Both books reviewed here make important contributions to scholarship on the medieval Cathars, but in different ways. Carol Lansing's study, largely based on a novel analysis of inquisition records, is narrow in scope. It focuses on the Cathars in the Italian town of Orvieto from the end of the twelfth century until the end of the thirteenth century. Malcolm Lambert's work, on the other hand, provides a synopsis of Cathar history that spans several countries and at least five centuries. It uses mostly secondary sources but displays a mastery of the vast literature on Catharism that is unparalleled.
In his most recent book, Lambert elaborates on the chapters that dealt with the medieval Cathars in his earlier work Medieval Heresy (2nd ed., 1992). He revised those chapters thoroughly, updated them with references to more recent literature, and expanded his coverage, especially for later Catharism and for Bosnia. Similar to his strategy in Medieval Heresy, he gives a synchronic account of Catharism, broken down by geographical area and historical period.
Lambert begins by sketching out the religious landscape of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, marked by the reappearance and proliferation of heresies in western Christianity and by the aftermath of the Gregorian reforms. On this foil Lambert carefully lays out the rise of Catharism, including a lucid discussion of Bogomil influences on the nascent Cathar movement. He then delineates the shifting boundaries between orthodoxy and heterodoxy in the book's core chapters. These chapters thematize the growth of Catharism in Languedoc and Italy, and the ecclesiastical response evinced by the formation of the mendicant orders, the embrace of pious lay movements, and the implementation of inquisitorial policies. Lambert concludes his book with a depiction of the short-lived Cathar revival in southern France, the end of Catharism in Italy, and the protracted history of dualist heresy in Bosnia. All chapters reflect an enormous range of recent research.
Throughout, Lambert focuses somewhat more on Cathar institutional characteristics and the social and religious context in which Catharism evolved than on Cathar belief structure and practice. The picture that emerges in his nuanced account is that of a Cathar movement with remarkable diversity in doctrine, organization, and patterns of behavior over time and across regions. The influence of Gerhard Rottenwohrer's work, which Lambert clearly acknowledges, is unmistakable. Moreover, Lambert takes a middling position in interpreting Cathar decline: Catharism played a more enduring role in public life and the vitality and resilience of its religious beliefs, organizational structures, and rituals were greater than depicted in the recent writings of John Hine Mundy and in the older work of Arno Borst, but Lambert does not go nearly as far in making this argument as do some French historians.
Lambert's command of the literature and his ability to integrate it into a coherent narrative are unmatched; I found only two instances in which he should have consulted better sources (he uses the first instead of the second editions of Christine Thouzellier's and of Marie-Humbert Vicaire's classic studies, on Languedocian heresy and on St Dominic, respectively). In all, his book amounts to the most comprehensive and best account of the medieval Catharism; one that goes beyond, in its depth and comprehensiveness, noted works of older provenance such as Jean Duvernoy's Le catharisme. It deserves to become the standard account of medieval Catharism.
Still, there are shortcomings. Few of Lambert's sources are primary. This, I believe, has implications for his argument of which readers should be aware. Among the best sources for the study of everyday Cathar life and of the interplay of Cathar beliefs, organization, and conduct, at least for southern France, are the various inquisition records contained in volumes 21-25 of the Collection Doat, which Lambert uses, albeit in a (perhaps partial) translation by Alexander Murray. But for an even better source, MS 609 of the Bibliotheque Municipal, Toulouse (for which an almost complete transcription is available at Columbia University's Butler Library), Lambert relies heavily on Walter Wakefield's published and unpublished work on this document, and, it seems, on Wakefield's interpretation of it as well. Of course, there is hardly a better expert on this document than Wakefield, who stands out as one of the preeminent scholars of Catharism in this century, but I wish Lambert had analyzed this document himself, and more thoroughly so, for his reliance on Wakefield results in an uncritical re-statement of the latter's argument about the preeminent importance of families in the transmission of Cathar heresy.
