Introduction

Abstract The late fourteenth century bore witness to a battle over the role of prophecy in contemporary culture. This book explores this battle and its impact on spiritual authority, gender, and access to divine will. This chapter includes a discussion of definitions of prophecy and the history of prophecy in Christian thought. In the later fourteenth century, there were more claims to prophecy than ever before, new kinds of people (including outsiders, women, and reformers) were professing prophetic gifts, and prophets experienced increased publicity and respect. At the same time, some educated clerics opposed the authority of prophets and their claims. They attempted to de-legitimize prophetic claims by raising suspicion about the role of demons in prophecy, intimating that the increase in prophecy was a sign of Antichrist’s approach, and treating prophets as competition to the legitimate authority of theologians.