Medieval theologians ranked non-Christians by their closeness to the truth.

Evidence

Ricoldo classified the populations of the East under four heads, in order of increasing remoteness from the truth: heretical Christians, Nestorian or Jacobite; Jews; Muslims; and Mongols or pagans. Heretics held the integral revelations, but were in error about the mode of Incarnation; Jews did not have the New Testament and were in error about the Old; Muslims had no revelation and no understanding, but had their Devil’s law with some useful things; pagans had no law, understanding, worship or religion at all. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1061

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Connects to the medieval hierocracy and classification-of-other-faiths material from earlier chapters; also parallels modern ‘ranking of religions’ attitudes found in sociological studies of religious tolerance.
• CANDY: The notion that Muslims had the ‘Devil’s law’ but with ‘some useful things’ is a pleasantly absurd medieval taxonomy worth sharing.

Related

• Medieval friars ranked monotheists hierarchically by closeness to Christian truth (similarity 0.92)
• Medieval thinkers classified Islam among revealed laws rather than philosophy (similarity 0.83)
• Medieval Europeans classified all world religions under a four-part scheme. (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christian accounts ranked non-Christians below the land itself (similarity 0.82)
• Medieval Christians saw Islam as doubly heretical, overlapping both their faith and Judaism (similarity 0.81)
• Medieval theologians placed Islam midway between heresy and paganism (similarity 0.81)
• Some mediaeval Christians considered Muslims morally superior to Christians. (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Europeans could not distinguish the Qur’an from other Islamic books. (similarity 0.80)
• Early modern Christians ranked Muslims inferior by faith, not by race (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Europe held multiple coexisting frameworks for situating Islam (similarity 0.80)
• Medieval Christians doubted Islam’s truth yet marveled at its success (similarity 0.80)
• Ricoldo judged Muslims as having works but lacking Law and understanding. (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval theologians neutralized Muslim success by holding it a just chastisement of Christian sin (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval theologians classified Islam in multiple overlapping religious frameworks (similarity 0.79)
• Medieval Christians viewed Islam only as a negative foil to Christianity (similarity 0.79)