Orthodoxy,Dissent and Politics in Medieval France and Anatolia: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

This article makes a comparative study of the relationship between orthodoxy, dissent and politics. It examines primarily the activities of Henry of Lausanne in Le Mans (ca. 1116), the trial of Petrus Maurandus in Toulouse (1179) and the Babai Rebellion in Seljuk Anatolia (1240). The aim is to construct a narrative that historiographically connects these three historically unrelated cases in order to propose a switch of focus from discourses to practices in analysing the overlaps between orthodoxy, dissent and politics. It argues that the social presence of religion in the day-to-day activities of the communities was what made it political on the micro level. Connectedly, the dynamics of the relationship between orthodoxy and dissent are to be sought in the micro-political practices of the social sphere, rather than in the discursive space of theological and ecclesiastical polemics. We need to recognise the production and articulation of such polemics similarly as practices that intended to create political effects within the social sphere.