Skip to content
1882
Volume 63, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 0078-2122
  • E-ISSN: 2507-0444

Abstract

Abstract

Talk was an important aspect of social life in the predominantly oral societies of the Middle Ages. In thirteenth-century Languedoc, inquisitors looking for heretics were interested in the talk of the communities under scrutiny, and hence the records of their investigations contain a lot of references to information related to oral communication. This article examines entries from thirteenth-century inquisition records, now extant in Toulouse MS 609 and the Doat-collection, which illuminate the functions and significance of talk and communication in on-going attempts to physically evade the inquisitors. Despite the epistemological problems related to the analysis of these textual representations of the deponents’ recollections under interrogation, a careful interpretation of inquisition records shows that while oral communication was a central part of the activities of the Good Men and their lay supporters, and could often facilitate escape from imminent arrests, talk was always at least potentially a double-edged sword: the spread of sensitive information was difficult to control, and it was not always clear who could be trusted with it. Examining references to communication in relation to avoidance of inquisitors enables us to read deeper into the intricacies of the social aspects of religious dissidence in thirteenth-century Languedoc.

© Brepols Publishers NV
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1484/J.NMS.5.118196
2019-01-01
2025-12-06

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Manuscript and Archival Sources
    Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fonds Doat, MS 23
  2. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fonds Doat, MS 25
  3. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Fonds Doat, MS 26
  4. Toulouse, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 609
  5. Primary Source
    Inquisitors and Heretics in Thirteenth-Century Languedoc: Edition and Translation of Toulouse Inquisition Depositions, 1273–1282, ed. and trans. by Peter Biller, Caterina Bruschi, and Shelagh Sneddon, Studies in the History of Christian Traditions, 147 (Leiden: Brill, 2011)
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Secondary Studies
    Albaret, Laurent, ‘La Collection Doat, une collection moderne, témoignage de l’histoire religieuse méridionale des xiiie et xive siècles’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 49 (2014), 57–93
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Albaret, Laurent, ‘Une enquête inquisitoriale dans le Lauragais au xiiie siècle ou la pratique de l’enquête sur le grand nombre’, in L’Enquête au Moyen âge, ed. by Claude Gauvard (Rome: École française de Rome, 2008), pp. 185–210
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Ames, Christine Caldwell, ‘Obeying God, Not Man: Heresy, Inquisitors, and Obedience in the Dominican Order’, in Making and Breaking the Rules: Discussion, Implementation, and Consequences of Dominican Legislation, ed. by Cornelia Linde (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), pp. 37–58
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Arnold, John H., ‘Histories and Historiographies of Medieval Christianity’, in The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity, ed. by John H. Arnold (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 23–41
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Arnold, John H., Inquisition and Power: Catharism and the Confessing Subject in Medieval Languedoc (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001)
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Barber, Malcolm, The Cathars: Dualist Heretics in Languedoc in the High Middle Ages, 2nd edn (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2013)
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Bertrand, Paul, Les écritures ordinaires: sociologie d’un temps de révolution documentaire (1250–1350) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2015)
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Bruschi, Caterina, The Wandering Heretics of Languedoc, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Bueno, Irene, ‘Dixit quod non recordatur: Memory as Proof in Inquisitorial Trials (Early Fourteenth-Century France)’, in The Making of Memory in the Middle Ages, ed. by Lucie Doležalová (Leiden: Brill, 2010), pp. 365–393
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Clanchy, M. T., From Memory to Written Record: England 1066–1307, 3rd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2013)
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Conway, Martin A., Autobiographical Memory: An Introduction (Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1990)
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Debergue, Yvette, ‘Bonas Femnas and the Consolamen’, Journal of Religious History, 35.4 (2011), 532–545
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Fenster, Thelma, and Daniel Lord Smail, ‘Introduction’, in Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe, ed. by Thelma Fenster and Daniel Lord Smail (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. 1–11
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Gauvard, Claude, ‘Introduction’, in Information et société en Occident à la fin du Moyen Âge: actes du colloque international tenu à l’Université du Québec à Montréal at à l’Université d’Ottawa (9–11 mai 2002), ed. by Claire Boudreau and others (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2004), pp. 11–37
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Gauvard, Claude, ‘Rumeur et stéréotypes à la fin du Moyen Âge’, in La Circulation des nouvelles au Moyen Âge: xxive congrès de la S.H.M.E.S. (Avignon, juin 1993) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1994), pp. 157–177
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Gisli Gudjonsson, The Psychology of Interrogations, Confessions and Testimony (Chichester: Wiley, 1996)
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Gísli Sigurðsson, ‘Orality Harnessed: How to Read Written Sagas from an Oral Culture?’, in Oral Art Forms and their Passage into Writing, ed. by Else Mundal and Jonas Wellendorf (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2008), pp. 19–28
