ianate features and parallels, written in Italy but in Northumbria. We have no luxuriously decorated or illustrated books from York,or Lyon,or for that matter Rome; we cannot be certain that any were produced in these important centers,nor can we be confident of their appearance if they once existed.Verkerk’s frequent use of Roman liturgical and textual sources in her interpretations of the miniatures is valuable and interesting, but not much of an argument for an origin in Rome. Roman liturgies were widely emulated or adapted elsewhere; the manuscripts she perforce uses to ascertain just what Roman liturgy was during this period are themselves Frankish manuscripts, not Roman.The seven deacons she identifies in one of the miniatures are an important feature of the urban church in Rome,but, as she points out,depend upon a scriptural passage of universal currency. On the point of origin of the book, a healthy agnosticism still seems in order. Scholarship has probably devoted too much effort to the question of origins, which often becomes a reductive and schematic exercise, forcing a definitive choice beyond the limitations of our knowledge. More interesting is the discourse to which Verkerk’s book effectively contributes, a discourse not about where books were made but about for whom they were made, what they signified, and how they were used.
{"title":"The Seafaring Saint: Sources and Analogues of the Twelfth-Century Voyage of Saint Brendan (review)","authors":"S. Mac Mathúna","doi":"10.1353/cat.2005.0115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2005.0115","url":null,"abstract":"ianate features and parallels, written in Italy but in Northumbria. We have no luxuriously decorated or illustrated books from York,or Lyon,or for that matter Rome; we cannot be certain that any were produced in these important centers,nor can we be confident of their appearance if they once existed.Verkerk’s frequent use of Roman liturgical and textual sources in her interpretations of the miniatures is valuable and interesting, but not much of an argument for an origin in Rome. Roman liturgies were widely emulated or adapted elsewhere; the manuscripts she perforce uses to ascertain just what Roman liturgy was during this period are themselves Frankish manuscripts, not Roman.The seven deacons she identifies in one of the miniatures are an important feature of the urban church in Rome,but, as she points out,depend upon a scriptural passage of universal currency. On the point of origin of the book, a healthy agnosticism still seems in order. Scholarship has probably devoted too much effort to the question of origins, which often becomes a reductive and schematic exercise, forcing a definitive choice beyond the limitations of our knowledge. More interesting is the discourse to which Verkerk’s book effectively contributes, a discourse not about where books were made but about for whom they were made, what they signified, and how they were used.","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"91 1","pages":"138 - 139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2005-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2005.0115","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66397616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Francis of Assisi: Performing the Gospel Life (review)","authors":"Michael Robson","doi":"10.1353/cat.2005.0129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2005.0129","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"91 1","pages":"200 - 200"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2005-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2005.0129","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66397686","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
(p. 136) that the Church’s contribution was a loan. He badly distorts the inscription on Heraclius’ coins as the “provocative message” of “God has chosen the Romans [Byzantines]” (p. 71); it was actually a desperate cry:“God help the Romans!” One of Regan’s main arguments that Heraclius was a “crusader” is wildly anachronistic:“Five centuries after his great Persian campaigns Heraclius became part of the history of the crusades written by [the Western Crusader] William of Tyre” (p. 77).
{"title":"The Legend of St Brendan: A Critical Bibliography (review)","authors":"S. Mac Mathúna","doi":"10.1353/cat.2004.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2004.0026","url":null,"abstract":"(p. 136) that the Church’s contribution was a loan. He badly distorts the inscription on Heraclius’ coins as the “provocative message” of “God has chosen the Romans [Byzantines]” (p. 71); it was actually a desperate cry:“God help the Romans!” One of Regan’s main arguments that Heraclius was a “crusader” is wildly anachronistic:“Five centuries after his great Persian campaigns Heraclius became part of the history of the crusades written by [the Western Crusader] William of Tyre” (p. 77).","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"90 1","pages":"95 - 96"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2004-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2004.0026","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66397416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
relics even though they were not sure where the saint’s remains were buried. Bakirtzes suggests that church leaders might have deliberately forgotten where the relics were to foil imperial requests to move them to Constantinople.By the eleventh century,pilgrims visited Demetrios’church to fill ampullae with miracleworking myron, an aromatic liquid which had begun to flow from beneath the church.After Italians took the relics to the West, the Thessalonians conveniently discovered a new detail of Demetrios’ martyrdom. He had fallen into a well at his death, and this well, now by the side of the church, was the true source of the myron. In the fifteenth century, Turkish pilgrims came to visit the shrine of Demetrios, and Sultan Murad II even sacrificed a ram in honor of the saint.
{"title":"Christ in Celtic Christianity: Britain and Ireland from the Fifth to the Tenth Century (review)","authors":"D. Hall","doi":"10.1353/cat.2004.0016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2004.0016","url":null,"abstract":"relics even though they were not sure where the saint’s remains were buried. Bakirtzes suggests that church leaders might have deliberately forgotten where the relics were to foil imperial requests to move them to Constantinople.By the eleventh century,pilgrims visited Demetrios’church to fill ampullae with miracleworking myron, an aromatic liquid which had begun to flow from beneath the church.After Italians took the relics to the West, the Thessalonians conveniently discovered a new detail of Demetrios’ martyrdom. He had fallen into a well at his death, and this well, now by the side of the church, was the true source of the myron. In the fifteenth century, Turkish pilgrims came to visit the shrine of Demetrios, and Sultan Murad II even sacrificed a ram in honor of the saint.","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"17 1","pages":"100 - 98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2004-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2004.0016","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66396922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"This Train Is Bound for Glory","authors":"J. R. McCarthy","doi":"10.4324/9781315591759-2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315591759-2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"89 1","pages":"136"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2003-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70651867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Avella, P. Carey, Michael Phayer, Barbara Misner
Report of the Committee on Program Steven M. Avella, Patrick W Carey, and Michael Phayer, all of Marquette University, and Barbara Misner, S.C.S.C., of Merrill, Wisconsin, constituted the Committee on Program for the 2002 meeting. The committee sent out calls for papers through the Association's journal, and the committee members personally invited historians to participate in the meeting. We encouraged members to submit entire panel proposals and were successful in this endeavor. Because of the response from members of the Association and a few others, the committee was able to put together a program of eleven panels with some chronological variety and a diversity of interests, from peace and violence in the Middle Ages to Sisters in nineteenth-century France and to John Tracy Ellis. Presenters came from every region of the United States, as well as from New Zealand and England. All the sessions were held between January 4 and 6 and at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel. All of the panels appear to have been well received. January 4, first morning session: "Peace and Violence at the Millennium: Texts and Contexts for France Around the Year 1000." Chair: Martin Claussen, University of San Francisco. Thomas Head, Hunter College and the Graduate Center City University of New York: "The Peace of God to the Year 1000: A Re-examination of the Sources"; Mathew Kuefler, San Diego State University: "Dating and Authorship of Odo of Cluny's Life of Gerald of Aurillac";Jeffrey A. Bowman, Kenyon College: "True Crime: Murder and Mayhem in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Charters." Commentator: Geoffrey Koziol, University of Callfornia at Berkeley, was unable to attend. Comments came from the chair, the participants, and many of the fifty persons who attended the session. January 4, second morning session: "Twentieth-Century Catholicism in Callfornia: Three Different Views." Chair and Commentator: Joseph Chinnici, Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley Steven M. Avella, Marquette University: "The Church and the Sword: Shaping Postwar Catholic Life in California's Central Valley"; Richard Gribble, Stonehill College: "Urban Apostle: Edward Hanna and the City of San Francisco";Jeffrey Burns,Archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco: "Priests in Revolt: Redefining Priesthood in San Francisco, 1962-- 1974." Over fifty persons attended a very lively and stimulating set of presentations and discussions. January 4, first afternoon session: "Liberalism and Secularization in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." Chair and Commentator. Thomas W. Jodziewicz, University of Dallas. J. Ignacio Mendez, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb: "Colombia Church Property and the Liberals in the Early 1860s"; Steven Schloesser, Boston College: "Anti-Modernist/Ultramontanist? Jean Cocteau, Jacques Maritain, and the 1920s Parisian Renouveau Catholique." Seven persons attended the session and engaged the presenters with challenging questions and encouraging comments. January 4, second a
