HERESY AND RELIGIOUS POVERTY IN 13^th C.  

I.  HERESY: Greek haeresis = sect, different ideas

HETERODOX: different doctrine

ORTHODOX: correct doctrine          

II. Urban society 12^th-13^th C.
   new commercial economy: money ---->  avarice
   Gratian's Decretum 12th C. canon law (church law)
         commercial wealth as unnatural, corrupting
   USURY: lending money at interest prohibited
                  but wealthy merchants & bankers do

III. Religious Rejection of Urban Wealth

      Humiliati 12the -13^th C. ("humbled ones")--
       lay religious movement, artisans, textile workers

     Major heresies: not mentioned by Dante
                but Dante shares a distrust of new wealth

       CATHARS: dualists, good God vs evil God;
          physical world as creation of the evil God

       WALDENSIANS:   founder Peter Waldo (Valdes)  
             rich merchant from Lyons,  famine of 1176
             sells everything, gives it to the poor
             evangelical poverty (like Christ), preaching

III. Orthodox Response:
     MENDICANT ORDERS: new religious orders
                          vows of poverty, live by begging

     DOMINICANS: founder St. Dominic (1170-1222)     
           works against Cathars in  southern France
           1216 Order of Preachers approved by Pope
           INQUISITION: begins in 1230’s

     FRANCISCANS: Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)         
        rejects father’s wealth =  cloth merchant
        1210 Order of Friars Minor (O.F.M.) approved
         no contact with money, corrupting

Major influence in 13th C. : preaching in cities
         new churches built with convents, schools:
Florence churches:
                   Dominicans - Santa Maria Novella
                   Franciscans - Santa Croce
Dante studies with both orders 1280's-90's