Logic, Scepticism, and ‘Heresy’ in Early Fifteenth-Century Europe: Oxford, Vienna, Constance

Ghosh, Kantik

doi:10.1484/m.disput-eb.1.102152

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“…While for some authors in natural science and philosophy doubt was seen as a productive foundation for knowledge, in theology it was generally thought of as a human deficiency. 10 To avoid doubt it was necessary to assent -through faith -to those things that were unseen or that lay beyond human reason. 11 Even Abelard, regarded by many of his contemporaries and successors as an arch-rationalist, cautioned that knowledge arrived at through reason fell short of 'the knowledge of the blessed in heaven', while for late medieval nominalists like William Ockham and Gabriel Biel, whatever faith could be acquired by reason fell short of the full specifically Christian faith that rested upon God's grace infusing the believer.…”

Section: Religious Beliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge

Forrest

2016

Stud. Church hist.

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In governing their dioceses late medieval bishops faced significant epistemological challenges: how was it possible to determine the truth in disputes over local customs, patronage, the conduct of divine service and the provision of pastoral care? All such problems demanded an adjudication between competing stories about rights, history and usage, and while canon law provided a framework of principles, it did not provide the answers bishops needed. Increasingly from the thirteenth century the answers came from panels of local ‘trustworthy men’. Bishops had to trust – to have ‘faith’ or belief in – informants who were often peasants. In the church courts and before visitation tribunals lay litigants, witnesses and parish representatives also used the language of faith and belief to characterize their knowledge of events and people: they had faith in their own perceptions. The role of faith in the knowledge that bishops and lay people claimed to have of the material and social world had much in common with the faith that brought Christians closer to having knowledge of God, but there were also important differences in the operation of faith in these three contexts. This essay describes and compares the epistemologies of late medieval bishops, lay people and theologians, paying particular attention to the relationship between trust and doubt in each instance.

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Section: Religious Beliefmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge

Forrest

2016

Stud. Church hist.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Logic, Scepticism, and ‘Heresy’ in Early Fifteenth-Century Europe: Oxford, Vienna, Constance

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge

Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge

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