Professor Ian Forrest
Professor of Social and Religious History.
Oriel College
01865 (2)76535
My research interests lie in the social, religious and economic history of Europe between 1200 and 1500. I am particularly interested in relationships between ordinary people and powerful institutions. I have published on heresy and inquisition, social life and social regulation, and am now writing a book about trustworthiness and inequality.
My first book, The Detection of Heresy in Late Medieval England examined the development of inquisitorial procedure in England from the 1380s to the 1430s, looking at the involvement of ordinary people in the prosecution of heretics, and exploring themes of government and ecclesiastical communication and propaganda. My current project is Trustworthy Men. How Inequality and Faith made the Medieval Church. There is a massive literature on trust in all fields of the humanities and social sciences, but the historian's perspective has been missing. Trust was necessary to the growth of governing institutions, forging links between the powerful and the localities. But reliance upon trust also promoted deep social and gender inequalities. This book will be a social history of Christianity at a crucial period for both religion and society. Alongside this work I continue to be interested in heresy, inquisition and religious movements across Europe. I am also pursuing various topics in popular (peasant) politics, particularly the symbolism of political protest, and the use of social theory to ask questions about solidarity and rebellion.
Featured Publication
The Detection of Heresy in Late Medieval England (Oxford Historical Monographs) (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Heresy was the most feared crime in the medieval moral universe. It was seen as a social disease capable of poisoning the body politic and shattering the unity of the church. The study of heresy in late medieval England has, to date, focused largely on the heretics. In consequence, we know very little about how this crime was defined by the churchmen who passed authoritative judgement on it.
By examining the drafting, publicizing, and implementing of new laws against heresy in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, using published and unpublished judicial records, this book presents the first general study of inquisition in medieval England. In it Ian Forrest argues that because heresy was a problem simultaneously national and local, detection relied upon collaboration between rulers and the ruled. While involvement in detection brought local society into contact with the apparatus of government, uneducated laymen still had to be kept at arm's length, because judgements about heresy were deemed too subtle and important to be left to them. Detection required bishops and inquisitors to balance reported suspicions against canonical proof, and threats to public safety against the rights of the suspect and the deficiencies of human justice.
At present, the character and significance of heresy in late medieval England is the subject of much debate. Ian Forrest believes that this debate has to be informed by a greater awareness of the legal and social contexts within which heresy took on its many real and imagined attributes.
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