Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy
- Cambridge Companions to Religion
- The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Approaches and Evidence
- 1 Theories and Definitions of Heresy
- 2 Dialogue Literature
- 3 Heresiological Catalogues
- 4 Councils, Popes and Canon Law
- 5 Inquisition and Trial Records
- Part II Case Studies
- References
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Religion (continued from page ii)
- References
1 - Theories and Definitions of Heresy
from Part I - Approaches and Evidence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy
- Cambridge Companions to Religion
- The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Approaches and Evidence
- 1 Theories and Definitions of Heresy
- 2 Dialogue Literature
- 3 Heresiological Catalogues
- 4 Councils, Popes and Canon Law
- 5 Inquisition and Trial Records
- Part II Case Studies
- References
- Index
- Cambridge Companions to Religion (continued from page ii)
- References
Summary
This chapter surveys different ways in which ‘heresy’ has been conceptualised by a variety of writers, both within the periods in which it arose and in later centuries. Tracing a number of different inflections to the charge of heresy, the chapter suggests that we might see it not only as constructed by orthodox authority but as a means by which ‘authority’ itself is reaffirmed; and in conclusion suggests some ways through which modern historians might then reconceptualise their search for ‘dissent’ in past times.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy , pp. 17 - 32Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Select Bibliography
Arnold, J. H. 2019. ‘Voicing dissent: Heresy trials in later medieval England’, Past & Present 245: 3–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asad, T. 1986. ‘Medieval Heresy: An anthropological view’, Social History 11.3: 345–62.10.1080/03071028608567662CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biller, P. 2006. ‘Goodbye to Waldensianism?’, Past & Present 192: 3–33.10.1093/pastj/gtl004CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrus, V. 1995. The Making of a Heretic: Gender, Authority and the Priscillianist Controversy, Berkeley, CA.Google Scholar
Grundmann, H. 1995. Religious Movements in the Middle Ages: The Historical Links between Heresy, the Mendicant Orders, and the Women’s Religious Movement in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century, with the Historical Foundations of German Mysticism, trans. S. Rowan, intro. by R. E. Lerner, Notre Dame, IN.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, P. 2001. The Boxmaker’s Revenge: ‘Orthodoxy’, ‘Heterodoxy’, and the Politics of the Parish in Early Stuart London, Manchester.Google Scholar
Lutton, R. 2006. Lollardy and Orthodox Religion in Pre-Reformation England: Reconstructing Piety, Woodbridge.Google Scholar
Moore, R. I. 2007. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe, 950–1250, 2nd ed., Oxford.10.1002/9780470773987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somerset, F., Havens, J. C. and Pitard, D. G. (eds.) 2003. Lollards and Their Influence in Late Medieval England, Woodbridge.Google Scholar
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