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    Medieval Academy of America

    Review: [untitled]Author(s): Robert E. LernerReviewed work(s):

    Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus by Malcom LambertSource: Speculum, Vol. 53, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 821-824Published by: Medieval Academy of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2849808

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    Reviews 821useful guide for those who would attempt a similar operation; and, finally, anintroduction (Ch. A, pp. 5-6) and outline (Ch. B, pp. 7-19) of the theoreticalbackground for the application routine, certainly the most provocative and informa-tive portion of the volume for the general reader involved with textual edition.Given the dichotomy between empirical observation and formulated textual tradi-tion on the one hand and between covariate similarity and dependency on the otherhand, the authors establish three analytic postulates: 1) observation of similarityamong variants (or groups of variants) corresponds, on the level of textual filiation,to assumption of duplication; 2) observation of dependency among variants (orgroups of variants) corresponds, on the level of textual filiation, to assumption ofderivation; and 3) relationships among traditions of consecutive passages are identi-cal. Obviously, these postulates are of different orders and divergent truth valuesunder application. Moreover, an overriding concern in textual correlation is notsimply similarity vs. dependency, but error analysis (facilior

    vs. difficilior)and its priorrecognition (emendatio),all aspects of manuscript investigation with such multifariousinstantiations as seemingly to defy the essentially predictive format that constitutesprogramming, at least at its present stage of refinement, though split-plot techniquesperform this for certain types of data. Multivariate and relational analyses are notenough.Despite these reservations, Kochendorfer and Schirok have succeeded in demon-strating that, while not serviceable for the most sophisticated problems, computerapplications are practically indispensable for economic variant collation and group-ing, otherwise inordinately laborious tasks that have often delayed the appearance ofcritical editions. In this, they have built in large measure on the work of notableItalian predecessors, e.g. E. Maretti, Sebastiano Timpanaro, and Gian Piero Zarri. Noone currently engaged in the preparation of critical editions or the determination ofstemmata should fail to apprise himself of the distinct advantages of computer aidsfor manuscript studies.

    T. L. MARKEYUniversity of Michigan

    MAICO,LM LAMBERT,Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus. NewYork: Holmes & Meier, 1977. Pp. xvi, 430; 12 maps, 9 illustrations. $29.50.THIS book, the product of fifteen years' labor, has been worth waiting for. Conceivedin the early 1960s as a paperback essay in a series called "New Dimensions inHistory," it has taken on girth and achieved ends different from those proposed inthe advertisements for the original series. The sixties' "New Dimensions" were toexpress innovative methods and "novel approaches to historical thought" (few in factdid- few, indeed, ever appeared); Lambert's book has replaced the emphasis onnovelty with considered synthesis and added a quality that was never mentioned inthe "New Dimensions" advertisements, namely, excellence.Lambert's subtitle - "Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus" - indicates quiteaccurately that he has not omitted anything notable from his survey of medievalEuropean popular heresies. All that we would expect to find is here: Bogomils, theeleventh-century cases; the twelfth-century wandering preachers, Waldensians,Cathars, mystics, Franciscan Spirituals, Joachites, Lollards, Hussites - each group setin terms of its particular geographical background as well as the changing attitudesand repressive policies of the church. In covering this wide range of material Lam-

    Reviews 821useful guide for those who would attempt a similar operation; and, finally, anintroduction (Ch. A, pp. 5-6) and outline (Ch. B, pp. 7-19) of the theoreticalbackground for the application routine, certainly the most provocative and informa-tive portion of the volume for the general reader involved with textual edition.Given the dichotomy between empirical observation and formulated textual tradi-tion on the one hand and between covariate similarity and dependency on the otherhand, the authors establish three analytic postulates: 1) observation of similarityamong variants (or groups of variants) corresponds, on the level of textual filiation,to assumption of duplication; 2) observation of dependency among variants (orgroups of variants) corresponds, on the level of textual filiation, to assumption ofderivation; and 3) relationships among traditions of consecutive passages are identi-cal. Obviously, these postulates are of different orders and divergent truth valuesunder application. Moreover, an overriding concern in textual correlation is notsimply similarity vs. dependency, but error analysis (facilior

    vs. difficilior)and its priorrecognition (emendatio),all aspects of manuscript investigation with such multifariousinstantiations as seemingly to defy the essentially predictive format that constitutesprogramming, at least at its present stage of refinement, though split-plot techniquesperform this for certain types of data. Multivariate and relational analyses are notenough.Despite these reservations, Kochendorfer and Schirok have succeeded in demon-strating that, while not serviceable for the most sophisticated problems, computerapplications are practically indispensable for economic variant collation and group-ing, otherwise inordinately laborious tasks that have often delayed the appearance ofcritical editions. In this, they have built in large measure on the work of notableItalian predecessors, e.g. E. Maretti, Sebastiano Timpanaro, and Gian Piero Zarri. Noone currently engaged in the preparation of critical editions or the determination ofstemmata should fail to apprise himself of the distinct advantages of computer aidsfor manuscript studies.

