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Words and the Medieval Notion of ‘Religion’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Peter Biller
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Extract

In recent years some of the most interesting statements about medieval Christianity have come not from medieval but early modern historians, Jean Delumeau, Keith Thomas, John Bossy and others, in the broad descriptive accounts which form the backcloth to discussions of reformation or counter-reformation developments in ‘religion’ – provocative statements which have not, however, evoked a large response from the English world of medieval scholarship. The latest of such statements is contained in an article by John Bossy. In part of this Bossy puts forward contentions and arguments which are of considerable importance for the study of medieval Christianity. If his arguments and the evidence he advances in their support were to be accepted the historian of medieval Christianity would be pressed to reconsider the words and concepts he deploys in his definition, descriptions and explanations of his subject. Even if modified or rejected they are acute and fruitful points, and their examination may sharpen understanding of medieval thought about religion. Bossy's arguments also point to a gap in modern scholarship: a general account of one area (assuming it was an area) of thought – the development of medieval description, classification and explanation of ‘religious’ phenomena.

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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , July 1985 , pp. 351 - 369
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Acknowledgement is due here to Dr J. K. Powis and Dr W. J. Sheils for discussions of the theme of this article, to Professor J. A. Bossy for comments on an earlier draft, and to Dr R. A. Fletcher and Professor G. Leff for comments on the final draft.

2 Bossy, J., ‘Some elementary forms of Durkheim‘, Past and Present, xcv (1982), 3–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 In his article, Bossy is concerned with a parallelism between the development of the words religio and societas. The Iatter's development from soeielas (I) – ‘companionship’ or ‘fellowship’ – to societas (Ila) – ‘a society’ – was also for Bossy a development from a meaning in which societas was an ‘attribute’ to a meaning in which it was an ‘entity’ or ‘thing’. This, and his hint that the development in both words from denoting ‘attributes’ to denoting ‘things’ may have been part of a broader change in outlook occurring in the early modern period (ibid., 13), lie beyond the scope of the present discussion.

4 Ibid, 4.

5 Ibid, 5.

6 Ibid., 18.

7 Bossy does not explore the philosophical ramifications of this, nor are they pursued in the present discussion. The value of this kind of restriction in the historian's use of words when describing men in the past was contested by Bloch, M., The Historian's Craft, transl. Putnam, P., Manchester 1954, 156ffGoogle Scholar.

8 Williams, A. Lukyn, Adversus Judaeos. A bird's-eye view of Christian Apologiae until the Renaissance, Cambridge 1935, 375Google Scholar.

9 Borst, A., Die Katharer (Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica (hereafter cites as M.G.H.), xii, 1953), 242Google Scholar and n. 11. Other adjectives indicating goodness would do: a witness in 1273 in Toulouse recalling a conversation, ‘…“probi homines”, intellexit ipsa testis quod essent haeretici dicti “probi hominess”‘(Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Doat MS 25, fo. 46r), and another witness referring to another conversation in which it was suggested ‘quod simul irent ad “iustos”, intelligens ipsa testis quod hoc diceret de haereticis’ (ibid., fo. 57v). Boni homines was also used by non-Cathar laity in close contact with Cathars: in a reported conversation about a recently dead woman, ‘Habuit “bonos homines”, scilicet haereticos?’, i.e. did she receive the consolamentum? (ibid., fo. 58v). C. Thouzellier has alluded briefly to the problem of these two languages, the vernacular of the accused, adherent of a proscribed faith (whose assumptions are reflected in its vocabulary), and the written Latin of the orthodox men sitting on an ecclesiastical tribunal, ‘La lexicographic du latin médiéval et les controverses religieuses au moyen âge’, La Lexicographic du latin médiéval et ses rapports avec les recherches actuelles sur la civilisation du moyen-âge (Colloques Internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, DLXXXIX), Paris 1981, 340–1Google Scholar.

10 The assumptions of descriptive lexicography: change – ‘its [vocabulary's] constituent elements are in a state of slow but incessant dissolution and renovation’, Oxford English Dictionary, i, xxviii; severalness of meanings; variety in usage.

