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HERESY , the See also:English See also:equivalent of the See also:Greek word alpeQns which is used in the See also:Septuagint for " See also:free choice," in later classical literature for a philosophical school or See also:sect as " chosen " by those who belong to it, in See also:Philo for See also:religion, in See also:Josephus for a religious party (the See also:Sadducees, the See also:Pharisees and the See also:Essenes).
It is in this last sense that the See also:term is used in the New Testa-
ment, usually with an implicit censure of the factious spirit to
which such divisions are due. The term is applied
to the Sadducees (Acts v. 17) and Pharisees (Acts xv.
5, See also:xxvi. 5). From the standpoint of opponents,
See also:Christianity is itself so described (Acts See also:xxiv. 14, See also:xxviii.
22). In the Pauline Epistles it is used with severe condemnation
of the divisions within the See also:Christian See also: Such divisions, proofs of a carnal mind, are censured in the church of See also:Corinth (, See also:Cor. iii. 3, 4) ; and the church of See also:Rome is warned against those who cause them (Rom. xvi. 17). The term " See also:schism," afterwards distinguished from " heresy," is also used of these divisions (1 Cor. i. 1o). The estrangements of the See also:rich and the poor in the church at Corinth, leading to a lack of Christian fellowship even at the See also:Lord's Supper, is described as " heresy " (1 Cor. xi. 19). Breaches of the See also:law of love, not errors about the truth of the See also:Gospel, are referred to in these passages. But the first step towards the ecclesiastical. use of the term is found already in 2 See also:Peter ii. 1, " Among you also there shall be false teachers who shall privily bring in destructive heresies (R.V. margin " sects of perdition "), denying even the See also:Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves See also:swift destruction." The meaning here suggested is " falsely chosen or erroneous tenets. Already the emphasis is moving from persons and their See also:temper to See also:mental products—from the See also:sphere of sympathetic love to that of See also:objective truth " (Bartlet, See also:art. " Heresy," See also:Hastings's See also:Bible See also:Dictionary). As the parallel passage in See also:Jude, See also:verse 4, shows, however, that these errors had immoral consequences, the moral reference is not absent even from this passage. The first employment of the term outside the New Testament is also its first use for theological See also:error. See also:Ignatius applies it to Docetism (Ad Trail. 6). As See also:doctrine came to be made more important, heresy was restricted to any de- parture from the recognized creed. Even See also:Constantine the See also:Great describes the Christian Church as " the See also:Catholic heresy," " the most sacred heresy " (See also:Eusebius, Ecclesiastical See also:History, x. C. 5, the See also:letter to Chrestus, See also:bishop of See also:Syracuse); but this use was very soon abandoned, and the Catholic Church distinguished itself from the dissenting minorities, which it condemned as " heresies." The use of the term heresy in the New Testament cannot .be regarded as defining the attitude of the Christian Church, even in the Apostolic See also:age, towards errors in belief. The Apostolic writings show a vehement antagonism towards all teaching opposed to the Gospel. See also:Paul declares See also:anathema the Judaizer, who required the See also:circumcision of the Gentiles (Gal. i. 8), and even calls them the " See also:dogs of the concision " and " evil workers " (Phil. iii. 2). The elders of See also:Ephesus are warned against the false teachers who would appear in the church after the apostle's See also:death as " grievous wolves not sparing the See also:flock " (Acts xx. 29); and the speculations of the Gnostics are denounced as " seducing See also:spirits and doctrines of devils " (1 Tim. iv. 1), as " profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called " (vi. 20). See also: These Gnostic heresies, which threatened to paganize the Christian Church, were condemned in no measured terms by the fathers. These false teachers are denounced as " servants of Satan, beasts in human shape, dealers 6 nosttcin deadly See also:poison, robbers and pirates." See also:Polycarp, Ignatius, See also:Justin See also:Martyr, See also:Irenaeus, See also:Hippolytus, See also:Tertullian and even See also:Clement of See also:Alexandria and See also:Origen are as severe in condemnation as the later fathers (cf. Matt. xiii. 35-43; Tertullian, Praescr. 31). While the See also:necessity of the heresies is admitted in accordance with 1 Cor. xi. 19, yet woe is pronounced on those who have introduced them, according to Matt. xviii. 