Heresy

This page includes list of Heresies, schisms, and religions that counter certain core Catholic beliefs.

Peter Paul Rubens - The Victory of Eucharistic Truth over Heresy (wikicommons)

Definitions

heresy

• means "against accepted or established standards"
• = denial of the orthodox faith or a core element of it

heretic

• one who practices a heresy

heterodoxy

• "hetero" (another, of the other) + dox = other opion
  • note: the suffix -doxy comes from PIE root *dek- "to take, accept"

• "heresy" is from Greek hairesis for "taking for oneself"

orthodox / orthodoxy

• "ortho" (true, straight, right ) + doxa (opinion, praise) = "right opinion
• = "the right way", what it is accepted as Catholic belief

schism

• deviation from orthodoxy without full denial of it
• an offshoot belief or belief system

The Way

• early Christians referred to following Christ as "The Way"

First Council of Constantinople, 381

Establishment of orthodoxy was essential for a unified Church and organized belief system. The Church Fathers constantly struggled with false teachers. Paul mentions those who have left the Way, such as we see in 2 Timothy:

Avoid profane, idle talk, for such people will become more and more godless, and their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have deviated from the truth by saying that [the] resurrection has already taken place and are upsetting the faith of some. Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands, bearing this inscription, “The Lord knows those who are his”; and, “Let everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord avoid evil.” (2 Tim 2:16-19) ... for Demas, enamored of the present world, deserted me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. (2 Tim 4:10) ... Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.( 2 Tim 4:14)

As the Church organized and diversified, it became essential to establish orthodoxy. Constantine, the Roman emperor, was distressed by the divisions within the church, and organized Councils to sort out belief. From The Canons of the Council of Constantinople (AD 381), we can see the type of struggles Church leaders faced:

I. The faith of the Fathers who gathered in Nicaea of Bythinia should not be annulled. Rather it should continue to have authority, and every heresy (should be) anathematized, especially that of the Eunomians, or the Anomians, that of the Arians, or Eudoxians, that of the Semiarians, or Pneumatomachians, that of the Sabellians, that of the Marcellians, that of the Photinians, and that of the Apollinarians.

Here for another translation

Divinity of Christ

most but not all heresies come from misunderstandings or heterodoxic teachings about the nature of Christ

• as all man
  • not divine, a prophet, not God
• or all God
  • not man, thus only present in appearance not substance of a man
• implicates understanding of Mary
  • Mother of God = gave birth to a man
  • as a divine "vessel": = carried God not a man
• implicates belief in the Eucharist
  • if Christ is all-man, or if Christ is all-God, then the Eucharist cannot be real
    • because, either way, the bread and wine are only material and not divine

Types of heresies and heretical beliefs

Examples of heretical views of Christ and the Trinity

Movement	Christ as God alone	Christ as Man alone	Christ as other
Adoptionism		Y	adopted by God
Dosceticism	Y		Christ existed in spirit only
Gnosticism	Y
Islam		Y	prophet
Modalism	Y		God in the form of Christ
Subordinationism		Y	The Son is "subordinate" to the Father

General categories of movements

• i.e., not a specific movement, but a type of heresy or belief that heretical movements adhered to or shared beliefs in

anticlericalism

• opposition to religious hierarchy, especially priests and Catholic Church structures
• frequently combines with the belief in the "universal priesthood" by which any person can serve or have the powers of a priest

asceticism

• requires strict compliance with religious code
• adherence to self-mortification, including
  • excessive fasting
  • physical pain
• abstinence from pleasure, including
  • alcohol
  • sex
  • material goods
• isolation or monasticism
• Asceticism may be practiced by orthodox believers, especially Saints
  • but as a movement that requires strict adherence it becomes heretical

atheism

• denies God or any divine existence
• holds that the world exists by random chance
  • generally explains the world through the theory of evolution
• see Materialism

deism

• belief in an impersonal god, or some kind of divine creator
• does not belief in the Living God
• by extension does not belief in the divinity of Christ

denial of the Eucharist

• certain heretical movements, especially Protestants, to various degrees deny that the consecrated bread and wine become in substance fully the body and blood of Christ, which is Catholic Church doctrine
• some argue that the Lord is present in the Host, but is merely "consubstantial," meaning having two natures, and not "transubstantiated," which means changed into
• (unrelated to the idea that the Father and the Son are "consubstantial", i.e. distinct persons of one being)

dissimilarity

• considers Christ the Son of God, but holds that the Son is "dissimilar" to the Father
• and therefore the Son is subordinate to the Father
• also called unitarianism or nontrinitarianism