11 See above, n. 7.

12 Exceptions are the use of religion among Waldensians, discussed below, and nn. 56 and 65; see above also, n. 9.

13 There is a survey of their progress by A.-M. Bautier, ‘La lexicographic du latin médiéval: bilan international des travaux’, La Lexicographie du latin médiéval, 438–42, which however does injustice to the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources in stating that it uses almost exclusively printed texts: the amount of unpublished material cited from the P.R.O. alone probably exceeds that for the rest of Europe combined. This dictionary, which extends into the sixteenth century, is making considerable progress, with fascicule III (D-E with revised bibliography) expected to be published in 1985, the completion of drafting of fascicule IV (F-G-H) expected in 1986, and much (alphabetically) later material in files and on magnetic tapes. Acknowledgement for information is due here to the editor Dr D. R. Howlett.

14 See P. Tombeur, ‘L’informatique et le travail lexicographique’, La Lexicographie du latin médiéval, 461–72.

15 Smith, W. Cantwell, The Meaning and End of Religion, London 1978 edn, 219Google Scholar n. 62: ‘the larger issue of the use of the word generally in the medieval period is one on which, not being in any sense a scholar in this field, I am unable to give any but superficial impressions’. Despland's, M. La Religion en Occident, Montreal-Paris 1979Google Scholar (cited in Bossy, ‘Elementary Forms’, p. 4 n. 3) is much more fully documented and nuanceé in its findings, but does not seem to have influenced the medieval section in ‘Elementary Forms’.

16 These dictionaries were used by Ducange in his dictionary of medieval Latin, but are worth independent consultation as works widely dispersed and consulted by medieval writers. The editions consulted for this article were Papias, Elcmcntarium, Milan 1476Google Scholar; Balbi, J., Summa quae vocatur Catholicon, Mainz 1460Google Scholar; and, in the case of Huguccio's Derivationes, unprinted, the text in Oxford, Bodleian, MS Bodley 376. A modern edition of Papias has been started by V. de Angelis in Testi e documents per lo studio dell’antichità, lviii, the first fascicule appearing in 1977, and A. della Cassa has announced the project of a modern edition of the Catholicon,’ Les glossaires et les traités de grammaire du moyen âge’, La Lexicographic du Latin médiéval, 35–46 - an article useful further on Balbi's use of Papias and Huguccio, and the Catholicon in general.

17 Ébrard of Béthune, Graecismus, x, ed. Wrobel, J. (Corpus Grammaticorum Medii Aevi, 1 vol. (not continued), i, 1887), 89 line 288Google Scholar.

18 In a paraphrase of ‘religiosus, ac timens’ Glossa ordinaria Acts x. 2 (Bibtia sacra cum glosa ordinaria, Nicolai de Lyra Postilla, moralitatibus eiusdem, Pauli Burgensis additionibus, Mathie Thoringi replicis, 7 vols., Basel 1508, vi. fo. 183rGoogle Scholar).

19 Baldwin, J. W., Masters, Princes and Merchants. The social views of Peter the Chanter and his circle, 2 vols. Princeton 1970, i. 17; ii. p. 9 n. 1Google Scholar.

10 Oxford, Bodleian, MS Bodley 820, fo. 72r.

21 Actsx. 2; Eccles. i. 17, 18, 26; 2 Mace. xii. 43. Bossy (‘Elementary Forms’, 5) suggests that the word ‘religiosity’ is a modern invention.

22 These discussions are surveyed in Lottin, O., Psychologic et morale au XIIe et XIIIe siècles, 7 vols. Louvain-Gembloux 1942–54, iii (2), 313–26Google Scholar. St Thomas’ discussion in Summa Theologiae, IIa, IIae, q. 81 was further dispersed through the incorporation of the bulk of it into the Speculum morale (compiled about the end of the thirteenth century and added to Vincent of Beauvais’ Speculum maius): Speculum morale i. 3. lxi, De religione (Speculum quadruplex, naturale, doctrinale, morale, historiale, 4 vols., Douai 1624, reprinted Graz 1964), iv. 357–60Google Scholar.

23 StAquinas, Thomas, Contra impugnantes Dei cultum et religionem, i (Opera Omnia, 25 vols. Parma 1852–73, xv. 2–3)Google Scholar. For the range of meanings of religio in St Thomas’ writings see Deferrari, R. J. et al. , A Lexicon of St Thomas Aquinas, Baltimore 1948, 960Google Scholar.