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Given, James B., Inquisition and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline, and Resistance in Languedoc (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997)
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Kamensky, Jane, Governing the Tongue: The Politics of Speech in Early New England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997)
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Krötzl, Christian, ‘How to Choose a Saint? On Propagation, Advice, and DecisionMaking in Medieval Communities’, in Agiografia e Culture Popolari: Hagiography and Popular Cultures. Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Verona (28–30 ottobre 2010), ed. by Paolo Golinelli (Bologna: CLUEB, 2012), pp. 371–387
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Kuehn, Thomas, ‘Fama as Legal Status in Renaissance Florence’, in Fama: The Politics of Talk and Reputation in Medieval Europe, ed. by Thelma Fenster and Daniel Lord Smail (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. 27–46
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel, Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324: édition revue et corrigée (Paris: Gallimard, 1982)
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Lett, Didier, ‘La langue du témoin sous la plume du notaire: témoignages oraux et rédaction de procès de canonisation au début du xive siècle’, in L’autorité de l’écrit au Moyen Âge (Orient-Occident): xxxixe congrès de la SHMESP (Le Caire, 30 avril–5 mai 2008) (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2009), pp. 89–105
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Lett, Didier, ‘Les noms des hommes, des filles et des épouses dans les Marches d’après le procès de canonisation de Nicolas de Tolentino (1325)’, Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Moyen Âge, 119.2 (2007), 401–413
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Lett, Didier, Un procès de canonisation au Moyen Âge: essai d’histoire sociale. Nicolas de Tolentino, 1325 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2008)
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Lett, Didier, and Nicolas Offenstadt, ‘Les pratiques du cri au Moyen Âge’, in Haro ! Noël ! Oyé ! Pratiques du cri au Moyen Âge, ed. by Didier Lett and Nicolas Offenstadt (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2003), pp. 5–41
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Menache, Sophia, The Vox Dei: Communication in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990)
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Migliorino, Francesco, Fama e infamia: problemi della società medievale nel pensiero giuridico nei secoli xii e xiii (Catania: Editrice Giannota, 1985)
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Mostert, Marco, ‘New Approaches to Medieval Communication?’, in New Approaches to Medieval Communication, ed. by Marco Mostert (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), pp. 15–37
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Paul, Jacques, ‘La parole hérétique en Languedoc au milieu du xiiie siècle’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 47 (2013), 287–307
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Pegg, Mark Gregory, The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition of 1245–1246 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Pegg, Mark, ‘Innocent III, les “pestilentiels Provençaux” et le paradigme épuisé du catharisme’, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 50 (2015), 279–309
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Pegg, Mark, ‘The Paradigm of Catharism; or, the Historians’ Illusion’, in Cathars in Question, ed. by Antonio Sennis, Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 4 (York: York Medieval Press, 2016), pp. 21–52
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Renouard, Yves, ‘Information et transmission des nouvelles’, in L’histoire et ses methods (Paris: Gallimard, 1961), pp. 95–142
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Richter, Michael, The Oral Tradition in the Early Middle Ages (Turnhout: Brepols, 1994)
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Roach, Andrew P., The Devil’s World: Heresy and Society 1100–1300 (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2005)
     [Google Scholar]
  42. Schmitt, Jean-Claude, ‘Une histoire religieuse du Moyen Age est-elle possible?’, in Il mestiere di storico del medioevo: atti del Convegno di studio dell’Associazione ‘Biblioteca Salita dei Frati’, Lugano, 17–19 maggio 1990, ed. by Fernando Lepori and Francesco Santi (Spoleto: Centro Italiani di studi sull’alto medioevo, 1994), pp. 73–83
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Schmitt, Jean-Claude, La raison des gestes dans l’Occident médiéval (Paris: Gallimard, 1990)
     [Google Scholar]
  44. Sparks, Chris, Heresy, Inquisition and Life Cycle in Medieval Languedoc, Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 3 (York: York Medieval Press, 2014)
     [Google Scholar]
  45. Taylor, Claire, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy, Heresy and Inquisition in the Middle Ages, 2 (York: York Medieval Press, 2011)
     [Google Scholar]
  46. Walker, Claire, ‘Whispering Fama: Talk and Reputation in Early Modern Society’, in Fama and her Sisters: Gossip and Rumour in Early Modern Europe, ed. by Claire Walker and Heather Kerr (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), pp. 9–35
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Wickham, Chris, ‘Gossip and Resistance among the Medieval Peasantry’, Past & Present 160 (1998), 3–24
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1484/J.NMS.5.118196
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field.
Please enter a valid email address.
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An error occurred.
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error:
Please enter a valid_number test
aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYnJlcG9sc29ubGluZS5uZXQv