HGSA Paper Proposal

Since I am in the final process of editing a paper for our student conference at NC State, I thought I would post the original proposal. The paper will more or less follow this plan.

Proposal for "The Adoptionism of Felix and the Beginnings of 'Medieval' Heresy" a paper to be presented at the North Carolina State University History Graduate Student's Association Conference 21 February 2009.

The traditional historiography of "medieval" heresy starts the story around the turn of the millennium. As the story goes, several events marked the return of "popular" heresy to the West after a break of some 600 years. Scan mention is given to the controversies of the eighth and ninth centuries; these are typically dismissed as "intramural" affairs, lacking any significance beyond the cloister.

Yet the Adoptionist controversy that arose in Spain of the late eighth century appears to run counter to this. Felix, the bishop of Urgel, argued that Jesus Christ, as the second person of the Trinity, was adoptive in his humanity, but not in his divinity. This position smelled to the authorities like a recrudescence of the Nestorian heresy, and as such this position was attacked at three councils. Historians have followed the lead of the churchmen, often categorizing this heresy among those that plagued the Late Antique church.

These councils, and the volume of material written against Felix and Elipandus of Toledo, argue that this was no small matter. Add to this the claim of Alcuin of York that some 20,000 people had accepted Felix's position, and this controversy seems less intramural and more international. In this paper, I argue that this event needs to be properly considered with later medieval heresy. The response to it, while not as lethal as it would be in the eleventh century, is that of a government in the process of formation and its lessons would not be lost in subsequent years.