Burning Bodies: Communities, Eschatology, and the Punishment of Heresy in the Middle Ages

286 Pages·2018·2.97 MB·English

by  Michael D. Barbezat

BURNING BODIES

BURNING BODIES
COMMUNITIES, ESCHATOLOGY, AND
THE PUNISHMENT OF HERESY
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Michael D. Barbezat
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
Ithaca and London
Copyright © 2018 by Cornell University
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First published 2018 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Barbezat, Michael D., author.
Title: Burning bodies : communities, eschatology, and
the punishment of heresy in the Middle Ages /
Michael D. Barbezat.
Description: 1st edition. | Ithaca [New York] :
Cornell University Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018017278 (print) | LCCN
2018018164 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501716829 (pdf) |
ISBN 9781501716812 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501716805
| ISBN 9781501716805 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Human body— Religious aspects—
Christian ity— History of doctrines— Middle Ages,
600–1500. | Flesh (Theology)— History of
doctrines— Middle Ages, 600–1500. | Fire— Religious
aspects— Chris tian ity. | Christian heretics— Europe—
History. | Europe— Church history—600–1500.
Classification: LCC BT741.3 (ebook) | LCC BT741.3 .B37
2018 (print) | DDC 273/.6—d c22
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2018017278
Cover illustration: Detail of a historiated initial “A” (pres)
of the martyrdom of Laurence. From Wauchier de
Denain’s Lives of the Saints (Paris, second quarter of the
thirteenth century). © The British Library Board (Royal
20 D. VI f84).
For Mary, Michel, and Victor

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowl edgments xi
Introduction: Burning Bodies and
Medieval Human Communal Identity 1
1. Our God Is Like a Consuming Fire:
Burning Bodies and Christian Community 12
2. Fields and Bodies: Toleration and
Threat in a Shared Space 35
3. The Beginning at Orleans in 1022:
Heretics and Hellfire 61
4. Likeness in Difference: Three Burnings
in the Twelfth- Century Rhineland 81
5. Like Rejoices in Like: Recognition and
Differentiation in Descriptions of Heresy 109
6. Witches and Orgiastic Rituals: Heresy,
Sex, and Reading in the Late Twelfth
and Early Thirteenth Centuries 127
7. Leaping from the Flames: Love,
Redemption, and Holy War in the
Albigensian Crusade 146
Conclusion: The Uses of Exclusion
and Fear for a Community of Love 170
Notes 177
Works Cited 243
Index 265

Illustrations
1. The wise virgins, who brought oil for
their lamps, and the foolish virgins, who did not;
Christ in judgment; angels blowing trumpets
awakening the dead 14
2. Miniature for the month of July showing laborers
harvesting wheat 36
3. The Martyrdom of St. Laurence 101
4. The ordering and the relationships between the humors
and the elem ents 115
5. The four ele ments in a hierarchically ordered chain,
from the lowest to the highest 116
6. Dominic’s book leaping from the flames during his debate
with heretics 168
ix