24 ‘Largo modo dicitur “religiosus” qui in domo propria sancte et religiose vivit, licet non sit professus…dicitur talis “religiosus” non ideo, quod astrictus sit alicui regulae certae, sed respectu vitae, quam arctiorem et sanctiorem ducit quam ceteri seculares…si quis in manu episcopi promiserit caste vivere cum uxore, et ea mortua aliam non ducere, et propria renunciaverit, et obedientiam promiserit, vel in manibus rectoris, quia hoc habet forte de consuetudine, ubi plures sunt fratres in hospitali… “religiosus” censetur.’ Hostiensis (Henry of Susa), Summa aurea, III, De regularibus transeuntibus ad religionem, ii, Religiosus largo modo quis dicatur, Venice 1574 edn, reprinted Turin 1963, 1108. This passage is used in a discussion of the vocabulary of social categories in medieval canon law in Michaud-Quantin, P., Études sur le vocabulaire philosophique du Mqyen Âge, Rome 1970, 165–6Google Scholar.

25 Vitalis, Orderic, Ecclesiastical History, ed. Chibnall, M., 6 vols., Oxford 1969–80Google Scholar, may be used as an example: viii. 2 (iv, 135); xiii. 15 (vi, 430); iii (ii, 96 and 108); iv (ii, 242 and 270), etc.; iii (ii, 10), vi. 8 (iii, 256), viii. 1 (iv, 112), viii. 20 (iv, 260), xii. 37 (vi, 344). These examples and others from Orderic quoted below have been traced through the occurrences of individual words listed in the entries for these words in Chibnall's index verborum. Examples of the adjective religiosus qualifying non-Christians can be found in James of Vitry's Historia orientalis (1218–21). James alludes to piety (or scrupulousness?) according to Muslim criteria; (concerning Muslim plurality of wives and concubinage) Magis autem religiosus iudicatur inter eos qui plures potest impraegnare; (those especially who abstain from wine) qui inter eos magis religiosi esse videnlur. Historia orientalis, vi, Douai edn 1597. 27. 29.

26 Orderic, Ecclesiastical History, ix. 2 (v, 16).

27 Ibid., ii. 1 (i, 167). An interesting later twelfth-century example of religio expanded to include both ‘faith’ and ‘cult’ is in Bernard of Fontcaude's Adversus Waldensium sectam liber (c. 1190) where, in a statement that it is for priests to answer questions de religione Christiana, the questions seem to be de fide out cultu P.L. cciv. 80.

28 Orderic, Ecclesiastical History, v. 7 (iii, 46). See also viii. 22 (iv, 278).

29 Ibid., xi. 26 (vi, 118); xiii. 37 (vi, 522).

30 Ibid., xi. 26 (vi, 118).

31 Ibid., x. 24 (v, 360).

32 Ibid., ii. 1 (i, 167), x. 24 (v, 360).

33 Ibid., xiii. 6 (vi, 404).

34 Ibid., passim.

35 Ibid., iv (ii, 216); v. 13 (iii, 138); viii. 25 (iv, 304); xii. 43 (vi, 366). Monks naturally outnumber others and have religio attributed to them more often.

36 Ibid., iii (ii, 154); iv (ii, 333). In some contexts ambiguity makes translation difficult, e.g. religio flourishing in a monastery: piety or (true) monasticism? Worth noting in relation to this are the sometimes differing decisions taken by M. Chibnall and an earlier translator, Forester, T., The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy by Ordericus Vitalis, 4 vols., London 1853–6, i–iiiGoogle Scholar, passim.

37 Walther, H., Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi: Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung (Carmina Medii Aevi Posterioris Latina, ii, 6 vols., Göttingen 1963–9), iv. 562–3Google Scholar, nos. 26531–40.

38 Döllinger, I. von, Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters, 2 vols., Munich 1890, iiGoogle Scholar.

39 Goff, J. Le, La Naissance de Purgatoire, Paris 1981, App. ii. 489–93Google Scholar.

40 Southern, R. W., ‘Between heaven and hell’, Times Literary Supplement, 18 June 1982, 651–2Google Scholar.

41 Mollat, M., in the articles reprinted in his É sur l’économie et la société de l’occident médiéval XIIe–XVes, London 1977, xiv. 5–6; xv. 75; xvii. 307–8Google Scholar.

42 Cantwell Smith, Meaning and End of Religion, 51–2.

43 Discussed by Mohrmann, C., ‘Encore une fois: paganus’, in her Étudcs sur le latin des Chrétiens, 3 vols. Rome 1961, 277–89Google Scholar.

44 Balbi, Catholicon, s.v. Saracenus, as earlier in Huguccio, Magnae derivationes, Oxford, Bodleian, MS Bodley 376, fo. 172va.

