Heresy

Derived from Ancient Greek haíresis ({{lang|grc|αἵρεσις}}), the English heresy originally meant "choice" or "thing chosen".Cross, F. L., and E. A. Livingstone, eds. 1974. "Heresy." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. However, it came to mean the "party, or school, of a man's choice",Bruce, F. F. 1964. The Spreading Flame. Exeter: Paternoster. p. 249. and also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live.{{Citation needed|reason=Lacks citation for examination of various philosophies|date=July 2020}}

The word heresy is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies slightly different meanings in each. The founder or leader of a heretical movement is called a heresiarch, while individuals who espouse heresy or commit heresy are known as heretics.

File:Portrait of Martin Luther as an Augustinian Monk.jpg Martin Luther was famously excommunicated as a heretic by Pope Leo X by his papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem in 1520. To this day, the papal decree has not been rescinded.]]

{{Main article|Heresy in Christianity}}

According to Titus 3:10 a divisive person should be warned twice before separating from him. The Greek for the phrase "divisive person" became a technical term in the early Church for a type of "heretic" who promoted dissension.The NIV Study Bible. London: Zondervan / Hodder & Stoughton. 1987. Titus 3:10n. In contrast, correct teaching is called sound not only because it builds up the faith, but because it protects it against the corrupting influence of false teachers.The NIV Study Bible. London: Zondervan / Hodder & Stoughton. 1987. Titus 1:9n.

Tertullian ({{circa|AD 155–240}}) implied that it was the Jews who most inspired heresy in Christianity: "From the Jew the heretic has accepted guidance in this discussion [that Jesus was not the Christ]."{{cite book |last1=Michael |first1=Robert |title=A History of Catholic Antisemitism : The Dark Side of the Church |date=2011 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0230111318 |pages=28–30 |edition=1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA28}}

The use of the word heresy was given wide currency by Irenaeus in his 2nd-century tract Contra Haereses (Against Heresies) to describe and discredit his opponents during the early centuries of the Christian community. He described the community's beliefs and doctrines as orthodox (from {{lang|grc|ὀρθός}}, orthos, "straight" or "correct" and {{lang|grc|δόξα}}, doxa, "belief") and the Gnostics' teachings as heretical.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}} He also invoked the concept of apostolic succession to support his arguments.

{{cite book |isbn=978-0-8006-1931-2

|title= The Rise of Christianity

|author=W.H.C. Frend |location=Chapter 7, The Emergence of Orthodoxy 135–93

|year=1984}} Appendices provide a timeline of Councils, Schisms, Heresies and Persecutions in the years 193–604. They are described in the text.

Constantine the Great, who along with Licinius had decreed toleration of Christianity in the Roman Empire by what is commonly called the Edict of Milan,Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Milan, Edict of". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. and was the first Roman Emperor baptized, set precedents for later policy. By Roman law the Emperor was Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs (Collegium Pontificum) of all recognized religions in ancient Rome. To put an end to the doctrinal debate initiated by Arius, Constantine called the first of what would afterwards be called the ecumenical councilsChadwick, Henry. 1967. The Early Christian Church. Pelican. pp. 129–130. and then enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority.

{{cite book |isbn=978-1-59020-324-8

|title= Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor

|author=Paul Stephenson

|chapter=Chapter 11 |year=2009|publisher= Harry N. Abrams

}} The Emperor established and enforced orthodoxy for domestic tranquility and the efficacy of prayers in support of the empire.

The first known usage of the term in a legal context was in AD 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I,

{{cite book |isbn=978-1-59020-171-8

|title= A.D. 381 – Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State

|author=Charles Freeman |year=2008|publisher= Harry N. Abrams

}} As Christianity placed its stamp upon the Empire, the Emperor shaped the church for political purposes. which made Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as "heresy". By this edict the state's authority and that of the Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and state was the sharing of state powers of legal enforcement with church authorities.

Within six years of the official criminalization of heresy by the Emperor, the first Christian heretic to be executed, Priscillian, was condemned in 386 by Roman secular officials for sorcery, and put to death with four or five followers.Bassett, Paul M. 2013. "Priscillian." pp. 949–950 in Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (2nd ed.), edited by E. Ferguson. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1-13661158-2}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=oUFFAQAAQBAJ&dq=Chadwick+Early+Church+Priscillian&pg=PA950 p. 950].[https://books.google.com/books?id=u4i8jv0b7IkC&dq=Chadwick+Early+Church+Priscillian&pg=PA284 John Anthony McGuckin, The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology (Westminster John Knox Press 2004] {{ISBN|978-0-66422396-0}}), p. 284{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/477170/Priscillian|title=Priscillian|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=January 2024 }} However, his accusers were excommunicated both by Ambrose of Milan and by Pope Siricius,Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church, Pelican, London, 1967. p. 171 who opposed Priscillian's heresy, but "believed capital punishment to be inappropriate at best and usually unequivocally evil." The edict of Theodosius II (435) provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius.{{cite book|author=Jay E. Thompson|title=A Tale of Five Cities: A History of the Five Patriarchal Cities of the Early Church|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=anocDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA138|date= 2009|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-4982-7447-0|pages=138}} Those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death.{{cite book|author=María Victoria Escribano Paño|editor1=Richard Lindsay Gordon|editor2=Francisco Marco Simón|title=Magical Practice in the Latin West: Papers from the International Conference Held at the University of Zaragoza, 30 Sept. – 1st Oct. 2005|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p_Udwo-g7VIC&pg=PA135|year=2010|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-17904-2|pages=135–136|chapter=Chapter Three. Heretical texts and maleficium in the Codex Theodosianum (CTh. 16.5.34)}}

In the 7th-century text Concerning Heresy, Saint John of Damascus named Islam as Christological heresy, referring to it as the "heresy of the Ishmaelites" (see medieval Christian views on Muhammad).{{cite book |last1=Griffith |first1=Sidney H. |title=The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in the World of Islam |date= 2010 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-14628-7 |page=41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwV2G-A-Oz0C&q=Islam+Christian+heresy+Damascus&pg=PA41}} The position remained popular in Christian circles well into the 20th century, by theologians such as the Congregationalist cleric Frank Hugh Foster and the Roman Catholic historian Hilaire Belloc, the latter describing it as "the great and enduring heresy of Mohammed."{{cite book |last1=Wismer |first1=Don |title=Routledge Revivals: The Islamic Jesus (1977): An Annotated Bibliography of Sources in English and French |publisher=Routledge |date= 2016 |quote=The old opinion of John of Damascus continues to persist among Christian orientalists. The author here replies to Frank Hugh Foster (see 233), who said that Islam is in fact heretical Christianity.}}{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Douglas |title=The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam |date=2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4729-4222-7 |page=131 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dk6mDgAAQBAJ&q=the+great+and+enduring+heresy+of+Mohammed+belloc&pg=PA131}}

For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were also known to execute those they considered heretics; for example, Michael Servetus was declared a heretic by both the Reformed Church and Catholic Church for rejecting the Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity.{{cite book |last1=Caravale |first1=Giorgio |title=Censorship and Heresy in Revolutionary England and Counter-Reformation Rome: Story of a Dangerous Book |date= 2017 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-319-57439-4 |page=3 |language=en}} The last known heretic executed by sentence of the Catholic Church was Spanish schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll in 1826. The number of people executed as heretics under the authority of the various "ecclesiastical authorities"{{refn|An "ecclesiastical authority" was initially an assembly of bishops, later the Pope, then an inquisitor (a delegate of the Pope) and later yet the leadership of a Protestant church (which would itself be regarded as heretical by the Pope). The definitions of "state", "cooperation", "suppress" and "heresy" were all subject to change during the past 16 centuries.|group=note}} is not known.{{refn|Only very fragmentary records have been found of the executions carried out under Christian "heresy laws" during the first millennium. Somewhat more complete records of such executions can be found for the second millennium. To estimate the total number of executions carried out under various Christian "heresy laws" from AD 385 until the last official Catholic "heresy execution" in 1826 would require far more complete historical documentation than is currently available. The Catholic Church by no means had a monopoly on the execution of heretics. The charge of heresy was a weapon that could fit many hands. A century and a half after heresy was made a state crime, the Vandals (a heretical Christian Germanic tribe), used the law to prosecute thousands of (orthodox) Catholics with penalties of torture, mutilation, slavery and banishment.

