The Church’s reactions to the two different types of heresy described in Madigan were very different and highlighted the church’s feelings about each sect. For the Waldensians the church initially gave them an ultimatum and said that if they didn’t join the Orthodox Church and follow their rules for preaching that they would be considered… Continue reading →

Madigan describes the two types of reform movements as “dramatically different from Orthodox Christianity” and “dogmatically deviant” (Madagin, 177), these words however come from sources that are almost entirely against these newer forms of Christianity. The Carthars and Waldensians were both criticized and interrogated by the Church with full support of the Pope. Several different… Continue reading →

To combat heretics the church always employed many of the same techniques: An Inquisition, ex-communication, banishment, and now even branding and taking away their rights to almost anything. All were successful to points in their various times and this time the methods worked well as well. The marking of and slandering of all who may… Continue reading →

The Gregorian era ignited new movements of reformation giving raise to new heretical ideas. Madigan explains that while for centuries there was no evidence of popular heresy, things changed between the 11th and the 12th century. The reformation’s goal was to eradicate simony and unchastely corrupted priests. Two clergy critics moved from permissible denunciation, to… Continue reading →