    T. L. MARKEYUniversity of Michigan

    MAICO,LM LAMBERT,Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus. NewYork: Holmes & Meier, 1977. Pp. xvi, 430; 12 maps, 9 illustrations. $29.50.THIS book, the product of fifteen years' labor, has been worth waiting for. Conceivedin the early 1960s as a paperback essay in a series called "New Dimensions inHistory," it has taken on girth and achieved ends different from those proposed inthe advertisements for the original series. The sixties' "New Dimensions" were toexpress innovative methods and "novel approaches to historical thought" (few in factdid- few, indeed, ever appeared); Lambert's book has replaced the emphasis onnovelty with considered synthesis and added a quality that was never mentioned inthe "New Dimensions" advertisements, namely, excellence.Lambert's subtitle - "Popular Movements from Bogomil to Hus" - indicates quiteaccurately that he has not omitted anything notable from his survey of medievalEuropean popular heresies. All that we would expect to find is here: Bogomils, theeleventh-century cases; the twelfth-century wandering preachers, Waldensians,Cathars, mystics, Franciscan Spirituals, Joachites, Lollards, Hussites - each group setin terms of its particular geographical background as well as the changing attitudesand repressive policies of the church. In covering this wide range of material Lam-

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    822 Reviewsbert has sought out and scoured with awesome pertinacity the best and most recentsecondary literature in the major Western European languages. He does not readSerbo-Croatian or Czech, but that has not discouraged him from locating EasternEuropean articles with resumes in languages he does read and from consulting andcorresponding with Slavic experts. His footnotes on the Bosnian Church, for exam-ple, show him to be as informed about current work coming out of Sarajevo andZagreb as his treatment of the Lollards shows him informed about the most recentscholarship (dissertations and works in progress included) of his own country. Eachone of Lambert's chapters accordingly summarizes the best research that has beendone on a given subject and provides a marvelous bibliographical apparatus forfurther reading.Lest it be thought that Lambert's work is purely derivative, it must further beemphasized that he definitely has a mind of his own. He conveniently lists in hispreface seven points on which he takes issue with current interpretations or takessides in a debate, and he subsequently argues each point with civilized conviction andimpressive control of the primary as well as the secondary literature. It is unlikelythat he will persuade every reader about all of his contentions, especially in caseswhere the sources are very thin, but, for what it is worth, his score with this one wasfive out of seven. (I do not agree with his emphasis on Bogomilism as an influence onWestern heresy before c. 1140, and must reserve judgment on the degree to whichthe Provencal Spirituals were heading toward heresy before the persecution underJohn XXII, but I do agree that poverty was a dominant trait of the early Walden-sians, that the Waldensian component in the Hussite movement can be too easilyexaggerated, that Catharism was destroyed mainly by force, that Lollardy - not justanticlericalism - had a continuous life in England up to the sixteenth century, andthat Western European heresy was not so predominantly urban as N. Cohn wouldhave us believe.)With the author's encouragement generations of student book reviewers will prob-ably refer to "Lambert's seven," but in fact his independence from received opinionsis not limited to seven points: his wide and deep reading has allowed him to advancesmaller revisions and corrections in numerous other places: e.g., "Grundmann un-derestimates the significance of references . . . to weaving" (p. 63, n. 60). Lambert'sunwillingness merely to boil down other people's work can also be seen in hisextensive original use of maps (which, it must be said, do not always yield a commen-surate return on his investments) and his clear and resourceful exposition of devel-opments in Joachite thought by means of reference to authentic Joachite "figures."Aside from greater and lesser revisions, is there a "Lambert thesis" on the natureof medieval heresy in general? Fortunately there is not. The author is too sensitive ascholar to imagine that what may have held for tenth-century Bulgaria held in thesame measure for thirteenth-century Lombardy or fifteenth-century England. Thereis, however, a Lambert approach - namely, primary attention to religious currentsbalanced by differentiated considerations of varying political, economic, and socialcircumstances. Lambert's deep and perceptive familiarity with various medieval reli-gious currents is particularly impressive. For me one of the best passages in the bookis the summary portrayal of later Waldensianism and Lollardy as "the perennialreligion of the layman from lower classes, who painfully acquired some booklearningor learnt by rote passages of Scripture and passed on by word of mouth his anticleri-cal, Donatist views, mixed with an earthy scepticism about facets of Catholicism" (p.271). (A passage like this, or the designation of eleventh-century Western heresies as"in a sense collector's pieces" [p. 35] also shows how deftly Professor Lambert canwrite.)

