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Reflections: Catholic Basics Sctn. (Heresy/Heretic)

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Heresy / Heretics / False Teachers

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Heresy / Heretics / False Teachers

 

Category
Quotation

Heresy / Heretics / False Teachers

Also See: Heresy & Schism (Topic Page)

"After a first and second warning, break off contact with a heretic, realizing that such a person is perverted and sinful and stands self-condemned." (St. Paul, Ti. 3:10-11)

"I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by (the) grace (of Christ) for a different gospel (not that there is another). But there are some who are disturbing you and wish to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach (to you) a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, and now I say again, if anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one that you received, let that one be accursed!" (St. Paul, Gal. 1:6-9)

"For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk. Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh; such is the deceitful one and the antichrist. Look to yourselves that you do not lose what we worked for but may receive a full recompense. Anyone who is so 'progressive' as not to remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him in your house or even greet him; for whoever greets him shares in his evil works." (St. John, 2 Jn. 1:6-11)

"[I]gnorance...is the food of heresy" (Liturgical Year)

"Heresy...can but lead the people to eternal ruin" (Liturgical Year)

"[E]very true Christian detests heresy, and all that savors thereof!" (Liturgical Year)

"Every heresy has been an effort to narrow the church." (G. K. Chesterton)

"[H]eresy...is the offspring of man's pride and hell's malice" (Liturgical Year)

"Heresy is a culpable error of the intellect by which some truth of faith is obstinately denied." (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)

"[T]he Catholic, while he hates heresy, must love the heretics" (Dom Gueranger)

"[I]t is a grave offence not to work for the extermination of heresy when this monstrous infection requires action" (Council of Vienne)

"Heresy, Satan's denial of what God affirms by His Christ, this is the great struggle, or rather the only one, which sums up history." (Liturgical Year)

"Heresy is derived from a (Greek) word meaning choice, whereby a man makes choice of that school which he deems best." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)

"Outside the true Church are: Infidels, Jews, heretics, apostates, schismatics, and the excommunicated." (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)

"[T]here are but three classes of persons excluded from the Church's pale: infidels, heretics and schismatics, and excommunicated persons." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"A Catholic sins against faith by apostasy, heresy, indifferentism, and by taking part in non-Catholic worship." (Baltimore Catechism)

"[T]he Catholic Church is infallible, and hence those who reject her definitions lose the faith and become heretics." (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)

Throwing a Calvinist nobleman's gift into fire: "This is how heretics will burn in hell, because they do not believe Christ when He speaks." (St. Jane Frances de Chantal, at age five) 

"Therefore heresy is a species of unbelief, belonging to those who profess the Christian faith, but corrupt its dogmas." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"... Christ who is afflicted beyond measure by the diverse heresies multiplying around Him, is faithfully sought by the heart alone of the Catholic Church." (St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor of the Church)

"Let not the heretic entrap you by bringing examples from the Scriptures. The devil makes use of the testimony of the Scriptures not to teach but to deceive." (St. Ambrose, Doctor of the Church)

"Can. 2316 Whoever in any manner willingly and knowingly helps in the promulgation of heresy, or who communicates in things divine with heretics against the prescriptions of Canon 1258, is suspected of heresy." (1917 Code of Canon Law)

"[A] heretic is one who either devises or follows false and new opinions, for the sake of some temporal profit, especially that he may lord and be honored above others." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)

"For a person is not to be called a heretic as soon as he shall have offended in matters of faith; but he is a heretic who, having disregarded the authority of the Church, maintains impious opinions with pertinacity." (Catechism of the Council of Trent)

"He who refuses to accept the solemn definitions of the Pope, or who even doubts them, sins against faith; and should he remain obstinate in this unbelief, he would no longer be a Catholic, but a heretic." (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)

"Heretics are those of the baptized who obstinately refuse to believe some truth revealed by God and taught as an article of faith by the Catholic Church; for example, the Arians, the Nestorians and the various sects of Protestants." (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)