7. (This application of these passages, however, is of altogether doubtful validity.) " It was necessary," says Tertullian (ibid. 3o), " that the Lord should be betrayed; but woe to the traitor." The very worst motives, " See also:pride, disappointed ambition, sensual lust, and avarice," are recklessly imputed to the heretics; and no possibility of morally See also:innocent doubt, difficulty or difference in thought is admitted. Origen and See also:Augustine do, however, recognize that even false teachers may have See also:good motives. While we must admit that there was a very serious peril to the thought and See also:life of the Christian Church in the teaching thus denounced, yet we must not forget that for the most See also:part these teachers are known to us only in the ex parte See also:representation that their opponents have given of them; and we must not assume that even their doctrines, still less their characters, were so See also:bad as they are described. The attitude of the church in the See also:post-Nicene See also:period differs from that in the ante-Nicene in two important respects. (r) As has already been indicated, the earlier heresies threatened to introduce Jewish or pagan elements into the faith of the church, and it was necessary that they should be vigorously resisted if the church was to retain its distinctive character: Many of the later heresies were See also:differences in the See also:interpretation of Christian truth, which did not in the same way threaten the very life of the church. No vital See also:interest of Christian faith justified the extravagant denunciations in which theological partisanship so recklessly and ruthlessly indulged. (2) In the ante-Nicene period only ecclesiastical penalties, such as reproof, deposition or See also:excommunication, could be imposed. In the post-Nicene the See also:union of church and See also:state transformed theological error into legal offence (see below). We must now consider the See also:definition of heresy which was gradually reached in the Christian Church. It is " a religious error held in wilful and persistent opposition to the truth after it has been defined and declared by the def See also:Jan church in an authoritative manner," or " See also:pertinax See also:don. defensio dogmatis ecclesiae universalis judicio See also:con- demnati " (See also:Schaff's Ante-Nicene Christianity, ii. 512-516). (i.) It " denotes an See also:opinion antagonistic to a fundamental New Testament. See also:article of the Christian faith," due to the introduction of " See also:foreign elements " and resulting in a perversion of Christianity, and an amalgamation with it of ideas discordant with its nature (See also:Fisher's History of Christian Doctrine, p. 9). It has been generally assumed that the ecclesiastical authority was always competent to determine what are the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, and to detect any departures from them; but it is necessary to admit the possibility that the error was in the church, and the truth was with the heresy. (ii.) There cannot be any heresy where there is no orthodoxy, and, therefore, in the definition it is assumed that the church has declared what is the truth or the error in any See also:matter. Accordingly "heresy is to be distinguished from defective stages of Christian knowledge. For example, the Jewish believers, including the Apostles themselves, at the outset required the See also:Gentile believers to be circumcised. They were not on this See also:account chargeable with heresy. Additional See also:light must first come in, and be rejected, before that earlier opinion could be thus stigmatized. Moreover, heresies are not to be confounded with tentative and faulty hypotheses broached in a period See also:prior to the See also:scrutiny of a topic of Christian doctrine, and before that scrutiny has led the See also:general mind to an assured conclusion. Such hypotheses—for example, the See also:idea that in the See also:person of See also:Christ the See also:Logos is substituted for a rational human spirit—are to be met with in certain See also:early fathers " (ibid. p. to). Origen indulged in many speculations which were afterwards condemned, but, as these matters were still open questions in his See also:day, he was not reckoned a heretic. (iii.) In accordance with the New Testament use of the term heresy, it is assumed that moral defect accompanies the intellectual error, that the false view is held pertinaciously, in spite of warning, remonstrance and rebuke; aggressively to win over others, and so factiously, to cause See also:division in the church, a See also:breach in its unity. A distinction is made between " heresy " and " schism " (from Gr. vA'ec), rend asunder, See also:divide). " The fathers Schism. commonly use ` heresy ' of false teaching in opposition to Catholic doctrine, and ` schism ' of a breach of discipline, in opposition to Catholic See also:government " (Schaff). But as the claims of the church to be the See also:guardian through its episcopate of the apostolic tradition, of the Christian faith itself, were magnified, and unity in practice as well as in doctrine came to be regarded as essential, this distinction became a theoretical rather than a See also:practical one. While severely condemning, both Irenaeus and Tertullian distinguished schismatics from heretics. " Though we are by no means entitled to say that they acknowledged orthodox schismatics they did not yet venture to reckon them simply as heretics. If it was desired to get rid of these, an effort was made to impute to them some deviation from the See also:rule of faith; and under this pretext the church freed herself from the Montanists and the Monarchians. See also:Cyprian was the first to proclaim the identity of heretics and schismatics by making a See also:man's Christianity depend on his belonging to the great episcopal church See also:confederation. But in both See also:East and See also:West, this theory of his became established only by very imperceptible degrees, and indeed, strictly speaking, the See also:process was never completed. The distinction between heretics and schismatics was preserved