{{cite book |title= History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.533456 |author= Edward Gibbon |year= 1862 |location= Chapter 37, Part III}} The Vandals were overthrown; orthodoxy was restored; "No toleration whatsoever was to be granted to heretics or schismatics."{{cite book |isbn=978-0-8006-1931-2

|title= The Rise of Christianity

|author=W.H.C. Frend |page=833 |year=1984|publisher= Fortress Press

}} Heretics were not the only casualties. 4000 Roman soldiers were killed by heretical peasants in one campaign.{{cite book |title= History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |url= https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.533456 |author= Edward Gibbon |year= 1862 |location= Chapter 21, Part VII}} Some lists of heretics and heresies are available. About seven thousand people were burned at the stake by the Catholic Inquisition, which lasted for nearly seven centuries.

name="Carroll">{{cite book |isbn=0-618-21908-0

|title= Constantine's Sword |url=https://archive.org/details/constantinesswor00carr

|url-access=registration

|author=James Carroll |page=357

|year=2001|publisher= Houghton Mifflin Harcourt }} From time to time, heretics were burned at the stake by an enraged local populace, in a certain type of "vigilante justice", without the official participation of the Church or State.

{{cite book |title= The Age of Faith

|url= https://archive.org/details/ageoffaithhistor00dura

|url-access= registration

|author= Will & Ariel Durant |year=1950 |page= 778}} Religious Wars slaughtered millions. During these wars, the charge of "heresy" was often leveled by one side against another as a sort of propaganda or rationalization for the undertaking of such wars.

|group=note}}

Although less common than in earlier periods, in modern times, formal charges of heresy within Christian churches still occur. Issues in the Protestant churches have included modern biblical criticism and the nature of God. In the Catholic Church, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith criticizes writings for "ambiguities and errors" without using the word "heresy."An example is the [https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20010515_vidal_en.html Notification regarding certain writings of Fr. Marciano Vidal, C.Ss.R.]

On 11 July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI stated that some Protestant groups are "ecclesial communities" rather than Churches.Cf. the documents [https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_responsa-quaestiones_en.html "Responses to Some Questions"] and [https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070629_commento-responsa_en.html "Commentary"] from the Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith. Representatives of some of these Christian denominations accused the Vatican of effectively calling them heretics."[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jul/11/catholicism.religion Dismay and anger as Pope declares Protestants cannot have churches]." The Guardian. 11 July 2007."[http://www.progressivetheology.org/essays/2007.07.11-Pope-Ecumenism.html Will the Pope's Pronouncement Set Ecumenism Back a Hundred Years?]" Progressive Theology. 11 July 2007 However, Pope Benedict{{nbs}}XVI clarified that the phrase "ecclesial community" did not necessitate explicit heresy, but only that the communities lacked certain "essential elements" of an apostolic church, as he had written in the document Dominus Iesus.

{{Main|Heresy in the Catholic Church}}

File:Massacre of the Vaudois of Merindol.jpg of Mérindol in 1545]]

In the Catholic Church, obstinate and willful manifest heresy is considered to spiritually cut one off from the Church, even before excommunication is incurred. An influential definition is that of Robert Grosseteste of "an opinion chosen by human preference contrary to holy scripture, publicly avowed and obstinately held", a conscious intellectual choice not a private doubt.{{cite journal |last1=McSheffrey |first1=S. |title=Heresy, Orthodoxy and English Vernacular Religion 1480-1525 |journal=Past & Present |date=1 February 2005 |issue=186 |pages=47–80 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gti001}}

