(in English): The thesis deals with the history of arianism. It emphasizes the historical and theology-philosohical conext of arianism, which is essential for understanding the whole topic and especially for understanding the development of the early Christians' faith. It outlines how the early Christians perceived their faith, which is important in order to grasp the basic principles and understanding of early beliefs also outlines the context of late antique philosophy that influenced the theological-philosophical framework of orthodoxy and arianism itself. The text of the thesis focuses on the political situation in Europe at the end of antiquity, the rise of arianism in the first half of the fourth century and its dispute with orthodoxy, whose dogma has been defined during the council of Constantinople (381). Already before the beginning of second council in Constantinople arianism started to spread through the barbarian tribes, the Goths, Vandals and Burgundians to the West, where it was incorporated into the policy of tribal States. Thanks to these tribes arianism survived in the West until the sixth century. The thesis brings incentive for further research of Arianism in the context of religious and political relations in the Western and Eastern parts of the Roman Empire in the early Middle Ages.

L’Inquisition, en tant qu’institution d’Ancien Régime, était le commanditaire de toutes sortes de sermons intégrés aux cérémonies qu’elle organisait. Ceux-ci étaient prononcés lors des célébrations du calendrier inquisitorial, à savoir lors des autodafés, de la publication des édits de foi, d’anathème et de l’index expurgatoire. Ils étaient également prêchés lors de cérémonies de circonstance, relevant ou non du calendrier liturgique (fêtes expiatoires, de Carême, et autres). Par ce « mécénat homilétique », le Saint-Office et les tribunaux, en particulier en Espagne, menaient une politique d’affirmation statutaire et gagnaient une visibilité sociale à même de tempérer leur image répressive. Les sermons, vecteur idéologique de premier ordre, permettaient de diffuser, au sein de la communauté, une doctrine axée sur le rejet de l’altérité confessionnelle et une propagande acquise au commanditaire. / As an Old Regime institution, the Inquisition ordered all sorts of sermons wich were part of the ceremonies it organised. The latter were delivered during the inquisitorial calendar celebrations, that is during autos-da-fé, and during the publication of Edicts of Faith, anathema and Expurgatory Index. They were also preached during occasional celebrations, wether they were part of the liturgical calendar or not (expiatory celebrations, Lent …). The Holy Office and the tribunals led a statutory affirmation policy and obtained a certain social visibility through « homitic patronage », especially in Spain, in order to improve their repressive image. Sermons, wich were first hand ideological vectors, helped spread a doctrine focused around confessional alterity rejection and a patron’s acquired propaganda in the community.

À l’avènement de Charles Ier, le tribunal de l’Inquisition faisait l’objet d’une intense controverse juridique. La cour fut contrainte, pour assurer sa survie, de choisir les leviers de son institutionnalisation. Or, entre 1516 et 1556, la pérennisation du Saint-Office s’était accompagnée d’un élargissement sans précédent du périmètre d’attributions inquisitoriales. L’analyse, dans une première partie, des conditions de l’exercice judiciaire dégage les caractères de la juridicisation à l’œuvre. Ces évolutions prolongeaient la consécration de l’autorité de la chose jugée inquisitoriale impulsée entre 1507 et 1516. Au moyen des garanties fonctionnelles – double degré de juridiction et collégialité – ainsi que du contrôle a posteriori des actes, l’Inquisition put répondre à la controverse juridique. Par le biais d’une étude du traitement de la question mahométane et des blasphèmes, la seconde partie présente les modes d’application de la juridicité ainsi définie et met en évidence l’émergence d’une fonction administrative. Parce que l’Inquisition s’était mise au service d’une police religieuse, elle inaugurait des aménagements procéduraux inédits. La cour était désormais investie d’une fonction de connaissance afin de garantir l’ordre religieux. La troisième partie dégage les caractères de l’action inquisitoriale face aux nouvelles hérésies. En suivant la piste du scandale actif et passif, l’Inquisition formalisa l’illuminisme, quadrilla le territoire par la régulation de l’évangélisme érasmien et surveilla l’émergence des nouveaux foyers hétérodoxes espagnols tout en investissant les matières relatives à la discipline de l’état ecclésiastique et à l’édification des fidèles. / When Charles I came to the throne, the Spanish Inquisition became the subject of an intense legal battle. In order to ensure its survival, the Court was obliged to find ways of institutionalising it. As it was, the establishment of the Holy Office was accompanied by an unprecedented expansion of the role of the Inquisition. The first part of this work looks at the conditions of the judicial system and how these defined the way in which juridicisation developed. These developments confirmed the consecration of the authority over things deemed inquisitorial, that had been initiated between 1507 & 1516. Through functional guarantees – a double level of jurisdiction and collegiality – and through powers of judicial control, the Inquisition was able to react to the controversy. By way of a study of the treatment of the Mohammedan question and of blasphemy, the second part describes how the jurisdiction was applied, and shows how an administrative function developed. As the Inquisition put itself at the service of religious police, it led to novel ways of adapting existing procedures.The third part shows how the Inquisition acted in the face of new heresies. The Court was henceforth empowered with a right to know, to enable it to guarantee religious order. By actively and passively fomenting scandals, the Holy Office formalised Illuminism, established control of the territory by regulating Erasmian evangelism, and kept a lookout for the emergence of new pockets of heterodoxy in Spain; at the same time it developed the tools needed for a disciplined ecclesiastical state and the edification of the faithful.

