Peter of Verona is a critical bridge between the founding generation of the Dominican Order and its achievements in the schools of the late 13th century. A dynamic preacher and peacemaker, Peter was intimately involved in the anti-heretical efforts of his order and of the papacy. The Summa contra hereticos, here edited and translated for the first time, is a product of the initial flush of Dominican efforts in academic work, dating between 1235-1238. The introduction to this work attempts to establish Peter's authorship as strongly as possible. The text testifies to the efforts of the Church in defense of orthodoxy in the early 1200s, as well providing insight into the nature of the friars' intellectual project at that time. Fiercely polemical, it reads as if the author certainly had firsthand knowledge of the struggles. It represents a significant window into Dominican life between the early foundation and the work of Albert and Thomas.

The first book to deal with all the principal treatments of heresy and anti-heretical writings during their heyday in the thirteenth century. Heresy is always relative; the traces that it leaves to us are distorted and one-sided. In the last few decades, historians have responded to these problems by developing increasingly sophisticated methodologies that help to unravel and illuminate the tangled layers from which the texts that describe heresy are built, but in the process have made our reading of heresy fractured and disconnected. Heresy and Heretics seeks to redress this by reading the different types of anti-heretical writing as part of a wider, connected tradition, considering all the principal orthodox treatments of heresy for the first time. Drawn from the mid-thirteenth century, a time when both medieval heresy and the church's response to it were at their zenith, they describe a spectrum of material that ranges from the theological arguments of some of the greatest thinkers of the age to the homely sermons of the wanderingpreachers. In considering the whole scope of anti-heretical writing from this period, it becomes apparent that, far from being an artificial construct isolated from reality, the church's treatment of heresy in fact had a far morecomplex relationship with its subject matter. Dr L.J. Sackville teaches in the Department of History, University of York.

The question of the reality of Cathars and other heresies is debated in this provocative collection.

The doctrine of papal infallibility is a central tenet of Roman Catholicism, and yet it is frequently misunderstood by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Much of the present-day theological discussion points to the definition of papal infallibility made at Vatican I in 1870, but the origins of the debate are much older than that. In Certain Sainthood, Donald S. Prudlo traces this history back to the Middle Ages, to a time when Rome was struggling to extend the limits of papal authority over Western Christendom. Indeed, as he shows, the very notion of papal infallibility grew out of debates over the pope's authority to canonize saints.Prudlo's story begins in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when Rome was increasingly focused on the fight against heresy. Toward this end the papacy enlisted the support of the young mendicant orders, specifically the Dominicans and Franciscans. As Prudlo shows, a key theme in the papacy's battle with heresy was control of canonization: heretical groups not only objected to the canonizing of specific saints, they challenged the concept of sainthood in general. In so doing they attacked the roots of papal authority. Eventually, with mendicant support, the very act of challenging a papally created saint was deemed heresy.Certain Sainthood draws on the insights of a new generation of scholarship that integrates both lived religion and intellectual history into the study of theology and canon law. The result is a work that will fascinate scholars and students of church history as well as a wider public interested in the evolution of one of the world’s most important religious institutions.

An exhaustive guide to every significant Christian theologian who lived from the first century to 1308, the year in which John Duns Scotus died. The dictionary encompasses the Catholic, Orthodox, Nestorian and Monophysite traditions, including information not previously available in English. Thoroughly indexed, the dictionary incorporates common variants of names and concepts which will help and direct the reader. The main criterion for inclusion has been contribution to the development of Christian theology. Sub-criteria by which that is measured include, above all, originality and influence on later figures. With over 290 entries, the dictionary provides a handy summary of theologiansi lives and writings together with recent scholarship,as well as an up-to-date, definitive bibliography listing primary texts, translations and secondary literature in the major western European languages. Useful for all levels of academia; no other text matches the depth of the dictionaryis bibliographies. The unprecedented thoroughness of Hill's compilation provides an essential resource for studies at all levels on such a large and varied range of Church thinkers.

Peter Martyr was one of the central Dominican saints of the thirteenth century, in some cases eclipsing Dominic himself. Born in Verona around 1206 to those with Cathar sympathies, he became a convert to Catholicism. As one of the first generations of Dominicans, he represents aspects of their primitive history both as a spellbinding preacher and as one of the earliest and most famous papal inquisitors. In 1252, shortly after his official appointment to the post of inquisitor for Lombardy, Peter was assassinated at the hands of a cabal of Milanese heretics. That there is no modern monograph on Peter represents a considerable lacuna in the study of medieval saints. This work therefore fills a very important gap, in both thirteenth century hagiographical studies, and studies of the interrelationship of heresy and imperial politics in the mid-thirteenth century. The first half of the book is a systematic study of the stages in the life, miracles and posthumous cult of Peter of Verona. Part One deals with many controversial issues of Peter's life, such as his role in the growth of the Dominican order and related confraternities in Lombardy and Tuscany, his status as papal inquisitor and his preaching. Part Two explores the cult of Peter Martyr. The brief time which elapsed between death and canonization makes Peter Martyr an especially interesting case in the field of cult study as for him, life led immediately to cult: a cult dominated by those who knew him personally. The second half of the book is a translation into English of the major primary sources concerning Peter. These will be of interest to students of papal canonization, the Dominican order, the Inquisition, hagiography, and local history.