@article{1479114,
      recid = {1479114},
      author = {Moore, R. I., },
      title = {The War on Heresy /},
      pages = {1 online resource (384 p.) :},
      abstract = {Between 1000 and 1250, the Catholic Church confronted the  threat of heresy with increasing force. Some of the most  portentous events in medieval history-the Cathar crusade,  the persecution and mass burnings of heretics, the papal  inquisition established to identify and suppress beliefs  that departed from the true religion-date from this period.  Fear of heresy molded European society for the rest of the  Middle Ages and beyond, and violent persecutions of the  accused left an indelible mark. Yet, as R. I. Moore  suggests, the version of these events that has come down to  us may be more propaganda than historical reality.Popular  accounts of heretical events, most notably the Cathar  crusade, are derived from thirteenth-century inquisitors  who saw organized heretical movements as a threat to  society. Skeptical of the reliability of their reports,  Moore reaches back to earlier contemporaneous sources,  where he learns a startling truth: no coherent opposition  to Catholicism, outside the Church itself, existed. The  Cathars turn out to be a mythical construction, and  religious difference does not explain the origins of  battles against heretic practices and beliefs. A truer  explanation lies in conflicts among elites-both secular and  religious-who used the specter of heresy to extend their  political and cultural authority and silence opposition. By  focusing on the motives, anxieties, and interests of those  who waged war on heresy, Moore's narrative reveals that  early heretics may have died for their faith, but it was  not because of their faith that they were put to death.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1479114},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674065376},
}