HERESY

This word is derived from the Greek, αἵρεσις , a choice , and it means an arbitrary adoption, in matters of faith, of opinions at variance with the doctrines delivered by Christ and the apostles, and received by the Catholic Church. At the same time we may remark, that it is generally agreed that the opinion must be pertinaciously and obstinately held, in order to constitute formal heresy. And if there be a legitimate doubt in a controversy which of the two contrary doctrines is stated in Scripture and received by the Church, either may be held without heresy. It is obvious, also, that mere ignorance, or a temporary error in ignorance, is altogether different from heresy. In the first year of Queen Elizabeth, an act of parliament was pa ed to enable persons to try heretics, and the following directions were given for their guidance:—“And such persons to whom the queen shall by letters patent under the great seal give authority to execute any jurisdiction spiritual, shall not in anywise have power to adjudge any matter or cause to be heresy, but only such as heretofore have been adjudged to be heresy by the authority of the canonical Scriptures, or by some of the first four general councils , or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the expre and plain words of the said canonical Scriptures, or such as hereafter shall be judged or determined to be heresy by the high court of parliament, with the a ent of the clergy in their convocation.” Heresies began very early in the Christian Church. Eusebius fixes the beginning of most of them to the reign of the emperor Adrian. And yet it is certain, that Simon Magus had published his errors before that time, and set up a sect, which gave rise to most of the ancient heresies. The laws, both of the Church and State, were very severe against those who were adjudged to be heretics. Those of the State, made by the Christian emperors from the time of Const an tine, are comprised under one title, De Hæreticis , in the Theodosian Code. The principal of them are, 1. The general note of infamy affixed to all heretics in common. 2. All commerce forbidden to be held with them. 3. The depriving them of all offices of profit and dignity. 4. The disqualifying them to dispose of their estates by will, or receive estates from others. 5. The imposing on them pecuniary mulcts. 6. The proscribing and banishing them. 7. The inflicting corporal punishment on them, such as scourging, ., before banishment. Besides these laws, which chiefly affected the persons of heretics, there were several others, which tended to the extirpation of heresy: such as, 1. Those which forbade heretical teachers to propagate their doctrines publicly or privately. 2. Those which forbade heretics to hold public disputations. 3. Such laws as prohibited all heretical meetings and a emblies. 4. Those which deny to the children of heretical parents their patrimony and inheritance, unle they return to the Church. And, 5. Such laws as ordered the books of heretics to be burned. There were many other penal laws made against heretics, from the time of Const an tine to Theodosius junior and Val ent in i an III. But the few already mentioned may be sufficient to give an idea of the rigour with which the empire treated such persons as held, or taught, opinions contrary to the faith of the Catholic Church, whose discipline towards heretics was no le severe than the civil laws. For, 1. The Church was accustomed to pronounce a formal anathema or excommunication against them. Thus the Council of Nice ends her creed with an anathema against all those who opposed the doctrine there delivered. And there are innumerable instances of this kind to be found in the volumes of the Councils . 2. Some canons debarred them from the very lowest privileges of Church communion, forbidding them to enter into the church, so much as to hear the sermon, or the Scriptures read in the service of the catechumens. But this was no general rule; for liberty was often granted to heretics to be present at the sermons, in hopes of their conversion; and the historians tell us, that Chrysostom by this means brought over many to acknowledge the Divinity of Christ , whilst they had liberty to come and hear his sermons. 3. The Church prohibited all persons, under pain of excommunication, to join with heretics in any religious offices. 4. By the laws of the Church, no one was to eat, or converse familiarly with heretics; or to read their writings, or to contract any affinity with them: their names were to be struck out of the Diptychs, or sacred registers of the Church; and, if they died in heresy, no psalmody, or other solemnity, was to be used at their funeral. 5. The testimony of heretics was not to be taken in any ecclesiastical cause whatever. These are the chief ecclesiastical laws against heretics. As to the terms of penance imposed upon relenting heretics, or such as were willing to renounce their errors, and be reconciled to the Church, they were various, and differed according to the canons of different councils, or the usages of different Churches. The Council of Eliberis (soon after A. D. 300) appoints ten years’ penance, before repenting heretics are admitted to communion. The Council of Agde ( A. D. 506) contracted this term into that of three years. The Council of Epone ( A. D. 517) reduced it to two years only. The ancient Christian Church made a distinction between such heretics as contumaciously resisted the admonitions of the Church, and such as never had any admonition given them, for none were reputed formal heretics, or treated as such, till the Church had given them a first and second admonition, according to the apostle’s rule. The principal sects of heretics, which disturbed the peace of the Church, sprung up in the first six centuries: most of the heresies, in after ages, being nothing but the old ones new vamped, or revived. The following table may serve to give the reader a compendious view of the most remarkable of the ancient heresies. CENTURY I. 1. The Simonians , or followers of Simon Magus; who maintained that the world was created by angels; that there is no resurrection of the body; that women ought to be in common, . 2. Cerinthians and Ebionites , followers of Cerinthus and Ebion; who denied the Divinity of our Saviour , and blended the Mosaical ceremonies with Christianity, . 