Ignorantia and superstitio

Abstract

Between the late twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries, in order to check, limit, and, if necessary, repress protest movements, the Church of Rome undertook its struggle against heresy by instituting the inquisitorial tribunal which it entrusted to the bishops. This decision should have been accompanied by a clear definition of orthodoxy in matters of doctrine and behaviour. Between the late twelfth and mid-thirteenth centuries, in order to check, limit, and, if necessary, repress protest movements, the Church of Rome undertook its struggle against heresy by instituting the inquisitorial tribunal which it entrusted to the bishops. This decision should have been accompanied by a clear definition of orthodoxy in matters of doctrine and behaviour. Unrelenting devotion to the supernatural expressed a world of needs and yearnings that sprang from the lower reaches of society, a strong and constant demand to which the Church could have responded.