History 274, Whitman College

Heretics and Reformers: Protestant and Catholic Reformations, 1050-1600

 

Prof. Cotts                                                                                                                             cottsjd@whitman.edu

Office: Maxey 211                                                                                                                526-4789

Office Hours:  MW 2:30-4:00 Th 3:00-4:30

 

            During the late medieval and early modern periods, European Christianity continually developed and transformed itself in response to material, intellectual and social changes.  Well before the rise of organized Protestantism in the sixteenth century, European people and their leaders had to confront alternative possibilities in the realm of religion.  Sometimes these possibilities presented themselves as reforming movements within the orthodox church, but they sometimes appeared as heretical movements that threatened the established order.  This course will examine these movements over a five-century period and explore the problem of continuity versus radical change in the western religious tradition, looking at the experience of people in all social conditions.  Because the course straddles traditional chronological boundaries (“medieval” and “early modern”) we will be challenged to think about how historians use religious change as a measure of cultural “progress” as well as the larger problem of defining the modern in religious terms. 

 

Books for Purchase:

 

  • Brian Tierney, ed., The Crisis of Church and State
  • Jonathan Zophy, A Short History of Reformation Europe
  • Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms
  • Edward Peters, Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe
  • Hans Hillerbrand, The Protestant Reformation
  • Recommended: Joseph Lynch, The Medieval Church

           

Course requirements:

 

You are expected to attend all class meetings and to participate respectfully, insightfully and vigorously in discussions, in the process demonstrating careful reading of the assigned material.  Written work will consist of four papers and a final examination. 

 

Evaluation:  Your course grade will be determined according to the following criteria:

 

Papers: 60% (10-20-20-10)

Attendance and class participation: 20%

Final examination: 20%

 

Attendance policy: Do not miss class.

 

 

 

 

 

Schedule of Meetings and Assignments

 

September 1  Introduction to the course

 

6  Ancient heresy and the foundations of orthodoxy

 

            Reading: Gospel selections (handout)

                           Peters, 13-56

 

8  The Foundations of Authority: the medieval papacy

 

            Reading: Tierney, 7-49

                            Uta-Renate Blumenthal, “Reform and Rome,” in The Investiture                                   Controversy (electronic reserve)

 

13 The Investiture Controversy and the struggle for authority

 

            Reading: Tierney, 49-95

            Gerd Tellenbach, “Epilogue” to Church, State and Christian Society at the Time       of the Investiture Contest, pp. 162-68 (electronic reserve)

 

15  Monastic reform and the new orders

 

            Reading: The Benedictine Rule, online at:

                            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rul-benedict-excerp.html

                            Lester Little, “Avoiding the Crisis: Monks and Hermits,” in Religious                                         Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (e-reserve)

                            A description of the monastery at Clairvaux at:

                            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1143clairvaux.html

                            Selections on the life of St. Bernard at:

                            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1150bernard-2accs.html

 

20 Towns, schools and the beginnings of popular heresy

 

            Reading: Peters, 56-101

                           R. I. Moore, selections from The Formation of a Persecuting Society                                    (electronic reserve)

 

22  Heresy and the formation of Christendom

 

            Reading: Peters, 103-164

 

****FRIDAY, September 24: First paper due****

 

 

 

September 27 Harnessing the Spiritual Awakening: The Franciscans

           

            Reading: Selections dealing with St. Francis of Assisi at:

                           http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-lives.html

                           http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-test.html

                           http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/stfran-rule.html

                           additional readings on Francis (in a handout)

                          

29 Legislating a Response: From Lateran IV to inquisitorial procedures

 

            Reading: Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council at:

                            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/lat4-select.html

                            Selections on the Albigensian Crusade (handout)

                            Selections from an inquisitorial manual at:                                                                       http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/heresy2.html

 

October 4  Mechtild of Magdeburg and the mystical impulse

 

            Reading:  Selections from Mechtild’s Flowing Light of the Godhead (handout)

                            Caroline Walker Bynum, “Women Mystics in the Thirteenth                                          Century: The Case of the Nuns of Helfta” (electronic reserve)

 

6 Marguerite Porete and mystical heresy

 

            Reading: Marguerite Porete, selections from The Mirror of Simple Souls                                                 (electronic reserve)

                           Stephen Fanning, selection from Mystics of the Christian Tradition

                           (electronic reserve)

 

September 11  No Class

 

13 Apocalyptic heresy in the fourteenth century

 

            Reading: Norman Cohn, chapter seven of The Pursuit of the Millennium                                                (electronic reserve)

 

18 The heresies of Wycliff and Hus

 

            Reading: Peters, 265-308

                           Zophy: A Short History of Reformation Europe, 40-47

 

20 Religious life and humanism on the eve of the Reformation

 

            Reading:  Zophy, 1-40, 47-59

 

****FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22: SECOND PAPER DUE

 

25 Martin Luther’s call for reform

 

            Reading: Zophy, 61-95

                           Luther, selection in Hillerbrand, 1-3

 

27 Discussion of Luther’s writings

 

            Reading: Luther, selections in Hillerband, 3-28, 37-86

 

November 1 Zwingli and the “radicals”

           

            Reading: Zophy, 97-110

                           Zwingli, On True and False Religion in Hillerbrand, 108-121

                           Selections on the Anabaptists in Hillerbrand, 129-36, 143-52

 

3 John Calvin and reform in Geneva

 

            Reading: Zophy, 111-25

                            Selections from Calvin in Hillerbrand, 172-89, 200-213

 

8 The Reformation in England

 

            Reading: Zophy, 126-50

                           Hillerbrand, 240-47, 257-66

                           Letter on the suppression of Glastonbury abbey at:

                           http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/h8-glastonbury.html

                           The Act of Supremacy at:

                            http://www.northpark.edu/history/Classes/Sources/ActSupremacy.html 

                           The Thirty-Nine Articles at:

                    http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/peel/religion/39articles.htm

                   

10 The spirituality of the Catholic reformation

 

            Reading: Zophy, 151-65

                            Ignatius Loyola, selections from Spiritual Exercises at:

                            http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/loyola-spirex.html

                            Theresa of Avila, selections from her Life TBA at:

                            http://www.ccel.org/ccel/teresa/life.toc.html

                           

 

15 Legislating reform within the Catholic church: Trent

 

            Reading: The 23rd Session of the Council of Trent at:                                                                     http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct23.html

 

17  Religious conflict in the towns

 

            Reading: Natalie Davis, “The Rites of Violence: Religious Violence in Sixteenth                             Century France,” Past and Present 59 (1973):51-91 (at JSTOR)

 

****FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19: THIRD PAPER DUE

 

Thanksgiving Break

 

29 How did peasants experience the Reformation?

 

            Reading: Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms

 

December 1 The Cheese and the Worms

 

            Reading: Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms

 

6 The Age of Religious Wars

 

            Reading: Zophy, 166-190

                           Documents TBA

 

8 Conclusion: The Reformation and Modernity

 

            Reading: Zophy, 191-214

                           Articles TBA

 

****FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10: FOURTH PAPER DUE

 

****FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday, December 13 at 9:00 am