First inspired by Vaudes in around 1170, the Waldensians formed a religious dissent which survived into the sixteenth century. Respecting the Gospel to the letter, their rejection of oaths, falsehood, the death penalty, purgatory and the intercession of saints marginalized them in the society of the times. Their survival depended on their will to adapt. Organisation became necessary to withstand the pressures of time and space as their community extended across Europe (France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Bohemia, Poland). Preachers, called "barbes" in the diaspora's Romance wing, embodied...

"The great medieval thinker Peter Abelard is renowned for his uncompromising and radical approach to ethics and theology, a towering public figure in twelfth-century schools and monasticism. The Repentant Abelard argues, however, that later in his life, Abelard's thoughts turned again towards his own family, and it explores the works he wrote at this time for his former wife Heloise and son Astralabe. These include six laments (Planctus) for Heloise written in the voices of Old Testament figures, works of extraordinary poetry, resonant with love, sorrow, and despair. For his son he wrote a...