Defining Heresy Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions Edited by Andrew Colin Gow (Edmonton, Alberta) In cooperation with Sylvia Brown (Edmonton, Alberta) Falk Eisermann (Berlin) Berndt Hamm (Erlangen) Johannes Heil (Heidelberg) Susan C. Karant-Nunn (Tucson, Arizona) Martin Kaufhold (Augsburg) Erik Kwakkel (Leiden) Jürgen Miethke (Heidelberg) Christopher Ocker (San Anselmo and Berkeley, California) Founding Editor Heiko A. Oberman † VOLUME 192 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/smrt Defining Heresy Inquisition, Theology, and Papal Policy in the Time of Jacques Fournier By Irene Bueno Translated from Italian by Isabella Bolognese, Tony Brophy and Sarah Rolfe Prodan LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Der naturen bloeme by Jacob van Maerlant, Courtesy of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, ms 16, fol. 62r (ca. 1340–1350). Special thanks go to Alice Choyke, Zsofi Buda and Gerhard Jaritz. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bueno, Irene, author. [Eresie medievali. English.] Defining heresy : inquisition, theology, and papal policy in the time of Jacques Fournier / by Irene Bueno ; translated from Italian by Isabella Bolognese, Tony Brophy and Sarah Rolfe Prodan. pages cm. — (Studies in medieval and reformation traditions, ISSN 1573-4188 ; volume 192) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-30425-3 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-30426-0 (e-book) 1. Christian heresies—History—Middle Ages, 600–1500. 2. Benedict, XII, Pope,–1342. 3. Church history— Middle Ages, 600–1500. I. Title. BT1319.B8413 2015 273’.6—dc23 2015028927 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, ipa, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1573-4188 isbn 978-90-04-30425-3 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-30426-0 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. To Daniela ∵ Contents Acknowledgments xi List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 PART 1 At the Crossroad of Justices 1 At the Crossroad of Justices: A Bishop’s Court in the Early Fourteenth Century 15 1.1 Secular Justice in Languedoc 16 1.2 Sharing Rights in the City of Pamiers 19 1.3 The Decretal Multorum Querela 22 1.4 The Internal Organization of the Court of Pamiers 24 1.5 The Accused of Jacques Fournier 29 2 Repressing secundum iura. Jacques Fournier, Inquisitorial Procedures and Dissimulation 45 2.1 Inquest and Preliminary Stages 47 2.2 Oath 54 2.3 Informatio and preventio 57 2.4 Proof, Confession, Memory 65 2.5 Persuasion and Coercion: How to Get a Confession 70 2.6 “The Way that Heretics Usually Respond” 76 2.7 Abjuration and Sentence 81 3 Questioning Heretics: Proving Error according to Tradition 88 3.1 On the Fact of Heresy 91 3.2 Questions about Belief 104 4 The Extension of Heretical Paradigm 119 4.1 The Bishop-Inquisitor and the Duality of Justice 119 4.2 The Bishop-Administrator and the Anticlerical Protest 131 4.3 From Observation to Religious Doubt 140 viii contents PART 2 The Gospel and the Heretics 5 Heresy in Fournier’s Theological and Exegetical Writings 151 5.1 Jacques Fournier and the Theological Consultations of John XXII 151 5.2 Fournier’s Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew 164 5.3 Organization of the Work 172 6 Heretics in Fournier’s Commentary on Matthew 176 6.1 Corrupting Faith, Corrupting Customs 176 6.2 False Prophets 180 6.3 “Beware of Heretics” 181 6.4 Falsity 190 6.5 Improbity 193 6.6 Guile 196 6.7 Malice and Cruelty 198 7 The Signs of Heresy: How to Tell a Plant from Its Fruit 203 7.1 Recognizing Heretics by Their Words and Actions 205 7.2 Heresy as Absolute Evil 214 7.3 Sweet and Useful Fruits, Bitter and Useless Fruits 217 8 The Origin of Evil and Individual Responsibility 227 8.1 The Origin of Evil by Reason of Being 228 8.2 The Origin of Evil by Reason of Possibility 236 8.3 The Condemnation of Bad Plants 240 PART 3 The Papacy against Heretics 9 Heretics, Rebels, and Schismatics in the Pontificate of Benedict XII 247 9.1 Beguins, Friars, and Fraticelli in Benedict XII’s Political Horizon 252 9.2 Reconciliation and Obedience: The Failure of Negotiations with Louis the Bavarian 262 contents ix 10 Apostolico conspectui: Heretics and Inquisitors between Centre and Periphery 275 10.1 The Protection of Secular Lords 277 10.2 Against Inquisitorial Abuse 281 10.3 Magic and Sorcery, Divination and Devil Invocation 289 11 Schismatics and Infidels beyond the Frontiers of Latin Christianity 296 11.1 