Inquisition and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline, and Resistance in Languedoc

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: Cornell University Press December 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0801487595
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0801487590
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 10.4 ounces

Product Description
James B. Given analyzes the inquisition in one French region in order to develop a sociology of medieval politics. Established in the early thirteenth century to combat widespread popular heresy, inquisitorial tribunals identified, prosecuted, and punished heretics and their supporters. The inquisition in Languedoc was the best documented of these tribunals because the inquisitors aggressively used the developing techniques of writing and record keeping to build cases and extract confessions.

Using a Marxist and Foucauldian approach, Given focuses on three inquiries: what techniques of investigation, interrogation, and punishment the inquisitors worked out in the course of their struggle against heresy; how the people of Languedoc responded to the activities of the inquisitors; and what aspects of social organization in Languedoc either facilitated or constrained the work of the inquisitors. Punishments not only inflicted suffering and humiliation on those condemned, he argues, but also served as theatrical instruction for the rest of society about the terrible price of transgression. Through a careful pursuit of these inquires, Given elucidates medieval society's contribution to the modern apparatus of power. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
Given's book discusses the papal inquisition in southern France through the lens of the inqusitors' methods and goals, attempts by others to turn the inquisition against their foes, and resistance to it by various political and religious factions. It is a good discussion not just of the papal inquisition, but of how medieval powers battled amongst each other for money and power to carry out their competing goals. A grounding in medieval French history (or at least the Albigensian Crusade) would be helpful to the reader. This book is not a good starting point for the topic. Readers might also wish to compare it with modern research into issues of false confession such as Gudjonsson's The Psychology of Interrogations and Confessions and modern police interrogation manuals such as Inbau's Criminal Interrogation and Confession.