Quote of the day

You have to make choices even when there's nothing to choose from

— Péter Zilahy

Syndicate content

Navigation
home → arts & cultures → the small picture

View 1 comment
login or register to post comments | email this storypdf version

The Burning of the Books

openDemocracy
Truth, heresy and repression in thirteenth-century Europe.
30 - 04 - 2007


The Burning of the Books or St. Dominic De Guzman and the Albigensians, 15th-century panel by Pedro Berruguete.


Detail from The Burning of the Books or St. Dominic De Guzman and the Albigensians, 15th-century panel by Pedro Berruguete.

The panel portrays the disputation between Saint Dominic (Santo Domingo de Guzmán) and the Albigensians (the Cathars).

Pope Innocent III had declared the Albigensians heretics in the early thirteenth century. When the books of the both the Saint and the Albigensians were thrown on a fire Dominic's books were miraculously preserved from the flames (see the book floating above the fire), thus proving his teaching to be true and that of the Cathars false.

Average rating
 
 
 
 
 
(3 votes)

Trackback URL for this post:

http://www.opendemocracy.net/trackback/4574
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet
further links
 
Copyright © openDemocracy, . Published by openDemocracy Ltd. You may download and print extracts from this article for your own personal and non-commercial use only. If you teach at a university we ask that your department make a donation. Contact us if you wish to discuss republication. Some articles on this site are published under different terms.

alfredo.bremont said:



Tue, 2007-05-01 22:20
well how about Fahrenheit 411 in the 15 century. no wonder men is such a mess it keeps doing the same thing over and over again. what is this error persistence that does not allow this human to evolve. what a sad predicament to such beautiful organism. it has everything to become sublime, but on the other hand it does everything on his power to attain the opposite. men the wonder of the universe
login or register to post comments | email this comment