"[T]he proximate end of heresy is adherence to one's own false opinion, and from this it derives its species, while its remote end reveals its cause, viz. that it arises from pride or covetousness." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"[I]t is a greater thing to employ spiritual arms in defending the faithful against the errors of heretics and the temptations of the devil, than to protect the faithful by means of bodily weapons." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"When the Lord had said that there were few that find the straight gate narrow way, that heretics, who often commend themselves because of the smallness of their numbers, might not intrude themselves, He straightway subjoins, Take heed of false prophets." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)

"There are four sorts of trees: the first totally withered, to which the Pagans may be likened; the second green but unfruitful, as the hypocrites; the third, green and fruitful, but poisonous, such are heretics; the fourth, green and bringing forth good fruit, to which are like the good Catholics." (Bl. Rabanus Maurus)

"Falsehood is contrary to truth. Now a heretic is one who devises or follows false or new opinions. Therefore heresy is opposed to the truth, on which faith is founded; and consequently it is a species of unbelief." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"I answer that, As Jerome (Glossa Ordinaria in Osee [Hosea] 2:16) says, 'words spoken amiss lead to heresy'; hence with us and heretics the very words ought not to be in common, lest we seem to countenance their error." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"But kingdom against kingdom, the pestilence of those whose word spreads as a canker, dearth of the word of God, the commotion of the whole earth, and the separation from the true faith, may all rather be understood of heretics who, by fighting one against the other, bring about the triumph of the Church." (St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor of the Church) 

"In that He says that the bundles of tares are to be cast into the fire (Mt. 13:30), and the wheat gathered into barns, it is clear that heretics also and hypocrites are to be consumed in the fires of hell, while the saints who are here represented by the wheat are received into the barns, that is into heavenly mansions." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)

"Can. 1324 It is not enough to avoid heretical depravity, but also those errors should be diligently fled that more or less approach [heresy]; therefore, all must observe the constitutions and decrees by which these sorts of depraved opinions are proscribed and prohibited by the Holy See." (1917 Code of Canon Law)

"Can. 751 Heresy is the obstinate denial or doubt, after baptism, of a truth which must be believed by divine and Catholic faith. Apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith. Schism is the withdrawal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or from communion with the members of the Church subject to him." (1983 Code of Canon Law)

"Can. 1364 §1 An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication, without prejudice to the provision of Can. 194 §1, n. 2; a cleric, moreover, may be punished with the penalties mentioned in Can. 1336 §1, nn. 1, 2 and 3. §2 If a longstanding contempt or the gravity of scandal calls for it, other penalties may be added, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state." (1983 Code of Canon Law)

"That, 'If it were possible' (Mt. 24:24), is spoken hyperbolically; not that the elect can be led astray, but He wishes to show that the discourse of heretics is often so persuasive, as to have force to prevail even with those who act wisely." [Origen ("the greatest scholar of Christian antiquity" - although he would eventually be excommunicated and be regarded as a heretic), 3rd century A.D.]

"But this form of warning, Take heed, does not imply that the Devil will introduce heresies against God's will, but by His permission only; but because He would not choose servants without trial, therefore He sends them temptation; and because He would not have them perish through ignorance, He therefore warns them beforehand." [Pseudo Chrys (as quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church)]

"The uncleanness of leprosy betokened the uncleanness of heretical doctrine: both because heretical doctrine is contagious just as leprosy is, and because no doctrine is so false as not to have some truth mingled with error, just as on the surface of a leprous body one may distinguish the healthy parts from those that are infected." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"Many teachers of heresy also arose in the Church even in the time of the Apostles; and many Antichrists came in the name of Christ, the first of whom was Simon Magus, to whom the Samaritans, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, listened, saying, This man is the great power of God: wherefore also it is added here, And shall deceive many." (St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor of the Church)

"The Apostle John also in his Epistle, 'You have heard that Antichrist shall come; even now there are many Antichrists'. I suppose all heresiarchs to be Antichrists, and under the name of Christ to teach those things which are contrary to Christ. No wonder if we see some led away by such teachers, when the Lord has said, 'And shall deceive many'." (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)

