Abstract
This paper argues that there were multiple forms of heresy implemented by the Church to control opposing ideas and knowledge in the Middle Ages. The term “heresy” shift meanings for its original conception to include all beliefs that were opposed to official Church doctrine, including magic and sorcery. The inquisitorial process was implemented as a response to the laity’s attempts to interpret Church doctrine for themselves alongside their traditional beliefs. As he concept of heresy changed, so too did the Church’s view of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. Before the inquisitorial process became widespread, magic was considered an error that could be fixed through a penitential process. By the time of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the church had decided on what constituted heretical behaviour, and who had the right to punish heretics.
Highlights
With the rise of heretical sects, including the Cathars, the Church needed to react and impose strict canonical laws to secure their position of power
Canon Three of the Fourth Lateran Council was written speci>ically about heresy and “condemning all heretics under whatever names they may be known, for while they have different faces, they are bound to each other by their tails.”[9]. This excerpt was meant to demonstrate that heretics were not a speci>ic people, but that heresy could have been committed by anyone, and that all heretics were linked by their devilish ways
The Fourth Lateran Council is signi>icant to the study of heresy because it was the >irst Canon Law about heretical behaviour and the impending punishment for heretics, through time the use of magic was placed under the aegis of heresy
Summary
With the rise of heretical sects, including the Cathars, the Church needed to react and impose strict canonical laws to secure their position of power.
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