O n the other, we have a new valorization o f work, particularly manual labor, that achieved its most conscious formulations in the propaganda o f the English Lollards, who reminded their followers that “Thenobles have beautiful houses, we have only work and hardships, but it is from our workthat everything comes” (ibid.; Christie-Murray 1976:114—15)

Many heretics shared the ideal o f apostolic poverty19 and thedesire to return to the simple communal life that had characterized the primitive church

denied the existence o fPurgatory,

However, the heretics’ challenge wasprimarily a political one, since to challenge the C hurch was to confront at once theideological pillar o f feudal power, the biggest landowner in Europe,

Although influenced by Eastern religions brought to Europe by merchants andcrusaders

” By the thousands, heretics were burned atthe stake, and to eradicate their presence the Pope created one o f the most perverse institutions ever recorded in the history o f state repression; the Holy Inquisition (Vauchez1990:162—70)

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Today, little is know n about the many heretic sects (Cathars, Waldenses.The Pooro f Lyon, Spirituals, Apostolics) that for more than three centuries flourished among the“lower classes” in Italy, France, the Flanders, and Germany, in what undoubtedly was themost im portant opposition movement o f the Middle Ages

Heresy and millenarianism are often treated as one subject, but while a precise distinction cannot be drawn, there are significant differences between the two movements.

It was not the millenarian movement, however, but popular heresy that bestexpressed the search by the medieval proletariat for a concrete alternative to feudal relations and its resistance to the growing money-economy

A typical example o f millenarianism was the movement sparked by the appearance o f the Pseudo Baldwin in Flanders in 1224—25.T he man, a herm it, had claimed tobe the popular Baldwin IX w ho had been killed in Constantinople in 1204. This couldnot be proven, but his promise o f a new world provoked a civil war in w hich the Flemishtextile workers became his m ost ardent supporters (Nicholas 1992:155) .These poor people (weavers, fullers) closed ranks around him , presumably convinced that he was goingto give them silver and gold and full social reform

silver and gold and full social reform

millenarian

Pseudo Baldwin

all work contributed to the family’s sustenance. W omenworked in the fields, in addition to raising children, cooking, washing, spinning, andkeeping an herb garden; their domestic activities were not devalued and did not involvedifferent social relations from those o f men, as they would later, in a m oney-econom y,w hen housework would cease to be viewed as real work

“Land to the tillers

The most important aspect o f serfdom, from the viewpoint o f the changes it introduced in the master-servant relation, is that it gave the serfs direct access to the means o ftheir reproduction.

Belief is concerned with becoming; understanding withbeing

Yes, by the gods, and pretty ridiculous they are, too. They talkabout something they call a “dense interval” or quarter tone 13 —puttingtheir ears to their instruments, like someone trying to overhear what theneighbors are saying. And some say they hear a tone in between, and that itis the shortest interval by which they must measure, while others argue thatthis tone sounds the same as a quarter tone. Both groups put ears before theunderstanding.

A wise person could probably list them all, but thereare two that are evident even to us

And isn’t one very effective precaution not to let them tasteargument while they are young? I mean, I don’t suppose it has escaped yournotice that when young people get their first taste of argument, they misuseit as if it were playing a game, always using it for disputation. 28 They imitatethose who have refuted them by refuting others themselves, 29 and, likepuppies, enjoy dragging and tearing with argument anyone within reach.G LAUCON: Excessively so.S OCRATES : Then, when they have refuted many themselves and beenrefuted by many, they quickly fall into violently disbelieving everythingthey believed before. And as a result of this, they themselves and the wholeof philosophy as well are discredited in the eyes of others

cooperate with it in turning the soul around

Who else, then, will you compel to go be guardians of the cityif not those who know best what results in good government, and have dif-ferent honors and a better life than the political?

Once one has seen it,however, one must infer that it is the cause of all that is correct and beauti-ful in anything, that in the visible realm it produces both light and itssource, and that in the intelligible realm it controls and provides truth andunderstanding; and that anyone who is to act sensibly in private or publicmust see it

All in all, then, what the prisoners would take for true realityis nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts