Come estirpare le cattive piante. La riflessione sull’eresia nell’opera esegetica di Jacques Fournier

The pontificate of John XXII is a fruitful laboratory where to explore the connections between image of exile and practices of exclusion elaborated by the Avignon Papal curia. In spite of the attention generated by Jacques Duèse’s theological consultations, the contribution of biblical exegesis to the eradication of religious dissent has been less thoroughly examined. This article focuses on the role of Bible commentaries to the theorization of heresy and the formalization of anti-heretical repression. A massive and yet uncompleted work in six volumes, the Matthew Postilla by Jacques Fournier (ca. 1284-1342) contains extensive discussions on the nature of heresy and the repression of heretics. Based on the analysis of the Gospel, the author defines the different paths to be followed in order to extirpate the evil plant of heresy from the communitas Christianorum. The expulsion of heretics is organized on different levels, leading from social exclusion to physical and spiritual death.