because it prevented a public denial of the old principles, because it was advisable on See also:political grounds to treat certain schismatic communities with See also:indulgence, and because it was always possible in See also:case of need to prove heresy against the schismatics." (See also:Harnack's History of See also:Dogma, ii. 92-93). There was considerable controversy in the early church as to the validity of heretical See also:baptism. As even " the Christian Heretical virtues of the heretics were described as See also:hypocrisy baptism. and love of ostentation," so no value whatever was attached by the orthodox party to the sacraments performed by heretics. Tertullian declares that the church can have no communion with the heretics, for there is nothing See also:common; as they have not the same See also:God, and the same Christ, so they have not the same baptism (De bapt. 15). Cyprian agreed with him. The validity of heretical baptism was denied by the church of See also:Asia See also:Minor as well as of See also:Africa; but the practice of the See also:Roman Church was to admit without second baptism heretics who had been baptized with the name of Christ, or of the See also:Holy Trinity. See also:Stephen of Rome attempted to force the Roman practice on the whole church in 253. The controversy his intolerance provoked was closed by Augustine's controversial See also:treatise De Baptismo, in which the validity of baptism ad-ministered by heretics is based on the objectivity of the See also:sacrament. Whenever the name of the three-one God is used, the sacrament is declared valid by whomsoever it may be performed. This was a See also:triumph of sacramentarianism, not of charity. Three types of heresy have appeared in the history of the Christian Church.' The earliest may be called the syncretic; it is the See also:fusion of Jewish or pagan with Christian elements. Ebionitism asserted " the continual obliga- h e o1 sy tion to observe the whole of the See also:Mosaic law," and " outran the Old Testament monotheism by a barren See also:monarchianism that denied the divinity of Christ " (See also:Kurtz, Church History, i. 120). See also:Gnosticism was the result of the See also:attempt to blend with Christianity the religious notions of pagan See also:mythology, mysterology, See also:theosophy and See also:philosophy " (p. 98). The Judaizing and the paganizing tendency were combined in Gnostic Ebionitism which was prepared for in Jewish Essenism. In the later heresy of See also:Manichaeism there were See also:affinities to Gnosticism, but it was a mixture of many elements, Babylonian-Chaldaic theosophy, See also:Persian See also:dualism and even Buddhist See also:ethics (p. 126). The next type of heresy may be called evolutionary or formatory. When the Christian faith is being formulated, undue emphasis may be put on one aspect, and thus so partial a statement of truth may result in error. Thus when in the ante-Nicene age the doctrine of the Trinity was under discussion, dynamic Monarchianism " regarded Christ as a See also:mere man, who, like the prophets, though in a much higher measure, had been endued with divine See also:wisdom and power "; modal Monarchianism saw in the Logos dwelling in Christ " only a mode of the activity of the See also:Father "; Patripassianism identified the Logos with the Father; and Sabellianism regarded Father, Son. and Spirit as "the roles which the God who manifests Himself in the See also:world assumes in See also:succession" (Kurtz, Church History, 1. 175-181). When See also:Arius asserted the subordination of the Son to the Father, and denied the eternal See also:generation, See also:Athanasius and his party asserted the Homoousia, the cosubstantiality of the Father and the Son. This assertion of the divinity of Christ triumphed, but other problems at once emerged. How was the relation of the humanity to the divinity in Christ to be conceived? See also:Apollinaris denied the completeness of the human nature, and substituted the divine Logos for the reasonable soul of man. See also:Nestorius held the two natures so far apart as to appear to See also:sacrifice the unity of the person of Christ. See also:Eutyches on the contrary " taught not only that after His incarnation Christ had only one nature, but also that the See also:body of Christ as the body of God is not of like substance with our own " (Kurtz, Church History, i. 330-334). The Church in the Creed of See also:Chalcedon in A.D. 451 affirmed " that Christ is true God and true man, according to His Godhead begotten from eternity and like the Father in everything, only without See also:sin; and that after His incarnation the unity of the person consists in two natures which are con-joined without confusion, and without See also:change, but also without rending and without separation." The problem was not solved, but the inadequate solutions were excluded, and the data to be considered in any adequate See also:solution were affirmed. After this decision the controversies about the Person of Christ degenerated into mere See also:hair-splitting', and the interference of the imperial authority from See also:time to time in the dispute was not conducive to the See also:settlement of the questions in the interests of truth alone. This problem interested the East for the most part; in the West there was waged a theological warfare around the nature of man and the See also:work of Christ. To Augustine's doctrine of man's See also:total depravity, his incapacity