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Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437

The causes and nature of the heretical movements: condition of the medieval Church

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on the condition of the medieval Church.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Outline the intellectual developments that contributed to the emergence of heresy.

Key term

Which abuses in the condition of the medieval Church gave heretics their opening?

Key term

Give three signs of the growth of lay piety from the twelfth century.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Define heresy as the medieval Church understood it.

    Model answer

    It was the obstinate holding of a belief contrary to defined Catholic doctrine by a baptised person who refused correction, which distinguished it from simple error or from the unbelief of Jews and Muslims.

  2. 2

    Which abuses in the condition of the medieval Church gave heretics their opening?

    Model answer

    The wealth and landholding of the higher clergy, simony, clerical concubinage, absenteeism and pluralism, and the ignorance and poverty of many parish priests.

  3. 3

    Explain the paradox by which Church reform helped to produce heresy.

    Model answer

    The reform movement taught the laity to expect a pure, celibate and unworldly clergy, so when reform stalled the laity used the Church's own standards to condemn it and to justify seeking the sacraments elsewhere.

  4. 4

    How did the geo-political structure of medieval Europe encourage heresy in some regions?

    Model answer

    Heresy took root where central authority was weak or divided, above all in Languedoc under counts who could not or would not coerce their vassals, and in the self-governing city communes of Lombardy, whose literate artisans, trade routes and weak parish provision made them ideal ground for preachers and texts.

  5. 5

    What is meant by the vita apostolica, and why was it so dangerous?

    Model answer

    It was the ideal of living as the apostles had lived, in voluntary poverty and itinerant preaching; it was dangerous because laymen who adopted it began preaching without licence and implicitly condemned the wealthy clergy who had not.

  6. 6

    Give three signs of the growth of lay piety from the twelfth century.

    Model answer

    The spread of confraternities and lay religious associations, growing demand for preaching and for scripture in the vernacular, and the popularity of voluntary poverty among urban laypeople.

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