Introduction

The previous chapters have outlined some of the spaces in which the Church attempted to implant orthodoxy at various levels of society and within its own immediate space. In the domains of popular culture and education, the general aims of all sections of the Church evinced a certain consistency in that it is clear that the space of the Church must occupy the space of society at large. What was at issue was the homogenisation of space. I should like now to take a step back into the concept of orthodoxy itself where more fundamental differences emerged as to the true nature of belief and the relation of belief to the authorities which were meant to underpin it. One of the issues at stake was the nature of ‘the Church’, particularly as it was manifest through Tradition, that is to say the transmission through time of a body of doctrine which could be referred to as ‘orthodox’ and as representing the universal Church. But the nature of Tradition turns out not to be the ‘given’ one might imagine. It becomes a significant space of dissension in itself. In other words the space of the Church turns out not to be necessarily homogeneous.

Institutions and rivalries

That the Church was in many ways a heterogeneous space or a space containing a number of points of divergence is obvious both within and between institutions.