Michael Frassetto

Heresy in the Middle Ages

History & Biography

“Dickens offers a valuable new survey of medieval heresy from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries that offers important insights into the actual beliefs of the heretics, as well as into orthodox ecclesiastics' perceptions of them. This book also effectively explores the fine line between what those in the Middle Ages regarded as heretical and what they saw as saintly, and it provides a thoughtful evaluation of the ways in which the church used the growth of heresy, or the perception of that growth, as a means of establishing doctrinal and social control.”