HERESY

heresy, the english equivalent of the greek word [greek: hairesis] which is used in the septuagint for "free choice," in later classical literature for a philosophical school or sect as "chosen" by those who belong to it, in philo for religion, in josephus for a religious party (the sadducees, the pharisees and the essenes). new testament. it is in this last sense that the term is used in the new testament, 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, xxvi. 5). from the standpoint of opponents, christianity is itself so described (acts xxiv. 14, xxviii. 22). in the pauline epistles it is used with severe condemnation of the divisions within the christian church itself. heresies with "enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, envyings" are reckoned among "the works of the flesh" (gal. v. 20). such divisions, proofs of a carnal mind, are censured in the church of corinth (1 cor. iii. 3, 4); and the church of rome is warned against those who cause them (rom. xvi. 17). the term "schism," afterwards distinguished from "heresy," is also used of these divisions (1 cor. i. 10). the estrangements of the rich and the poor in the church at corinth, leading to a lack of christian fellowship even at the lord's supper, is described as "heresy" (1 cor. xi. 19). breaches of the law of love, not errors about the truth of the gospel, are referred to in these passages. but the first step towards the ecclesiastical use of the term is found already in 2 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 master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction." the meaning here suggested is "falsely chosen or erroneous tenets. already the emphasis is moving from persons and their temper to mental products--from the sphere of sympathetic love to that of objective truth" (bartlet, art. "heresy," hastings's _bible dictionary_). as the parallel passage in jude, 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 error. ignatius applies it to docetism (_ad trall._ 6). as doctrine came to be made more important, heresy was restricted to any departure from the recognized creed. even constantine the great describes the christian church as "the catholic heresy," "the most sacred heresy" (eusebius, _ecclesiastical history_, x. c. 5, the letter to chrestus, bishop of 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 age, towards errors in belief. the apostolic writings show a vehement antagonism towards all teaching opposed to the gospel. paul declares _anathema_ the judaizer, who required the circumcision of the gentiles (gal. i. 8), and even calls them the "dogs of the concision" and "evil workers" (phil. iii. 2). the elders of ephesus are warned against the false teachers who would appear in the church after the apostle's death as "grievous wolves not sparing the flock" (acts xx. 29); and the speculations of the gnostics are denounced as "seducing spirits and doctrines of devils" (1 tim. iv. 1), as "profane babblings and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called" (vi. 20). john's warnings are as earnest and severe. those who deny the fact of the incarnation are described as "antichrist," and as "deceivers" (1 john iv. 3; 2 john 7). the references to heretics in 2 peter and jude have already been dealt with. this antagonism is explicable by the character of the heresies that threatened the christian church in the apostolic age. each of these heresies involved such a blending of the gospel with either jewish or pagan elements, as would not only pollute its purity, but destroy its power. in each of these the gospel was in danger of being made of none effect by the environment, which it must resist in order that it might transform (see burton's bampton lectures on _the heresies of the apostolic age_). gnosticism. 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 in deadly poison, robbers and pirates." polycarp, ignatius, justin martyr, irenaeus, hippolytus, tertullian and even clement of alexandria and origen are as severe in condemnation as the later fathers (cf. matt. xiii. 35-43; tertullian, _praescr._ 31). while the 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. 30), "that the lord should be betrayed; but woe to the traitor." the very worst motives, "pride, disappointed ambition, sensual lust, and avarice," are recklessly imputed to the heretics; and no possibility of morally innocent doubt, difficulty or difference in thought is admitted. origen and augustine do, however, recognize that even false teachers may have good motives. while we must admit that there was a very serious peril to the thought and life of the christian church in the teaching thus denounced, yet we must not forget that for the most part these teachers are known to us only in the _ex parte_ representation that their opponents have given of them; and we must not assume that even their doctrines, still less their characters, were so bad as they are described. the attitude of the church in the post-nicene period differs from that in the ante-nicene in two important respects. (1) 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 differences in the interpretation of christian truth, which did not in the same way threaten the very life of the church. no vital 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 excommunication, could be imposed. in the post-nicene the union of church and state transformed theological error into legal offence (see below). christian definition. we must now consider