The 6th century civil code Codex Justinianus (1:5:12) defines "everyone who is not devoted to the Catholic Church and to our Orthodox holy Faith" a heretic, disallowing such from positions of authority in the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Church had always dealt firmly with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 11th century these tended to centre on individual preachers or small localised sects, like Arianism, Pelagianism, Donatism, Marcionism and Montanism. Jesuit historian David Collins has notes that in the roughly 700 years from the fall of the Roman Empire, there is only a single known execution of heretics.{{cite journal |last1=Collins |first1=David |title=Collateral Damage |journal=The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture |date=November 12, 2012 |volume=207 |issue=14}}

The diffusion of the almost Manichaean sect of Paulicians westwards gave birth to the famous 11th- and 12th-century heresies of Western Europe. The first one was that of Bogomils in modern-day Bulgaria, a sort of sanctuary between Eastern and Western Christianity. By the 11th century, more organised groups such as the Patarini, the Dulcinians, the Waldensians and the Cathars were beginning to appear in the towns and cities of northern Italy, southern France and Flanders.

In France the Cathars grew to represent a popular mass movement and the belief was spreading to other areas,"[https://web.archive.org/web/20080302011854/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897752-1,00.html Massacre of the Pure]." Time. April 28, 1961. though some historians such as Robert Ian Moore point out a paucity of direct evidence. The Cathar Crusade was initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate the alleged Cathar heresy in Languedoc.Joseph Reese Strayer (1992). [https://books.google.com/books?id=lskGFVtySXsC&pg=PA143 The Albigensian Crusades]. University of Michigan Press. p. 143. {{ISBN|0-472-06476-2}}

{{cite book |title= The Age of Faith

|url= https://archive.org/details/ageoffaithhistor00dura

|url-access= registration

|author= Will & Ariel Durant |year=1950 |location= Chapter XXVIII, The Early Inquisition: 1000–1300}}

File:Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition.jpg's 1857 painting Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition]]

Heresy was a major justification for the Inquisition (Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis, Inquiry on Heretical Perversity) and for the European wars of religion associated with the Protestant Reformation. Galileo Galilei was brought before the Inquisition for heresy, but abjured his views and was sentenced to house arrest, under which he spent the rest of his life. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", namely of having held the opinions that the Sun lies motionless at the centre of the universe, and that the Earth is not at its centre and moves, and that one may hold and defend an opinion as probable after it has been declared contrary to Holy Scripture. He was required to "abjure, curse and detest" those opinions.{{Cite book |last=Fantoli |first=A. |title=The Disputed Injunction and its Role in Galileo's Trial |date=2005 |page=139}}{{Cite book |last=Finocchiaro |first=M. A. |title=The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History |date=1989 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06662-5 |location=Berkeley |pages=288–293 |quote=We say, pronounce, sentence, and declare that you, the above-mentioned Galileo, because of the things deduced in the trial and confessed by you as above, have rendered yourself according to this Holy Office vehemently suspected of heresy, namely of having held and believed a doctine which is false and contrary to the divine and Holy Scripture: that the sun is the center of the world and does not move from east to west, and the earth moves and is not the center of the world, and that one may hold and defend as probable an opinion after it has been declared and defined contrary to Holy Scripture. Consequently you have incurred all the censures and penalties imposed and promulgated by the sacred canons and all particular and general laws against such delinquents. We are willing to absolve you from them provided that first, with a sincere heart and unfeigned faith, in front of us you abjure, curse, and detest the above-mentioned errors and heresies, and every other error and heresy contrary to the Catholic and Apostolic Church, in the manner and form we will prescribe to you.}} Most contemporary historians of science believe the Galileo affair is an exception in the overall relationship between science and Christianity.{{cite book|last1=Finocchiaro|first1=Maurice A.|title=The Trial of Galileo : Essential Documents|date=2014|isbn=978-1-62466-132-7|chapter=Introduction|pages=1–4|publisher=Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated |quote=..one of the most common myths widely held about the trial of Galileo, including several elements: that he "saw" the earth's motion (an observation still impossible to make even in the twenty-first century); that he was "imprisoned" by the Inquisition (whereas he was actually held under house arrest); and that his crime was to have discovered the truth. And since to condemn someone for this reason can result only from ignorance, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness, this is also the myth that alleges the incompatibility between science and religion.}}{{cite book |author= Jules Speller |title= Galileo's Inquisition Trial Revisited |date=2008 |publisher= Peter Lang |isbn= 978-3-631-56229-1 |pages= 55–56}}{{Cite encyclopedia| first = Ernan| last = McMullin| title = Robert Bellarmine| publisher = Scribner & American Council of Learned Societies| editor-last = Gillispie| editor-first = Charles| encyclopedia = Dictionary of Scientific Biography| date = 2008| ref=Reference-McMullin-2008}}

