The Birth of Popular Heresy: A Millennial Phenomenon?

This paper provides a reassessment of historical debates about the nature of popular movements in and around the year 1000, with particular reference to the work of Richard Landes and Dominique Barthélemy. Heresy and heresy accusations do not feature in the classical historiography of millennialism in medieval Europe, including Norman Cohn’s Pursuit of the Millennium. Nor does the assertion that heresy was propagated among “the people” in the first half of the eleventh century. However, these issues do arise in current discussions of the “millennial generation” (those living through the years 1000–1033) and the so-called “feudal revolution.” This keynote paper reviews millennial reports of heresy in the light of changing historiographical trends and of new work on the heresies themselves. It contests the view that reports of perceived heresy by literate elites support allegations of widespread popular belief in the imminent end of the world.