Studying at York
The Thought Police: Heresy and Repression in the high middle ages - Semester 1 - HIS00175H
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
High medieval Europe saw a resurgence in the popularity of ‘heretical’ ideas. Unorthodox ideas have always circulated, but during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries they gathered momentum, and seemed to resonate with large numbers of people. Some of these ideas were straightforwardly concerned with questions of how to properly live a spiritual life; some asked deeper questions about the nature of god and the presence of evil in the world. At the same time, there were efforts to contain, control, and, increasingly, repress support for these movements. Those measures found their most acute expression with the establishment of inquisition, which in turn laid the foundations for a technology of power that would last well beyond the medieval period.
The module will interrogate the complex relationship between dissent and authority. It will examine this history through chronicles, letters, and polemical treatises and, after the establishment of inquisition tribunals in the 1230s, through inquisition documents. These include not only records of interrogations and the sentences handed down, but also inquisitors’ ‘how to’ manuals. Together, these records allow us to investigate why heretical ideas were popular, why heretics were supported in communities, and how religious dissent and religious intolerance acted upon each other. The pursuit of these topics in the original records goes hand in hand with the hard-fought debate over how to properly understand the relationship between heresy and repression, a debate that has been ongoing since the medieval period, between historians of various denominations, ideologies, and schools of thought.
Related modules
Students taking this module must also take the second part in Semester 2.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To introduce students to in depth study of a specific historical topic using primary and secondary material;
- To enable students to explore the topic through discussion and writing; and
- To enable students to evaluate and analyse primary sources.
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Grasp key themes, issues and debates relevant to the topic being studied;
- Have acquired knowledge and understanding about that topic;
- Be able to comment on and analyse original sources;
- Be able to relate the primary and secondary material to one another; and
- Have acquired skills and confidence in close reading and discussion of texts and debates.
Module content
Students will attend a 1-hour briefing in week 1 and a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 1. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- Heresy in medieval Europe
- The emergence of heresies
- St Bernard of Clairvaux
- The wandering preachers
- Valdes and the Waldensians
- The marketplace of belief
- The Cathars
- The Albigensian Crusade
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative work, students will produce a text commentary.
The summative assessment will consist of two parts, to be submitted together:
a) Two text commentaries of 500-750 words; and
b) One 1,500-word essay.
The commentaries comprise 50% and the essay 50% of the overall mark for this module. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their seminars and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their formative work during their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For summative assessment tasks, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane, A History of Medieval Heresy and Inquisition (Lanham ; Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).
- Malcolm Lambert, Medieval Heresy : Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation (2nd ed. Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA: B. Blackwell, 1992).
- Claire Taylor, Heresy in Medieval France : Dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais, 1000-1249 (Woodbridge: Royal Historical Society, 2005).