for any good, and the See also:absolute See also:sovereignty of the divine See also:grace in salvation according to the divine See also:election, See also:Pelagius opposed the view that " God's grace ' For See also:fuller details see See also:separate articles. is destined for all men, but man must make himself worthy of it by honest striving after virtue" (Kurtz, Church History, i. 348). While Pelagius was condemned, it was only a modified Augustinianism which became the doctrine of the church. It is not necessary in See also:illustration of the second type of heresy—that which arises when the contents of the Christian faith are being defined—to refer to the doctrinal controversies of the See also:middle ages. It may be added that after the See also:Reformation Arianism was revived in Socinianism, and Pelagianism in Arminianism; but the conception of heresy in Protestantism demands subsequent See also:notice. The third type of heresy is the revolutionary or reformatory. This is not directed against doctrine as such, but against the church,_its theory and its practice. Such movements of antagonism to the errors or abuses of ecclesiastical authority may be so permeated by defective conceptions and injurious influences as by their own character to deserve condemnation. But on the other See also:hand the church in maintaining its See also:place and power may condemn as heretical genuine efforts at reform by a return, though partial, to the See also:standard set by the Holy Scriptures or the Apostolic Church. On the one hand there were (luring the middle ages sects, like the Catharists and Albigenses, whose " opposition as a rule See also:developed itself from dualistic or pantheistic premises (surviving effects of old Gnostic or Manichaean views) " and who "stood outside of See also:ordinary Christendom, and while no doubt affecting many individual members within it, had no See also:influence on church doctrine." On the other hand there were movements, such as the Waldensian, the Wycliffite and Hussite,which are often described as " reformations anticipating the Reformation " which " set out from the Augustinian conception of the Church, but took exception to the development of the conception," and were pronounced by the See also:medieval church as heretical for (I) " contesting the hierarchical gradation of the priestly order; or (2) giving to the religious idea of the Church implied in the thought of See also:predestination a place See also:superior to the conception of the empirical Church; or (3) applying to the priests, and thereby to the authorities of the Church, the test of the law of God, before admitting their right to exercise, as holding the keys, the power of binding and loosing" (Harnack's History of Dogma, vi. 136-137). The Reformation itself was from the standpoint of the Roman Catholic Church heresy and schism. '` In the See also:present divided state of Christendom," says Schaff (Ante-Nicene Christianity, ii. 513-514), " there are different kinds of orthodoxy ,and heresy. Orthodoxy is con-See also:Modern formity to the recognized creed or standard of public term of the doctrine; heresy is a wilful departure from it. The Greek Church rejects as heretical, because contrary to the teaching of the first seven ecumenical See also:councils, the Roman dogmas of the papacy, of the See also:double procession of the Holy See also:Ghost, the immaculate conception of the Virgin See also:Mary, and the See also:infallibility of the See also:Pope. The Roman Church anathematized, in the See also:council of See also:Trent, all the distinctive doctrines of the See also:Protestant Reformation. Among Protestant churches again there are minor doctrinal differences, which are held with various degrees of exclusiveness or liberality according to the degree of departure from the Roman Catholic Church. See also:Luther, for instance, would not tolerate See also:Zwingli's view on. the Lord's Supper, while Zwingli was willing to fraternize with him notwithstanding this difference." At the colloquy of See also:Marburg " Zwingli offered his hand to Luther with the entreaty that they be at least Christian brethren, but Luther refused it and declared that the Swiss were of another spirit. He expressed surprise that a man of such views as Zwingli should wish brotherly relations with the See also:Wittenberg reformers " (See also: Although subsequently to the Reformation period the Protestant churches for the most part relapsed into the dogmatism of the Roman Catholic Church, and were ever ready with censure for every departure from orthodoxy—yet to-day a spirit of diffidence in regard to one's own beliefs, and of tolerance towards the beliefs of others, is abroad. The enlargement of the See also:horizon of knowledge by the advance of See also:science, the recognition of the only relative validity of human opinions and beliefs as determined by and adapted to each See also:stage of human development, which is due to the growing See also:historical sense, the alteration of view regarding the nature of See also:inspiration, and the purpose of the Holy Scriptures, the revolt against all ecclesiastical authority, and the See also:acceptance of See also:reason and See also:conscience as alone authoritative, the growth of the spirit of Christian charity, the clamorous demand of the social problem for immediate See also:attention, all combine in making the Christian churches less anxious about the danger, and less zealous in the See also:discovery and condemnation of heresy.