46 Balbi, Catholicon, s.v. Paganus.

47 Ibid., s.v. Saracenus. Osbern of Gloucester's widespread Panormia instar vocabularii, s.v. Pagus (ed. Mai, A., Classicorum auctorum e Vaticanis codicibus editorum, 10 vols., Rome 1878–88, viii. 462Google Scholar) gives ‘lex et ritus paganorum’ for paganismus.

47 Balbi, Catholicon, s.v. Paganus: paganitas…proprietas qua pagani dicuntur.

48 Le Registre d'inquisition de Jacques Fournier, évêque de Pamiers, 1318–25, ed. Duvernoy, J., 3 vols., Toulouse 1965, i. 86Google Scholar.

49 For example, Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London, 1975–, ii. 333, s.v.Google ScholarChristianitas, Ia; see also Christianismus, a; Mittellatcinisches Worterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert, ed. Prinz, O. and Payr, T., Munich 1967–, ii. 554Google Scholar, s.v. Christianismus, IA 1; see also Christianitas, IA 1.

50 Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, xxiii. 48 and 56 (iv. 916, 918).

51 Cantwell Smith, The Meaning and End of Religion, 62.

52 Alexander in, Epistolae et privilegia, cmlxxvi, P.L. cc. 85a.

53 In what follows words and literary descriptions deployed in relation both to what we term ‘non-Christian religions’ and ‘Christian heresies’ are treated together. The words used to denote both, fides, secta and lex, overlap, as do the categories ofliterary descriptions (see section III, see O. Hageneder, ‘Der Häresiebegriff bei den Juristen des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts’, The Concept of Heresy in the Middle Ages, ed. W. Lourdaux and D. Verhelst (Medievalia Lovaniensia, ser. i, stud, iv), 50, on canon lawyers’ use of heretici in a broad sense to include Jews and pagans, and note the juxtaposition of’Christian heresies’ and ‘non-Christian religions’ in thirteenth-century theological summae, confessors’ manuals and collections of Canon Law). Both ‘non-Christian religions’ and ‘Christian heresies’ contributed to the sense of ‘religious diversity’ experienced in the thirteenth century (see section IV).

54 Paris, M., Chronica majora (ed. xysLuard, H. R., 7 vols., Rolls Series, London 1872–83), v. 655Google Scholar; iii. 353, 351 (bis), 360, 352. For use in a broad sense (de fide, religione Christiana…de religione pagana vel haeretica) in the patristic period, see the examples given, s.v. Lex in the Thesaurus linguae latinae, vii. 1245.

55 P. Glorieux, La Littérature quodlibétique, 2 vols., Paris ‘925–35, ii 245, 249.

56 Merlo, G. G., Eretici e inquisitori nella società piemontese del trecento, Turin 1977, 192 (no. 81)Google Scholar; nos de lege nostra, 168 (no. 21); Mi qui erant de lege sua, 184 (no. 68). For the English word ‘law’ in this sense – defined as ‘a religious system; the Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan or Pagan religion’ – see the Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. Law, section 12, where examples are given from c. 1225.

57 Ghellinck, J. de, L’Essor de lalittérapture latine au XIIe siècle, 2nd edn, Brussels–Bruges–Paris 1955, 158–60 n, 161–8Google Scholar; Hunt, R. W., ‘The disputation of Peter of Cornwall against Symon the Jew’, Studies in Medieval History presented to Frederick Maurice Powicke, ed. Hunt, R. W. et al. , Oxford 1948, 146–8Google Scholar; Blumenkranz, B., Les Auteurs chrétiens latins du moyen âge sur les juifs et le judaisme, The Hague–Paris 1963Google Scholar.

58 Southern, R. W., Western Views of Islam in the Middle Ages, Cambridge, Mass. 1962, 36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on western treatment of Islam, see further D'Alverny, M.-T., ‘Alain de Lille et l’Islam. Le “Contra Paganos”‘, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, xviii (1983), 304, 321–2Google Scholar.

59 In general see de Ghellinck, L’Essor, 168–71; on the treatment of the Cathars Borst, Katkarer, 6ff, and Vicaire, M.-H., ‘Les Cathares albigeois vus par les polémistes‘, Cahiers de Fanjeaux, iii (1968), 107–28Google Scholar; on the treatment of Waldensians in general see Gonnet, G., Le Confessioni di/ede valdesi prima delta Riforma, Turin 1967, 65–96Google Scholar.

