Heresy

[Fr. hérésie; Lat. hærèsis; Gr. hairesis, from haireō, to take.] The act of holding opinions upon religious matters contrary to the authority and teaching of any religious community to which a person may be presumed to owe obedience. Primitively, however, it was used to designate any opinion that a man or a sect might choose to adopt; and in this way it was applied to the philosophic sects of the Greeks and Romans. In the New Testament, even, the term is frequently used to designate a religious sect, without any reproach being implied. In this sense it is used in Acts v. 17; xv. 5; xxviii. 22; and Joseph us terms the three great Jewish sects, heresies, without wishing to imply any censure. On the other hand, it was used in a reproachful sense by the Apostles towards those who denied their doctrines, and by the Jews towards Christianity. In the writings of the Christian fathers we find the term employed towards those opinions which differed from what was deemed to be the doctrine of the Apostles; and later, when Christian teaching came to be regulated by ecclesiastical councils, any one who rejected their decisions was proclaimed to be a heretic; while those who gave their adherence to what was settled by these councils were proclaimed to be orthodox, which is still now the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. It is neces sary that heresy should not be confounded with schism, or with apostasy; the latter implying a complete renunciation of Christian doctrine, while schism means only the rejection of some point of discipline, just as heresy denotes any division upon matters of doctrine. The early fathers gave the number of heresies as ranging between 80 and 150, although Dr. Lardner, in his "History of Heretics," demonstrates that these figures are somewhat exaggerated. Nearly all the heretical opinions current in the first two centuries of the Christian æra appertain to the creation of the world, to the connection between Christianity and Judaism, and to the person of our Saviour. The two great sects were the Ebionites and the Gnostics. In the 3d century the Manichæan heresy took birth. At the head of this sect was Manes, whose object it was to ingraft upon the teachings of the Apostles the rites taught by the Persian magi. Pa ing over the heretical controversies of Sabel lius, of Novation, and of Paul of Samas at a, all of which arose during the 3d century, we reach the great Arian heresy, which formed the chief object of the theological discu ion during the 4th century. The only new sects which require distinct mention are the Pelagian, which sprang forth in the 5th cent.; the Nestor i ans, and their adversaries the Eutychians; the Monothelites, the Mono sophytes, and the Puulicians. From the very date of the establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire, heresy appears to have been regarded as a crime cognizable by the civil law; and Const an tine enacted several severe laws for its repre ion, which were continued and extended by his succe ors, and were collected into a single title, De Hæreticis, in the Just in i an code. The penalties of heresy ordained by these enactments are very severe, extending to corporal punishment, and even to death; and they all proceed on the distinct a umption that a crime against religion is a crime against the state. These enactments of the Roman law were embodied in the various codes of the European kingdoms; and in considering the history of the Middle Ages, it is nece ary to recollect that the principle above referred to, as to the social bearing of the crime of heresy and of other crimes against religion, pervades the whole system of med iæval jurisprudence. It is further to be remembered, that the principles of many of the med iæval sects were anti-social and communist i cal, as well as opposed to the doctrines of the Church; and that their leaders, in many instances, by adopting violent and revolutionary means for the propagation of their doctrines, drew upon themselves the punishment of anarchy and rebellion, as well as heterodoxy in religion. Still, with even these allowances, Catholic historians themselves admit that the med iæval procedures against heresy were in many instances exce ive, as were, indeed, also the proce es and penalties of the criminal code.