The Intolerant Middle Ages: A Reader
© 2020
In this collection of primary sources, Eugene Smelyansky highlights instances of persecution and violence, as well as those relatively rare but significant episodes of toleration, that impacted a broad spectrum of people who existed at the margins of medieval society: heretics, Jews and Muslims, the poor, the displaced and disabled, women, and those deemed sexually deviant. The volume also presents a more geographically diverse Middle Ages by including sources from Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Mediterranean.
Each document is preceded by a brief introduction and followed by questions for discussion, making The Intolerant Middle Ages an excellent entrance into the lives and struggles of medieval minorities.
Product Details
- Series: Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures
- World Rights
- Page Count: 300 pages
- Illustrations: 12
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 0.7in x 9.0in
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Reviews
“The Intolerant Middle Ages will soon become a standard companion for teachers as they introduce students to the presence in medieval Europe of some persistent – and some emergent – prejudices against groups and individuals.”
Miri Rubin, Queen Mary University of London
“Smelyansky has curated an outstanding volume – a richly conceptualized, thoughtfully structured, and elegantly edited collection of primary source materials through which to explore medieval European history. The volume’s breadth across geography, time, genre, and topic allows students to encounter the ‘intolerant medieval’ in a startling multitude of forms. Structured to highlight the intersectionality of marginalized medieval people, it also highlights overlapping mechanisms of exclusion and coercion designed by those in power. By exploring the many different facets of medieval intolerance – the many webbed lines drawn between ‘us’ and ‘them’ – readers will come away with an impression not of Christian homogeneity but of kaleidoscopic diversity and difference.”
Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane, University of Minnesota Morris
“This is a valuable collection of readings on forms of intolerance, violence, and persecution toward a range of religious and social groups in the Middle Ages. By extending the geographical scope beyond Western Europe, this collection not only reflects a more expansive approach to medieval history but also highlights the roles of intolerance and violence in the history of European expansion.”
Tanya Stabler Miller, Loyola University Chicago -
Author Information
Eugene Smelyansky is a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Roots of Contemporary Issues Global History Program at Washington State University. -
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
List of IllustrationsIntroduction
Chapter 1: Precursors and Origins
1. Christians Accused of Participating in Scandalous Rituals
2. The Martyrdom of Saint Perpetua
3. Emperor Constantine Condemns Arianism
4. Saint Augustine on the Grounds for Religious Persecution
5. Christianity Triumphant: The Theodosian Code on Christianity and PaganismChapter 2: Anti-Judaism and Persecution of the Jews
6. “Slay Them Not”: Saint Augustine on the Jews
7. Anti-Jewish Legislation from the Visigothic Code
8. The Massacre in Mainz at the Beginning of the First Crusade
9. Blood Libel: The Murder of William of Norwich
10. A Papal Response: Gregory X against the Blood Libel
11. Jewish Woman in a Christian Miracle Story
12. King Otakar II Promises Royal Protection to the Jews in Bohemia and Austria
13. Well-Poisoning Accusations against the Jews
14. Massacre of the Jews in StrasbourgChapter 3: Heresy and Inquisition
15. Heresy in the Carolingian Word: Gottschalk of Orbais
16. Guibert of Nogent and the Heretics of Soissons
17. Hildegard of Bingen Preaches against Heresy
18. A Cathar Origin Story in the Testimony of Arnaud Sicre
19. Origins of the Waldensians
20. Canon of the Fourth Lateran Council Concerning Heresy
21. Inquisitor Bernard Gui at Work
22. Heretical Tricks: Inquisitor Nicholas Eymerich on the Art of Interrogation
23. Individual Resistance: Bernard Clergue
24. Cooperation and Resistance: Arnaud Sicre Infiltrates a Heretical Group
25. Papal Prohibitions against Beguines and Beghards at the Council of Vienne
26. The Fruits of Clerical Imagination: A Heretical Orgy
27. Persecutions of Waldensians in Late Medieval German CitiesChapter 4: External Others: Contacts, Intolerance, and the Making of Medieval Europe
28. Carolingian Conquest of Saxony: Two Perspectives
29. Gerald of Wales on the Irish
30. Papal Blessing for Henry II’s Conquest of Ireland
31. Keeping the Peace after the Conquest: Statutes of the Parliament of Dublin
32. Medieval Europe Old and New: Otto of Freising Describes Northern Italy and Hungary
33. Duke of Lithuania on the Teutonic OrderChapter 5: Interreligious Violence in the Mediterranean
34. The Martyrs of Cordoba
35. Depictions of Muslims in The Song of Roland
36. Ibn Jubayr on Sicily under the Christian Rule
37. Interfaith Coexistence in Crusader Jerusalem
38. Coexistence and Exclusion in the Siete Partidas
39. Pope Innocent III Forbids the Venetian Merchants to Trade with the Muslims
40. Frederick II’s Trade Agreement with Tunisia
41. Accusations against the Genoese Merchants in Service of the Mamluk SultanChapter 6: People on the Margins of Medieval Society
42. Agobard of Lyon: On the Baptism of Jewish Slaves
43. Poverty as Piety: The Rule of Saint Francis
44. Critique of the Mendicant Friars: William of St-Amour’s On the Dangers of the Final Days
45. Medieval Serfdom and Manumission
46. Punishments for Impregnating a Female Slave in Genoa
47. Discrimination against the Poor in Siena during the Famine of 1329
48. Living in Poverty in Florence
49. The World Turned Upside Down: Social Anxiety during and after the Plague
50. Wage Control after the Plague: Ordinance of the Laborers, 1349
51. Ordinances against the “Jews, Lepers, and Swine” and the Poor in Late Medieval London
52. Christine de Pizan on the Virtues of TolerationChapter 7: Disease and Disability in Medieval Europe
53. Disability and Charity in Piers Plowman
54. False Disability on the Streets of London
55. Rules of the Maison-Dieu in Pontoise
56. Physician Gilbert the Englishman on the Symptoms of Leprosy
57. Humbert of Romans Preaches to the Lepers
58. Ritual of Exclusion for a Leper
59. The Leper Plot against Christendom, 1321Chapter 8: From the Holy to the Sinful: Attitudes towards Women
60. A Prostitute Saint: Saint Mary of Egypt
61. The Trial of Thiota, A False Prophetess
62. The Life of Christina of Markyate
63. Women in the Sicilian Laws of Frederick II
64. Women and the Ideals of Courtly Love
65. Religious Life of Margery Kempe
66. Marital Problems: An Innkeeper’s Wife Leaves Him
67. Bernardino of Siena Preaches on MarriageChapter 9: The Control of Sexuality
68. Laws of Justinian Concerning Same-Sex Acts and Blasphemy
69. A Cross-Dressing Saint: Marina/Marinus
70. Punishments for Illicit Sexuality from a Medieval Penitential
71. Prostitution and Religious Reform in Prague
72. Illegal Prostitution in London
73. Confession of a Muslim Prostitute in Valencia
74. Confession of Arnaud of Verniolle
75. The Trial of Katherina Hetzeldorfer
76. Testimony of Rolandina Roncaglia
77. Testimony of Eleanor/John Rykener
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