Learning objectives
In particular
- Knowledge of the key points of the theological debate in the Church of the late antiquity and of the high middle ages
- Knowledge of the main heretical movements and heretics of the late middle ages (11th – 14th century)
- Understanding of the mechanisms of consensus building, social control and repression in the middle ages
- Understanding of some key concepts and terms of medieval history (fief, ecclesiastical benefice, diocese, inquisition, etc.)
In general
- Development of such skills as the ability to find and to select reliable and verifiable information
- Development of a critical attitude towards information and documentary sources
- Getting used to consider institutional, social and economic structures, power relations and ideologies not as “natural” elements but as the outcome of transformations which occurred within specific contexts
- Learning precision in the use of language, concepts and categories, as well as understanding of the terminology, of the analytical skills and of the methodology proper to the discipline
- Development of the ability to read complex scientific texts and to summarize their content both orally and in written form
Course unit content
“Heresies, heretical movements and heretics”.
This course examines the evolution of the concept of heresy and the history of the heretical movements from the late antiquity to the early 14th century.
Bibliography
- G.G. Merlo, Eretici ed eresie medievali, Bologna, Il Mulino 2011
- G.G. Merlo, Contro gli eretici. La coercizione all’ortodossia prima dell’Inquisizione, Bologna, Il Mulino 1996
- G.G. Merlo, Eretici del medioevo. Temi e paradossi di storia e storiografia, Brescia, Morcelliana 20112
- A. Frugoni, Arnaldo da Brescia nelle fonti del secolo XII, Torino, Einaudi 19892
- O. Capitani (a cura di), Medioevo ereticale, Bologna, Il Mulino 19832
- R. Orioli, «Venit perfidus heresiarcha». Il movimento apostolico-dolciniano dal 1260 al 1307, Roma, Istituto Storico Italiano per il Medioevo,1988
- M. Benedetti, «Io non sono dio». Guglielma di Milano e i figli dello Spirito Santo, Edizioni Biblioteca Francescana, Milano 1998
- A. Greco, Mitologia catara. Il favoloso mondo delle origini, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, Spoleto 2000
- R. Cacitti, Furiosa turba: i fondamenti religiosi dell’eversione sociale, della dissidenza politica e della contestazione ecclesiale dei Circoncellioni d’Africa, Milano, Edizioni Biblioteca Francescana 2007
- Y. Stoyanov, L’altro dio. Religioni dualistiche dall’antichità all’eresia catara, Brescia, Morcelliana 2007
- C. Bruschi, The Wandering Heretics of Languedoc, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2009
Assessment methods and criteria
- Oral examination
- Short essay
