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The Medieval Manichee: A Study of the Christian Dualist Heresy
A reissue of Sir Steven Runciman's classic account of the Dualist heretic tradition in Christianity from its Gnostic origins, through Armenia, Byzantium, and the Balkans to its final flowering in Italy and Southern France. The chief danger that early Christianity had to face came from the heretical Dualist sect founded in the mid-third century AD by the prophet Mani. Within a century of his death Manichaean churches were established from western Mediterranean lands to eastern Turkestan. Though Manichaeism failed in the end to supplant orthodox Christianity, the Church had been badly frightened; and henceforth it gave the hated epithet of 'Manichaean' to the churches of Dualist doctrines that survived into the late Middle Ages.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
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About the author
Steven Runciman
45 books239 followersA King's Scholar at Eton College, he was an exact contemporary and close friend of George Orwell. While there, they both studied French under Aldous Huxley. In 1921 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge as a history scholar and studied under J.B. Bury, becoming, as Runciman later commented, "his first, and only, student." At first the reclusive Bury tried to brush him off; then, when Runciman mentioned that he could read Russian, Bury gave him a stack of Bulgarian articles to edit, and so their relationship began. His work on the Byzantine Empire earned him a fellowship at Trinity in 1927.
After receiving a large inheritance from his grandfather, Runciman resigned his fellowship in 1938 and began travelling widely. From 1942 to 1945 he was Professor of Byzantine Art and History at Istanbul University, in Turkey, where he began the research on the Crusades which would lead to his best known work, the History of the Crusades (three volumes appearing in 1951, 1952, and 1954).
Most of Runciman's historical works deal with Byzantium and her medieval neighbours between Sicily and Syria; one exception is The White Rajahs, published in 1960, which tells the story of Sarawak, an independent nation founded on the northern coast of Borneo in 1841 by the Englishman James Brooke, and ruled by the Brooke family for more than a century.
After receiving a large inheritance from his grandfather, Runciman resigned his fellowship in 1938 and began travelling widely. From 1942 to 1945 he was Professor of Byzantine Art and History at Istanbul University, in Turkey, where he began the research on the Crusades which would lead to his best known work, the History of the Crusades (three volumes appearing in 1951, 1952, and 1954).
Most of Runciman's historical works deal with Byzantium and her medieval neighbours between Sicily and Syria; one exception is The White Rajahs, published in 1960, which tells the story of Sarawak, an independent nation founded on the northern coast of Borneo in 1841 by the Englishman James Brooke, and ruled by the Brooke family for more than a century.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 27, 2014
I found The Medieval Manichee for a dollar a few months ago. I'd never hard of it, didn't connect this Runciman with the Runciman who wrote about the Crusades or the Sicilian Vespers, but couldn't go past such a fabulous title or subtitle.
There's not much to review: it's out of date in some particulars, but a solid overview of the Big Dualist Heresies, from the Paulicians to Cathars. Most importantly, Runciman writes more or less in the language of the (self-described) orthodox, but ironically so. I laughed often, which you could hardly expect from the subject matter. It's as if Gibbon was a little less snarky, and worth it for the style alone. But Runciman also makes good points that get ignored by the 'Gnostics were peace loving hippies who we should embrace instead of Christians' crowd, the 'Religion caused all the world's problems including that I didn't like my breakfast this morning' crowd, and the 'quite right to burn them' crowd (the latter of which I don't really come across, ever). In short: the success or failure of heresy, like everything else, relies more on politics and economics than it does on 'religion,' because without the support of the nobility, there is no church, heretical or otherwise. He's preaching to the choir with me, but he makes good points.
Two minor highlights: anyone who loves the sound of words will get a kick out of the appendices, in which he lists the names of heretical groups. You might have heard of the Bogomils but how about hte Phundaites, Kudugers, Babuni, Deonarii, Piphles, Bougres, Textores, Runcarii, Bonshommes or Garatenses? And the name alone is almost enough to convert me to Athinganism, which is sadly not the belief that there are no things.
And Runciman can be added to the long list of books written during the second world war, when scholars didn't have access to libraries and had to rely on their memory or the few things they had to hand. It's surely no coincidence that so many of those books are so good: rather than trying to respond to the latest article in 'The Welsh Journal of the Theologies of Slightly Odd Religious Groups,' they were actually trying to produce knowledge.
Finally, a completely subjective pleasure: reading my serendipitous find took me back to my teenage years. When I was younger, I couldn't shop for books online. I lived in Australia, which meant that even second-hand books cost ten dollars, and the selection was, to put it kindly, minimal. Thanks to my student budget, I basically read whatever I could afford and find. Sometimes the result was good, sometimes bad.
Thank God I'm not a teenager anymore. Once is worth it, but also enough. This book, on the other hand, is well worth it, and a great resource for the surely *enormous* public out there itching for some mid twentieth century scholarship on dualist heresies.
There's not much to review: it's out of date in some particulars, but a solid overview of the Big Dualist Heresies, from the Paulicians to Cathars. Most importantly, Runciman writes more or less in the language of the (self-described) orthodox, but ironically so. I laughed often, which you could hardly expect from the subject matter. It's as if Gibbon was a little less snarky, and worth it for the style alone. But Runciman also makes good points that get ignored by the 'Gnostics were peace loving hippies who we should embrace instead of Christians' crowd, the 'Religion caused all the world's problems including that I didn't like my breakfast this morning' crowd, and the 'quite right to burn them' crowd (the latter of which I don't really come across, ever). In short: the success or failure of heresy, like everything else, relies more on politics and economics than it does on 'religion,' because without the support of the nobility, there is no church, heretical or otherwise. He's preaching to the choir with me, but he makes good points.
Two minor highlights: anyone who loves the sound of words will get a kick out of the appendices, in which he lists the names of heretical groups. You might have heard of the Bogomils but how about hte Phundaites, Kudugers, Babuni, Deonarii, Piphles, Bougres, Textores, Runcarii, Bonshommes or Garatenses? And the name alone is almost enough to convert me to Athinganism, which is sadly not the belief that there are no things.
And Runciman can be added to the long list of books written during the second world war, when scholars didn't have access to libraries and had to rely on their memory or the few things they had to hand. It's surely no coincidence that so many of those books are so good: rather than trying to respond to the latest article in 'The Welsh Journal of the Theologies of Slightly Odd Religious Groups,' they were actually trying to produce knowledge.
Finally, a completely subjective pleasure: reading my serendipitous find took me back to my teenage years. When I was younger, I couldn't shop for books online. I lived in Australia, which meant that even second-hand books cost ten dollars, and the selection was, to put it kindly, minimal. Thanks to my student budget, I basically read whatever I could afford and find. Sometimes the result was good, sometimes bad.
Thank God I'm not a teenager anymore. Once is worth it, but also enough. This book, on the other hand, is well worth it, and a great resource for the surely *enormous* public out there itching for some mid twentieth century scholarship on dualist heresies.
March 6, 2020
As with all of Runciman's work, The Medieval Manichee is elegantly written. I wished I'd had a greater knowledge of church history, because it would have helped in some early stretches of the book in which the subject seemed to adhere to that most disparaging description of history being just one damn thing after another. But, as the book progresses, Runciman begins making connections that for even a lay reader such as myself bring the topic to both coherence and relevance. The last two chapters in particular are worth the read.
December 24, 2023
Great book to understand the most interesting Christian heresies – that of the Gnostics. Apparently a revolutionary book in its time.
March 13, 2020
cool (the book, not the wretched heresies)
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews