ABSTRACT
The idea that women were subordinate to men in the social hierarchy applied among orthodox and heretics alike, as did the concept that the woman's life centred on her household. Heresy provided opportunities for preaching and ministry at a time when even abbesses were finding that their preaching to their fellow nuns was being increasingly restricted. In the late Middle Ages, Waldensians were living in the mountain regions of Dauphine and Piedmont. In this peasant society, the women's role has to be set in the context of the family. In theory, women Perfecti had greater powers than women in the Roman church, but in practice their role was more limited. Although the main task of the Inquisition was to suppress heresy, from the thirteenth century onwards it also heard cases involving magic. Cases of witchcraft were also heard by local ecclesiastical and secular courts.
