Books Reviewed:
Nirenberg, David. Communities of violence: persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages. 2nd printing, with corrections. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Moore, Robert I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250. 2nd ed. Williston: Wiley, 2008.
Nirenberg’s title is erroneous for this publication. This work does not aim to present a comprehensive, chronological history of the persecution by Christian-majority communities against ‘outsider’ minorities during the Middle Ages. Instead, David Nirenberg has expanded a doctoral thesis that delves into assumptions about the mistreatment of marginalised communities, including Jews, Muslims, lepers, and harlots during the first half of the fourteenth century in the Crown of Aragón (encompassing Catalonia, Aragón, and Valencia) and the French Pyrénées region. Nirenberg contends that historians have been irrational in interpreting cases of oppression towards peripheral groups during the Middle Ages as part of a predetermined narrative, or in his words, a ‘teleological longue durée’ notion, wherein a relatively tolerant stance toward minorities is seen as leading inexorably to the Shoah (Nirenberg 1996, 6-7). Nirenberg challenges the ‘lachrymose school’ by extensively referencing literary sources, composed by monarchical bureaucrats in the Crown of Aragón’s archives, alongside French chronicles (Nirenberg, 8-9). In doing so he places acts of violence against minorities into context, regardless of whether it is ‘cataclysmic’ or everyday, and shows how those who commit acts of violence have the power to reshape the limits and discourse around the “other” (Nirenberg, 231).
In contrast, Robert I. Moore’s seminal work adopts a more dilated geographical perspective in addressing the discourses surrounding minority groups in Europe during the Middle Ages. Moore builds upon Max Weber’s theory concerning the state’s monopoly on legitimate violence, suggesting that centralised and officially sanctioned modes of violence began to emerge between the eleventh and mid-thirteenth centuries (Moore 2008, 103). [1] This violence was orchestrated through established governmental, judicial, and societal structures, predominantly targeting social outcasts and dissenters. Furthermore, unconsciously drawing parallels to Foucauldian concepts, Moore discerns that groups such as Jews, heretics, homosexuals, and lepers were subject to reclassification initiated by the literati clerici (Moore, 172, 62-94). [2] Moore also employs Mary Douglas’ anthropological discourses to cultivate the hypothesis that these marginalised groups were affiliated with “pollution;” an ‘interchangeable’ threat to the survival of social order (Moore, 26-42, 94-95). [3] Hence, Moore concludes that institutions such as the inquisitio can be perceived as a reflection of society’s endeavours to safeguard its core principles from perceived phantasmic threats.
Nirenberg’s argument can be divided into two distinct parts. Part I delves into two instances of intense violence, the “Pastoureaux” of 1320 and the “lepers’ plot” of 1321. Nirenberg challenges the notion that these massacres reflect a continuous rise in intolerance and bigotry, contending that they resulted from the specific concurrent circumstances. In this context, there is a partial convergence between the ideas of Moore and Nirenberg. Moore’s notion of a perceived “interchangeable” enemy within a Christian-majority society finds resonance in Nirenberg’s examination of the “lepers’ plot.” Nirenberg’s analysis reveals that lepers, Jews, and Muslims were all collectively condemned for supposedly poisoning wells, intending to harm Christians or “transform” them into lepers (Nirenberg, 52).
Conversely, Nirenberg’s evaluation of the “Pastoureaux” highlights a distinct shift in societal sentiment between 1320-1321, when a growing antipathy toward Jews emerged. This in turn, contradicts one of the central tenets of Moore’s book: its denial of amorphous popular prejudice. This episode of anti-Judaic behaviour stemmed from attributed association with an oppressive royal fiscal system in fourteenth century southern France, and the advent of famine. [4] Nirenberg argues it was this particular situation that led to the eruption of “cataclysmic” violence against Jews, rather than stemming from an xenophobic fear or inherited ideology towards the “other” (Nirenberg, 118-124).
In Part II, Nirenberg pinpoints several areas of quotidian disputes within the medieval peasantry class: miscegenation, religious conversion, economic competition, urban rituals, and inter-minority authority disputes. Nirenberg’s challenge to the ‘longue durée’ concept is particularly evident in his examination of Holy Week violence. He argues that violence, such as the throwing of stones at Jewish quarters by grassroot Christians, was not inherently anti-semitic. Instead of illustrating a linear escalation of violence, it redirected animus into ritual, allowing for the communities’ peaceful coexistence outside of the ‘ludic’ events (Nirenberg, 211).
Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between Nirenberg’s Part II and Moore’s book. Part II, focuses more on the everyday violence that is seldom addressed in Moore’s work. This divergence is apparent since Moore’s primary concern lies in understanding top-down mechanisms of exclusion, rather than the episodic characteristic of minority-majority/inter-minority violence. Moore’s interpretation of catastrophic events is “limited” as he views them as a prelude to annihilation rather than within the context of quotidian violence in which they are enmeshed (Nirenberg, 243). Moore even explicitly states this within his review of Nirenberg’s work, “its concern is with violence, not persecution, … it gets to parts of medieval society that the rest of us have failed to reach, or even, too often, to imagine.” [5]
Both historians have created a novel model of work. Nirenberg’s significant contribution lies in his sober and non-polemical examination of existing historiography, all while aiming to question the entire concept of teleological ‘minority history.’ Nirenberg’s meticulous focus on minorities within Aragón represents a groundbreaking contribution to localised ‘subaltern’ studies. His examination of hitherto overlooked circumstantial violence against/within peripheral groups is commendable, as it aligns with Moore’s goal of promoting more discussion and facilitating in-depth local-level research. Nevertheless, Moore’s brief and provocative book distinguishes itself with its audacious examination of a continental persecuting theory. Moore’s courageous work engages on a more theoretical level which transcends the narrow confines of the discipline. Both works make significant contributions, coexisting substantively and in terms of the debates they have elicited.
Footnotes:
[1] Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” (paper presented to the “Free Students Union” of Bavaria, Munich, 28 January 1919).
[2] Examine Michel Foucault’s interpretation of Nietzschean theories of power: David Macey, The Penguin Definition of Critical Theory, (London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2000), 134.
[3] See select works of Mary Douglas: Mary Douglas, The Lele of the Kasai, (London: Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press, 1963); Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo, (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1966).
[4] Barbara W. Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, (New York: Ballantine, 1979), 40.
[5] Robert I. Moore, review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg, History 83:270 (1998): 310-311.
This piece was written by James Henderson, and edited by Joss Harrison.
Expand for Further Reading List
Arnold, John H. Inquisition and Power. 1st ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Arnold, John H. “Persecution and Power in Medieval Europe: The Formation of a Persecuting Society.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. The American Historical Review 123:1 (2018): 165–74. Accessed October 27, 2023.
Aschheim, Steven E. In Times of Crisis Essays on European Culture, Germans, and Jews. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2001.
Bale, Anthony. Feeling Persecuted: Christians, Jews and Images of Violence in the Middle Ages. London: Reaktion, 2010.
Bonfil, Robert. Jewish Life in Renaissance Italy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. 1st ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Brody, Saul Nathaniel. The Disease of the Soul: Leprosy in Medieval Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1974.
Brundage, James A. Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Burns, Robert I. Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Crusader Kingdom of Valencia : Societies in Symbiosis. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Cantor, Norman. Inventing the Middle Ages The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, The, 2023.
Chadwick, Henry. “The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. History Today 38:8 (1988): 55. Accessed October 27, 2023.
Cohen, Mark R. Under Crescent and Cross : the Jews in the Middle Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
Cohn, Norman Rufus Colin. Europe's Inner Demons: An Enquiry Inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt. London: Chatto, 1975.
Cohn, Norman Rufus Colin. Warrant for Genocide; the Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of the Zion. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1967.
Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1966.
Douglas, Mary. The Lele of the Kasai. London: Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press, 1963.
Dreyfus, Hubert L., Paul Rabinow, and Michel Foucault. Michel Foucault, Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Edwards, J. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle-Ages - Nirenberg,D.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 60:1 (1997) 206-207. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Foucault, Michel, and Donald F. Bouchard. Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews. Ithaca, N.Y. ; London: Cornell University Press, 1980.
Frassetto, Michael. Heresy and the Persecuting Society in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2006.
Freedman, Paul. The Origins of Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Garcia Ballester, Luis. Practical Medicine from Salerno to the Black Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Gilmour-Bryson, Anne. “The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250 (review).” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. Parergon 9:2 (1991): 181–181. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Ginzburg, Carlo. Ecstasies Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991.
Ginzburg, Carlo. The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries. London; Melbourne: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983. Ginzburg, Carlo., John A. Tedeschi, and Anne Tedeschi. The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller. Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Given, James B. Inquisition and Medieval Society. New York: Cornell University Press, 2018.
Given, James B. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. Contemporary Sociology 26:3 (1997): 327-328. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Given, James B. “Reviews of Books: The Formation of a Persecuting Society.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. The American Historical Review 94:4 (1989) 1071. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Glick, Thomas F. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 28:1 (1997): 93-94. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Goodich, Michael. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. The Journal of Religion 78:1 (1998): 114-115. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Goodwin-Gill, Guy S. “Moore, R.I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society (Book Review).” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. International Journal of Refugee Law 1:2 (1989): 280. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Gutting, Gary. Foucault: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Jones, Adam. Genocide: a Comprehensive Introduction. 2nd ed. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York: Routledge, 2011.
