Power & Purity: Cathar Heresy in Medieval Italy

by Carol Lansing

Catharism was a popular medieval heresy based on the belief that the creation of humankind was a disaster in which angelic spirits were trapped in matter by the devil. Their only goal was to escape the body through purification. Cathars denied any value to material life, including the human body, baptism, and the Eucharist, even marriage and childbirth. What could explain the long popularity of such a bleak faith in the towns of southern France and Italy?

Power and Purity explores the place of cathar heresy in the life of the medieval Italian town of Orvieto. Based on extensive archival research, it details the social makeup of the Cathar community and argues that the heresy was central to the social and political changes of the 13th century. The late 13th-century repression of Catharism by a local inquisition was part of a larger redefinition of civic and ecclesiastical authority. Author Carol Lansing shows that the faith attracted not an alienated older nobility but artisans, merchants, popular political leaders, and indeed circles of women in Orvieto as well as Florence and Bologna. Cathar beliefs were not so much a pessimistic anomaly as a part of a larger climate of religious doubt. The teachings on the body and the practice of Cathar holy persons addressed questions of sexual difference and the structure of authority that were key elements of medieval Italian life. The pure lives of the Cathar holy people, both male and female,
demonstrated a human capacity for self-restraint that served as a powerful social model in towns torn by violent conflict. This study addresses current debates about the rise of persecution, and argues for a climate of popular toleration. Power and Purity will appeal to historians of society and politics as well as religion and gender studies.

Genres: History, Religion, Grad School

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting read about 13th century Catharism in Orvieto, Italy. Lansing argues that the appeal of Catharism was a mixture of resentment towards papal and episcopal interference in their town (at the expense of a growing movement towards communal government) and a general atmosphere of religious redefinition, especially in terms of the physical body and its place in theology.

It's a good read and little problems (like the fact that Lansing's claims that religious doubt contributed to Catharism remains somewhat underdeveloped and unproven) don't heavily detract from the overall argument. I especially liked her emphasis that it may be less helpful to see Catharism as a cohesive external threat than as a varied response to the Catholic Church's still indefinite doctrine.

[Ella]

Useful but not altogether convincing. I will probably cite it at some point because of how it looks at the interplay of heterodoxy and popular religion in Italy, and the sources bring up some interesting points about women in heretical networks. On the other hand, I find her way of discussing Italian Catharism overly simplistic (especially considering the multifaceted connotation of patarene as a heretical catch-all term) and her writing style not particularly conducive to deep consideration of the evidence presented.