Docetism

• believed that Christ was not mortal, did not actually die on the Cross
• believed that Christ's physical presence was illusionary

dualism

• belief in opposing forces or gods, generally good v. evil
  • sometimes, as in Gnosticism, spiritual v. material

ecstaticism

• belief in behaviors inspired by the Holy Spirit such as speaking in tongues, surviving snake bites, and "out of body" worship

gnosticism

• denied the humanity of Christ
• loathed the material world, saw it as corrupt
• believed in a "secret wisdom" that was revealed only to followers
• came of Greek traditional religion mixed with Christianity

humanism

• world-focused outlook and not spiritual or religious
• seeks to explain reality and the human condition on purely rational terms
  • i.e. denies Biblical revelation of God's truths
• elevates man above God

materialism

• denies the soul
• holds that humans are merely a chance construct of cells
• and that human consciousness is merely a physical neurological process
  • holds that good will (altruism) is merely an evolutionary by-product

modalism

• belief in one God who has different "modes" but not different persons
• strict monotheism

Monarchianism

• = the general umbrella for Docestism and modalism
• denies the Trinity
• claims that God is one person only
• strict monotheism

monophysitism

• belief that the person of Christ had only a divine nature, not that of man
• Pope Leo the Great issued the "Letter of 449" or "Leo's Tome" clarifying that Christ has two natures, both fully human and fully divine.

"new prophesy"

• first found in Montanism, the idea that new prophets are or will be inspired by the Holy Spirit, outside of the Scriptural prophets
• generally charismatic movements (i,e. have a charismatic spiritual leader)

pertinacia

• as defined by Pope Benedict XVI (while a Cardinal), pertinacia is "the obstinacy of him who persists in his own private way"

predestinationism

• belief that God chooses those who are to go to heaven at their birth

rigorism

• extremely literal and/or strict adherence to dogma (beliefs, Scripture, etc.)
• does not allow for exceptions or circumstances
  • ex. would consider all theft wrong without exception (such as dire need)
• may also ignore contradictory or qualifying dogma
  • ex. sin v. forgiveness

subordinationism

• believed in the Trinity but that God the Father is supreme and the Son is subordinate to him

universalism

• belief that all people, and as extended by some, angels and creatures, will go to heaven