Having traced the history of opinion in the Christian churches on the subject of heresy, we must now return to resume a subject already mentioned, the persecution of heretics. According to the See also:Canon Law, which " was the ecclesi- tpon opt astical law of medieval See also:Europe, and is still the law of heretics. the Roman Catholic Church," heresy was defined as
" error which is voluntarily held in See also:contradiction to a doctrine which has been clearly stated in the creed, and has become part of the defined faith of the church," and which is " persisted in by a member of the church." It was regarded not only as an error, but also as a See also:crime to be detected and punished. As it belongs, however, to a man's thoughts and not his deeds, it often can be proved only from suspicions. The canonists define the degrees of suspicion as " light " calling for vigilance, " vehement " demanding denunciation, and " violent " requiring See also:punishment. The grounds of suspicion have been formulated " Pope Innocent III. declared that to See also:lead a solitary life, to refuse to accommodate oneself to the prevailing See also:manners of society, and to frequent unauthorized religious meetings were abundant grounds of suspicion; while later canonists were accustomed to give lists of deeds which made the doers suspect: a See also:priest who did not celebrate See also:mass, a layman who was seen in clerical See also:robes, those who favoured heretics, received them as guests, gave them safe conduct, tolerated them, trusted them, defended them, fought,,, under them or read their books were all to be suspect " (T.M. See also:Lindsay in article " Heresy," Ency. Brit. 9th edition). That the dangers of heresy might be avoided, laymen were forbidden to argue about matters of faith by Pope See also: Regarding heresy as a crime, the church was not content with inflicting its spiritual penalties, such as excommunication and such See also:civil disabilities as its own " How could the See also:emperor gain the right," he asks, " to rule my faith?" With that only the Word of God is concerned. " Heresy is 'a spiritual thing," he says, " which one cannot hew with any See also:iron, See also:burn with any See also:fire, drown with any See also:water. The Word of God alone is there to do it." Nevertheless Luther assigned to the state, which he assumes to be Christian, the See also:function of maintaining the Gospel and the Word of God in public life. He was not quite consistent in carrying out his principle (see Luthard's Geschichte der christlichen Ethik, ii. 33). In the Religious See also:Peace of See also:Augsburg the principle cujus regio ejus religio " was accepted; by it a ruler's choice between Catholicism and Lutheranism See also:bound his subjects, but any subject unwilling to accept the decision might emigrate without organization allowed it to impose (e.g. the heretics were forbidden to give See also:evidence in ecclesiastical courts, fathers were forbidden to allow a son or a daughter to marry a heretic, and to hold social intercourse with a heretic was an offence). It regarded itself as justified in invoking the power of the state to suppress heresy by civil pains and penalties, including even See also:torture and death. The See also:story of the persecution of heretics by the state must be briefly sketched. As See also:long as the Christian Church was itself persecuted by the pagan See also:empire, it advocated freedom of conscience, and insisted that religion could be promoted only by instruction and per-suasion (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius); but almost immediately after Christianity was adopted as the religion of the Roman empire the persecution of men for religious opinions began. While Constantine at the beginning of his reign (313) declared See also:complete religious See also:liberty, and kept on the whole to this See also:declaration, yet he confined his favours to the orthodox hierarchical church, and even by an See also:edict of the See also:year 326 formally asserted the exclusion from these of heretics and schismatics. Arianism, when favoured by the reigning emperor, showed itself even more intolerant than Catholic Orthodoxy. See also:Theodosius the Great, in 380, soon after his baptism, issued, with his co-emperors, the following edict: " We, the three emperors, will that all our subjects steadfastly adhere to the religion which was taught by St Peter to the See also:Romans, which has been faithfully preserved by tradition, and which is now professed by the pontiff See also:Damasus of Rome, and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the institution of the Apostles, and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of equal See also:majesty in the Holy Trinity. We order that the adherents of this faith be called Catholic Christians; we See also:brand all the senseless followers of the other religions with the infamous name of heretics, and forbid their conventicles assuming the name of churches. Besides the condemnation of divine See also:justice, they must expect the heavy penalties which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict " (Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, i. 142). The