The Great Medieval Heretics: Five Centuries of Religious Dissent, by Michael Frassetto.

New
York: BlueBridge, 2008. 241 pages. Summarized by Joe Drisdale
Michael Frassetto is the former religion editor for Encyclopedia Britannica. He is
currently a history professor at the University of Delaware, specializing in medieval religion and
heresy, and has written extensively on these subjects. His works include Christian Attitudes
Toward the Jews in the Middle Ages: a Casebook (New York: Garland Publishing 2007),
Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO
2013), and Purity and Piety: Essays on Medieval Clerical Celibacy and Religious Reform (New
York: Garland Publishing, 1998). The Great Medieval Heretics: Five Centuries of Religious
Dissent highlights the chronology of heretical movements including the relevant milieu and
major influencers of eachthat evolved during the later five centuries of the medieval period.
In his forward to the text, Frassetto offers by example a letter written by Monk Heribert
warning of a new heresy to expose the historic attitudes created by religious leaders concerning
those deemed heretics. In the case of this letter written in early Middle Ages, the accused
attempted to adopt apostolic lifestyles and based their teachings on the Gospels. These
characteristics gained traction among educated Christians in the generations that followed, which
provided an alternative to the normative Church and its teachings (hence, the books content).
The letter speaks of the developing dualism, as forewarned in earlier sources (such as
Augustines treatment of the Manichaeans) and characterizes heresy as understood during the
eleventh through fourteenth centuries. It further examines the heretics biblical ideals, which
combined with a commitment to ascetic lifestyles progressively involved educated Christians,
like Wyclif and Hus.
Pop Bogomil (tenth-century Bulgaria) emerged as an early influence on medieval
heretics, amid the religious tensions between the Byzantine Empire and attempts to form an

independent Bulgarian Church. The Bogomilism movement adhered to a dualist view (citing
Matthew 4:9 and John 14:30 for biblical support), and further taught that Satan created an evil
material world. The Orthodox priest Cosmas wrote vehemently against Bogomils teachings
against refusal to honor the saints or Mary as mother of Jesus and described them as gentle
sheep in appearance, but in fact are ravening wolves (21). Bogomilism, as outlined by
Cosmas, fueled the reemergence of heretical outbreaks throughout the Mediterranean and Latin
Europe.
The case of Stephen and Lisois reflects the complexities from within which heresy
developed. Both men were canons of the Church, and ministered to Queen Constance of France.
When the knight Arefast infiltrated their group, however, he was introduced to a form of
Docetism Christology and learned of a secret initiation that included the laying on of hands to
impart the Holy Spirits infilling and illumination. The matter was heard at the council or
Orleans, and the heretics were burned at the stake. Frassetto notes that later orthodox would
adopt similar tenets of heresies, and incorporate them into the Churchs mainstream
teachings(37).
Henry the Monk proved more of a challenge for the Church to discredit, because he
preached in an atmosphere already primed with religious dissent, and he exemplified moral
purity and apostolic piety while asserting his devotion to New Testament Scripture (44, 48). He
was condemned at the Council of Pisa in 1135 and abjured, but continued his message for ten
more years before he was finally captured and imprisoned. His Scripture-based teaching
represented a viable alternative to many Church doctrines, some of which he outright rejected
(e.g., infant baptism, intercessory and intermediary roles of clergy, and the need for church
buildings).

Heresies continued to spread throughout societies. One of the more prolific strains (the
Waldensian movement) can be traced the Valdez of Lyons, who was able to tap into the
spiritual yearnings of is age, foreshadowing the thirteenth-century movement of Saint Francis of
Assisi (71, 74). The wealthy businessman severed his marriage, distributed much of his wealth,
and committed to apostolic poverty after his conversion. He then proceeded to preach the
message of the Gospel, which led to his excommunication. When called before the council for
his peaching, Valdes profession of faith was consistent with orthodox teaching. As the
movement grew, however, later followers (e.g., later members of the Poor of Lyons, the Italian
Waldenses, and the Lombard Poor) departed from the founders teachings in attempts to usurp
the Catholic clergy and formally develop their movements.
Catherism represented a blend indigenous of western religious dissent and Bogomil
religious dualism (76). The movement flourished in portions of Europe between the 12th and
14th centuries in part because of its encompassing organizational structures, and because its fully
developed theology explained material evil as part of Satans creation (as opposed to teaching
and structures of the Catholic Church). The movement also benefited from failures of the Church
and government to contain it.
Count Raymond VI of Toulouse, for example, vowed in 1205 to suppress the heresy and
at the same time neglected the spread of Catherism. He was excommunicated two years later by
Peter of Castelnau, which Pope Innocent III enforced. The following year he reconciled with the
Church, was flogged, and joined the crusaders at Valence. He was excommunicated again in
1209 for failing to discipline the heretics on his territories. Toulouse fell under the rule Simon de
Montfort, commander of the Albigensian Crusade. Raymond and his son, Raymond VII were
able to regain control in of his lands in 1218, but he was never reconciled with the Church.

