What is it about?
"The Trial of John of Parma" examines the widely supposed dismissal from office, trial for heresy, and punishment of John of Parma, Minister General of the Franciscan Order from 1247 to 1257. Later called Blessed, his contemporaries knew John as a holy man who labored to return the order to the primitive observance lived by the friars in the days of St. Francis. Detailed research of every source of information about John of Parma written during the first 120 years after his alleged dismissal from office in 1257 demonstrates that not one of the early sources states that he was dismissed, tried for heresy, or punished for Joachite heresy. Angelo Clareno, written in the late 1320s, concocted a story about John's heresy trial and punishment that has been repeated by generations of scholars, some 60 or 70 of which are noted in the appendix.
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Why is it important?
Because the prevailing, almost unanimous picture of John of Parma is that he was an avowed Joachite, that he was therefore dismissed from office, tried for heresy, and punished for his Joachism. However, nothing in the early sources substantiates this near-universal opinion.
Perspectives
The article reveals that hearsay and reputation can be accepted by large numbers of scholars for generations, presenting an inaccurate picture of an individual and events and damaging reputations, even though the source documents have not been examined properly
Dr Dabney G Park
University of Miami
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rush to Judgement? The Trial of John of Parma, June 2023, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004547834_016.
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