Neglected, or at least insufficiently noted, in Lambert's depiction is the fact that controversy over adherence to orthodoxy or heterodoxy could happen within families, as Wakefield himself once pointed out. More important, besides family lineage another mechanism existed to establish lasting ties between Cathars perfects, the believers, and the surrounding communities: professional association. Both in southern France and northern Italy in the early thirteenth century, Cathars operated houses and workshops that were frequented by perfects and in which they and some of their supporters could pursue a vocational education. Vocational education was likely not the only type of instruction that took place in these establishments: they were also used for dogmatic learning. Cathar artisanal establishments were of major importance for the dissemination of Cathar belief and for keeping communities affiliated with Cathar perfects--at least for males--while the corresponding establishments for female supporters and female Cathar novices appears to have centered on religious matters. I have documented the importance of such establishments in my own work, and it also emerges as a major finding in Carol Lansing's study.
Lansing's book, Power and Purity, differs from Lambert's in both its use of sources and its scope. Her choice of Orvieto as the case of her study was driven by two considerations: first, Orvieto was a hotbed of Cathar heresy, and, second, it is one of the few towns, next to Bologna and Florence, for which inquisition records are extant.
Belonging to the Patrimony, Orvieto at the end of the twelfth century had strained relations with the papacy over the independence of its political institutions. The growing political ambitions of the popolo clashed with the papacy's aspirations to ascertain papal jurisdiction. This conflict happened at a time when the town experienced increasing prosperity and demographic growth, episcopal authority was weak, and powerful noble lineages were absent in the town. Moreover, many secular clergy were not clearly demarcated in their life-style from the laity. These conditions, Lansing convincingly argues, were conducive to Cathar perfects' ascendance in status. Those perfects, above all, demonstrated exemplary asceticism and abstention from worldly matters, and they had the reputation of valuing the pursuit of the communal goals of their group over self- interest.
In the first and outstanding part of the book, Lansing demonstrates that Cathar believers and supporters drew from interrelated networks of family ties as well as professional associations. "Cathar households often were interconnected by marital, professional, and financial ties, both because the faith spread among groups of people, and because Cathars believers over time tended to associate with each other" (pp. 60-61). The Cathar believers included merchants, moneylenders, minor nobles, and master artisans and shop owners, particularly in the furrier and other leather trades, but not day-laborers or others of lower status.
Lansing is judicious in describing what the records she analyzed do or do not contain. These records include property records, inquisitorial records, and orthodox literature such as hagiographical accounts. The extensive property records and existing inquisitorial sentences allow Lansing to reconstruct the town's social structure, and she is able to map the multiple intersections of religion and politics in its public life.
Yet much less can be said about Cathar beliefs and practices in Orvieto as they were reflected in the records of the inquisition in 1268, which Lansing studies in parts two and three of her book. Unlike their southern French counterparts, inquisitions in medieval Italy were not successful until the second half of the thirteenth century, and they are mostly preserved in inquisitorial sentences--the least revealing of inquisition records. Those kinds of documents contain sentences and penances enjoined. Produced at the concluding stage of an inquisition, they usually give only a stereotypical and summary account of a person's involvement in heresy. More revealing are documents based on transcriptions of protocols produced during the often repeated interrogation of suspects. Attending scribes and notaries would jot down the testimony during such an interrogation, likely in a simultaneous translation of the native tongue into Latin. At a later period, they transcribed their protocols into organized ledgers containing statements with which the same or other witnesses could subsequently be confronted. In those instances alterations in the transcribed protocols could be made and new ones added, culminating in a final copy of the transcription into a register.
Unfortunately, few such registers survived in Italy. Much less is known, then, about the life of Italian Cathar perfects and believers than is the case for southern France. Consequently, as Lansing points out herself, the existing accounts of Italian Cathars' beliefs and practices, including those of Orvieto, are sketchy. There exists a 1229 description of Cathar beliefs made by two former Italian perfects. Lansing ably discusses its contents in the context a climate of religious skepticism and doubts--a context, though, that has been described by other medievalists before. Yet for other evidence of Cathar beliefs and practices she turns to the statements inadvertently made in 1247 by the Cathar believer Peter Garcias of Toulouse to a group of friars. Not only are these statements well known, but it also remains unclear why she privileges this account over other types of accounts, and considers it relevant for Italian Catharism. Hence, readers interested in a treatise on the beliefs of leading Cathar circles and their followers will need to turn elsewhere.
These are minor quibbles, though. Overall, Lansing's book is highly recommended. It is beautifully written and carefully researched.