Border Clashes in the Iberian Peninsula 296 11.2 The Schism of the East and the Crusade against the Turks 303 11.3 The Errors of the Armenians 312 11.4 The Universal Shepherd and the Conversion of the Tartars 323 Conclusions 332 Bibliography 339 Index of Names 363 Index of Subjects 370 Acknowledgments This book is the revised version of my doctoral dissertation “Definire l’eresia. Dibattiti teologici, pratiche giudiziarie e politica pontificia al tempo di Jacques Fournier/Benedetto XII,” defended in 2010 at the European University Institute in Florence and funded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the EUI. During the years of my doctoral research, I received the friendly support and generous advice of numerous people. The Department of History and Civilization offered an ideal setting and a stimulating environment in which to conduct this research. I had the privilege of being supervised by Tony Molho, and owe much to his intelligent guidance and the enthusiasm and optimism he was able to transmit to me at every meeting. I am particularly grateful to my second reader, Antonella Romano, and to the other members of my jury, John Arnold, Grado Giovanni Merlo, and Jacques Revel, for their precious advice and for the attention they dedicated to my work. I became interested in medieval heresy and inquisition during my under- graduate studies at the University of Florence and at the Central European University in Budapest. I wish to thank Dinora Corsi and Gabor Klaniczay, who guided my first steps in this fascinating subject. During and after my PhD, sev- eral institutions in various countries offered me the best working conditions for the completion of this book. I was repeatedly welcomed at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, first as a visiting student and later as a Marie Curie Fellow. My work was profoundly marked by the exchanges with Alain Boureau, Sylvain Piron, and the other members of the Groupe d’Anthropologie Scolastique. I am also grateful to the friends and colleagues I encountered during my post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Religious Studies of Leiden University, and in particular to Heleen Murre-van den Berg. Most of this book was conceived in places such as the EUI Library, the Bib- lioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the library of the IRHT, the Mediathèque du Grand- Troyes, and Leiden University Library. Furthermore, two research fellowships enabled me to consult the resources of the Robbins Collection at the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley, and of the Max-Planck Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt. I am grateful to Andrew Gow for agreeing to publish this study in the series “Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions” and to Ivo Romein for his assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. Comments and criticism by Jürgen Miethke and the anonymous reviewer have been especially helpful. The book has been carefully translated from Italian into English by Tony Brophy, xii acknowledgments Sarah Prodan, and Isabella Bolognese, whom I thank for their patience, and with the financial support of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), the Marie Curie Cofund Action, and the Marie Curie Intra- European Fellowship Programme. This long journey has been made much more pleasurable thanks to the priv- ileged companionship of my family and dearest friends. I dedicate this book to Daniela, for the happiness she brought from the first to the last page. List of Abbreviations BF Eubel, Conrad, (ed.) Bullarium franciscanum: Sive romanorum pontificum constitutiones, epistolae, diplomata tribus ordinibus Minorum, Clarissarum, Poenitentium . a sancto Francisco institutis ab eorum originibus ad nostra usque tempora con- cessa, vol. 6. Rome: Typis Vaticanis, 1902. Bullaire Vidal, Jean-Marie, (ed.) Bullaire de l’Inquisition française au XIVe siècle et jusqu’à la fin du grand schisme. Paris: Letouzey et Ané, 1913. Communes Vidal, Jean-Marie, (ed.) Benoît XII, 1334–1342. Lettres communes analysées d’après les registres dits d’Avignon et du Vatican, 3 vols. Paris: A. Fontemoing, 1902–11. Daumet Daumet, Georges, (ed.) Benoît XII (1334–1342). Lettres closes, patentes et curiales se rapportant à la France, publiées ou analy- sées d’après les registres du Vatican, 3 vols. Paris: Privat, 2003. GdA Pales-Gobilliard, Annette, (ed. and trans.) L’inquisiteur Geoffroy d’Ablis et les cathares du comté de Foix (1308–1309).