you are here: > The Book of Heresy > Chapter 1
 
Chapter 1  
     
1.
 Many tens of millions of people have died brutal and painful murders for over 1,500 years because they were considered heretics by the Catholic Church.
 
2.
 Because the Second Vatican Council of 1962 endorses the First Vatican Council of 1869 and because it then endorses the church doctrines of the Council of Trent of 1545, the standing penalty for heresy remains death by ritualistic burning. However, since the introduction of laws of basic human rights, the Catholic Church has only been able to enforce such inhuman laws during times of War, the last during World War II over sixty years ago.
  
3.
 For over 1,500 years, to be accused a heretic was a virtual death sentence, a claim which often meant you were considered guilty until proven innocent, a period of agonizing and barbaric torture and almost certainly the seizure of all your assets including the enslavement of your family and any children.
  
4.
 So evil and frightening was the threat of even being called a heretic for over 1,500 years, that the concept of heresy and associated penalties maintained an effective suppression of human rights for almost an entire millennia (1,000 years)- a record unmatched in total human history.
  
5.
 What then is heresy? How does the church determine heresy? Where does the authority of the church come from to claim what is or is not heresy? And is the church guilty itself of any charges of heresy?
  
  What is heresy?  
6.
 The word "heresy" comes from the Greek αiρεσις, hairesis (from αiρέομαι, haireomai, "choose"), which means either a choice of beliefs or a faction of dissident believers.
 
7.
 In terms of Christianity, it was Irenaeus the Christian Bishop of Lyons at the end of the 2nd Century that first effectively defined from a Christian perspective the concept of heresy in his work Contra Haereses (Against Heresies).
  
8.
 Irenaeus using a quasi-rational system of argument firstly established his own set of beliefs concerning the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and his apostles and then stated this set of beliefs as orthodox (from ortho- "right" + doxa "thinking"). Then Irenaeus outlined in a derogatory, incomplete and simplistic way the different beliefs of others concerning Jesus Christ, in particular the successors of the Nazarenes being the Gnostics. He then accused the Gnostics and others of wrong thinking (not orthodox) and therefore being heretical.
  
9.
 Thus the term "heresy" has no purely objective meaning: the category exists only from the point of view of speakers within a group that has previously agreed about what counts as "orthodox". Any nonconformist view within any field may be perceived as "heretical" by others within that field who are convinced that their view is “orthodox”.
 
10.
 Heretics usually do not define their own beliefs as heretical. Heresy is a value judgment and the expression of a view from within an established belief system. For example, Roman Catholics held Protestantism as a heresy while some non-Catholics considered Catholicism likewise to be heretical. This is why during some centuries both Protestant Church leaders and Roman Catholic church leaders both “legally” under church law executed members of each others belief system as heretics.
  
11.
 For a heresy to exist there must be an authoritative system of dogma designated as orthodox, such as those proposed by the Catholic Church. The key term orthodox is also used by a number of Eastern Christian Churches as well as some Protestant churches.
  
12.
 Thus the determination of what is orthodox and what is heretical often comes down to the physical force by which an idea is imposed upon people, not whether it is believed by a majority or is a long standing belief.
  
  What is Catholic Heresy?  
13.
 The Catholic Church teaches that its doctrines are the authoritative understandings of the faith taught by Christ and that the Holy Spirit protects the Church from falling into error when teaching these doctrines. To deny one or more of those doctrines, therefore, is to deny the faith of Christ. Heresy is both the nonorthodox belief itself, and the act of holding to that belief.
  
14.
 For example, Thomas Aquinas once defined heresy as "a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas."
 
15.
 While the term heresy is often used by laymen to indicate any nonorthodox belief such as Paganism, by definition heresy can only be committed by someone who considers himself or herself a Christian, but rejects the teachings of the Catholic Church. A person who completely renounces Christianity is not considered a heretic, but an apostate, and a person who renounces the authority of the Church but not its teachings is a schismatic.
  
16.
 The Catholic Church makes several distinctions as to the seriousness of an individual heterodoxy and its closeness to true heresy. Only a belief that directly contravenes an Article of Faith, or that has been explicitly rejected by the Church, is labelled as actual "heresy."
  
17.
 Canon 751 of the Catholic Church's Code of Canon law promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1983 (abbreviated "C.I.C." for Codex Iuris Canonici), the little-known juridical systematization of ancient law currently binding the world's one billion Latin Rite Catholics, defines heresy as the following: "Heresy is the obstinate denial or doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith."
 
18.
 The essential elements of canonical heresy therefore technically comprise
1) obstinacy, or continuation in time;
2) denial (a proposition contrary or contradictory in formal logic to a dogma) or doubt (a posited opinion, not being a firm denial, of the contrary or contradictory proposition to a dogma);
3) after reception of valid baptism;
4) of a truth categorized as being of "Divine and Catholic Faith," meaning contained directly within either Sacred Scripture or Sacred Tradition per Can. 750 par. 1 C.I.C. ("de fide divina") AND proposed as 'de fide divina' by either a Pope having spoken solemnly "ex cathedra" on his own or defined solemnly by an Ecumenical Council in unison with a Pope.
  
19.
 An important distinction is that between formal and material heresy.
 
20.
 A heretic who is aware that his belief is at odds with Catholic teaching and yet continues to cling to his belief pertinaciously is a formal heretic.
 
21.
 Material heresy, on the other hand, means that the individual is unaware that his heretical opinion denies, in the words of Canon 751, "some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith."
 
22.
 The opinion of a material heretic is still heresy, and it produces the same objective results as formal heresy, but because of his ignorance he commits no sin by holding it.
  
23.
 The penalty for a baptized Catholic above the age of 18 who obstinately, publicly, and voluntarily manifests his or her adherence to an objective heresy is automatic excommunication ("latae sententiae") according to Can. 1364 par.1 C.I.C..
  

 
 
 

Copyright © 1994-2007 One-Faith-Of-God.Org. All rights reserved.