60 Alain de Lille, De fide catholica, P.L. ccx. 305–430 – Bk. i against ‘Heretics’ (= Cathars), Bk. ii against Waldensians, Bk. iii against Jews, Bk. iv against ‘Pagans’ (= Muslims); the latter has been re-edited by d'Alverny, ‘Alain de Lille’, 331–48.

61 J. de Vitry, Historia orientalis, v, vi (10, 18).

62 Gui, B., Practica Inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, v. 2. i–vi, v. 1. i–iv (ed. Douais, C., Paris 1866, 244, 245, 247, 248, 251; 237, 239, 241)Google Scholar.

63 Annales Monastici, ed. Luard, H. R., 5 vols. (Rolls Series, London 1864–9), i. 272Google Scholar; cf. Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, iv. 387–8.

64 John of Pian del Carpine, Historia Mongalorum, iii, ed. A. Van den Wyngaert (Sinica Franciscana, i. 36). Salimbene, who met and talked with John in 1246, described him as a man in multis expertus (Eccles. xxxiv. 9); Salimbene, Cronica, ed. O. Holder-Egger, M.G.H., Scriptores, xxii. 206. When considering the character of John's observation and description of the ‘religion’ of the Mongols it is worth recalling the width of his previous experience, both geographical (he had been minister in both Spain and Saxony, ibid., 206 n. 3) and perhaps ‘religious’ (he may have seen something of north-east European paganism during his trip through Lithuania in 1245, mentioned in Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, xxxi. 19 (iv, 1292)).

65 Questions on heresis et Valdesia in, for example, southern France in the 1240s in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Doat MS 22, fos. 172V, 199V, 238r, 2441”, 247V, and Toulouse, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 609, fos. 4ar, 49V, 63V, 64r, 68r, 76r etc; accused or suspected of Valdesia in, for example, Piedmont in 1355, Merlo, Eretici e inquisitori, 163 (nos. 2, 4), 164 (nos. 5, 7), 165 (no. 8), etc. A vernacular example of 1243, ‘d'eretguiaetde Vaudezia’, is quoted by J. Duvernoy, ‘L’acception: “haereticus” (iretge) = “parfait cathare” en Languedoc au XHIe siècle’, The Concept of Heresy in the Middle Ages, 199. O. Hageneder, ‘Der Häresiebegriff bei den Juristen’, ibid., 82–99, discusses the expansion in the sense of the word hereticus when defined and used by canon lawyers, an expansion described as brought about by developments in the ‘religious’ situation of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

66 See n. 50 above.

67 Paris, Chronica majora, iv. 388.

68 An example from the beginning of the period of rough equivalence in the use of lex and secta is present in Alain de Lille, Contra Paganos, xiii-xiv (ed. d'Alverny, 346–7):’ opinio paganorum quod neminem debent salutare nisi fuerint eiusdem secte cum eis…dicunt enim sibi licitum esse alterius legis uxorem ducere’. Also worth noting from earlier is the equivalence implied in pairing ‘lex of and ‘-ismus’, e.g. Ralph Niger writing of Henry II putting legum Judaeorum above Christianismo (Medieval British Latin, s.v. Christianismus).

69 See the texts quoted by Reeves, M., The Influence of Prophecy in the Late Middle Ages, Oxford 1969, 315Google Scholar, 323, 340. See also Nicholas of Clemanges, De Antichristo (Opera omnia, 2 pts, Lyons 1613, ii. 357–9): sectae for non-Christian ‘religions’ and seven instances of religio Christiana/catholica/sacra for Christianity. Nicholas uses religio in the plural when alluding to touring the world to see places, customs, cults (cultus religionum, ibid., 308).

70 Some of these are cited in Thorndike, L., A History of Magic and Experimental Science (8 vols., New York 1923–58), ii. 42, 370, 939, 963Google Scholar; iii. 265 and n., 417. An interesting example is in William of Auvergne, De Legibus, xx (Opera omnia edn, 2 vols., Paris-Orleans 1674, reprinted Frankfurt 1963, i. 54): ‘Alii ero diversitatem legum attribuunt coelis et stellis sicut et alias diversificationes et conditiones hominum.’ Leges here are those of the Jews, Saracens and Christians. Later in the same chapter leges are distinguished from sectae – ‘sectarum vero particularium, id est haeresum, quae sunt praeter istas leges’ – suggesting a classification in William's mind which approaches that of ‘major religions’ and ‘sects’.