the 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 church in an authoritative manner," or "pertinax defensio dogmatis ecclesiae universalis judicio condemnati" (schaff's _ante-nicene_ christianity, ii. 512-516). (i.) it "denotes an opinion antagonistic to a fundamental article of the christian faith," due to the introduction of "foreign elements" and resulting in a perversion of christianity, and an amalgamation with it of ideas discordant with its nature (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 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 gentile believers to be circumcised. they were not on this account chargeable with heresy. additional 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 prior to the scrutiny of a topic of christian doctrine, and before that scrutiny has led the general mind to an assured conclusion. such hypotheses--for example, the idea that in the person of christ the logos is substituted for a rational human spirit--are to be met with in certain early fathers" (ibid. p. 10). origen indulged in many speculations which were afterwards condemned, but, as these matters were still open questions in his 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 division in the church, a breach in its unity. schism. a distinction is made between "heresy" and "schism" (from gr. [greek: schizein], rend asunder, divide). "the fathers commonly use 'heresy' of false teaching in opposition to catholic doctrine, and 'schism' of a breach of discipline, in opposition to catholic government" (schaff). but as the claims of the church to be the 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 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 rule of faith; and under this pretext the church freed herself from the montanists and the monarchians. cyprian was the first to proclaim the identity of heretics and schismatics by making a man's christianity depend on his belonging to the great episcopal church confederation. but in both east and west, this theory of his became established only by very imperceptible degrees, and indeed, strictly speaking, the 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 political grounds to treat certain schismatic communities with indulgence, and because it was always possible in case of need to prove heresy against the schismatics." (harnack's _history of dogma_, ii. 92-93). heretical baptism. there was considerable controversy in the early church as to the validity of heretical baptism. as even "the christian virtues of the heretics were described as hypocrisy 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 common; as they have not the same 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 asia minor as well as of africa; but the practice of the roman church was to admit without second baptism heretics who had been baptized with the name of christ, or of the holy trinity. 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 treatise _de baptismo_, in which the validity of baptism administered by heretics is based on the objectivity of the 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 triumph of sacramentarianism, not of charity. types of heresy. three types of heresy have appeared in the history of the christian church.[1] the earliest may be called the _syncretic_; it is the fusion of jewish or pagan with christian elements. _ebionitism_ asserted "the continual obligation to observe the whole of the mosaic law," and "outran the old testament monotheism by a barren monarchianism that denied the divinity of christ" (kurtz, _church history_, i. 120). "_gnosticism_ was the result of the attempt to blend with christianity the religious notions of pagan mythology, mysterology, theosophy and 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 _manichaeism_ there were affinities to gnosticism, but it was a mixture of many elements, babylonian-chaldaic theosophy, persian dualism and even buddhist 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 mere man, who, like the prophets, though in a much higher measure, had been endued with divine wisdom and power"; modal _monarchianism_ saw in the logos dwelling in christ "only a mode of the activity of the 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 world assumes in succession" (kurtz, _church history_, i. 175-181). when arius asserted the subordination of the son to the father, and denied the eternal generation, 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? apollinaris denied the completeness of the human nature, and substituted the divine logos for the reasonable soul of man. nestorius held the two natures so far apart as to appear to sacrifice the unity of the person of christ. eutyches on the contrary "taught not only that after his incarnation christ had only one nature, but also that the 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 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 sin; and that after his incarnation the unity of the person consists in two natures which are conjoined without confusion, and without 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 solution were affirmed. after this decision the controversies about the person of christ degenerated into mere hair-splitting; and the interference of the imperial authority from time to time in the dispute was not conducive to the 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 work of christ. to augustine's doctrine of man's total depravity, his incapacity for any good, and