In recent years scholars from various disciplines have endeavored to take a fresh look at intellectual life in the Middle Ages and to break open the allegedly homogenous picture insinuated by literary, art-historical, and other types of documents. Kurt Flasch, for example, together with Udo Reinhold Jeck, published a volume entitled iDas Licht der Vernunft or iLight of Reason (1997) in which the contributors explored elements of rational, perhaps even enlightened thinking which obviously was also possible throughout the high and late Middle Ages. The famous document by the Parisian Bishop Etienne Tempier, issued in 1277, condemning 219 theses allegedly pronounced by professors at the University of Paris reveals, in a curiously dialectical fashion, a considerable openness toward religious, philosophical, and social paradigms prevalent at that time (ed. and trans. Kurt Flasch, 1989). Friedrich Heer, in his insightful study iThe Medieval World (1961/62) discussed the development of the medieval universities and concluded: "It was from the example of Toledo that Europe first learnt to understand that learning knows no frontiers, that it is universal, global, and 'human,' that it concerns mankind as a whole, without respect of race or religion" (240). On the other hand, medieval Europe was increasingly dominated by fear, superstition, and prejudice, as Jean Delumeau (1983) and Peter Dinzelbacher (1996) have demonstrated. In his monograph iKetzer und Professoren: Haeresie und Vernunftglauben , originally published in 1992, now translated into English, Heinrich Fichtenau approaches the same question again, this time, however, by focusing on special intellectual and religious groups, the heretics and intellectuals, mostly teachers at medieval universities. He observes that the eleventh and twelfth centuries experienced a tremendous development involving many different aspects of higher learning and religion. Irrespective of the Christian orthodoxy prevalent in the high Middle Ages, many nonconformist tendencies exerted a considerable influence and stirred up the traditional institutions, especially the church and the university.
In the first chapter Fichtenau examines the origin, nature, and dissemination of eleventh-century heresy. He alludes to a wide array of concrete cases of assumed or openly demonstrated forms of deviations in religious beliefs and focuses especially on the Cathars, Bogomils, and Waldensians. Because of the wide net which the author casts and because of the diversity of sources which he discusses, this chapter makes a very difficult, perhaps even confusing reading. Fichtenau allows the enormous range of historical documents to speak freely, but he does not provide clear guidelines for the understanding of how far these many cases represent puzzle pieces of a large picture. A common experience for a lay person, however, seems to have been that when he or she attempted to "base his way of life on the monastic-ascetic model, he now met with rejection only from one clerical party, while from another he drew succor and advice" (50).
The second chapter highlights the many religious sects or sectarian groups within the medieval church. Their existence was possible because of a new-found intellectual freedom for the ordinary lay person, mostly living in a city, to follow a particularly charismatic church leader and to join a fellowship of believers. Here the divergent group of Waldensians is also considered.
In the third chapter the author once again presents the Bogomils and Cathars by way of examining concrete historical law cases against them during which theological interpretations were presented. Fichtenau also describes the heretics' rituals, rules, self-perception, and everyday life. In the fourth chapter -- surprisingly late for a monograph of this scope -- he surveys a selection of current scholarly theories about heresy and its origin, but shies away from a fully-fledged "Forschungsbericht" (reseach report).
Apparently not every person living in the Middle Ages was an ardent adherer of the Catholic Church, and many espoused heretical views, or were even nonbelievers. In the fifth chapter Fichtenau explores these conflicts among the various groups, studies the development in the Provence where the Cathars had their stronghold, and sheds light on the growing dissension between clergy and laity in the twelfth century.
To the reader's surprise, once again the author returns to the Bogomils and Cathars in the sixth chapter where their philosophical and religious theories and lifestyles are more thoroughly investigated. Subsequently (7th chapter) Fichtenau deals with the role of Platonism in the high Middle Ages, then turns to scholars as heretical thinkers in a philosophical sense. More than ever before the author impresses us with his astounding knowledge of the relevant primary literature, that is, the entire philosophical discourse of the twelfth century. The same can be claimed for the eighth chapter which deals with religious edification and biblical exegesis which often led to the emergence of new, divergent, problematic, at times even heretical thoughts, mostly hidden behind the mask of allegorical reading.
Beginning with the ninth chapter Fichtenau concentrates on the twelfth-century scholars and their search for a rational explanation of this world. In particular he presents the conflicts between traditional interpreters and modernist thinkers, deals with the impact of Platonic philosophy, and outlines the development of liberal arts at the universities (Abelard). Philosophy now began to serve as a "science of drawing distinctions" (233) and heavily relied on dialectics as a hermeneutical tool in intellectual discourse. Whereas many of these observations are derived from an extensive body of modern scholarship (see, now, for example, C. Stephen Jaeger, iThe Envy of Angels , 1994), Fichtenau also refers to important, but hitherto little discussed intellectual debates between the Cathars and members of the traditional church, such as the one held in Montre'al in 1207. Apparently widely opposing viewpoints were presented and publicly discussed; the arbiters, however, eventually declined to reach a verdict (257).
Finally, the author examines speculative theology, jurisprudence, linguistic logic, and other areas of scholarly and theological concern. Teachers such as Berengar of Tours, Rupert of Deutz, Peter Lombard, and Gilbert of Poitiers had a strong impact on their students and colleagues, even though they also faced stiff opposition from conservative circles within the church and sometimes were charged with heresy.
Although the reader is left with the impression of having been exposed to an intellectual whirlwind, overall Fichtenau succeeds in opening many different windows toward the diversity and contradictions of high medieval intellectual and theological debates. He adduces an enormous wealth of sources and voices demonstrating that in that age the learned and lay cultures were not at all homogeneous; instead, heterogeneous tendencies, conflicts, differing interpretations, and the like were very common.
Some of the problems with this book reside in its lack of organizational principles, the careless accumulation of sources, and the absence of a principal thread leading us through the wilderness of intellectual life in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This is compensated for by the author's effort to relate the various phenomena with each other and to demonstrate that the eleventh and twelfth centuries witnessed an astounding innovation in philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence leading to a "Renaissance" as it had already been described by Charles Homer Haskins in his seminal monograph published in 1927. It seems strange, however, that Fichtenau does not even refer to Haskins for whom the Middles Ages were a time of "continuity and change" (1966, 3), stressing the "unequal development of different parts of Europe" (4) leading to a robust innovation in the liberal arts and also in theology. Nevertheless, the breadth of information presented by Fichtenau is impressive, and so the author's admirable skill to weave a fascinating tapestry reflecting the tumultuous time period of heresy and scholasticism.
Random comparisons with the original German text demonstrated that the translator carried out her work in a highly laudable fashion, as she avoided the pitfalls of a too literal translation and did not move too far away from Fichtenau's text which might have changed its actual meaning.