Blackwell Reference Online

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In June of 1345, the commune of Florence burned to death Giovanni di Jacobo Cherucci, otherwise known as Brother John the Hermit and Friend of God. His court sentence enumerates a long list of frauds, including using phoney religious claims to seduce women. Brother John is something of a puzzle for a historian of medieval popular belief and heresy, for several reasons. First, what might his case suggest about what some lay people actually believed, given his evident insincerity and his victims' gullibility? Secondly, to my knowledge he was never charged with heresy. Can he nevertheless be considered a heretic, since he was sentenced for things that got other people condemned for heresy — if nothing else, pretended sanctity and illicit preaching. Thirdly, he was also charged with things that were often used against people considered heretical, including fraud, greed, and sexual voracity. Historians tend to discount those charges as stereotypical smears, but Brother John was apparently guilty. The case is thus vivid evidence of the complexities of studying medieval religious belief. It can serve to introduce some of the themes of this chapter: popular currents of belief and doubt, the problem of hostile sources, the ways later understandings have shaped ideas about medieval belief, how medieval heresy was defined, and how contemporaries viewed that definition.Brother John the Hermit ... log in or subscribe to read full text