The Cather heresy continued to attract followers, and despite persecutions including the
Inquisition established by Pope Gregory IX in the 1230s Pierre Autier led a revival late in the
century. He utilized his business wealth and large extended family to help support, protect, and
grow the movement, which included a vast underground network and safe houses. He cultivated
a devout following, teaching a unique mix of Cather dualism, a spiritual Resurrection and the
Docetist denial that Jesus had assumed human form or was born of the Virgin Mary. He
advanced his faith by aggressively persuading potential followers to accept Consolamentum
the rite that perfected a Cathar believer and imposed on them the life of asceticism, prayer, and
preaching (111-116). The missionary was captured in 1309 and was burned at the stake in 1310,
which essentially ended the Cathar revival.
A slightly earlier contemporary to Pierre Autier was Dolcino, who assumed the
leadership of a movement known as Apostolici (Apostolic Brethren) after its first leader Gerald
Segarelli was burned at the stake in 1300. Fra Dolcino taught the doctrines of Segarelli, in
addition to his own personal prophesies, the works of mystic Joachim of Fiore, and Scripture. He
drew for Joachim of Fiores eschatological dispensation of ages: the first age initiated by Adam
was the age of marriage; the second age (of the Son) introduced to order of clergy; and the third
age marked of appearance of monks. From this understanding, he further established himself as
the one to restore the proper way of life and usher in a fourth age, whereby he and his followers
would remedy the worlds evils. His message incited savage violence from among the followers.
This led to a response from inquisitor Bernard Gui, who charged that the four ages
characterized by general decline in morality were heretical and combined with the other
virulently antisacerdotal teaching inspired the violence. Pope Clement followed with a bull

against Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren in 1306. Dolcino and his followers resisted to the
death, and the movement finally expired in the fifteenth century.
The lack of solid evidence for heresy surrounding the execution of Marguerite Porete in
1310 is more perplexing, making the situation difficult to fully comprehend. In the Mirror of the
Simple Souls a book broadly circulated in Europe she describes the souls mystical ascent to
God through seven distinct stages, similar to the writings of her orthodox contemporaries (144,
147). Guy II, the bishop of Cambria, instructed her to stop spreading her teachings. Her disregard
to the order led to a second commission and finally her condemnation at the Council of Vienne,
where she was named a participant in the heresy of the Free Spirit (a movement of immoral and
antinomian heretics). The language Marguerite used in her text to describe the stages of
ascension (e.g., Holy Church Below, and [the soul gives to Nature all that is necessary
without remorse of conscience), supplied the basis albeit taken out of context for declaring
her a heratic. Her trial was further charged with concurrent accusations leveled against the
Templars, during a time when religious and political authorities in France sought to visibly
demonstrate their convictions against expressions or opinions inconsistent with the views of the
Church. The incident exemplifies the Churchs extreme measures to enforce orthodox
Christianity against undeterred influences of alternate Christian thought.
When John Wyclif emerged in the fourteenth century to counter Catholic doctrine, his
influence represented alternative views grounded in advanced academic understanding and
sophisticated theological scholarship. Many ecclesiastical endowments and theological study at
Oxford prepared him for participation in the parliament, for diplomatic work, and in various
governmental affairs, which allowed him to position himself as an authority on both religious
and secular issues. His powerful patrons also afforded him protection against excommunication,

as was the case in 1377 when he defended the government in a dispute over gold deliveries to the
papal court at Avignon. Gregory XI predictably retaliated by leveling charges of detestable
madness and preaching heretical dogmas, but the push back from Joan (widow of Edward and
mother of King Richard II) removed the threat of judgment (159-61).
Wyclif continued his aggression against the Church on theological matters (e.g.,
maintaining that the Bible should be available to all Christians, and denying the Catholic
doctrine of transubstantiation), and also supported the Peasants revolt. Oxford eventually
divided over support, and his royal endorsement subsided. He then retired to his rectory at
Lutterworth, in 1381. The following year at the Earthquake Council, ten of his teachings were
declared heretical and another fourteen were deemed erroneous. He died in December of 1384,
after a progression of strokes.
Wyclifs work on the Bible, the Eucharist, the Church and priesthood, and on civil
dominion continued to influence the Lollards (Wyclifs Oxford supporters) and various
continental theologians, which in some ways foreshadowed the doctrines of Luther and other
Protestant reformers (166). The work and influences of the Lollard movement led to the
Churchs official denunciation of Wyclifs writings, and his body was ordered exhumed and
burned.
At the same time that Wyclifs works were condemned in England, Czech scholars
copied and brought them to Bohemia. Jan Hus was among those who embraced his teachings
while attending university, and continued to do so as rector of Bethlehem Chapel. He emerged as
a leader of the Reformation movement by 1407, and later opposed the bull of indulgences issued
by antipope John XXIII for crusades against King Ladislas of Naples. He drew opposition from
both the Church and the King. When presented with a consilium ordering him to accept the

teachings and obey the clergy of the Roman Church, he denounced the terms and was exiled. His
later writings, which paralleled Wyclifs teaching on the true Church, on clerical morality,
apostolic poverty and devotion, against simony, and against the full authority of the priest (e.g.,
the power to bind and loose, and to excommunicate). He was arrested and imprisoned on
November 28, 1414, and was offered one last chance to recant. He replied that he wrote, taught
and preached in the truth of the Gospel and was willing gladly to die, which he did while
offering his last prayers to God (197-98).
As Frassetto points out in his conclusion, the lives of these heretics provide valuable
insights into the cultural, political, and religious Middle Age developments. At the same time,
their work and writings influenced later generations and foreshadowed later events. The pursuit
of biblical purity, growth of mysticism, and even some the doctrines of Martin Luther and the
Protestant Reformers have a common history with earlier heretics.