项目委员会的报告马奎特大学的Steven M. Avella, Patrick W . Carey和Michael Phayer,以及来自威斯康辛州Merrill的Barbara Misner, s.c.s.c.组成了2002年会议的项目委员会。委员会通过协会的期刊征集论文,委员会成员亲自邀请历史学家参加会议。我们鼓励成员提交整个小组的建议,并在这方面取得了成功。由于协会成员和其他一些人的反应,委员会得以组织了一个由11个小组组成的项目,这些小组的时间顺序和兴趣各不相同,从中世纪的和平与暴力到19世纪法国的姐妹们,再到约翰·特雷西·埃利斯。演讲者来自美国的各个地区,以及新西兰和英国。所有会议都于1月4日至6日在旧金山希尔顿酒店举行。所有的小组似乎都很受欢迎。1月4日,第一个上午会议:“千年的和平与暴力:1000年前后法国的文本和背景。”主席:Martin Claussen,旧金山大学。托马斯·海德,亨特学院和纽约研究生中心城市大学:“上帝的和平到1000年:对来源的重新审视”;Mathew Kuefler(圣地亚哥州立大学):《奥多·克吕尼的《奥里亚克的杰拉尔德》的年代和作者》;Jeffrey A. Bowman(凯尼恩学院):《真实的犯罪:10世纪和11世纪宪章中的谋杀和伤害》。解说员:加州大学伯克利分校的Geoffrey Koziol无法出席。评论来自主席、与会者和出席会议的50人中的许多人。1月4日,第二堂上午课:“二十世纪加州的天主教:三种不同的观点。”主持人兼评论员:Joseph Chinnici,伯克利圣方济会神学院,Steven M. Avella,马凯特大学:“教会与剑:在加州中央山谷塑造战后天主教生活”;理查德·格里布尔,斯通希尔学院:《城市使徒:爱德华·汉纳和旧金山市》;杰弗里·伯恩斯,旧金山大主教管区档案:《反抗中的牧师:重新定义旧金山的祭司身份,1962- 1974》。五十多人参加了非常生动和刺激的演讲和讨论。1月4日,第一堂下午课:“19和20世纪的自由主义和世俗化”主席兼评论员。Thomas W. Jodziewicz,达拉斯大学。J. Ignacio Mendez,北伊利诺伊大学,迪卡尔布:“19世纪60年代早期的哥伦比亚教会财产和自由党”;Steven Schloesser,波士顿学院:“反现代主义/极端孟山派?让·谷克多,雅克·马里坦,以及20世纪20年代的巴黎天主教徒。”七个人参加了会议,并与主持人进行了富有挑战性的问题和鼓励的评论。1月4日,第二场下午会议:“光的闪烁:天主教大学及其后梵蒂冈会议第二届美国的天主教身份。”主持:Wilson Miscamble,圣母大学莫罗神学院。Alan Schreck,斯图本维尔方济会大学:“天主教在斯图本维尔方济会大学的身份认同”;James Connelly, c.s.c.,波特兰大学:“波特兰大学:普世还是天主教?”Anthony J. Dosen, c.m., DePaul大学:“韦伯斯特学院:60年代的孩子还是预言的声音?”解说员:菲利普·格里森,圣母大学。这是一次出席人数众多的会议,共有60名与会者,其中许多人热切地讨论了当代学院和大学的天主教身份。除了在1月4日星期五下午的社交时间里通常的欢乐之外,旅程电影和家庭影院制作公司的马丁·多布尔迈耶先生和丹·朱代先生还播放了一段十分钟的节选,节选自他们正在为公共电视台准备的长达四小时的视频《美国天主教徒》(catholic In America)。…
{"title":"The Eighty-Second Annual Meeting of the American Catholic Historical Association","authors":"S. Avella, P. Carey, Michael Phayer, Barbara Misner","doi":"10.1353/cat.2007.0144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2007.0144","url":null,"abstract":"Report of the Committee on Program Steven M. Avella, Patrick W Carey, and Michael Phayer, all of Marquette University, and Barbara Misner, S.C.S.C., of Merrill, Wisconsin, constituted the Committee on Program for the 2002 meeting. The committee sent out calls for papers through the Association's journal, and the committee members personally invited historians to participate in the meeting. We encouraged members to submit entire panel proposals and were successful in this endeavor. Because of the response from members of the Association and a few others, the committee was able to put together a program of eleven panels with some chronological variety and a diversity of interests, from peace and violence in the Middle Ages to Sisters in nineteenth-century France and to John Tracy Ellis. Presenters came from every region of the United States, as well as from New Zealand and England. All the sessions were held between January 4 and 6 and at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel. All of the panels appear to have been well received. January 4, first morning session: \"Peace and Violence at the Millennium: Texts and Contexts for France Around the Year 1000.\" Chair: Martin Claussen, University of San Francisco. Thomas Head, Hunter College and the Graduate Center City University of New York: \"The Peace of God to the Year 1000: A Re-examination of the Sources\"; Mathew Kuefler, San Diego State University: \"Dating and Authorship of Odo of Cluny's Life of Gerald of Aurillac\";Jeffrey A. Bowman, Kenyon College: \"True Crime: Murder and Mayhem in Tenth- and Eleventh-Century Charters.\" Commentator: Geoffrey Koziol, University of Callfornia at Berkeley, was unable to attend. Comments came from the chair, the participants, and many of the fifty persons who attended the session. January 4, second morning session: \"Twentieth-Century Catholicism in Callfornia: Three Different Views.\" Chair and Commentator: Joseph Chinnici, Franciscan School of Theology, Berkeley Steven M. Avella, Marquette University: \"The Church and the Sword: Shaping Postwar Catholic Life in California's Central Valley\"; Richard Gribble, Stonehill College: \"Urban Apostle: Edward Hanna and the City of San Francisco\";Jeffrey Burns,Archives of the Archdiocese of San Francisco: \"Priests in Revolt: Redefining Priesthood in San Francisco, 1962-- 1974.\" Over fifty persons attended a very lively and stimulating set of presentations and discussions. January 4, first afternoon session: \"Liberalism and Secularization in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.\" Chair and Commentator. Thomas W. Jodziewicz, University of Dallas. J. Ignacio Mendez, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb: \"Colombia Church Property and the Liberals in the Early 1860s\"; Steven Schloesser, Boston College: \"Anti-Modernist/Ultramontanist? Jean Cocteau, Jacques Maritain, and the 1920s Parisian Renouveau Catholique.