see

• List of heresies in the Catholic Church - Wikipedia

Chart of heretical and schismatic movements outside Catholic orthodoxy

Movement	Century	Belief	Category 1	Category 2	Heresy / Heterodoxy
Judaisers	1st	Judaism required for Christians
		insisted upon adherence to Jewish Law, or that pagan converts must first become Jewish before becoming Christian	rigorism		New Covenant
Marcianism	2nd	c. 144 AD, Marcion preached that the New Testament God was different from an "evil Creator" god thus he held that the Father is a distinct god from the Son believed that Paul was the only true Apostle	dualism
Montanism	2nd	C. 156 AD, Montanus preached against worldliness in the Church and taught return to supposed Christian simplicity Montanus believed he was inspired by the "Paraclete" (Holy Spirit) his movement was called "New Prophesy" had two female followers, Prisca and Priscilla who also claimed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and practiced "ecstatic" worship Montanism denied the unique Sacramental office of priests, such as forgiveness of sins and church offices	rigorism	ascetisism	"new prophesy"
		demanded purity for sacramental office
Pelagianism	4th	humans retain divine grace inherently, and are not born with original sin. therefore, humans merely need to exercise their free will to achieve God's perfection on earth as such, Pelagius taught that people must live sinless lives and thereby do not need God's Grace for salvation	asceticism	rigorism	denied original sin
Origenism	3rd	Origin denied the Persons of the Trinity; claimed the Son is subordinate to God	dissimilarity
		Christ only divine, denies the Trinity	gnosticism	dualism	rejected the Old Testament
		Marcion believed in Christ as the "benevolent God" and YAHWEY of the Old Testament as evil believed that Paul was the only true Apostle, and he rejected the Old Testament and accepted only the Gospel of Luke and the Letters of Paul Marcionism differs from Gnosticism in that Marcion did not adhere to the doctrine of "secret wisdom," basing his beliefs on the Letters of Paul.
		Christ the man was "adopted" by God	gnosticism		rejected the Trinity
		Various forms, but primarily believed the Jesus the man was not God but that God adopted Jesus at his birth and his spirit was returned to God at the Resurrection and Ascension
		Prophesy	prophetic
		"New Prophesy" movement adhered to Christian orthodoxy but focused on prophesy and revelations from the Holy Spirit
		from the Alexandrian Church; influenced Arian did not believe in literal meaning of Old Testament (allegorical only) believed that God created angels before he created the material world; also that God created demons		dualism universalism
Novatianism	3rd	no salvation for lapsi (apostates who denied Christ in face of oppression)	rigorism	asceticism	reconciliation impossible
		Novatian believed that no sinner should be allowed into a church; forbade remarriage denied return of Lapsi (apostates) after the Decian persecution; his followers called themselves the "Church of the Pure"
Arianism	3rd	Denied divinity of Christ	dissimilarity	dualism	rejected the Trinity
		Thought that Christ was created by God as a sort of divine creature and that he also had a human person but it becomes dualist because Christ is separate from God rejects incarnation and therefore the hypostatic union of Christ as fully God and Man this implicates salvation itself, as, if Christ is not fully God, then he cannot redeem us Arianism can be summarized as belief in the "Son of God but not God the Son" was attractive to Germanic peoples, especially Visigoths
Donatism	4th-6th	sacramental office must be faultless	rigorism	asceticism	reconciliation impossible
		followers of North African bishop Danatus Magnus, believed that Church officers must be pure in all ways has origins in lapsi controversies following the Diocletian persecutions (now called "traditores" (for handing faith over to Roman persecuters) Donatists held that priests lapsis lost their Holy Orders and the sacraments they had administered were invalid (posing a terrific problem for anyone who received a sacrament from such a priest) Orthodox arguments against the heresy pointed out that St Peter was a lapsi and was forgiven by Christ Augustine argued that the Parable of the Banquet (Lk 14:15) showed the God wanted all people invited to the Church
Nestorianism	5th	Christ human only	dissimilarity		rejected the Trinity
		denied Mary as Mother of God; taught the "prosopic union" of Christ as divine and human as separate entities
Monothelitism	7th	denied that Christ exercised a human will distinct from his divine will	gnosticism		while not a gnostic movemenbt, monothelitism denies the hypostasic union of Christ as both fully man and God
Islam	8th	strict monotheism	prophetic	docetism	denial of divinity of Christ
Eastern Orthodox	9th	The heresy of Eastern Orthodoxy lies in its rejection of Roman Catholic papal authority
Manichaean
Cathars	12th-14th	also called Albigensians
Paulicians
Joachimites	13th	cultish worship of the Holy Spirit	milleniarian
		followers of Joachim of Fiore who taught end-of-times millenarism that was to start in 1260
proto-Protestants	15th	John Wycliffe (English): wanted the Bible and Mass in local languages criticized the clergy, including to hold that priests should own no property whatsoever and must be entirely without sin denied Transubstantiation and intercession of the Saints asserted predestination Czech priest Jan Hus held similar beliefs and led an anti-Catholic movement	rigorism	anti-clericalism	followers of Wycliffe were known as "Lollards" for
Lollards	15th	followers of John Wycliffe who rejected the Sacraments "lollard" means		anit-clericalism
Savonarola	1490s	Florentine priest who preached against "vanities" led a popular uprising, especially among youths, against art	rigorism
Protestantism	16th	Started by various anti-Church "reformers" of the 15th-17th centuries, Protestantism holds that salvation in Christ comes from belief in Christ alone (sola fide), as opposed to what they call "works", but which also thereby includes reason; Protestantism also holds that belief can only be derived from Scripture (sola scriptura), so tradition, early Church teachings, and Church doctrine promulgated outside of the Bible are invalid; as such, protestants do not believe in the Sacramental Economy, Holy Orders, priestly celibacy, the Papacy, the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, Church tradition and the Saints.	pertinacia	The heresies of Protestantism consist primarily of denial of the Sacraments, the Magisterium of the Church, and of Transubstantiation (some Protestant churches do believe in the Eucharist) rejection of Papal authority self-exclusion from the Catholic Church
Mormanism	19th		asceticism	prophetic
Jehovah's Witness	19th			nontrinitarianism
Universalism	late 18th-20th (Orijen in the early Church was accused of this heresy)	All people will be saved		nontrinitarianism	universal salvation
		Belief that all people will, in the end, will find God's salvation; aside from contradicting the plain words of Chris, the belief ultimately reduces salvation to belief in Christ alone, regardless of one's other beliefs or actions. Universalism is a logical extension of Protestantism's sola fidelis, and makes clear why that tenant is so dangerous.
Modernism	19th
Atheism	20th

Apostolic age

Judaizers

• held that to be a Christian one must first become a Jew and adhere to traditional Jewish (Mosaic) law
  • such as circumcision, diet, etc.
• Through Divine intervention, St. Peter declared all food "clean"
• St. Paul argued that Christ had fulfilled the Old Testament, thereby superseding the Law
  • while not negating it entirely, esp. Ten Commandments

