Heresies of the High Middle Ages

HERESIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES

PREFACE

This volume is the outcome of a larger project begun by the late Austin
P. Evans more than two decades ago. He intended to publish translations
of numerous documents which would illustrate the nature of the popular
heresies of the Middle Ages, the social context in which they appeared
and the attempts to suppress them. To this end, he worked for a time
with the late Professor Anna M. Campbell and, after her retirement,
invited me into collaboration. Progress was slow and intermittent be
cause of professional and personal difficulties. At the time of Professor
Evans's death in 1962 most of the documents included in the present
volume had been selected and were in the process of being translated,
but much less had show more been done with translations which were to illuminate
the social background of the heresies and the operations of the Inquisi
tion. It therefore seemed more practical to offer a volume less ambitious
than originally planned, yet one which might be of service to tho
interested in this aspect of medieval history.

No substantial collection of sources for the study of medieval heresies
as been brought together in English translation since Samuel R. Mait
land in 1832 published his Facts and Documents Illustrative of the
History, Doctrine and Rites of the Ancient Albigenses and Waldenses.
A small collection for the use of students is found in The Pre-Reforma-
n Period (Vol. III, No. 6, of Translations and Reprints, published by
the University of Pennsylvania [1897); several pieces are included in
Ray C. Petry, A History of Christianity: Readings in the History of the
Early and Medieval Church (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1962). Although
of the documents in the present volume appear in full or in part
in those collections or are to be found in translations of the works of
their respective authors, it seemed best in most cases to prepare our
wn translations, for the sake of uniformity in style.

Relying in several instances on texts already prepared by Professor
Campbell, Professor Evans and I worked in the closest harmony and
eration. The result was an English text in which, apart from the... show less

HERESIES OF THE HIGH MIDDLE AGE