HERESY
260
HERESY
of the Church, must be ejected if she is to live and
perform her task of continuing Christ's work of sal-
vation. Her Founder, who foretold the disease, also
provided the remedy: He endowed her teaching with
infallibility (see Church). The office of teaching
belongs to the hierarchy, the ecdesia docens, which,
under certain conditions, judges without appeal in
matters of faith and morals (see Councils). In-
fallible decisions can also be given by the pope teach-
ing ex cathedra (see Infallibility). Each pastor in
his parish, each bishop in his diocese, is in duty bound
to keep the faith of his flock untainted ; to the supreme
pastor of all the Churches is given the office of feeding
the whole Christian flock. The power, then, of ex-
pelling heresy is an essential factor in the constitution
of the Church. Like other powers and rights, the
power of rejecting heresy adapts itself in practice to
circumstances of time and place, and, especially, of
social and political conditions. At the beginning it
worked without special organization. The ancient
discipline charged the bishops with the duty of search-
ing out the heresies in their diocese and checking the
progress of error by any means at their command.
When erroneous doctrines gathered volume and
threatened disruption of the Church, the bishops as-
sembled in councils, provincial, metropolitan, na-
tional, or oecumenical. There the combined weight
of their authority was brought to bear U]jon the false
doctrines. The first council was a meeting of the
Apostles at Jerusalem in order to put an end to the
judaizing tendencies among the first Christians. It is
the tj-pc of all succeeding councils: bishops in union
with the head of the Church, and guided by the Holy
Ghost, sit as judges in matters of faith and morals.
The spirit which animates the dealings of the Church
with heresy and heretics is one of extreme severity.
St. Paul writes to Titus: "A man that is a heretic,
after the first and second admonition, avoid: knowing
that he, that is such a one, is subverted, and sinneth,
being condemned by his own judgment" (Tit., iii, 10-
11). This early piece of legislation reproduces the still
earlier teaching of Christ: "And if he will not hear
the church, let Lim be to thee as the heathen and the
publican" (Matt., xviii, 17); it also inspires all .subse-
quent anti-heretical legislation. The sentence on the
obstinate heretic is invariably excommunication. He
is separated from the company of the faithful, de-
livered up "to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (I Cor., v, 5).
When Constantino had taken upon himself the office of lay bishop, episcopus externus, and put the secular arm at the service of the Church, the laws against heretics became more and more rigorous. Under the purely ecclesiastical discipline no temporal punishment could be inflicted on the obstinate heretic, except the damage which might arise to his personal dignity through being deprived of all intercourse with his former brethren. But under the Christian em- perors rigorous measures were enfc reed against the goods and persons of heretics. om the time of Constantine to Theodosius and Va tinian III (.313- 424) various penal laws were enacted by the Christian emperors against heretics as being guilty of crime against the State. "In both the Theodosian and Justinian codes they were styled infamous persons; all intercourse was forbidden to be held with them; they were deprived of all offices of profit and dignity in the civil administration, while all burdensome offices, both of the camp and of the curia, were imposed upon them; they were disqualified from disposing of their own estates by will, or of accepting estates be- queathed to them by others; they were denied the right of giving or receiving donations, of contracting, buying, and selling; pecuniary fines were imposed upon them ; they were often proscribed and banished, and in many cases scourged before being sent into
exile. In some particularly aggravated cases sen-
tence of death was pronounced upon heretics, though
seldom executed in the time of the Christian em-
perors of Rome. Theodosius is said to be the first who
pronounced heresy a capital crime; this law was
passed in 382 against the Encratites, the Saccojihori,
the Hydroparastatae, and the Manichseans. Heretical
teachers were forbidden to propagate their doctrines
publicly or privately; to hold public disputations;
to ordain bishops, presbj-ters, or any other clergy;
to hold religious meetings; to build conventicles or to
avail themselves of money bequeathed to them for
that purpose. Slaves were allowed to inform against
their heretical masters and to purchase their freedom
by coming over to the Church. The children of hereti-
cal parents were denied their patrimony and inheri-
tance unless they returned to the Catholic Church.
The books of heretics were ordered to be burned."
(Vide "Codex Theodosianus", lib. XVI, tit. 5, "De
Ha>reticis".)
This legislation remained in force and with even greater severity in the kingdom formed by the victori- ous barbarian invaders on the ruins of the Roman Empire in the West. The burning of heretics was first decreed in the eleventh century. The Synod of Verona (1184) imposed on bishops the duty to search out the heretics in theirdioceses and to hand them over to the secular power. Other synods, and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) under Pope Innocent III, re- peated and enforced this decree, especially the Synod of Toulouse (1229), which estal)lished inquisitors in every parish (one priest and two lajTnen). Everyone was bound to denounce heretics, the names of the witnesses were kept secret; after 1243, when Innocent IVsanctioned the lawsof Emperor Frederick II and of Louis IX against heretics, torture was applied in trials; the guilty persons were delivered up to the civil authorities and actually burnt at the stake. Paul III (1.542) established, and .Sixtus V organized, the Roman Congregation of the Inquisition, or Holy Office, a regular court of justice for dealing with heresy and heretics (see Uom.vn Congukgathix.s). TheCon- gregation of the Index, instituted by St. Pius V, has for its province the care of faith and morals in literature; it proceeds against printed matter very mvich as the Holy Office proceeds against persons (see Index of Pro- hibited Books). Thepresentpope,Pi\isX(l'.)0!)),has decreed the establishment in every diocese of a board of censors and of a vigilance committee whose func- tions are to find out and report on writings and per- sons tainted with the heresy of Modernism (Encycl. "Pascendi",S Sept., 1907). The present-day legislation against heresy has lost nothing of its ancient severity; but the penalties on heretics are now only of the spiritual order; all the pimishments which re<|uire the intervention of the secular arm have fallen into abey- ance. Even in countries where the cleavage between the spiritual and secular powers does not amoimt to hostility or complete severance, the death penalty, confiscation of goods, imprisonment, etc., are no longer inflicted on heretics. The spiritual penalties are of two kinds: Iat(E and ferenda: sententice. The former are incurred by the mere fact of heresy, no judicial sentence being required; the latter are inflicted after trial by an ecclesiastical court, or by a bishop acting ex irxfnrmata cnnscientid, that is, on his own certain knowledge, and dispensing with the usual procedure.
The penalties (see Censsures, Ecclesiastical) IoUb sententia'aTe: (1) Excommunication specially reserved to the Roman pontiff, which is incurred by all apostates from the Catholic Faith, by each and all heretics, by whatever name they are known and to whatever sect they belong, and by all who believe in them (credentes), receive, favour, or in any way defend them (Const. " Apostolicse Sedis", lSfi9). Heretic here means /or- mal heretic, but also includes the positive doubter, that is, the man who posits his doubt as defensible by rea-
