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 disastrously unsuccessful crusades launched against them.

At the end of the period of learning, the student will be expected to:

• demonstrate a detailed knowledge of and understanding various manifestations of heresy and political dissent in the Middle Ages and the measures taken against these;
• discuss with reference to both contemporary evidence and modern scholarship selected topics such as the conventional depictions of heretics, the procedures taken against heretics, and the histories of individual heresies;
• demonstrate an ability to analyse some of the source materials and an appreciation of how historians have approached them;
• present  arguments clearly and concisely in one non-assessed and one assessed essay of 2000 words, in accordance with appropriate scholarly conventions, and in examination answers.

 The course will be taught and students will learn through

• A series of formal lectures will introduce students to the main factual and conceptual issues to be discussed and analysed during the module.
• Seminars, in which key issues and topics are analysed, will enable students to further develop analytic skills.

Please see Learning Outcomes.

Students will be assessed by means of a combination of one 1000 word assessed essay [15%], one 2000 word assessed essay [35%] and one two-hour unseen written examination paper in which the student will answer two questions [50%].

Course assignments:

1. Assessed Essay 1will contribute 15% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 1,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
2. Assessed Essay 2will contribute 35% of the final mark for the module. It is designed to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to review evidence, draw appropriate conclusions from it and employ the formal conventions of scholarly presentation. It must be no longer than 2,000 words (excluding empirical appendices and references).
3. The Examination will take place during the second assessment period [May/June] and will consist of an unseen two hour paper that will contribute the remaining 50% of the final mark for this module. Students must write 2 answers in total.

1. What is heresy?
2. reactions to heresy;
3. the development of the repression of heresy;
4. Heresy 1000-1200: wandering preachers, evangelists and universities;
5. the Waldensians;
6. Dualism: the Cathars;
7. the ‘women-question’: was heresy particularly attractive to women?
8. the Albigensian crusade;
9. the heresy of the free spirit;
10. John Wycliffe and the Lollards;
11. the Hussites and the Hussite Crusades;
12. medieval witchcraft and magic.

Please see Background Reading List for an indicative list.

Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy: popular movements from the Gregorian reform to the Reformation (Blackwells, 1992)

R. I. Moore, The origins of European dissent (1977: reprinted University of Toronto Press, 1994).

G. Leff, Heresy in the later middle ages: the relation of heterodoxy to dissent, c.1250-1400, 2 vols. (1967)

W. L. Wakefield and A. P. Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (1991)

R. I. Moore, The birth of popular heresy (1975)

E. Peters, Heresy and authority in the Middle Ages (1980)

C. M. D. Crowder,Unity, heresy and reform 1378-1460 (1977)