Early Church age

Marcionism

• denied the Old Testament God
• held that Christ was divine only and only appeared as a Man, was not

Montanism

• or "New Prophesy"
• believed that God spoke to followers who were inspired by the Holy Spirit
• Montanus and his followers were known to "babble" while claiming to be filled with the Holy Spirit
• Montanus had two followers who also claimed gifts of prophesy, Prisca and Maximilla, two women who with Montanus claimed ecstatic visions
• they told followers to fast excessively in order to experience the same visions
• Montanus likely hung himself, as did Maximilla.
• afterwards, Prisca led the movement, which passed along to Quintilla, who claimed that Eve was heroic for having eaten of the Tree of Knowledge and followed the Hebrew prophetess Miriam (sister of Moses) as rationale for female priests
  • the movement became a form of Gnosticism

Pelagianism

• Pelagius argued that when born humans are not subject to Original Sin
  • and therefore had entire powers of a free will
  • sin, therefore, was a choice and avoidable
• the movement fell into asceticism as way of proof of one's purity

Eastern Church

Filoque

• Eastern Orthodox church split with the Latin Church over the "filoque"
  • source of the Schism of 1054
  • over the Nicene Creed's statement that the "Holy Spirit proceeds from the father and the son"
  • << todo

Medieval age

Cathars, Waldensians & the Medieval Inquisition

• The Cathar movement grew In the 1140s in Southern France, and the Waldensians around 1170 in northern Italy and Germany
  • Catharism was gnostic dualistic, in that it saw the universe as a battle between Good (spiritual) and Evil (material), and was thus polytheistic
  • the Albigensian Crusade defeated Cathar armies and the movement generally

• Waldensianism was a movement that denied the priesthood, holding that all Christians were among the "priesthood of all believers"
  • as such, the Walendsians denied the Sacraments and the Church itself
• the inquisitions to combat these heretical movements were designed to halt mob violence and to bring an orderly judicial process to their accusations
  • as well as to combat abuses of inquisitors by making them responsible to Church heirarchy
• during this time, if a person was found heretical and unrepentant, they were handed over to civil authorities who had the authority to execute them

Modern age

Modernism

• Pius IX and X warned of the dangers of modernism

Heresy in worldwide religions

While not "heretical movements," these main, worldwide religions share beliefs with Catholicism but disagree in such ways as to contradict Catholic faith:

Islam

• rejects Christ as God
• sees God as entirely one being, thus no persons of the Father, Son or Holy Spirit
• this view creates the problem of man's relationship to God as that of purely master and servant
• Islam grew out of Arabian culture and traditional religions mixed with elements of Judaism and Christianity

Hinduism

• similar to gnostic formulas of good v evil and that knowledge of God comes of intense religious practice or a privileged few

Judaism

• denies the Trinity
  • rejects Christ as Messiah and God
    • sees the coming Messiah as a man, like Saul or David (both called "Messiah" in the OT)
  • has notions of the "spirit" but no explicit formulation of the Holy Spirit
• while over the history of the Christian Church, there has been persecution of Jews, the Catholic Church never considered Jews heretical
  • the most common example of persecution of the Jews is that of the Spanish Inquisition

Mormonism

• essentially polytheistic, and therefore extremely problematic as regards Christ
• has non-Biblical beliefs such as "saints" (members of the Mormon church) as gods (polytheism)

Protestantism

• Protestantism's core belief lies in 'sola scriptura' and 'sola fide', which hold that
  • the only authority for Church dogma lies in the text of the Bible itself
    • for this reason, Luther, for example, discarded the Dueteronomical books that contradicted his positions on Purgatory, the Saints, etc.
  • belief alone leads to savlation ("justification by faith alone")
    • which thereby negates the need for the Priesthood and the Sacraments
• various modern Protestant churches may reject core Catholic beliefs of
  • Sacraments of Confirmation, Priestly Ordination, and the Eucharist
  • the Real Presence of Christ at Mass, especially in the Eucharist
  • the Saints
  • Church tradition and accumulated wisdom through thinkers, Saints, and tradition
• especially in its early period, protestant movements were seen as not merely schismatic but heretical
  • French protestants, for example, the Huguenots, were persecuted for heresy
  • as protestant churches were given official sanction by local rulers, especially in Germany, the movement became political, thus leading to wars such as the Thirty Years War, which was a political as much as a religious war

Syllabus of Errors

See entry Syllabus of Errors for a catalog of "errors" and heresies written by Pope Pius IX in 1864.

Sources

• Heresy in Earliest Christianity | Bible Interp (arizona.edu)
• List of Christian heresies - Wikipedia
• Top 10 Heresies in the History of Christianity (fordham.edu)