Pope Gregory I stigmatized Judaism and the Jewish people in many of his writings. He described Jews as enemies of Christ: "The more the Holy Spirit fills the world, the more perverse hatred dominates the souls of the Jews." He labeled all heresy as "Jewish", claiming that Judaism would "pollute [Catholics and] deceive them with sacrilegious seduction."{{cite book|last1=Michael|first1=Robert|title=A History of Catholic Antisemitism : The Dark Side of the Church|date=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0230111318|pages=76|edition=1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnFAAAAQBAJ&q=heretic&pg=PA28|access-date=9 February 2015}} The identification of Jews and heretics in particular occurred several times in Roman-Christian law.{{cite book|last1=Michael|first1=Robert|title=A History of Catholic Antisemitism : The Dark Side of the Church|date=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|location=New York|isbn=978-0230111318|pages=219|edition=1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZnFAAAAQBAJ&q=heretic&pg=PA28|access-date=9 February 2015}}Constitutio Sirmondiana 6, 14; Theodosius{{nbs}}II{{snd}}Novella{{nbs}}3; Codex Theodosianus 16:5:44, 16:8:27, 16:8:27; Codex Justinianus 1:3:54, 1:5:12,21, 1:10:2; Justinian, Novellae 37, 45

File:Jensky kodex Zizka.jpg heretics defeated five anti-Hussite Crusades ordered by the Pope.]]

Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, who played an instrumental part in the formation of the Lutheran Churches, condemned Johannes Agricola and his doctrine of antinomianism{{snd}}the belief that Christians were free from the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments{{snd}}as a heresy. Traditional Lutheranism, espoused by Luther himself, teaches that after justification, "the Law of God continued to guide people in how they were to live before God."{{cite book |last1=Seelye |first1=James E. |last2=Selby |first2=Shawn |title=Shaping North America: From Exploration to the American Revolution |date=2018 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781440836695 |page=50 |language=en}}

The Augsburg Confession of 1539, which is among the foundational documents of Lutheranism, lists 10 heresies by name which are condemned: Manichaeans, Valentinians, Arians, Eunomians, Mohammedans, Samosatenes, Pelagians, Anabaptists, Donatists and "certain Jewish opinions".https://bookofconcord.org/augsburg-confession/ Book of Concord.org, Articles 1–17

The 39 Articles of the Anglican Communion condemn Pelagianism as a heresy.{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Kenneth |title=Methodist Theology |date=2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9780567317469 |page=87 |language=en}}