3. The Nicolaites , followers of Nicolas, deacon of Antioch; who allowed the promiscuous use of women, ., alluded to by St. John in Rev. ii. 6, 15. CENTURY II. 4. The Basilidians , followers of Basilides of Alexandria; who espoused the heresies of Simon Magus, and denied the reality of our Saviour’s crucifixion, . 5. The Carpocratians , followers of Carpocrates; who, besides adhering to the heresies of Simon Magus, rejected the Old Testament, and held that our Saviour was but a mere man, . 6. The Val ent in i ans , followers of Val ent in us; who corrupted the Christian doctrine with the Pythagorean and Platonic notions, . 7. The Gnostics ; so called from their pretences to superior knowledge . The term Gnostics seems to have been a general name for many of the earliest heretics. (See Gnostics .) 8. The Nazarenes ; who ingrafted the law of Moses on Christianity, . 9. The Millenarians or Chiliasts ; so called, because they expected to reign with Christ , a you sand years, upon the earth. 10. The Cainites ; a branch of the Val ent in i ans, but particularly remarkable for paying a great regard to Cain and all the wicked men mentioned in the Scripture, . 11. The Sethians ; who held that Seth, the son of Adam, was the Me iah. 12. The Quartodecimans ; who observed Easter on the fourteenth day of the first month, in conformity to the Jewish custom of keeping the Pa over. 13. The Cerdonians , followers of Cerdon; who held two contrary principles, denied the resurrection of the body, and threw the Four Gospels out of the canon of Scripture. 14. The Mar cio nites , followers of Marcion; who held three principles, denied the resurrection of the body, and declaimed against marriage, . 15. The Cataphrygians , or Mon tanists ; who baptized the dead, and held Montan us to be the Holy Ghost , . 16. The Encratites , or Tatianists , followers of Tatian; who boasted of an extraordinary continency, and condemned marriage, . 17. The Alogians ; so called, because they denied the Divinity of the Word , and rejected St. John’s Gospel, which particularly a erts it. 18. The Artotyrites ; so called, because they offered bread and cheese in the eucharist. 19. The Angelics ; so called, because they worshipped angels. CENTURY III. 20. The Monarchic i , or Patripa ians , followers of Praxeas; who denied a plurality of persons in the Trinity, and affirmed that our Saviour was God the Father. 21. The Arabic i ; who believed that the soul dies, or sleeps, till the day of judgment, and then rises with the body. 22. The Aquarians ; who used only water in the eucharist. 23. The Nov a tians ; who would not allow those, who had lapsed in time of persecution, to be restored, upon repentance, to communion. 24. The Origenists , followers of Origen; who, among other things, held that the devil, and all the damned, will at last be saved. 25. The Melchisedechians : who held Melchisedech to be the Me iah. 26. The Sabellians , followers of Sabellius; who denied the Trinity, and affirmed that the distinction of persons in the Godhead was merely nominal, and founded only upon a diversity of attributes, . 27. The Manicheans , followers of Manes; who held that two opposite principles reigned over the world, the one good, the other bad, . CENTURY IV. 28. The Arians , followers of Arius, a priest of Alexandria; who believed the Father and the Son not to be of the same nature, substance, or e ence, and that there was a time when the Son was not, . 29. The Colluthians , followers of Colluthus; who confounded the evil of punishment with the evil of sin. 30. The Maced on i ans ; who denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost . 31. The Agnoëtæ ; so called, because they denied the certainty of the Divine prescience. 32. The Apollinarians , followers of A poll in aris; who a erted that our Saviour , at his incarnation, a umed a human body without a soul, and that the Word supplied the place of a soul, . 33. The Timotheans ; who held, that our Saviour was incarnate only for the benefit and advantage of our bodies. 34. The Colly rid i ans ; so called, because they made a kind of godde of the Ble ed Virgin, and offered cakes to her. 35. The Seleucians , followers of Seleucus; who held that the Deity was corporeal; and that the matter of the universe was co-eternal with God . 36. The Priscillianists , followers of Priscillian, a Spanish bishop; who held all the errors of the Gnostics and Val ent in i ans. 37. The Anthropomorph i tes ; so called, because they ascribed a body to God , understanding literally those pa ages of Scripture which speak of God as having hands, eyes, feet, . 38. The Jovinianists , followers of Jovinian; who denied the virginity of Mary. 39. The Me alians ; who chiefly pretended to prophecy. 40. The Bonosians , followers of Bonosus; who held that Jesus Christ was the Son of God only by adoption. CENTURY V. 41. The Pelagians , followers of Pelagius; who denied the nece ity of Divine grace, in order to salvation, . 42. Nestor i ans , followers of Nestor i us; who distinguished our ble ed Saviour into two persons, the one Divine, the other human. 43. The Eutychians , followers of Eutyches; who fell into the opposite error, and held, that there was but one nature in Jesus Christ . 44. The Theopaschites , followers of Petrus Fullo, bishop of Antioch; so called, because they affirmed that all the three persons in the Trinity were incarnate, and suffered upon the cro . CENTURY VI. 45. The Predestinarians ; so called, because they held that the salvation or damnation of men is pre-ordained, and that no man is saved or damned by his works. 46. The Apthartodocetes , or Incorruptibilists ; so called, because they held that our Saviour’s body was incorruptible, and exempt from pa ion. 47. A second sect of Agnoëtæ ; so called, because they held that our ble ed Saviour , when upon earth, did not know the day of judgment. 48. The Monotheletes ; who held that there was but one will in Jesus Christ . These were the principal sects of heretics, which, in those early ages, infested the Christian Church. The succeeding ages produced a great variety of heretics likewise; as the Gnosimachi and Lampetians , in the seventh century; the A go nyc lites in the eighth; the Berengarians , Simoniacs , and Vecilians , in the eleventh; the Bogomiles , in the twelfth; the Fra tri cell i and Be guards , in the thirteenth; to enumerate all which would be both tedious and uninteresting.— Brought on.