\" Seven persons attended the session and engaged the presenters with challenging questions and encouraging comments. January 4, second a","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"88 1","pages":"293"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2002-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2007.0144","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66397830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Churches and Social Issues in Twentieth-Century Britain (review)","authors":"J. Wolffe","doi":"10.1353/cat.2002.0111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2002.0111","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"88 1","pages":"376 - 377"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2002-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2002.0111","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66396794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
cracy. He secured a post in the secretariat of state in 1578, where Cardinal Tolomei Galli, secretary of state under Gregory XIII, served as his mentor. Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini, the future Clement VIII, took him on a mission to Poland in 1588, and in the following years he twice was part of papal missions to Transylvania. The year 1596 found him accompanying Cardinal de Medici on a mission to France that eventually helped in the conclusion of the Treaty of Vervins (1598). So Amalteo was sixty-one-years old and a man of considerable experience when he was appointed to the nunciature in Cologne.
{"title":"Jansenism: Catholic Resistance to Authority from the Reformation to the French Revolution (review)","authors":"Jacques M. Gres Gayer","doi":"10.1353/cat.2001.0154","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2001.0154","url":null,"abstract":"cracy. He secured a post in the secretariat of state in 1578, where Cardinal Tolomei Galli, secretary of state under Gregory XIII, served as his mentor. Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini, the future Clement VIII, took him on a mission to Poland in 1588, and in the following years he twice was part of papal missions to Transylvania. The year 1596 found him accompanying Cardinal de Medici on a mission to France that eventually helped in the conclusion of the Treaty of Vervins (1598). So Amalteo was sixty-one-years old and a man of considerable experience when he was appointed to the nunciature in Cologne.","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"87 1","pages":"743 - 744"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2001-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/cat.2001.0154","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66397008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inquisition and Power. Catharism and the Confessing Subject in Medieval Languedoc. By John H. Arnold (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2001. Pp. ix, 311.) John Arnold has chosen as his epigraph this passage from T.J. Jackson Lears: Studying consumers through the eyes of market researchers is a little like studying heretics through the eyes of inquisitors: it can be a useful and indeed indispensable practice . . . but we cannot pretend . . . that the statements constitute the clear and unmediated voice of the people . . . that the inquisitors have vanished from the scene without leaving a trace. Arnold takes issue with those scholars who have uncritically accepted the evidence of inquisition witnesses, ignoring the circumstances in which their depositions were made. He seeks to evaluate the inquisition records from Languedoc in a more balanced way by using the methodology of Michel Foucault. Foucault was concerned to examine the connection between power and knowledge and argued that power was exercised by elite groups, such as doctors, through the use of linguistic and symbolic conventions which claimed to be cohesive and authoritative, which he described as discourses. Arnold takes the reader fully into his confidence, and Part I of his book (pp. 1-110) is spent chiefly in examining the sources and explaining the problems which they present when interpreted in Foucault's terms. He rightly argues that the southern French records may be considered as a unit, since although the inquisitors did not form part of an organization, they all exercised identical powers as papal judges delegate, they all sought to enforce the same body of law, and they all used, broadly speaking, the same methods, set out in handbooks which some of them had written. Moreover, since clear evidence about the use of torture "is very infrequently found within the