"What is here spoken of false prophets we may apply to all whose dress and speech promise one thing and their actions exhibit another. But it is specially to be understood of heretics, who by observing temperance, chastity, and fasting, surround themselves as it were with [a garment] of sanctity, but in as much as their hearts within are poisoned, they deceive the souls of the more simple brethren" (St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church)

"Can. 2315 One suspected of heresy who, having been warned, does not remove the cause of suspicion is prohibited from legitimate acts; if he is a cleric, moreover, the warning having been repeated without effect, he is suspended from things divine; but if within six months from contracting the penalty, the one suspected of heresy does not completely amend himself, let him be considered as a heretic and liable to the penalties for heretics." (1917 Code of Canon Law)

"Can. 1325 § 2 After the reception of baptism, if anyone, retaining the name of Christian, pertinaciously denies or doubts something to be believed from the truth of divine and Catholic faith, [such a one is] a heretic; if he completely turns away from the Christian faith, [such a one is] an apostate; if finally he refused to be under the Supreme Pontiff or refuses communion with the members of the Church subject to him, he is a schismatic." (1917 Code of Canon Law)

"...those who are found to be enslaved to error or heretical beliefs...we strictly forbid such persons to teach or to pursue studies. If anyone shall be found rejecting and transgressing against this directive, he shall lose his rank if he is a cleric; if a lay person, he shall be excommunicated as one who does not believe the Lord's word which says, Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Fourth Council of Constantinople)

"For the prohibition: 'Thou shalt not sow thy field with different seeds,' is to be understood, in the spiritual sense, of the prohibition to sow strange doctrine in the Church, which is a spiritual vineyard. Likewise 'the field,' i.e. the Church, must not be sown 'with different seeds,' i.e. with Catholic and heretical doctrines. Neither is it allowed to plough 'with an ox and an ass together'; thus a fool should not accompany a wise man in preaching, for one would hinder the other." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"The thorns and thistles are the heretics (Mt. 7:16). And as a thorn or a thistle has sharp pricks on every part, so the Devil's servants, on whatsoever side you look at them, are full of wickedness. Thorns and thistles then of this sort cannot hear the fruits of the Church. And having instanced in particular trees, as the fig, the vine, the thorn, and the thistle, He proceeds to show that this is universally true, saying, Thus every good tree brings forth good fruit, but an evil tree brings forth evil fruit." [Pseudo Chrys (as quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church)]

"How can we help admiring the Providence which is never wanting to the Church? From the midst of tribes still pagan, on the morrow of the irremediable fall of the empire, God forms to Himself a new people, raises unto Himself a prince: against these must break the rising tide of heretics and barbarians. Such, in truth, appeared in the course of ages the divine mission of the Frankish kings. What energy has faith to uphold kingdoms; and what fatal power has heresy to uproot every plant that is not set by our heavenly Father!" (Baronius, as quoted in The Liturgical Year)

"Thus there are branches in the vine, not that they may bestow anything upon the vine, but that they may receive from it the means by which they may live; so truly the vine is in the branches, that it may furnish vital nourishment to these, not take it from them. And by this it is an advantage to the disciples, not to Christ, that each have Christ abiding in him, and that each abide in Christ. For if the branch is cut off, another can sprout forth from the living root; but that which has been cut off, cannot live without tile root [John 15:5 ff.]." (St. Prosper/Council of Orange II, 529 A.D.)

"[Our] first safety is to guard the rule of the right faith and to deviate in no wise from the ordinances of the Fathers; because we cannot pass over the statement of our Lord Jesus Christ who said: 'Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church'... [Matt. 16:18]. These [words] which were spoken, are proved by the effects of the deeds, because in the Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been preserved without stain. Desiring not to be separated from this hope and faith and following the ordinances of the Fathers, we anathematize all heresies" (Pope St. Hormisdas, 517 A.D.)