fifteen penal See also:laws which this emperor issued in as many years deprived them of all right to the exercise of their religion, " excluded them from all civil offices, and threatened them with fines, See also:confiscation, banishment and even in some cases with death." In 385 See also:Maximus, his See also:rival and colleague, caused seven heretics to be put to death at Treves (See also:Trier). Many bishops approved the See also:act, but See also:Ambrose of See also:Milan and See also: The instruction and persuasion which St See also:Bernard favoured found little See also:imitation. Even the See also:Dominicans, who began as a See also:preaching order to convert heretics, soon became persecutors. In the Albigensian Crusade (A.D. 1209-1229) thousands were slaughtered. As the bishops were not zealous enough in enforcing penal laws against heretics, the Tribunal of the See also:Inquisition was founded in 1232 by See also:Gregory IX., and was entrusted to the Dominicans who " as Domini canes subjected to the most cruel tortures all on whom the suspicion of heresy See also:fell, and all the resolute were handed over to the civil authorities, who readily undertook their execution " (Kurtz, Church History, ii. 137-138). At the Reformation Luther laid down the principle that the civil government is concerned with the See also:province of the See also:external and temporal life, and has nothing to do with faith and conscience. hindrance. In See also:Geneva under See also:Calvin, while the Consistoire, or ecclesiastical See also:court, could inflict only spiritual penalties, yet the medieval idea of the duty of the state to co-operate with the church to maintain the religious purity of the community in matters of belief as well as of conduct so far survived that the civil authority was sure to punish those whom the ecclesiastical had censured. Calvin consented to the death of See also:Servetus, whose views on the Trinity he regarded as most dangerous heresy, and whose denial of the full authority of the Scriptures he dreaded as overthrowing the See also:foundations of all religious authority. Protestantism generally, it is to be observed, quite approved the execution of the heretic. The Synod of Dort (1619) not only condemned Arminianism, but its defenders were expelled from the Nether-lands; only in 1625 did they venture to return, and not till 1630 were they allowed to erect See also:schools and churches. In modern Protestantism there is a growing disinclination to See also:deal even with errors of belief by ecclesiastical censure; the appeal to the civil authority to inflict any See also:penalty is abandoned. During the course of the 19th See also:century in Scottish See also:Presbyterianism the See also:affirmation of Christ's atoning death for all men, the denial of eternal punishment, the modification of the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures by acceptance of the results of the Higher See also:Criticism, were all censured as perilous errors.
The subject cannot be See also:left without a brief reference to the persecution of witches. To the beginning of the 13th century the popular superstitions regarding sorcery, See also:witchcraft and compacts with the See also:devil were condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities as heathenish, sinful and heretical. But after the See also:establishment of the Inquisition " heresy and sorcery were regarded as correlates, like two agencies resting on and service-able to the demoniacal See also:powers, and were therefore treated in the same way as offences to be punished with torture and the stake " (Kurtz, Church History, ii. 195). While the See also:Franciscans rejected the belief in witchcraft, the Dominicans were most zealous in persecuting witches. In the 15th century this delusion, fostered by the ecclesiastical authorities, took See also:possession of the mind of the See also:people, and thousands, mostly old See also:women, but also a number of girls, were tortured and burned as witches. Protestantism took over the superstition from Catholicism. It was defended by See also: Not till 1736 were the statutes against witchcraft repealed; an act which the See also:Associate See also:Presbytery at See also:Edinburgh in 1743 declared to be " contrary to the See also:express law of God, for which a holy God may be provoked in a way of righteous See also:judgment." The recognition and condemnation of errors in religious belief is by no means confined to the Christian Church. Only a few instances of heresy in other religions can be given. In regard to the See also:fetishism of the See also:Gold See also:Coast Non- Chhstlan of Africa, See also:Jevons (Introduction to the History of magtoas. Religion, pp. 165-166) maintains that " public opinion does not approve of the See also:worship by an individual of a suhman, or private tutelary deity, and that his dealings with it are regarded in the nature of ` See also:black art ' as it is not a god of the community." In See also:China there is a " classical or canonical, See also:primitive and therefore alone orthodox (tsching) and true religion," Confucianism and See also:Taoism, while the " heterodox (sic)," See also:Buddhism especially, is " partly