the absolute sovereignty of the divine grace in salvation according to the divine election, pelagius opposed the view that "god's grace 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 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 middle ages. it may be added that after the reformation arianism was revived in socinianism, and pelagianism in arminianism; but the conception of heresy in protestantism demands subsequent 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 hand the church in maintaining its place and power may condemn as heretical genuine efforts at reform by a return, though partial, to the standard set by the holy scriptures or the apostolic church. on the one hand there were during the middle ages sects, like the catharists and albigenses, whose "opposition as a rule developed itself from dualistic or pantheistic premises (surviving effects of old gnostic or manichaean views)" and who "stood outside of ordinary christendom, and while no doubt affecting many individual members within it, had no 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 medieval church as heretical for (1) "contesting the hierarchical gradation of the priestly order; or (2) giving to the religious idea of the church implied in the thought of predestination a place 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. modern use of the term. "in the present divided state of christendom," says schaff (_ante-nicene christianity_, ii. 513-514), "there are different kinds of orthodoxy and heresy. orthodoxy is conformity to the recognized creed or standard of public doctrine; heresy is a wilful departure from it. the greek church rejects as heretical, because contrary to the teaching of the first seven ecumenical councils, the roman dogmas of the papacy, of the double procession of the holy ghost, the immaculate conception of the virgin mary, and the infallibility of the pope. the roman church anathematized, in the council of trent, all the distinctive doctrines of the 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. luther, for instance, would not tolerate zwingli's view on the lord's supper, while zwingli was willing to fraternize with him notwithstanding this difference." at the colloquy of 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 wittenberg reformers" (walker, _the reformation_, p. 174). a difference of opinion on the question of the presence of christ in the elements at the lord's supper was thus allowed to divide and to weaken the forces of the reformation. on the problem of divine election lutheranism and calvinism remained divided. the formula of concord (1577), which gave to the whole lutheran church of germany a common doctrinal system, declined to accept the calvinistic position that man's condemnation as well as his salvation is an object of divine predestination. within calvinism itself pelagianism was revived in arminianism, which denied the irresistibility, and affirmed the universality of grace. this heresy was condemned by the synod of dort (1619). the standpoint of the reformed churches was the substitution of the authority of the scriptures for the authority of the church. whatever was conceived as contrary to the teaching of the bible was regarded as heresy. the position is well expressed in the _scotch confession_ (1559). "protesting, that if any man will note in this our confession any article or sentence repugning to god's holy word, that it would please him, of his gentleness, and for christian charity's sake, to admonish us of the same in writ, and we of our honour and fidelity do promise unto him satisfaction from the mouth of god; that is, from his holy scripture, or else reformation of that which he shall prove to be amiss. in god we take to record in our consciences that from our hearts we abhor all sects of heresy, and all teachers of erroneous doctrines; and that with all humility we embrace purity of christ's evangel, which is the only food of our souls" (preface). 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 horizon of knowledge by the advance of science, the recognition of the only relative validity of human opinions and beliefs as determined by and adapted to each stage of human development, which is due to the growing historical sense, the alteration of view regarding the nature of inspiration, and the purpose of the holy scriptures, the revolt against all ecclesiastical authority, and the acceptance of reason and conscience as alone authoritative, the growth of the spirit of christian charity, the clamorous demand of the social problem for immediate attention, all combine in making the christian churches less anxious about the danger, and less zealous in the discovery and condemnation of heresy. persecution of heretics. 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 canon law, which "was the ecclesiastical law of medieval europe, and is still the law of the roman catholic church," heresy was defined as "error which is voluntarily held in 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 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 punishment. the grounds of suspicion have been formulated "pope innocent iii. declared that to lead a solitary life, to refuse to accommodate oneself to the prevailing 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 priest who did not celebrate mass, a layman who was seen in clerical 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. 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 alexander