"Therefore, heresy is so called from the Greek word meaning 'choice,' by which each chooses according to his own will what he pleases to teach or believe. But we are not permitted to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever someone else has believed. We have the apostles of God as authorities, who did not themselves of their own will choose what they would believe, but faithfully transmitted to the nations the teaching received from Christ. So, even if an angel from heaven should preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema." (St. Isidore, Doctor of the Church, 7th century A.D.)

"And so in the performance of our supreme pastoral office, we beseech for the love of Jesus Christ and we command, by the authority of him who is also our God and savior, all faithful Christians, especially those in authority or who have the duty of teaching, that they contribute their zeal and labor to the warding off and elimination of these errors from the Church and to the spreading of the light of the pure faith. But since it is not enough to avoid the contamination of heresy unless those errors are carefully shunned which approach it in greater or less degree, we warn all of their duty to observe the constitutions and decrees in which such wrong opinions, though not expressly mentioned in this document, have been banned and forbidden by this Holy See." (First Vatican Council)

"Just as heresy is so called from its being a choosing [from the Greek 'hairein', to cut off], so does sect derive its name from its being a cutting off [secando], as Isidore states (Etymologiarum viii,3). Wherefore heresy and sect are the same thing, and each belongs to the works of the flesh, not indeed by reason of the act itself of unbelief in respect of its proximate object, but by reason of its cause, which is either the desire of an undue end in which way it arises from pride or covetousness... or some illusion of the imagination (which gives rise to error, as the Philosopher states in De Metaphysica iv; Didot Edition iii,5), for this faculty has a certain connection with the flesh, in as much as its act is independent on a bodily organ." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"Simple persons should not be put to the test about subtle questions of faith, unless they be suspected of having been corrupted by heretics, who are wont to corrupt the faith of simple people in such questions. If, however, it is found that they are free from obstinacy in their heterodox sentiments, and that it is due to their simplicity, it is no fault of theirs... it is not human knowledge, but the Divine truth that is the rule of faith: and if any of the learned stray from this rule, he does not harm the faith of the simple ones, who think that the learned believe aright; unless the simple hold obstinately to their individual errors, against the faith of the universal Church, which cannot err, since Our Lord said (Luke 22:32): 'I have prayed for thee,' Peter, 'that thy faith fail not.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"But there was a quasi-Christian sect for every taste. There was a sect that believed that every sin had to be tried. There were those who denied that Jesus was a man (the Docetists) and those who denied that he was God (the Theodotians). To go through every heresy would be tedious and pointless. The important fact to grasp is that heresy has been a challenge to the Church from the very beginning, and though these early heresies were defeated, they have never fully gone away. They are merely readapted to suit changing times. But certain themes are perennial. Many of the early heresies were what we would today call 'holier than thou', enforcing a more rigorous moral discipline than the Roman Catholic Church. Common to every heresy is the assertion of private judgement, revelation, and choice against the Catholic Church's adherence to the authoritative tradition of Apostolic Christianity." (Crocker)

"It may be asked why He commands more than one bundle or heap of tares to be formed (Mt. 13:30)? Perhaps because of the variety of heretics differing not only from the wheat, but also among themselves, each several heresy, separated from communion with all the others, is designated as a bundle; and perhaps they may even then begin to be bound together for burning, when they first sever themselves from Catholic communion, and begin to have their independent 'church'; so that it is the burning and not the binding into bundles that will take place at the end of the world. But were this so, there would not be so many who become wise again, and return from error into the Catholic Church. Wherefore we must understand the binding into bundles to be what shall come to pass in the end, that punishment should fall on them not promiscuously, but in due proportion to the obstinacy and willfulness of each separate error." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church)