In Britain, the 16th-century English Reformation resulted in a number of executions on charges of heresy. During the thirty-eight years of Henry VIII's reign, about sixty heretics, mainly Protestants, were executed and a rather greater number of Catholics lost their lives on grounds of political offences such as treason, notably Sir Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher, for refusing to accept the king's supremacy over the Church in England.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUCY3otvttEC&q=More+refusal+accept+royal+supremacy+church&pg=PA221|title=Encyclopedia of Tudor England|isbn=9781598842982|last1=Wagner|first1=John A.|last2=Schmid|first2=Susan Walters|year=2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic }}Christenson, Ron. 1991. Political Trials in History. Transaction Publishers. {{ISBN|978-0-88738406-6}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wBdOvs2THGEC&dq=More+refusal+accept+royal+supremacy+church&pg=PA302 p. 302].O'Donovan, Oliver, and Joan Lockwood O'Donovan. 1999. From Irenaeus to Grotius. Eerdmans. {{ISBN|978-0-80284209-1}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=pwoTGSsiqa4C&dq=More+refusal+accept+royal+supremacy+church&pg=PA558 p. 558]. Under Edward VI, the heresy laws were repealed in 1547 only to be reintroduced in 1554 by Mary I; even so two radicals were executed in Edward's reign (one for denying the reality of the incarnation, the other for denying Christ's divinity).Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation Fontana/Collins 1967, pp. 327, 364 Under Mary, around two hundred and ninety people were burned at the stake between 1555 and 1558 after the restoration of papal jurisdiction. When Elizabeth I came to the throne, the concept of heresy was retained in theory but severely restricted by the 1559 Act of Supremacy and the one hundred and eighty or so Catholics who were executed in the forty-five years of her reign were put to death because they were considered members of "a subversive fifth column."Neill, Stephen. Anglicanism. Pelican. pp. 96–97. The last execution of a "heretic" in England occurred under James VI and I in 1612.MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 1996. Thomas Cranmer. Yale University Press. p. 477. Although the charge was technically one of "blasphemy" there was one later execution in Scotland (still at that date an entirely independent kingdom) when in 1697 Thomas Aikenhead was accused, among other things, of denying the doctrine of the Trinity.MacCulloch, Diarmaid. 2003. The Reformation. Penguin. p. 679.

Another example of the persecution of heretics under Protestant rule was the execution of the Boston martyrs in 1659, 1660, and 1661. These executions resulted from the actions of the Anglican Puritans, who at that time wielded political as well as ecclesiastic control in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. At the time, the colony leaders were apparently hoping to achieve their vision of a "purer absolute theocracy" within their colony.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}} As such, they perceived the teachings and practices of the rival Quaker sect as heretical, even to the point where laws were passed and executions were performed with the aim of ridding their colony of such perceived "heresies." {{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Churches teach that Pelagianism is a heresy.

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist tradition, harshly criticized antinomianism, considering it the "worst of all heresies".{{cite book|last=Hurst|first=John Fletcher|title=John Wesley the Methodist: A Plain Account of His Life and Work|year=1903|publisher=Eaton & Mains|language=en|page=200}} He taught that Christian believers are bound to follow the moral law for their sanctification.{{cite book|last1=Yrigoyen|first1=Charles Jr.|last2=Warrick|first2=Susan E.|title=Historical Dictionary of Methodism|date=2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|language=en|isbn=9780810878945|page=30}} Methodist Christians thus teach the necessity of following the moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments, citing Jesus' teaching, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (cf. Saint John 14:15).{{cite book|title=The Wesleyan Methodist Association Magazine|volume=12|year=1849|publisher=R. Abercrombie|language=en|page=368}}

{{Main article|Bid‘ah|Zindīq|Persecution of minority Muslim groups|Takfir}}

File:Mehdiana 1.jpg: the Killing of Bhai Dayala, a Sikh, by the Mughals at Chandni Chowk, India in 1675]]

Starting in medieval times, Muslims began to refer to heretics and those who antagonized Islam as zindiqs, the charge being punishable by death.John Bowker. "Zindiq." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997 {{ISBN?}}

Ottoman Sultan Selim the Grim regarded the Shia Qizilbash as heretics.Āl-e-Aḥmad, Jalāl. 1982. Plagued by the West, translated by P. Sprachman. Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University. {{ISBN|978-0-88206-047-7}}. Shiites, in general, have often been considered heretics by Sunni Muslims, especially in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.{{cite book|author1=John Limbert|author-link1=John Limbert|title=Negotiating with Iran: Wrestling the Ghosts of History|date=2009|publisher=US Institute of Peace Press|isbn=9781601270436|page=[https://archive.org/details/negotiatingwithi00limb/page/29 29]|url=https://archive.org/details/negotiatingwithi00limb/page/29}}{{cite book|author1=Masooda Bano|title=The Rational Believer: Choices and Decisions in the Madrasas of Pakistan|url=https://archive.org/details/rationalbeliever00bano|url-access=registration|date=2012|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=9780801464331|page=[https://archive.org/details/rationalbeliever00bano/page/73 73]}}{{cite book|editor1-last=Johnson|editor1-first=Thomas A.|title=Power, National Security, and Transformational Global Events: Challenges Confronting America, China, and Iran|date=2012|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781439884225|page=162|edition=illustrated}}

To Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, Sikhs were heretics.{{cite book|last=Sanasarian|first=Eliz|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521770736/page/52|title=Religious Minorities in Iran|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2000|isbn=0-521-77073-4|location=Cambridge|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780521770736/page/52 52–53]}}

Ahmadiyya is widely considered by both Sunnis and Shias alike to be heresy due to their belief in prophets after Muhammad.{{cite web |url=https://international.la-croix.com/religion/who-are-the-ahmadis-the-muslims-the-un-calls-to-protect |title=Who are the Ahmadis, the Muslims the UN calls to protect? |first=Vinciane |last=Joly

|date=July 29, 2024 |website=LaCroix International |access-date=December 16, 2024}}{{cite web |url=https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/9/4/91 |website=MDPI |title=Doors to the Imaginal: Implications of Sunni Islam's Persecution of the Ahmadi "Heresy" |first=Ali |last=Qadir |date=March 21, 2018|access-date=December 16, 2024}}

Despite not being considered Muslim, the Baháʼí Faith has been considered a heretical offshoot of Islam.{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/who-are-the-bahais-and-why-are-they-so-persecuted-84042 |title=Who are the Baha'is and why are they so persecuted? |website=The Conversation |date=November 30, 2017 |first1=Zackery M. |last1=Heern |access-date=December 16, 2024}}

In 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini, supreme religious leader of Iran, issued a fatwa that declared the writing of Salman Rushdie to be heretical, and a bounty was issued for anyone who assassinated him. Heresy remains an offense punishable by death in some nations. The Baháʼí Faith is considered an Islamic heresy in Iran, with systematic persecution of Baháʼís.

{{Main article|Heresy in Judaism}}

{{See also|Heresy in Orthodox Judaism}}

Orthodox Judaism considers views on the part of Jews who depart from traditional Jewish principles of faith heretical. In addition, the more right-wing groups within Orthodox Judaism hold that all Jews who reject the simple meaning of Maimonides's 13 principles of Jewish faith are heretics.Shapiro, Marc B. The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised. {{ISBN|1-874774-90-0}}. (A book written as a contentious rebuttal to an article written in the Torah u'Maddah Journal.) As such, most of Orthodox Judaism considers Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism heretical movements, and regards most of Conservative Judaism as heretical. The liberal wing of Modern Orthodoxy is more tolerant of Conservative Judaism, particularly its right wing, as there is some theological and practical overlap between these groups.

The act of using Church of Scientology techniques in a form different from that originally described by L. Ron Hubbard is referred to within Scientology as "squirreling" and is said by Scientologists to be high treason.{{cite news | first = Robert W. | last = Welkos |author2=Sappell, Joel | title = When the Doctrine Leaves the Church | url = http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-scientology062990b,0,4204659.story | work = Los Angeles Times | date = 29 June 1990 | access-date = 2008-08-24 }} The Religious Technology Center has prosecuted breakaway groups who have practiced Scientology outside the official Church without authorization.

Although Zoroastrianism has had an historical tolerance for other religions, it also held sects like Zurvanism and Mazdakism heretical to its main dogma and has violently persecuted them, such as burying Mazdakians with their feet upright as "human gardens." In later periods Zoroastrians cooperated with Muslims to kill other Zoroastrians deemed heretical.Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor (1936), First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936: E.J. Brill, {{ISBN|9789004097964}}

Buddhist and Taoist monks in medieval China often called each other "heretics" and competed to be praised by the royal court. Although today most Chinese believe in a hybrid of the "Three Teachings" (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucian) the competition between the two religions may still be seen in some teachings and commentaries given by both religions today. A similar situation happened with Shinto in Japan. Neo-Confucian heresy has also been described.{{cite book|author=John B. Henderson|title=The construction of orthodoxy and heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and early Christian patterns|year=1998|publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-3760-5}}

In other contexts the term does not necessarily have pejorative overtones and may even be complimentary when used, in areas where innovation is welcome, of ideas that are in fundamental disagreement with the status quo in any practice and branch of knowledge.

