HS3SHP: Heretics and Popes: Heresy and Persecution in the Medieval World

Module code: HS3SHP

Module provider: History; School of Humanities

Credits: 40

Level: 6

When you’ll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Professor Rebecca Rist , email: r.a.c.rist@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s):

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 2 April 2025

Overview

Module aims and purpose

Special Subject modules provide ‘hands-on’ experience of the historian’s task through close examination and evaluation of primary sources and the light they shed on issues and problems.   

The module will:  

• Survey and analyse a wide range of primary sources for medieval heresy and heretics; 
• Reflect on the phenomenon of medieval heresy and dissent; 
• Consider the ways in which the historiography of medieval heresy has evolved.   

The purpose of the module is to allow students to further develop and demonstrate the skills they have gained working with primary sources throughout their degree programme. 

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Undertake detailed textual analysis and comment on the primary materials; 
2. Recognise and interpret a range of different primary materials; and  
3. Demonstrate a detailed command of varying historical interpretations of the primary materials and subject as a whole. 

Module content

This module will focus on the growth of heresy during the Middle Ages (eleventh to fifteenth centuries), the persecution of heretics by the Church and secular authorities, the status of heretics as a minority group, and the concept of the ‘Other’. Different types of heresy will be explored: theological, political, popular, those stemming from grass-roots disaffection and those from intellectual and philosophical traditions. Seminars will examine the origins of the concept of heresy, different types of heretics, the papacy’s response to heresy, the growth of Church legislation and jurisdiction against heretics, and the establishment of the Inquisition. Students will be able to access a range of sources in translation including the writings of heretics themselves, contemporary chronicles, papal letters, sermons, theological treatises, conciliar legislation and canon law. The course will also examine the construction of heresy and orthodoxy, Max Weber’s famous distinction between Sect and Church, and recent trends in the historiography of heresy, including Emmanuel le Roy Ladurie’s Montaillou and Robert Moore’s The Formation of a Persecuting Society and its critics.

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

• The teaching for this module involves weekly two-hour discussion seminars; 
• Students will gain ‘hands-on’ experience of the historian’s task through the detailed evaluations of key texts, objects, and images, and the light they shed on the issues and problems being investigated; 
• Students will be required to prepare for seminars through reading from both the primary sources and the secondary literature; 
• Students are expected to carry out self-directed revision in the summer semester. Staff will be available for consultation as necessary. 

Study hours

At least 44 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.