The means employed by the authorities to crush heresy;
The involvement of women;
Hermits and the evangelical religious movements of the 11th and 12th centuries in town and country, including the Waldensians;
The universities;
The Dualism and the Cathars; the Albigensian crusade;
The Rhineland mystics, including the Beguines;
The Lollards;
The Hussites and the Hussite Crusades.

Suggested preliminary reading

The most valuable general book is:
Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation 3rd edition (Blackwells, 2002). Students should buy a copy of this text.

Other useful general books:

R. I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent (1977: reprinted University of Toronto Press, 1994): and see his other works on medieval heresy;
Walter L. Wakefield and Austin P. Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (1969; reprinted Columbia University Press, 1991): this is the sourcebook for the first part of the course;
R. I. Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresy (1975; reprinted University of Toronto Press, 1995)
Gordon Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: The Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, c. 1250-1400 (1967, repr. Manchester University Press, 1999)
Shannon McSheffrey, Gender and Heresy: Women and Men in Lollard Communities, 1420-1530 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995)

Books on some specific areas:

E. Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou: Cathars and Catholics in a French village, 1294-1324, (Scolar, 1978; Penguin, 1980, etc.)
Malcolm Barber, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages (Longman, 2000)
Malcolm Lambert, The Cathars (Blackwells, 1998)
Richard Rex, The Lollards (Palgrave, 2002)
Richard Kieckhefer, Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge University Press, 2000)

HS1710 - Heresy and Dissent, 1000-1450

Runs over both semesters each year

3 modules: 30 credits

Course content

Syllabus content

Suggested preliminary reading

Other links