Scientist/author Isaac Asimov considered heresy as an abstraction, mentioning religious, political, socioeconomic and scientific heresies.{{cite book|author=Donald Goldsmith|url=https://archive.org/details/ufosascientificd0000unse|title=Scientists Confront Velikovsky|year=1977|publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=0-8014-0961-6|url-access=registration}} Asimov's views

are in "Forward: The Role of the Heretic". He divided scientific heretics into: endoheretics, those from within the scientific community; and exoheretics, those from without. Characteristics were ascribed to both and examples of both kinds were offered. Asimov concluded that science orthodoxy defends itself well against endoheretics (by control of science education, grants and publication as examples), but is nearly powerless against exoheretics. He acknowledged by examples that heresy has repeatedly become orthodoxy.

Publishing his findings as The Dinosaur Heresies, revisionist paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, himself a scientific endoheretic, treated the mainstream view of dinosaurs as dogma:{{cite book |title=The Dinosaur Heresies

|author=Robert T. Bakker |year=1986 |publisher=Citadel Press |isbn=978-0-8065-2260-9}}

I have enormous respect for dinosaur paleontologists past and present. But on average, for the last fifty years, the field hasn't tested dinosaur orthodoxy severely enough.{{Rp|27}}

He adds that, "Most taxonomists, however, have viewed such new terminology as dangerously destabilizing to the traditional and well-known scheme."{{Rp|462}} The illustrations by the author show dinosaurs in very active poses, in contrast to the traditional perception of lethargy.

Immanuel Velikovsky is an example of a recent scientific exoheretic; he did not have appropriate scientific credentials and did not publish in scientific journals. While the details of his work are in scientific disrepute, the concept of catastrophic change (extinction event and punctuated equilibrium) has gained acceptance in recent decades.

The term heresy is used not only with regard to religion but also in the context of political theory.{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763942,00.html|title=Religion: Anti-Religion|date=6 May 1940|magazine=Time}}{{cite web|url=http://isreview.org/issue/91/exploring-high-moments-and-small-mountain-roads-marxism|title=Exploring the high moments and small mountain roads of Marxism|work=isreview.org}} The term heresy is also used as an ideological pigeonhole for contemporary writers because, by definition, heresy depends on contrasts with an established orthodoxy. For example, the tongue-in-cheek contemporary usage of heresy, such as to categorize a "Wall Street heresy" a "Democratic heresy" or a "Republican heresy", are metaphors that invariably retain a subtext that links orthodoxies in geology or biology or any other field to religion. These expanded metaphoric senses allude to both the difference between the person's views and the mainstream and the boldness of such a person in propounding these views.

• Convention (norm)
• Deviationism
• Herem
• Heterodoxy
• Mores
• Norm (social)
• Prohairesis
• Religious offense
• Schism
• Sin
• Zandaqa

{{Reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Walter Bauer (1971), Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, (Philadelphia, Fortress Press (original edition 1934) {{ISBN|0-8006-1363-5}} (on-line: [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rak/publics/new/BAUER00.htm Updated Electronic English Edition by Robert A. Kraft, 1993]).
• {{Cite book|last=Henderson|first=John B.|title=The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and Early Christian Patterns|year=1998|location=Albany, NY|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=9780791437599 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FALN_kpyzEUC}}
• Alain Le Boulluec (1985), La notion d'hérésie dans la littérature grecque, 2 voll., Paris, Etudes Augustiniennes, (The Notion of Heresy in Greek Literature in the Second and Third Centuries, New York, Oxford University Press, 2022)

{{Wiktionary}}

{{commons category}}

{{wikiquote}}

• Some quotes and information in this article came from the [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07256b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia].
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070315063834/http://www.chemins-cathares.eu/05_02_cathares_philosophie_histoire.php Cathars of the middle age], Philosophy and History {{in lang|fr}}.
• [http://www.wlsessays.net/handle/123456789/1777 What Is Heresy?] by Wilbert R. Gawrisch (Lutheran)

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