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The Movement of the Free Spirit
This book by the legendary Situationist activist and author of TheRevolution of Everyday Life examines the heretical and millenarian movements thatchallenged social and ecclesiastical authority in Europe from the 1200s into the1500s.Although Vaneigem discusses a number of different movements such as theCathars and Joachimite millenarians, his main emphasis is on the variou
...morePaperback, 302 pages
Published
February 6th 1998
by Zone Books (NY)
(first published 1986)
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With the exception of Cohn's The Pursuit of the Millennium and Tuckman's A Distant Mirror, there is very little in English on the medieval religious movement surrounding the Beguines, the Beghards, and the Brethren of the Free Spirit. This work, translated from French by the former Situationist International author should have adequately filled the gap. Unfortunately, The Movement of the Free Spirit is too inconsistent to do so. Considering the fact that this was a labor of love for Vaneigem, th...more
This is an important and painstakingly researched book, which examines in great detail (verbatim accounts of trials, etc.) the various heretical and free-spirited groups, who, from the 1200s into the 1500s, organised themselves against the prevailing tyranny of the catholic church.
an interesting study of heretical catholic offshoots.
This is probably the best of the Situationist texts that are available. Kinda wonder just a little bit how much is fact and how much is myth making and romanticizing (probably a lot). Still, it is interesting to backtrack and see where progressive thought has been and where it may be heading. In the end you'll feel that radical ideas have been around for a long time. Perhaps you will be perplexed as to why little has come of them? I kinda was.
This is from a very European perspecti...more
This is from a very European perspecti...more
I read this book out of respect for Vaneigem's former occupation as a Situationist and my own budding interest in pre-modern heretical mysticisms. Sadly, Vaneigem's glosses on the revolutionary potential of these heretical enclaves is borderline ridiculous and shot through with the ugliest of historical teleologies. This volume is valuable, however, for the many moving translations of medieval primary and early-modern secondary documents.
Totally, utterly unreadable. The book version of getting drunk with a waffling, poetry-loving Frenchman who won't shut up.
lots of interesting stories about people who didn't want to work during the middle ages and/or didn't worship like catholics.
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Raoul Vaneigem (born 1934) is a Belgian writer and philosopher. He was born in Lessines (Hainaut, Belgium). After studying romance philology at the Free University of Brussels (now split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel) from 1952 to 1956, he participated in the Situationist International from 1961 to 1970. He currently resides in Belgium and is the father ...more
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