"It is written (2 Peter 2:21): 'It had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back.' Now the heathens have not known the way of justice, whereas heretics and Jews have abandoned it after knowing it in some way. Therefore theirs is the graver sin...he who resists the faith after accepting it, sins more grievously against faith, than he who resists it without having accepted it, even as he who fails to fulfill what he has promised, sins more grievously than if he had never promised it. In this way the unbelief of heretics, who confess their belief in the Gospel, and resist that faith by corrupting it, is a more grievous sin than that of the Jews, who have never accepted the Gospel faith. Since, however, they accepted the figure of that faith in the Old Law, which they corrupt by their false interpretations, their unbelief is a more grievous sin than that of the heathens, because the latter have not accepted the Gospel faith in any way at all." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"For since we have received, delivered to us by God, graces and doctrines which ere above man, (as, for example, the rule of a heavenly life, power against evil spirits, the adoption and the knowledge of the Father and the Word, the gift of the Holy Spirit,) our adversary the devil goes about seeking to steal from us the seed of the word which has been sown. But the Lord, shutting up in us His teaching as His own precious gift, warns us, lest we be deceived. And one very great gift He gives us, the word of God, that not only we be not led away by what appears, but even if there is ought lying concealed, by the grace of God we may discern it. For seeing that the devil is the hateful inventor of evil, what he himself is he conceals, but craftily assumes a name desirable to all; just as if a man wishing to get into his power some children not His own, should in the absence of the parents counterfeit their looks, and lead away the children who were longing for them. In every heresy then the devil says in disguise, 'I am Christ, and with me there is truth.' And so it follows, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draws near." (St. Athanasius, Doctor of the Church)

"Anything is of faith in two ways; directly, where any truth comes to us principally as divinely taught, as the Trinity and unity of God, the Incarnation of the Son, and the like; and concerning these truths a false opinion of itself involves heresy, especially if it be held obstinately. A thing is of faith, indirectly, if the denial of it involves as a consequence something against faith; as for instance if anyone said that Samuel was not the son of Elcana, for it follows that the divine Scripture would be false. Concerning such things anyone may have a false opinion without danger of heresy, before the matter has been considered or settled as involving consequences against faith, and particularly if no obstinacy be shown; whereas when it is manifest, and especially if the Church has decided that consequences follow against faith, then the error cannot be free from heresy. For this reason many things are now considered as heretical which were formerly not so considered, as their consequences are now more manifest." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

"The Church, instituted by the Lord and confirmed by the Apostles, is one for all men; but the frantic folly of the diverse impious sects has cut them off from her. It cannot be denied that this tearing asunder of the faith has arisen from the defect of poor intelligence, which twists what is read to confirm to its opinion, instead of adjusting its opinion to the meaning of what is read. However, while individual parties fight among themselves, the Church stands revealed not only by her own doctrines, but by those also of her adversaries. And although they are all ranged against her, she confutes the most wicked error which they all share, by the very fact that she is alone and one. All the heretics, therefore, come against the Church; but while all the heretics can conquer each other, they can win nothing for themselves. For their victory is the triumph of the Church over all of them. One heresy struggles against that teaching of another, which the faith of the Church has already condemned in the other heresy - for there is nothing which the heretics hold in common - and the result is that they affirm our faith while fighting among themselves." (St. Hilary of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church, c. 356 A.D.)

"Protestantism was established and rooted by the shedding of torrents of blood; and yet Protestants count it as a great crime that, here and there, the children of the true Church made an armed resistance against them. The heresy of the sixteenth century was the cruel and untiring persecutor of men, whose only crime was their adhesion to the old faith - the faith that had civilized the world. The so-called Reformation proclaimed liberty in matters of religion, and massacred Catholics who exercised this liberty, and prayed and believed as their ancestors had done for long ages before Luther and Calvin were born. A Catholic who gives heretics credit for sincerity when they talk about religious toleration, proves that he knows nothing of either the past or the present. There is a fatal instinct in error, which leads it to hate the Truth; and the true Church, by its unchangeableness, is a perpetual reproach to them that refuse to be her children. Heresy starts with an attempt to annihilate them that remain faithful; when it has grown tired of open persecution it vents its spleen in insults and calumnies; and when these do not produce the desired effect, hypocrisy comes in with its assurances of friendly forbearance. The History of Protestant Europe, during the last three centuries, confirms these statements; it also justifies us in honoring those courageous servants of God who, during that same period, have died for the ancient faith." (Dom Gueranger, 19th Century A.D.)

