Books to be Purchased:

Jeffrey Richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation: Minority Groups in the Middle Ages

Edward Peters (ed.), Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe

Robin Briggs, Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft

Alan Kors and Edward Peters (eds.) Witchcraft in European History 1100-1700

(Books available at Thrify Joe’s Bookstore, Mill Ave., Tempe)

Description: The goal of this course is to introduce students to the history of the treatment of marginal social and religious groups in the European past. In the context of a survey of the various forms of religious heresy which appeared after 1000 AD and of the persecution of individuals identified as witches during the witch craze of the 16th and 17th centuries, the course discusses the escalation of repression and the eventual triumph of intellectual skepticism and social toleration. In medieval Europe social and moral conformity was not simply perceived as a good thing, it was perceived as necessary for the survival of the community. Since misfortune was understood to be the result of unseen forces, and non-conformity to draw heavenly ire, groups that deviated or sought to deviate from identified norms were persecuted. This persecution progressively became more systematic and institutionalized until it gave birth to the Inquisition. The Inquisition in turn provided an intellectual rationale for the witch craze, a century long period of hysteria when thousands of humans were burned in an effort to save the world from Satan. Eventually, however, there emerged an intellectual position which questioned the dangers perceived to be the cost of social and cultural diversity and insisted that toleration of difference was ultimately less harmful to a community than the various apparati used to repress deviant groups.

Core readings for the course consist of two collections of documents dealing respectively with heresy (Peters) and witchcraft (Kors and Peters). These collections shall be complemented by historical surveys of the movement to supress heresy and other identified collective forms of social deviance (Richards) and of the movement to suppress the supposed plot by Satan to take over the world (Briggs). Daily lectures will be aimed at making clear the ideas advanced in the texts. Guiding those lectures will be a desire not to explain the organized effort to suppress heresy and witchcraft. That effort can not be explained. Rather the goal will be to give sense of why contemporaries perceived heretics and witches to be social threats, and why the death of individuals identified as one or the other was understood to be a good thing.

Work and Grading: Work for the course shall consist of four written exercises based upon the documents. The exercises will be handed out the first four Fridays, and due back the following Mondays. Late exercises shall be penalized five points a day up to a total of 25 points. Each exercise shall be worth 25 percent of the final grade. Each exercise will be worth a maximum of 100 points. Grades for the course will be awarded according to the following schedule:

Students with of a cumulative total between 400 and 360 points on the four exercises will receive an "A"

Students with of a cumulative total between 320 and 359 points on the four exercises will receive a "B"

Students with of a cumulative total between 280 and 319 points on the four exercises will receive a "C"

Students with of a cumulative total between 240 and 279 points on the four exercises will receive a "D"

Students with of a cumulative total below 240 points on the four exercises will receive an "F"

In addition, at the end of the term, students will have the option of writing an extra credit assignment, an essay on a topic chosen by the professor. The extra credit assignment will be worth a maximum of 40 points. It will be due the final Friday of the first summer session.

Tuesday, June 1^st : No Assignment

Wednesday, June 2^nd : Richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation, chap 1.

First Exercise due

Tuesday, June 8^th : Richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation, chap 5.

Second Exercise due

Tuesday, June 15^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, introduction and chap. 1

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, introduction

Wednesday, June 16^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 2

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 1-6

Thursday, June 17^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 3

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 7-8

Friday, June 18^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 4

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 11-17

Monday, June 21^st : Film

Third Exercise due

Tuesday, June 22^nd : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 5

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 18-19

Wednesday, June 23^rd : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 6

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 21-23

Thursday, June 24^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 7

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 24-27

Friday, June 25^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 8

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 28-32

Monday, June 28^th : Film

Fourth Exercise due

Tuesday, June 29^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, chap. 9

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 34-35

Wednesday, June 30^th : Briggs, Witches and Neighbors, intro and chap. 1

Kors and Peters, Witchcraft in Europe, documents 41, 43, 44

Thursday, July 1^st : Study day

Friday, July 2^nd : Extra Credit Assignments due