<p>This dissertation contains an edition of <i>Dyalogus super Reuelacionibus beate Birgitte</i>, which is a discussion and defence of the Revelations (<i>Reuelaciones</i>) of St. Birgitta of Sweden (ca. 1303-1373). In legal proceedings at the Council of Basle (1431-1449), the <i>Reuelaciones</i> were accused of heresy, examined and defended. Among the defenders was Heymericus de Campo (1395-1460), who at that time was professor of theology at the University of Cologne. In addition to the formal examination reports, Heymericus wrote a dialogue on the subject. The <i>Dyalogus</i>, which was probably composed as a contribution to a debate, is tentatively dated to have been written between October 1434 and February 17, 1435. The main part of <i>Dyalogus </i>consists of 123 text passages extracted from the <i>Reuelaciones</i> and accused of heresy, and Heymericus’ defence of these text passages. The aim of the defence is to prove that the <i>Reuelaciones</i> are truly orthodox and thus inspired by God. In addition, Heymericus intends to display the reasons and arguments the impugners had for questioning the <i>Reuelaciones</i>. <i>Dyalogus</i> and the other defences were read and copied foremost within the Birgittine order. The judgement passed at the proceedings called for a commentary before the <i>Reuelaciones</i> could be disseminated to the whole of their extent. To the Birgittines the defences of Basle filled this purpose, at least for some time. </p><p>The extensive introduction of the thesis deals with the historical context of the text, its use and importance, its place within the author’s literary production, the contents and language of the text, and finally the textual transmission. Vadstena Abbey’s copy of the text is chosen as base manuscript for the edition.</p>

La tesi affronta la problematica dell'intervento penale a tutela della religione in Italia e Gran Bretagna, concentrandosi in particolare sulle fattispecie “tradizionali” di vilipendio, bestemmia e blasphemy. La sezione prima prende in esame essenzialmente il profilo storico della disciplina penalistica e confessionale a tutela della religione mettendo in luce la nascita, l'evoluzione e la conformazione dei delitti di religione nei due ordinamenti sino alle soglie del XIX secolo. La seconda sezione, invece, analizza il diritto moderno e l'attuale configurazione del vilipendio, della bestemmia e delle religious offences, in una prospettiva di diritto comparato, nel contesto contemporaneo del pluralismo, della secolarizzazione e della dimensione “europea” del fenomeno religioso e delle libertà ad esso connesse. La peculiare posizione giuridica della canon law della established Church of England nell'ordinamento britannico ha reso necessario inoltre uno sguardo sullo status della blasphemy nell'ambito delle doctrinal offences, con lo scopo di studiare le reciproche influenze tra le religious offences nella common law e quelle previste nell'ordinamento “interno” alla Church of England. Le chiavi di lettura concettuali che emergono dalla ricerca sono: il rapporto tra “sistemi di diritto ecclesiastico” (relazioni tra Stato e Chiesa) e scelte politico-criminali a tutela del fenomeno religioso, l'evoluzione del bene protetto e del fondamento della tutela penale nella giurisprudenza dei due Paesi, i modelli di tutela penale (alternativa tutela speciale/tutela comune), i recenti sviluppi del “diritto penale di religione” ed infine il problema della laicità in rapporto alla tutela penale del fenomeno religioso. / This work aims to study the criminal law providing for the defence of religion in Italy and Great Britain, focusing upon such traditional criminal conducts as “vilipendio”, bestemmia and blasphemy. The first section deals with the historical reconstruction of criminal and religious law protecting religion, in order to give an account of the origin and the evolution of the legal provisions concerning the religious offences within both Italian and British legal systems until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The second section examines the legal provisions, stipulated in the modern and contemporary ages, of the offences of “vilipendio”, “bestemmia” as well as British religious offences, in a comparative law perspective, within the framework of pluralism, secularisation and the European dimension of religious freedom. It has been necessary to study the legal provisions concerning blasphemy also as to doctrinal offences, in order to explain the peculiar legal status of the Canon Law of the Church of England, as well as to understand the mutual influences between the religious common law offences and the doctrinal offences in the domestic law of the Church of England. The main conclusions of this research work concern the connection between “the Ecclesiastical Law systems” (that is, the systems of State-Church relations) ad the choices of the legislator to protect the religious dimension; the evolution of the legal content as well as of the rationes of the criminal law within the Italian and British jurisprudence; the patterns of criminal law (seen as an alternative between special and general protection); the recent developments of the concept of “religious offence” and the problem of the relations between secularisation and the criminal protection of religion.

