MEDIÆVAL HERESY
& THE INQUISITION
MEDIÆVAL HERESY
& THE INQUISITION
BY
A. S. TURBERVILLE, M.C., M.A., B.Litt.
LECTURER IN MODERN HISTORY IN THE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NORTH WALES, BANGOR
LATE SCHOLAR OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
LONDON
CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND SON
7 STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C. 4
and 5 Broadway, Westminster, S.W. 1
1920
PREFACE
The aim of this book is to provide, within a shortspace, and primarily for the general reader, an accountof the heresies of the Middle Ages and of the attitude ofthe Church towards them. The book is, therefore, a briefessay in the history not only of dogma, but, inasmuchas it is concerned with the repression of heresy by meansof the Inquisition, of judicature also. The groundcovered is the terrain of H. C. Lea’s immense work,‘A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages’; butthat was published more than thirty years ago, and sincethen much has been written, though not indeed muchin English, on the mediæval Inquisition and cognatesubjects. As the present work has been undertakenin the light of some of these more recent investigations,it is hoped that it may be of utility to rather closerstudents, as well as to the general reader, as a review ofthe subject suggested by the writings of Lea’s successors,both partizans and critics. At the same time this bookdoes not profess to be a history, even the briefest, ofthe mediæval Inquisition. Its main concern is withdoctrine, and for that reason chapters on Averrhoïsmand on Wyclifitism and Husitism have been included,though they have little bearing on the Inquisition.
The entire subject, on both its sides, is complex andhighly controversial. Probably no conceivable treatmentof it could commend itself to all tastes, be acceptedas impartial by the adherents of all types of religiousbelief. It can, however, at least be claimed that thiswork was begun with no other object in view than honestenquiry, with no desire whatever to demonstrate apreconceived thesis or draw attention to a particularaspect of truth. The conclusion arrived at in thesepages is, that the traditional ultra-Protestant conception[vi]of ecclesiastical intolerance forcing a policy of persecutionon an unwilling or indifferent laity in the Middle Agesis unhistorical, while, on the other hand, some recentCatholic apologists, in seeking to exculpate the Church,have tended to underestimate the power and influenceof the Church, and to read into the Middle Ages a humanitarianismwhich did not actually then exist. Heresywas persecuted because it was regarded as dangerousto society, and intolerance was therefore the reflection,not only of the ecclesiastical authority, but of publicopinion. On the other hand, clerical instruction had alarge formative influence in the creation of public opinion.
This book inevitably suffered a prolonged interruptionowing to the War. That there was not acomplete cessation at once I owe to my Father, whomost ungrudgingly devoted valuable time to makingtranscriptions from needed authorities in the BritishMuseum, at a time when other duties debarred me fromaccess to books. My friend and former colleague,Mr. W. Garmon Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Artsof the University of Liverpool, gave me the benefitof his ripe scholarship and fine judgment in readingthrough the greater part of the work in