Kieckhefer, Richard. European Witch Trials Their Foundations in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300-1500. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2021. Kuzdale, Ann. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 66:1 (1998): 191-194. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Langmuir, Gavin I. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. The Jewish Quarterly Review 88:1/2 (1997): 70-75. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Lansing, Carol, and Edward D English. A Companion to the Medieval World. 1st ed. Vol. X. Newark: Wiley, 2010.
Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Vol. I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Vol. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Vol. III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Lerner, Robert E. The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
Lerner, Robert E. “The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 19:4 (1989): 659-660. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Linehan, Peter. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. Medium Aevum 67:1 (1999): 173-174. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Little, Lester K. Religious Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe. London: P. Elek, 1978.
Macey, David. The Penguin Definition of Critical Theory. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2000.
Martin, John. “Journeys to the World of the Dead: The Work of Carlo Ginzburg.” Journal of Social History 25:3 (1992): 613–26.
McKitterick, Rosamond. Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Meyerson, M D. “Nirenberg, David, "Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages" (Book Review).” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. Speculum; a Journal of Mediaeval Studies 74:2 (1999): 464. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Meyerson, Mark D., and Edward D. English. Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval and Early Modern Spain: Interaction and Cultural Change. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1999.
Moore, R. I. The First European Revolution, c. 970-1215. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. Moore, R. I. The War on Heresy. 1st ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2012. Moore, R. I. “Heresy as Politics and the Politics of Heresy, 1022–1180.” In Law and the
Illicit in Medieval Europe, edited by Ruth Mazo Karras, Joel Kaye, and E. Ann Matter, 33–46. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. Moore, R. I. “The Origins of Medieval Society.” History 55:183 (1970): 21–36. Moore, R. I. “The War Against Heresy in Medieval Europe.” Historical Research: the Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 81:812 (2008): 189–210. Moore, Robert I. The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250. 2nd ed. Williston: Wiley, 2008.
Moore, Robert I. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. History 83:270 (1998): 310-311. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Murray, Alexander. “The Formation of a Persecuting Society. Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. The English Historical Review 105:416 (1990) 715-717. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Nachmani, Amikam. Haunted Presents Europeans, Muslim Immigrants and the Onus of European-Jewish Histories. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. Nederman, Cary J. Worlds of Difference: European Discourses of Toleration, c.1100-c.1550. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000. Nirenberg, David. Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages. 2nd printing, with corrections. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1996.
Pegg, Mark Gregory. The Corruption of Angels : the Great Inquisition of 1245-1246. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Peters, Edward. “The Formation of a Persecuting Society. Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. The Catholic Historical Review 75:3 (1989): 479-481. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Poliakov, Léon. The Aryan Myth : a History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. London: Chatto & Windus Heinemann for Sussex University Press, 1974. Rees Jones, Sarah, and Sethina C. Watson. Christians and Jews in Angevin England: the York Massacre of 1190, Narratives and Contexts. Rochester: Boydell Press, 2013.
Routledge, R. “"The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250" by R.I. MOORE (Book Review).” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. The Journal of Legal History 10:1 (1989) 115. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Rubin, Miri. Gentile Tales : the Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
Rubin, Miri. “Communities of Violence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle-Ages - Nirenberg,D.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. Journal of Ecclesiastical History 48:2 (1997): 348-349. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Rubin, Miri. “The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250.” Review of The Formation of a Persecuting Society, by Robert I. Moore. Speculum 65:4 (1990): 1025-1027. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Sackville, L. J. Heresy and Heretics in the Thirteenth Century: the Textual Representations. Woodbridge: Boydell & amp , 2011.
Saperstein, Marc. “Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages.” Review of Communities of violence persecution of minorities in the Middle Ages, by David Nirenberg. American Historical Review 102:3 (1997): 803-804. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Simons, Walter and Miri Rubin. The Cambridge History of Christianity: Christianity in Western Europe, c.1100–c.1500. Vol IV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Stow, Kenneth R. Alienated Minority: the Jews of Medieval Latin Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Thrupp, Sylvia L. Change in Medieval Society: Europe North of the Alps, 1050-1500. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988.
Tuchman, Barbara W. A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century. New York: Ballantine, 1979.
Weber, Max. “Politics as a Vocation.” Paper presented to the “Free Students Union” of Bavaria, Munich, 28 January 1919.
Williams, James B. “Carolingian Formation of a Persecuting Society.” The Heroic Age 17:17 (2017): 1. Accessed October 20, 2023.
Zimmerman, Susan. “Leprosy in the Medieval Imaginary.” The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 38:3 (2008): 559–87.