Lo scopo di questa ricerca è l’analisi del I libro delle Sententiae di Pietro Lombardo nel quadro della teologia trinitaria del XII secolo. Un riscoperto interesse, grazie agli studi di Colish e Rosemann, invita ad ipotizzarne una lettura interpretativa che, riconoscendo l’ingente sforzo dell’autore nella raccolta e sistemazione delle fonti latine e greche, intende rintracciare una certa sistematicità ed alcune novità nel genere e nelle questioni affrontate. Un approccio storico-filologico applica l’analisi testuale ai nodi tematici più importanti della dottrina lombardiana a partire da una preliminare riflessione sul metodo e sul linguaggio adottati, da cui si evince l’intento didattico-apologetico dell’autore. Nella dialettica auctoritas/inquisitio si vuole infatti ridurre il rischio di incorrere nell’errore e da qui in posizioni eretiche. Il Lombardo espone una teologia positiva che mantiene costante il riferimento all’essenza del Dio trinitario nella sua unità e trascendenza; l’analisi di proprietates e nomi divini, la questione della generazione divina, la pneumatologia ed il tema De potentia Dei vanno collocati all’interno del dibattito del tempo. In tale contesto, il confronto con la teologia di Pietro Abelardo risulta funzionale a comprendere la distanza e la novità che le Sententiae rappresentano, pur nella indubbia ricezione di aspetti metodologici ed in parte concettuali dal maestro palatino. / According to some recent studies, such as Colish’s and Rosemann’s, further investigation is likely to be needed in order to approach Peter Lombard’s Sentences. Hence this study aims at analysing the Sentences I within the Trinitarian theology of the XII century: the author’s systematic effort in collecting and ordering the main theological sources suggests new perspectives in the genre and in the themes. An historical-philological approach applies the textual analysis to the Lombardian work, after examining his theological method and language. In the dialectic between authority and investigation, the Master’s purpose turns out to be twofold: educational and apologetic, teaching scholars to avoid ‘errors’ and, consequently, heretical positions. So, within a ‘positive theology’, the main feature of Lombard’s collection is the transcendence and the supreme unity of God. On this base themes like the divine properties, the Son’s generation, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the divine omnipotence are investigated in the context of the medieval theological debates. For instance, the comparison between Peter Lombard and Peter Abelard on the Trinitarian topics highlights the Lombardian original account, in spite of his certain reception of some of the Abelardian methodological, and partly conceptual, issues.

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This dissertation contains an edition of Dyalogus super Reuelacionibus beate Birgitte, which is a discussion and defence of the Revelations (Reuelaciones) of St. Birgitta of Sweden (ca. 1303-1373). In legal proceedings at the Council of Basle (1431-1449), the Reuelaciones were accused of heresy, examined and defended. Among the defenders was Heymericus de Campo (1395-1460), who at that time was professor of theology at the University of Cologne. In addition to the formal examination reports, Heymericus wrote a dialogue on the subject. The Dyalogus, which was probably composed as a contribution to a debate, is tentatively dated to have been written between October 1434 and February 17, 1435. The main part of Dyalogus consists of 123 text passages extracted from the Reuelaciones and accused of heresy, and Heymericus’ defence of these text passages. The aim of the defence is to prove that the Reuelaciones are truly orthodox and thus inspired by God. In addition, Heymericus intends to display the reasons and arguments the impugners had for questioning the Reuelaciones. Dyalogus and the other defences were read and copied foremost within the Birgittine order. The judgement passed at the proceedings called for a commentary before the Reuelaciones could be disseminated to the whole of their extent. To the Birgittines the defences of Basle filled this purpose, at least for some time. The extensive introduction of the thesis deals with the historical context of the text, its use and importance, its place within the author’s literary production, the contents and language of the text, and finally the textual transmission. Vadstena Abbey’s copy of the text is chosen as base manuscript for the edition.

