The Formation of a Persecuting Society

Download or read book The Formation of a Persecuting Society written by Robert I. Moore and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tenth to the thirteenth centuries in Europe saw the appearanceof popular heresy and the establishment of the Inquisition, theexpropriation and mass murder of Jews, and the propagation ofelaborate measures to segregate lepers from the healthy and curtailtheir civil rights. These were traditionally seen as distinct andseparate developments, and explained in terms of the problems whichtheir victims presented to medieval society. In this stimulatingbook, first published in 1987 and now widely regarded as a aclassic in medieval history, R. I. Moore argues that thecoincidences in the treatment of these and other minority groupscannot be explained independently, and that all are part of apattern of persecution which now appeared for the first time tomake Europe become, as it has remained, a persecutingsociety. In this new edition, R. I. Moore updates and extends his originalargument with a new, final chapter, "A Persecuting Society". Hereand in a new preface and critical bibliography, he considers theimpact of a generation's research and refines his conception of the"persecuting society" accordingly, addressing criticisms of thefirst edition.