71 Ibid., xxi (i. 56); here William seems to treat these words as equivalents, although in the previous chapter he discriminates between lex and secta (see n. 70).

72 Merlo, Eretici e inquisitori, 168 and 171 (nos. 21, 31).

73 Stephen of Bourbon, Tractatus de variis materiis predicabilibus, iv. 7. De Heresi, ed. Marche, A. Lecoy de la, Anecdotes historiques, légendes el apologues tirés du recueil inédit d'Étienne de Bourbon Dominicain du XIIe siècle, Paris 1877, 275ffGoogle Scholar. Similar is the use of fides for Christianity, lex for other ‘religions’, e.g. (apostatise) a fide catholica (and proclaim) Machometis legem: Guillaume de Nangis, Gesta Sancti Ludovici, an. 1250 (Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, xx. 380).

74 Bacon, Roger, Opus maius, vii. 4. ii, ed. Massa, E., Zürich 1953, 195–223Google Scholar. In a n earlier apparent example of this – James of Vitry writing in the same sentence of the following of legem Mahometi and Chrislianorum legem – a narrower sense of lex (scripture, commandments) is implied: Historia orientalis, xiv (42). Marsilius of Padua, who uses lex and secta as equivalents, at one point shows himself in the more conservative tradition of Stephen of Bourbon (see above and n. 73): gentiles…leges aut secte are opposed to catholicam fidem christianam, Defensor Paris i. v. 14, ed. Scholz, R., Hanover 1932, 28Google Scholar. However, on another occasion he implies the possible use of lex /secta for Christianity, and suggests that secta is the common term: divine leges…que commune nomine ‘secte’ vocantur, ibid., ii. 8. iv (224). Marsilius stands in a current of scholastic thought on the ‘social’ utility of’ religion’ which has strong implications for an objective sense of ‘religion’; see Gewirth, A., Marsilius of Padua. The Defender of the Peace, 2 vols., New York 1951, i. 84 n. 45Google Scholar.

75 Humbert de Romans, Opus tripartitum, i. 4 and 11, ed. E. Brown, Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum, 2 vols., London 1690, ii. 186, 191–2.

76 Liber de duobus principiis, lvii, Contra Garatenses, ed. Thouzellier, C., Sources Chrétiennes, cxcviii, Paris 1973, 362Google Scholar. Another example appears ibid., i. De libero arbitrio (160) – (the rejection of monotheism) quamvis hoc sit fere contra omnes religiosos.

77 Nicholas of Lyra, Postilla on Esther ix. 27, Biblia sacra cum glosa, ii. fo. 313v. Later fourteenth- and fifteenth-century development of religio has not been pursued here; however, see above n. 69.

78 Stephen of Bourbon, Tractatus, iv. 7 (276–7). Though the particular context in which Stephen brings this up was narrow, southern French Christian heresy (Catharism), the interests of the nobleman he describes were much wider: for a good 40 years he had been at pains to gather, at great expense, libros omnium sectarum, quascunque audiebat esseper universum orbem – ‘books on all religions’?

79 William of Auvergne, De Legibus, xxi (57).

80 While drawing attention to the interest of this passage, in an article reprinted in her Studies in Medieval Thought and Learning from Abelard to Wyclif, London 1981, 139Google Scholar, B. Smalley suggested Judaeo-Christian disputes as the background. Could the attitude be documented in wider and less academic circles? Certainly in the later Middle Ages it can be found as the express opinion of identifiable ordinary individuals – occasionally among the adherents of popular heresy. One example is in Brandenburg, 1393: ‘Interrogata an crediderit, fidem suam fuisse veram fidem christianam, respondit quod sic, attamen eciam alios crediderit in suis fidibus, ut sic dicatur, salvari’, Quellen zur Ketzergeschichte Brandenburgs und Pommerns, ed. Kurze, D., Veroffendichungen der historischen Kommission zu Berlin, XL, Quellenwerke, vi, Berlin-New York 1975, 166Google Scholar. Another is an adherent questioned in Fribourg in 1430, who stated that ‘in quacunque fide homo fuerit secundum opera que fecit recipit premium’, Fribourg, Archives d'État, GS 26, fo. 52r – where quacunque suggests a principle extended beyond just Catholicism and Waldensianism (the two faiths at issue in this trial).