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On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Nicolette wrote: > Has he fallen deeply out of favour, or is he so old hat that he's not worth > mentioning anymore? Surely I am not the only person on the list who had > her view of the evolution of medieval society shaped by his ideas! In my opinion, Moore's thesis still stands - given that it is only meant to be a general and broad thesis, drawn on a large scale across one-hundred-and-something pages. It is also worth pointing out (given Tom's earlier post) that Moore is heavily influenced by Mary Douglas's 'Purity and Danger'. Maybe Moore should not be taken as gospel in any particular circumstance (although I also think that his earlier work on C12 heresy is very good) he nonetheless provides an extremely interesting overview and large-scale thesis. I think however that once that thesis (particularly the links he draws between the representations of Jews, Heretics, Lepers, Prostitutes, Homosexuals) has been stated, the project for the rest of us might be to provide more nuances, rather than to simply back it up; that is, after Moore, it might be more interesting to consider how persecution of these different groups *differed*, within their broadly similar patterns. [And I should immediately confess that Dr Peter Biller first made this point to me]. cheers john arnold Centre for Medieval Studies Kings Manor Exhibition Square York YO1 2EP ENGLAND (01904) 433966 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%