antiheresy

To Bernard the infant's spiritual kin were not the godparents but the Church, in its maternal role, and a fraternal Christ, who in Bernard's antiheresy writings appeared as a young child explicitly compared to the infant at the font (see "Exceptions Prove the Rule: The Worthiness of Children" in section 3, below).

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

One genre in particular offers extensive material concerning the child's moral worth: the antiheresy polemic of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

The mid-thirteenth-century orthodox, and especially Dominican, concern with identifying and preaching against heresy is illustrated by the appearance of the longest and the shortest of the antiheresy polemics, both written by or for Dominicans.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

In fact, the antiheresy polemics included several extremely revealing and seemingly heartfelt passages that addressed the issue of contemporary infant mortality.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

The antiheresy polemics attempted to articulate a divine plan of salvation devoted specifically to the infant.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

The years around 1200 were active ones for heretics and Catholics alike; antiheresy polemics appeared with greater frequency and became systematized.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

In response to these different heterodox movements, advocates of Catholic orthodoxy reacted strongly and created a new genre, the antiheresy polemic, which will form the basis of this chapter.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

The antiheresy polemics of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries reflect the changing contexts in which different heresies spread.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

One biblical passage shedding light on the nature of the child appears with such frequency in the antiheresy literature that it deserves a separate discussion, and all the more so as Catholics and heretics alike seem to have considered it crucial.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005

In his antiheresy sermon on the Song of Songs, Bernard again noted the similarities between the Innocents and twelfth-century children, this time through a comparison between the little saints 'crowns of martyrdom and the salvation bestowed by baptism on any child who died before the age of discretion.

A Tender Age: Cultural Anxieties over the Child in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries 2005