"[For] it has been reported to us, that in the regions of the Dalmatians certain men had disseminated the recurring tares of the Pelagian pest, and that their blasphemy prevails there to such a degree that they are deceiving all the simple by the insinuation of their deadly madness... [But] since the Lord is superior, the pure truth of Catholic faith drawn from the concordant opinions of all the Fathers remains present... What pray permits us to abrogate what has been condemned by the venerable Fathers, and to reconsider the impious dogmas that have been demolished by them? Why is it, therefore, that we take such great precautions lest any dangerous heresy, once driven out, strive anew to come [up] for examination, if we argue that what has been known, discussed, and refuted of old by our elders ought to be restored? Are we not ourselves offering, which God forbid, to all the enemies of the truth an example of rising again against ourselves, which the Church will never permit? Where is it that it is written: Do not go beyond the limits of your fathers [Prov. 22:28], and: Ask your fathers and they will tell you, and your elders will declare unto you [Deut. 32:7]? Why, accordingly, do we aim beyond the definitions of our elders, or why do they not suffice for us? If in our ignorance we desire to learn something, how every single thing to be avoided has been prescribed by the orthodox fathers and elders, or everything to be adapted to Catholic truth has been decreed, why are they not approved by these? Or are we wiser than they, or shall we be able to stand constant with firm stability, if we should undermine those [dogmas] which have been established by them?..." (Pope St. Gelasius I, 492 A.D.)

"Augustine says against the Manichees (De Civitate Dei xviii,51): 'In Christ's Church, those are heretics, who hold mischievous and erroneous opinions, and when rebuked that they may think soundly and rightly, offer a stubborn resistance, and, refusing to mend their pernicious and deadly doctrines, persist in defending them.' Now pernicious and deadly doctrines are none but those which are contrary to the dogmas of faith, whereby 'the just man liveth' (Romans 1:17). Therefore heresy is about matters of faith, as about its proper matter... We are speaking of heresy now as denoting a corruption of the Christian faith. Now it does not imply a corruption of the Christian faith, if a man has a false opinion in matters that are not of faith, for instance, in questions of geometry and so forth, which cannot belong to the faith by any means; but only when a person has a false opinion about things belonging to the faith. Now a thing may be of the faith in two ways..., in one way, directly and principally, e.g. the articles of faith; in another way, indirectly and secondarily, e.g. those matters, the denial of which leads to the corruption of some article of faith; and there may be heresy in either way, even as there can be faith... As Augustine says (Ep. 43) and we find it stated in the Decretals (Decretal XXIV, Q3, canon Dixit Apostolus): 'By no means should we accuse of heresy those who, however false and perverse their opinion may be, defend it without obstinate fervor, and seek the truth with careful anxiety, ready to mend their opinion, when they have found the truth,' because, to wit, they do not make a choice in contradiction to the doctrine of the Church. Accordingly, certain doctors seem to have differed either in matters the holding of which in this or that way is of no consequence, so far as faith is concerned, or even in matters of faith, which were not as yet defined by the Church; although if anyone were obstinately to deny them after they had been defined by the authority of the universal Church, he would be deemed a heretic." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the Church")

Also See: Schism / Heresy | Heresy / Heretics & Schism / Schismatics (Coming Home Reflections) | Duty to Reject Strange Doctrine (Coming Home Reflections) | Unchangeableness of Dogmas (Latin Mass & Catholic Tradition Reflections) | Novel Teachings Are Forbidden (Coming Home Reflections) | Unity of the Church | False Opinions Influence / Pervert Actions (Coming Home Reflections) | Truth | Truth / Error / Nature of Man (Coming Home Reflections) | Why Trust Martin Luther? (Coming Home Reflections) | Non-Catholics Section (apologetics) | Heresy / Error (Topical Scripture)

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