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    Reviews 823Since no full review would be complete without some cavils, some now follow. Inoticed only a few outright slips: it is redundant to say "idiotaand unlettered" (p. 80);false to say "second and third decades" of a century when one means twenties andthirties (p. 108 - same problem p. 152); incorrect to say "in the north beguinus as aterm for a man was at first not usual" (p. 174) (the contrary is true); false to say thatWyclif wrote "the first commentary on the whole Bible since the days of StephenLangton" (p. 226) (thereby ignoring Hugh of St. Cher and Nicholas of Lyra);misleading to suggest that interest in the coming of Antichrist was "eccentric" (p.277); and unfair to criticize Cohn without taking cognizance of his revised (1970)edition (passim- particularly relevant concerning the treatment of Tanchelm).Lambert's argument for interrelatedness in the incidents of eleventh-century heresycan never by proven or disproven, but it does seem dubious to suggest a link betweennorthern France and Italy on the basis of trade fairs in Champagne which are notknown to have existed so early (p. 35). I doubt too (though we probably can neverbe sure) that Cathars were ever "well represented in Germany" (p. 108), that Joachite"myths" helped to combat those of the Cathars (pp. 140-41, following Manselli), orthat the late-fourteenth-century inquisitorial campaigns of Peter Zwicker "came nearto driving [the Waldensians] out of existence" (p. 152). Despite the book's remarkablecomprehensiveness, there are at least two egregious omissions: lack of reference tothe career of Robert the Bougre and to the trial of John Drandorf (Heimpel'streatment of which is one of the greater achievements of recent heresiologicalscholarship). Least excusable is the lack of a statement of conclusions: the book endslamely with some obiterdicta on links with the Reformation without any attempt at aretrospective consideration of the ground covered.The appearance of such an excellent synthesis prompts one in conclusion to takestock of where scholarship on medieval heresy currently stands. Researchers in thefield have much to be proud of: as Lambert's book amply demonstrates, mid-twentieth-century study of medieval heresy ranks in significance and accom-plishments with study of, say, canon law or twelfth-century humanism. Of the greatconceptualizers of the last generation the name of Grundmann stands at the head ofthe list: one is struck on reading Lambert by how well guidelines set out byGrundmann in 1935 still serve for a synthesis published in 1977. (In fact, now thatLambert's book is here, there is hardly a need for a translation of Religiose Be-wegungen.) There may be no Grundmanns among the current workers in the field,but great progress has recently been made both in terms of important manuscriptdiscoveries and in general understanding.Where do we go from here? In chronological terms, not surprisingly it is theperiod after 1250 that calls most for further detailed research. Lambert's surveyreveals that there is still room for special studies on southern European "free spirits,"later Waldensians, and Lollards. In working in these areas and others no one shouldthink that the manuscript evidence has been exhausted, for virtually every importantrecent study of late medieval heresy has added to the textual data base. (It is also wiseto find the best manuscripts of known texts and not place unwarranted trust in olderprinted editions.) The questions asked of the evidence will surely differ with theexaminers. Old ones will of course continue to be raised: how well do we understandthe nature of the procedures against heretics? how well do we understand thethoughts and motivations of the heretics themselves? If there is going to be anyprimarily new basis for questioning the material, it will probably be the sociologicalone. Lambert himself laments the lack of adequate treatments of social context. Forthe period before 1250 this may be explained by the paucity of the sources, but suchis not the case for the later Middle Ages. Lambert did not have the opportunity to do

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    824 Reviewsmore than drop a footnote reference to E. Le Roy Ladurie's recent Montaillou, whichhas made a recent reviewer marvel like Keats on opening Chapman's Homer, butthat work should inspire others to follow similar directions in using inquisitorialevidence to develop sociological perspectives. Let us hope then that we will betravelling in realms of gold. If the next few generations do as well in heresiologicalresearch as the last ones have done, it will then be time for a new synthesis; may thatone be as expert and balanced as the present work of Malcolm Lambert.

    ROBERT E. LERNERNorthwestern UniversityGORDON LEFF, The Dissolution of the Medieval Outlook: An Essay on Intellectual andSpiritual Change in the FourteenthCentury. New York: New York University Press,1976. Pp. vi, 154. $7.95.THE theme of Professor Leff's recent work is made more explicit by its subtitle: "AnEssay on Intellectual and Spiritual Change in the Fourteenth Century." This inter-pretative essay is divided into four chapters: "Orientations," "Knowledge and Belief,""The Physical World," and "The Spiritual World." The chapter on orientationsprovides the conceptual framework of the essay. In it Leff describes what he under-stands by the word "outlook." He does so in epistemological terms strikingly similarto those of Ockham, whose thought is so central to his essay. An "outlook," accordingto Leff, is basically "a set of abstractions formed from our idea of the ideas, attitudes,and beliefs of different individuals or groups." Since, as he asserts, knowledge ofindividuals is the sole source of certitude, it is not surprising that the unity and realityhe ascribes to an "outlook" is totally conceptual.Leff next directs his attention to the manner in which the essential unity of an"outlook" is maintained amid the phenomenon of change. In this context he distin-guishes between continuous and discontinuous change. The former takes placewithin an existing conceptual framework and remains in harmonious relationshipwith it. The latter introduces ideas that are not fully consonant with that frameworkand through the creation of incongruities and contradictions eventually results in itsfragmentation. According to Leff, most intellectual and spiritual change up to thefourteenth century is essentially continuous and consistently reenforces traditional

