The aim of this volume is to provide a voice to those persons and groups in medieval society who have often been ignored in traditional sourcebooks of medieval history. In the past, economic, institutional, and ecclesiastical history had largely been presented through documents and literary sources produced by the official agents of church and state and reflected the ideology of the dominant classes, that is, the clergy and nobility. Charters, papal bulls, conciliar decisions, philosophical tracts, and royal law codes, for example, have remained the focus of most source collections, and those interested in the lives, aspirations, and problems of...

The Jews were often perceived as the chief foes of the Christian faith. Their reasoned rejection of the faith paradoxically became one of the grounds for the scholastics’ effort to base Christian belief on a firmer foundation. The Jews’ persistent adherence to the old law—the faith of Jesus—was regarded as sufficient grounds for tolerating the practice of their faith and the security of their goods. Their civil status had been recognized under Roman law, which allowed them to own land and occupy public office, although after the ninth century in the Christian west many of these rights began...

In Christian theology, the first apostates were regarded as those fallen angels who through the sin of pride had been led to reject God and set up a rival kingdom, and the Antichrist, who followed in Satan’s footsteps. Thomas Aquinas equated heresy and disbelief with apostasy as expressions of human pride. The canon lawyer Hostiensis (ca. 1250) in hisSumma aureadistinguished three forms of apostasy.Apostasia a perfidiais rejection of one’s faith and conversion to another, like the much maligned Emperor Julian the Apostate (361/63), who had canceled the privileges granted to the Christian faith in the Roman...

For medieval Christians, perhaps the most persistent trick employed by Satan was his exploitation of human sexuality as the means of tempting the believer. Since human procreation transmits original sin to future generations, it is fitting that Satan should exploit sexuality as the chief means of drawing souls to his side. Thus, despite the continuing effort of the Christian clergy to impose a uniform sexual ethic on their flocks, a wide gap remained between the ideological program of the faith and its fulfillment. This gap between ideology and behavior is reflected in the laity’s frequent disregard of church doctrine concerning...

Medieval people were intensely aware of the real presence of an evil force that sought to undermine the foundations of civil society, sow the seeds of disbelief and blasphemy, and lead the faithful away from salvation and into damnation. In some instances, such as the case of Otloh of St. Emmeram, the Devil insinuated himself into the believer’s mind, raising doubts about the true faith. In other cases, such persons were classified as possessed by the Devil and were said to have “lost their minds?” They were often locked up, bound, and restrained because of the danger they posed to...

Following Jewish precedent, the early Christian community reached the conclusion that in order to guarantee unity in the face of persecution the exclusion of certain opinions was necessary. Ecclesiastical authorities (largely the bishop) possessed the legitimate right to separate those espousing unauthorized or heretical views from the orthodox. In addition, several other categories of religious error were defined: the apostate was one who had abandoned the Christian faith entirely; the infidel had never possessed Christian faith; and the schismatic held orthodox theological views but did not accept the duly constituted authority of the Church. Following the adoption of Christianity as...

In addition to the formalized marginality inflicted on Jews, lepers, sexual outlaws, heretics, and the mentally unstable, exclusion from the body politic may be observed during those temporary periods of separation from the faithful that occur in the course of the transitions in the life cycle, from infancy through to childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, and death. At each stage, the believer becomes detached from his or her age or social group, often by means of ritual ceremonies, including confirmation, marriage, initiation into the priesthood or religious orders, and last rites. Such observers as the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep have...