tolerated, but generally forbidden, and even cruelly persecuted " (Chantepie de la Saussaye, Religionsgeschichte, i. 57). In See also:Islam " according to an unconfirmed tradition See also:Mahomet is said to have foretold that his community would split into seventy-three sects (see See also:MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION, § Sects), of which only one would See also:escape the flames of See also:hell." The first split was due to uncertainty regarding the principle which should rule the succession to the See also:Caliphate. The Arabic and orthodox party (i.e. the See also:Sunnites, who held by the See also:Koran and tradition) maintained that this should be determined by the choice of the community. The Persian and heterodox party (the See also:Shiites) insisted on See also:heredity. But this political difference was connected with theological differences. The sect of the Mu'tazilites which affirmed that the Koran had been created, and denied predestination, began to be persecuted by the government in the 9th century, and discussion of religious questions was forbidden (see CALIPHATE, sections B and C). The mystical tendency in Islam, Sufism, is also regarded as heretical (see See also:Kuenen's Hibbert Lecture, pp. 45-50). Buddhism is a wide departure in doctrine and practice from See also:Brahmanism, and hence after a swift unfolding and See also:quick spread it was driven out of See also:India and had to find a See also:home-in other lands. Essenism from the standpoint of Judaism was heterodox in two respects, the See also:abandonment of See also:animal sacrifices and the See also:adoration of the See also:sun.
Although in See also:Greece there was generally wide tolerance, yet in 399 B.C. See also:Socrates " was indicted as an irreligious man, a corrupter of youth, and an innovator in worship."
Besides the works quoted above, see Gottfried See also:Arnold's Unparteiische Kirchen- and Ketzer-Historie (1699–1700; ed. See also:Schaffhausen, 1740). A very good See also:list of writers on heresy, See also:ancient and medieval, is given in Burton's See also:Bampton Lectures on Heresies of the Apostolic Age (1829). The various Trinitarian and Christological heresies may be studied in See also:Dorner's History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ(' 845-'856 ; Eng. trans., 1861–1862) ; the Gnostic and Manichaean heresies in the works of See also:Mansel, Matter and See also:Beausobre; the medieval heresies in See also:Hahn's Geschichte der Ketzer See also:im Miltelalter (1846–185o), and Preger's Geschichte der deutschen Mystik (1875) ; See also:Quietism in Heppe's Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik (1875); the Pietist sects in See also:Palmer's Gemeinschaften and Secten Wiirttembergs (1875); the Reformation and 17th-century heresies and sects in the Anabaptisticum et enthusiasticum See also:Pantheon and geistliches See also:Rust-Haus (1702). See also:Bohmer's See also:Jus ecclesiasticum Protestantium (1714–1723), and See also:van Espen's Jus ecclesiasticum (1702) detail at great length the relations of heresy to canon and civil law. On the question of the baptism of heretics see See also: E. G.*)
Heresy according to the Law of England.—The highest point reached by the ecclesiastical power in England was in the Act De Haeretico comburendo (2 See also: The last case on the subject (See also:Jenkins v. See also:Cook, L.R. 1 P.D. 8o) leaves the matter in the same uncertainty. In that case a clergyman refused the communion ' Stephen's Commentaries, bk. iv. ch. 7. to a parishioner who denied the See also:personality of the devil. The judicial See also:committee held that the rights of the parishioners are expressly defined in the statute of I Edw. VI. c. i, and, without admitting that the canons of the church, which are not binding on the laity, could specify a lawful cause for rejection, held that no lawful cause within the meaning of either the canons or the See also:rubric had been shown. It was maintained at the See also:bar that the denial of the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity would not be a lawful cause for such rejection, but the judgment only queries whether a denial of the personality of the devil or eternal punishment is consistent with membership of the church. The right of every layman to the offices of the church is established by statute without reference to opinions, and it is not possible to say what opinions, if any, would operate to disqualify him. The case of clergymen is entirely different. The statute 13 Eliz. c. 12, § 2, enacts that " if any person ecclesiastical, or which shall have an ecclesiastical living, shall advisedly maintain or affirm any doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the said articles, and by conventicle before the bishop of the See also:diocese, or the ordinary, or before the See also:queen's See also:highness's commissioners in matters ecclesiastical, shall persist therein or not revoke his error, or after such revocation eftsoons affirm such untrue doctrine," he shall be deprived of his ecclesiastical promotions. The act it will be observed applies only to clergymen, and the punishment is strictly limited to deprivation of See also:benefice. The