    medieval views. With the fourteenth century, the rate of discontinuous changeintensifies and eventually results in the dissolution of the "medieval outlook." Theareas in which the author seeks to substantiate his thesis are philosophy and theology,the physical sciences, and the realm of spirituality. These areas constitute the subjectmatter of his succeeding chapters.What Leff understands by the "medieval outlook" is the "overwhelming tendencyto interpret reality in terms of universal natures or essences or forms as the createdexpression of the universal archetypes or divine ideas in God." This approach foundits embodiment in the Augustinian and Thomistic traditions of moderate realism.The element of discontinuity that Ockham introduced was the emphatic assertionthat only individuals exist and that universals, consequently, possess but a conceptualreality. Furthermore, since, with the exception of God, all existence is contingent,knowledge drawn from individuals enjoys only varying degrees of probability. While,therefore, the Christian context in which Ockham developed his thought remainedintact, the categories of that thought changed considerably. Logic replacedmetaphysics and probability supplanted certitude. After Ockham, the major philo-

    824 Reviewsmore than drop a footnote reference to E. Le Roy Ladurie's recent Montaillou, whichhas made a recent reviewer marvel like Keats on opening Chapman's Homer, butthat work should inspire others to follow similar directions in using inquisitorialevidence to develop sociological perspectives. Let us hope then that we will betravelling in realms of gold. If the next few generations do as well in heresiologicalresearch as the last ones have done, it will then be time for a new synthesis; may thatone be as expert and balanced as the present work of Malcolm Lambert.

    ROBERT E. LERNERNorthwestern UniversityGORDON LEFF, The Dissolution of the Medieval Outlook: An Essay on Intellectual andSpiritual Change in the FourteenthCentury. New York: New York University Press,1976. Pp. vi, 154. $7.95.THE theme of Professor Leff's recent work is made more explicit by its subtitle: "AnEssay on Intellectual and Spiritual Change in the Fourteenth Century." This inter-pretative essay is divided into four chapters: "Orientations," "Knowledge and Belief,""The Physical World," and "The Spiritual World." The chapter on orientationsprovides the conceptual framework of the essay. In it Leff describes what he under-stands by the word "outlook." He does so in epistemological terms strikingly similarto those of Ockham, whose thought is so central to his essay. An "outlook," accordingto Leff, is basically "a set of abstractions formed from our idea of the ideas, attitudes,and beliefs of different individuals or groups." Since, as he asserts, knowledge ofindividuals is the sole source of certitude, it is not surprising that the unity and realityhe ascribes to an "outlook" is totally conceptual.Leff next directs his attention to the manner in which the essential unity of an"outlook" is maintained amid the phenomenon of change. In this context he distin-guishes between continuous and discontinuous change. The former takes placewithin an existing conceptual framework and remains in harmonious relationshipwith it. The latter introduces ideas that are not fully consonant with that frameworkand through the creation of incongruities and contradictions eventually results in itsfragmentation. According to Leff, most intellectual and spiritual change up to thefourteenth century is essentially continuous and consistently reenforces traditional

    medieval views. With the fourteenth century, the rate of discontinuous changeintensifies and eventually results in the dissolution of the "medieval outlook." Theareas in which the author seeks to substantiate his thesis are philosophy and theology,the physical sciences, and the realm of spirituality. These areas constitute the subjectmatter of his succeeding chapters.What Leff understands by the "medieval outlook" is the "overwhelming tendencyto interpret reality in terms of universal natures or essences or forms as the createdexpression of the universal archetypes or divine ideas in God." This approach foundits embodiment in the Augustinian and Thomistic traditions of moderate realism.The element of discontinuity that Ockham introduced was the emphatic assertionthat only individuals exist and that universals, consequently, possess but a conceptualreality. Furthermore, since, with the exception of God, all existence is contingent,knowledge drawn from individuals enjoys only varying degrees of probability. While,therefore, the Christian context in which Ockham developed his thought remainedintact, the categories of that thought changed considerably. Logic replacedmetaphysics and probability supplanted certitude. After Ockham, the major philo-