CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015
| Author | Bensing, Thomas Edward |
|---|---|
| Title | Waldensian Doctrinal Developments in 14th Century Austria and Italy |
| Summary | This thesis will investigate a series of documents concerning Waldensian theology in an effort to trace some of the developments that occurred in the movement between the beginning of the 13th and the end of the 14th centuries. I will show that the Waldensian movement reacted to changing circumstances in their judicial standing and their organizational structure by forging new identities and new doctrines. These doctrines were the result of external pressures on the movement which resulted in its transformation from a lay movement focused on apostolic living and influence by the Gregorian Reform into a secret church with a clerical class and institutions of its own. I will highlight two trends within orthodox Catholicism which exerted unique pressures on the Waldensian movements and did much to radicalize, unify, and shape the heretical movement against which they were deployed. In this introductory chapter, I will present a sketch of the movement in its infancy against which to compare later developments. The second chapter, “Waldensian Doctrines,” will present the first of two major changes in the movement as seen through Waldensian documents of the 13th century. “Italian Letters” deals with the Italian response to a crisis within the Austrian Waldensian of the 14th century, this chapter will present Waldensianism as it had changed after the events of the previous chapter. “Austrian Responses” will present the responses of ex-fratres of the Austrian Waldensians to their former Waldensian co-religionists and will isolate and analyze doctrinal changes which had occurred in the joint Italian/Austrian Waldensian context in this period. |
| Supervisor | Riedl, Matthias |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2015/bensing_thomas.pdf |
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