Heresy

HERESY: A view or opinion not in accord with the prevalent standards. The Greek word hairesis, meaning originally a choice, then a self-chosen belief, is applied by the Fathers as early as the third century to a deviation from the fundamental Christian faith, which was punished by exclusion from the Church. From the end of the fourth century the emperors accepted the view that they were bound to use their temporal power against heretics for the maintenance of purity of doctrine; Theodosius the Great attempted to exterminate heretics by a system of penalties, which was extended by his successors and maintained by Justinian. Any deviation from the orthodox belief might be punished by infamy, incapacity to hold office or give testimony, banishment, and confiscation of property; the death penalty was only prescribed for certain sects, such as the Manichean. The severer punishments were imposed on the leaders of heretical sects, or for the conferring and receiving of orders within them and for public gatherings. This legislation was not accepted in the Merovingian kingdom, which left it to the Church to combat heresy with spiritual weapons; the Visigothic law, on the other hand, took the same standpoint as the Roman. The Carolingian period provided penalties for the practise of paganism; but in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the rise and spread of heretical sects, especially the Cathari, led to active ecclesiastical legislation against heresy. As early as the eleventh century, the secular authorities in France and Germany had punished individual heretics with death, and the councils of the twelfth declared them bound to use their power in this way. While Frederick 1. and II., and Louis VIII., IX., and X. of France were enacting laws of this kind, the ecclesiastical view that heresy came by right before the Church's tribunal led to the erection of special church courts with a procedure of their own (see Inquisistion; Jurisdiction, Ecclesiastical). In the present Roman Catholic practise, heresy is the wilful holding by a baptized person of doctrines which contradict any article of faith defined by the catholic Church, or which have been condemned by a pope or a general council as heretical, provided that the holder knows the right faith and makes open profession of his departure from it. The penalty is excommunieatio major kt® wntentiw, which

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by the constitution Apostolicæ curæ of 1869 is specially reserved to the pope; forfeiture of Christian burial; for clerics, deposition and degradation; for impenitent heretics, delivery to the secular arm for a variety of secular penalties. Theoretically, the Roman Catholic Church still holds to the old severe legislation, and as late as 1878 Leo XIII confirmed a ruling of the cardinal vicar based on these principles in relation to those who attended Protestant services in Rome. But the altered position of the Church in modern times permits only the imposition of ecclesiastical penalties. A number of decisions of the Congregation of the Holy Office and of local councils, it is true, still forbid absolutely any communicatio in ditvinis with heretics, such as attendance at Protestant services (for the purpose of worship), and extend as far as possible even to the avoidance of sending children to Protestant schools.

In the Evangelical Churches not a few relics of the older attitude have continued, although Luther at first was unwilling to recognize heresy as an offense; to say nothing of the burning of Servetus (q.v.), a number of the older Protestant constitutions regard heresy as a crime, with special reference to the Anabaptists, whose punishment by the severe measures of the secular government was applauded by the Reformers. But logically the Evangelical Church, which declines to force the consciences of its members, and appeals solely to Scripture for the confirmation of its doctrines, can only rebuke erroneous doctrines as erroneous, and commend to pastoral exhortation those who hold them. This does not prevent the disciplinary dismissal of a minister who in his teaching transgresses the bounds of Evangelical freedom; and on the part of a layman, a public attitude of hostility toward the Evangelical faith would properly subject him also to discipline, extending, in case of obstinate persistence, to formal exclusion from church fellowship, although in modern practise this is seldom employed. See Orthodoxy

(P. Hinschius)

Bibliography: From the legal standpoint: B. Hobhouse, Treatise on Heresy as Cognizable by the Spiritual Courts, London, 1792, answered by F. Randolph, Scriptural Revision of Scriptural Arguments, ib. 1793; N. München, Das kanonische Gerichtsverfahren und Strafrecht, ii. 315, Cologne, 1865; E. Löning, Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenrechts, i. 95 sqq., Strasburg, 1878; J. Havet, L'Hérésie et le bras séculier au moyen âge, Paris, 1881; P. Farinaccius, Law of the Church of Rome in Cases of Heresy, London, 1885; B. Guidonis, Practica inquisitionis heretice provitalis, Paris, 1886; A. L. Richter, Lehrbuch des . . Kirchenrechts, ed. W. Kahl, p. 229, Leipsic, 1886; P. Hinschius, Kirchenrecht . . . in Deutschland, iv. 790, 844, 847, v. 157, 378, 679, vi. 186, 189, Berlin, 1886-97.

On the historical side consult: G. Arnold. Unparteiische Kirchen- and Ketserhistorie, Schaffhausen, 1740; C. W. F. Walch, Entwurf einer vollständigen Historie der Ketzereien, 11 vols., Leipsic, 1762-85; N. Lardner, Hist. of the Heretics of the First Two Centuries, London, 1780; E. Burton, The Heresies of the Apostolic Age, Oxford. 1829; C. U. Hahn, Ketzer in Mittelalter, 3 vols., Stuttgart, 1846-50; J. H. Blunt, Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties and Schools of Religious Thought, Philadelphia, 1874; M. Menendez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos Españoles, 3 vols., Madrid, 1881; H. H. Wyatt, Principal Heresies Relating to our Lord's Incarnation, London, 1881; A. Hilgenfeld, Die Ketzergeschichte des Urchristenthums, Leipsic, 1884; F. Tocco, L'Eresia nei medio evo, Florence, 1884; S. E. Herrick, Some Heretics of Yesterday, Boston, 1885; P. Pierini, La Genesi del Liberatismo, Prato, 1889; U. Robert, Les Signes dinfamie au moyen âge. Hérétiques, Paris, 1889; J. J. I. von Döllinger, Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters, 2 vols., Munich, 1890; C. Heuner, Beiträge zur Organisation der päpstlichen Ketzergerichte, Leipsic, 1890; A D. White, Hist. of the Warfare of Science with Theology, New York, 1896; H. C. Hiller, Heresies, 5 vols., London, 1899-1902. A history of the attitude of the English law is given in J. H. Blunt, Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, pp. 306-311, Philadelphia, 1870. Consult also the literature under Arianism, Donatism, Eutychianism, Gnosticism, Inquisition, Montanism, Pelagianism, etc., and consult also the works on the history of the Christian Church; DCB, ii. 907-911; DCA, i. 766-769.