International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2006 Abstracts

Peter the Chanter (d.1197) was a master at the cathedral school of Notre-Dame in Paris in the late twelfth century, well-known for his wide-ranging comments on many aspects of social life. My interest in the Chanter arises from my research on the early Waldensians. Unlike most of his contemporaries, the Chanter was sympathetic towards this movement of poor, lay preachers. This paper is an attempt to understand the common ground between the Chanter and the Waldensians in order to account for the Chanter's cautious approval of them. It examines the hypothesis that, besides their shared emphasis on the importance of preaching, there were points of similarity in their social thought, in particular their attitude towards the poor and towards wealth.