This dissertation investigates how two fifth-century bishops of Rome, Leo I (440-461) and Gelasius (492-496) understood and opposed heresy. More specifically, by stressing the contested character of heresy and the at times optative nature of the bishop of Rome’s opposition to it, this dissertation hopes to provide a new perspective on how Leo and Gelasius imagined and justified the authority of the Apostolic See in an uncertain world. To accomplish this task, this dissertation considers Leo and Gelasius’ opposition to various different heresies and details the methods by which they were opposed. This will be done through an examination of the records of synods, Roman law, other contemporary narrative sources, but especially through the letters and tractates of Leo and Gelasius themselves, carefully read and considered in their fifth-century context. Furthermore, it is argued that the history of the development of the ideas of heresy and orthodoxy were profoundly connected with Rome’s emerging importance as a locus of authentic Christian teachings; the history of the bishops of Rome cannot be told without examining the history of heresy and orthodoxy and vice versa. Because orthodoxy and heresy were not tangible historical phenomena but rather were malleable categories that emerged as part of a wider discourse of Christian identity construction, the bishops of Rome were not in every case the unqualified enemies of heresy. Instead, their definition of heterodox belief and their opposition to religious deviance were complex, often qualified and always historically contingent. This study seeks to investigate the way in which Leo and Gelasius mobilized the language of heresiology in order to convince Christians in the Latin west and the Greek east, as well as the imperial authorities, that Rome’s interpretations were legitimate and binding.

In the rich diversity of forms of the Christian Church, there are different perspectives on how believers ought to live holy lives and how their sanctification should progress. As such, the piety and sanctification of Christians entail every facet of our lives and the possibility of misunderstanding is ever present, because humans are fallible and at risk to "work" with the Bible in their own fashion. A wrong understanding of sin inevitably leads to error as regards piety. Pietism or mutations /forms thereof may therefore stifle, rather than promote real piety coram Deo, in the Christian faith community and in conducting our everyday lives. The aim of the study is, therefore, to advance genuine piety with Christian believers. The doctrine of successive works of grace and the style or approach in which proponents of the doctrine treat Scripture, were critically examined in the first section of the basis-theory. A hermeneutical position from the reformed perspective was stated. The sovereignty of God and the acknowledged authority of Scripture are both the centre and periphery of the reformed perspective, and from a grammatical-historical paradigm augmented by historical-cultural information, the construct of sin in the understanding of the first New Testament audience was examined. The juxtaposed construct of piety, as the logical opposite of sin, was correspondingly explored. The doctrine of so-called successive works of grace was reviewed analytically in the second phase of the basis-theory and the conclusion was stated that this doctrine is a form of pietism. The usage of Scripture and the terminology utilized by pietistic groupings to establish their doctrine was evaluated from a grammatical-historical point of departure. The aim of the study was to render pastoral assistance to someone who was, or is involved with the successive works of grace variation of pietism. For this reason, the meta-theoretical facet of the study did not focus on an academic study of sources to explain the phenomenon of pietism, but instead believers' experience of the successive works of grace form of pietism was investigated by means of a narrative empirical study. This investigation took place within the margins of the religious experience of three groups of participants in a church that embraces the particular doctrine. The three categories were believers that advocate the doctrine of successive works of grace, believers that abandoned the same and those that disagree with such a doctrine. From the basis-theory and the interpretation of the empirical results, an uncomplicated hermeneutical counselling strategy was put together with due emphasis on the correct understanding of Scriptural information on the topics of sin and piety/sanctification. The aim of the strategy is to educate believers from a Scriptural position and perspective on the indicative-imperative aspects of reconciliation and sanctification in Christ. The perfection of what Jesus has done and our reciprocal faith response is stated and conveyed in the strategy. A model consisting of a number of counselling sessions are suggested to guide believers not to adopt the particular belief or, otherwise, to provide a pastoral, remedial support to assist believers in finding liberation from the doctrine of successive works of grace. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Pastoral)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.