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The Virgin Mary in Cathar Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2005

SARAH HAMILTON
SARAH HAMILTON
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ; e-mail: S.M.Hamilton@ex.ac.uk
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Abstract

The central Middle Ages in western Europe witnessed both a significant growth in the cult of the Virgin Mary and the rise of the dualist heretical movements known as the Cathars. Whilst the Cathars' dualism meant they denied any role for the Virgin Mary in the incarnation, nevertheless they often assigned her an important place in their beliefs. This article explores the considerable affinities which existed between contemporary orthodox doctrines and heretical teachings on Mary and, through a case study of the Disputatio inter catholicum et paterinum hereticum, examines the close relationship between anti-Cathar polemic, orthodox biblical exegesis and heretical belief.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 2005 , pp. 24 - 49
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

AFP=Archivum fratrum praedicatorum; Glossa ordinaria=Biblia latina cum glossa ordinaria: facsimile reprint of the editio princeps Adolph Rusch of Strassburg 1480/81, intro. Karlfried Froehlich and Margaret T. Gibson, Turnhout 1992; HH=Christian dualist heresies in the Byzantine world, c. 650–c. 1450, ed. Janet Hamilton and Bernard Hamilton with Yuri Stoyanov, Manchester 1998; Moneta=Monetae cremonensis adversus catharos et valdenses libri quinque, I: (Descriptio fidei haereticorum), ed. T. A. Ricchini, Rome 1743; WEH=W. L. Wakefield and A. P. Evans, Heresies of the high Middle Ages, New York 1969
I would like to thank Bissera Pentcheva, Alex Walsham and Stuart Westley for help with specific points, and Stephen Lee, Jan Hamilton, Bernard Hamilton, and especially the anonymous reader for this JOURNAL, for their advice.