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Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages: 1000-1200
Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages 1000-1200 Author:Heinrich Fichtenau A Bookman News Exceptional Book of 1998 An intellectual portrait of Europe in the High Middle Ages by one of the great medievalists of this century. A book that should be read by all those interested in heresy as well as medieval theology.Church History Originally published in German in 1991, this latest work by Fichte... more »nau continues his pioneering research into medieval Europes social and intellectual dissidents. . . . The author successfully unravels the complexity of medieval life by illuminating the commonalities and differences between intellectual and popular religion. A significant contribution to the history of the High Middle Ages, Kaisers polished translation of a seminal text is highly recommended and essential for any medieval European history collection.Choice "Fichtenau has undertaken to write an extended essay on nonconformity in the twelfth century, and he has found it located in two primary notional regions: in popular heresy and in the arrogant rationality of the schools. . . . [The book's] parts . . . are formidable, and any scholar will find stimulation in an essay written in a style both informative and provocative.Steven Rowan, Speculum The struggle over fundamental issues erupted with great fury in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In this book preeminent medievalist Heinrich Fichtenau turns his attention to a new attitude that emerged in Western Europe around the year 1000. This new attitude was exhibited both in the rise of heresy in the general population and in the self-confident rationality of the nascent schools. With his characteristic learning and insight, Fichtenau shows how these two separate intellectual phenomena contributed to a medieval world that was never quite as uniform as might appear from our modern perspective. Heinrich Fichtenau weaves together a new history of the cultural and intellectual awakening of Europe. He draws on a vast literature of European and American scholars of the past century, but his guiding principle is always his own unique reading of primary sources. The result is a startlingly fresh synthesis by one of the greatest and most original medievalists of our time.Patrick J. Geary, Director, UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies« less