judicial committee of the privy council, as the last court of appeal, has on several occasions pronounced judgments by which the See also:scope of the act has been confined to its narrowest legal effect. The court will construe the Articles of Religion and formularies according to the legal rules for the interpretation of statutes and written See also:instruments. No rule of doctrine is to be ascribed to the church which is not distinctly and expressly stated or plainly involved in the written law of the Church, and where there is no rule, a See also:clergy-man may express his opinion without fear of penal consequences. In the Essays and Reviews cases (See also:Williams v. the Bishop of See also:Salisbury, and See also: 3 P.C. 357) in 1871 the committee held that it was not bound to affix a meaning to articles of really dubious import, as it would have been in cases affecting See also:property. At the same time any See also:manifest contradiction of the Articles, or any obvious evasion of them, would subject the offender to the penalties of deprivation. In some of the cases the question has been raised how far the doctrine of the church could be ascertained by reference to the opinions generally expressed by divines belonging to its communion. Such opinions, it would seem, might be taken into account as showing the extent of liberty which had been in practice, claimed and exercised on the interpretation of the articles, but would certainly not be allowed to increase their stringency. It is not the business of the court to pronounce upon the absolute truth or falsehood of any given opinion, but simply to say whether it is formally consistent with the legal doctrines of the Church of England. Whether Convocation has any jurisdiction in cases of heresy is a question which has occasioned some difference of opinion among lawyers. See also:Hale, as quoted by See also:Phillimore (Ecc. Law), says that before the time of See also:Richard II., that is, before any acts of Parliament were made about heretics, it is without question that in a convocation of the clergy or provincial synod " they might and frequently did here in England proceed to the sentencing of heretics." But later writers, while adhering to the statement that Convocation might declare opinions to be heretical, doubted whether it could proceed to punish the offender, even when he was a clerk in orders. Phillimore states that there is no longer any doubt, even apart from the effect of the Church Discipline Act 184o, that Convocation has no power to condemn clergymen for heresy. The supposed right of Convocation to See also:stamp heretical opinions with its disapproval was exercised on a somewhat memorable occasion. In 1864 the Convocation of the province of See also:Canterbury, having taken the opinion of two of the most eminent lawyers of the day (See also:Sir See also:Hugh See also:Cairns and Sir John Rolt), passed judgment upon the See also:volume entitled Essays and Reviews. The judgment purported to " synodically condemn the said volume as containing teaching contrary to the doctrine received by the See also:United Church of England and See also:Ireland, in common with the whole Catholic Church of Christ." These proceedings were challenged in the See also:House of Lords by Lord See also:Houghton, and the lord See also:chancellor (See also:Westbury), speaking on behalf` of the government, stated that if there was any "synodical judgment" it would be a violation of the law, subjecting those concerned in it to the penalties of a See also:praemunire, but that the sentence in question. was " simply nothing, literally no sentence at all." It is thus at least doubtful whether Convocation has a right even to express an opinion unless specially authorized to do so by the crown, and it is certain that it cannot do anything more. Heresy or no heresy, in the last resort, like all other ecclesiastical questions, is decided by the judicial committee of the council. The English lawyers, following the Roman law, distinguish between heresy and See also:apostasy. The latter offence is dealt with by an 0 act which still stands on the statute See also:book, although it has long been virtually obsolete—the 9 & io Will. III. c. 35. If any person who has been educated in or has professed the Christian religion shall, by See also:writing, See also:printing, teaching, or advised speaking, assert or maintain that there are more Gods than one, or shall deny any of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be God, or shall deny the Christian religion to be true or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of divine authority, he shall for the first offence be declared incapable of holding any ecclesiastical, civil, or military See also:office or employment, and for the second incapable of bringing any See also:action, or of being guardian, executor, legatee, or grantee, and shall suffer three years' imprisonment without See also:bail. Unitarians were saved from these atrocious penalties by a later act (53 Geo. III. c. 16o), which permits Christians to deny any of the persons in the Trinity without penal consequences. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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