Languedocian records" (p. 31), it can be assumed that most examinations were conducted in the same way. Arnold argues that: "The inquisitors during . . . the thirteenth century, formulated a discourse about heresy and transgression and laid claim to a privileged authority for that language" (p. 90). Consequently, witnesses who gave evidence within this framework of questioning would reinforce the picture of Catharism which the inquisitors already held and on which their questions were based, whereas the witnesses' own understanding of that faith might have been rather different. This approach seems simplistic. Although heresy was often described in terms of a disease by the medieval Church, the inquisitors were not in the position of doctors, whose technical medical vocabulary was not contested. As is clear from their own writings, the Cathars had their own language of power and taught their followers to challenge the Catholic understanding of traditional Christian theological concepts such as creation and incarnation. Encounters between well-instructed Cathar believers and inquisitors often turned into
{"title":"Inquisition and Power: Catharism and the Confessing Subject in Medieval Languedoc (review)","authors":"Bernard Hamilton","doi":"10.1353/CAT.2003.0158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/CAT.2003.0158","url":null,"abstract":"Inquisition and Power. Catharism and the Confessing Subject in Medieval Languedoc. By John H. Arnold (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2001. Pp. ix, 311.) John Arnold has chosen as his epigraph this passage from T.J. Jackson Lears: Studying consumers through the eyes of market researchers is a little like studying heretics through the eyes of inquisitors: it can be a useful and indeed indispensable practice . . . but we cannot pretend . . . that the statements constitute the clear and unmediated voice of the people . . . that the inquisitors have vanished from the scene without leaving a trace. Arnold takes issue with those scholars who have uncritically accepted the evidence of inquisition witnesses, ignoring the circumstances in which their depositions were made. He seeks to evaluate the inquisition records from Languedoc in a more balanced way by using the methodology of Michel Foucault. Foucault was concerned to examine the connection between power and knowledge and argued that power was exercised by elite groups, such as doctors, through the use of linguistic and symbolic conventions which claimed to be cohesive and authoritative, which he described as discourses. Arnold takes the reader fully into his confidence, and Part I of his book (pp. 1-110) is spent chiefly in examining the sources and explaining the problems which they present when interpreted in Foucault's terms. He rightly argues that the southern French records may be considered as a unit, since although the inquisitors did not form part of an organization, they all exercised identical powers as papal judges delegate, they all sought to enforce the same body of law, and they all used, broadly speaking, the same methods, set out in handbooks which some of them had written. Moreover, since clear evidence about the use of torture \"is very infrequently found within the Languedocian records\" (p. 31), it can be assumed that most examinations were conducted in the same way. Arnold argues that: \"The inquisitors during . . . the thirteenth century, formulated a discourse about heresy and transgression and laid claim to a privileged authority for that language\" (p. 90). Consequently, witnesses who gave evidence within this framework of questioning would reinforce the picture of Catharism which the inquisitors already held and on which their questions were based, whereas the witnesses' own understanding of that faith might have been rather different. This approach seems simplistic. Although heresy was often described in terms of a disease by the medieval Church, the inquisitors were not in the position of doctors, whose technical medical vocabulary was not contested. As is clear from their own writings, the Cathars had their own language of power and taught their followers to challenge the Catholic understanding of traditional Christian theological concepts such as creation and incarnation. Encounters between well-instructed Cathar believers and inquisitors often turned into ","PeriodicalId":44384,"journal":{"name":"CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW","volume":"89 1","pages":"547 - 549"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2001-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1353/CAT.2003.0158","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66396866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}