List of heresies in the Catholic Church
In its vision of [Heresy in the Catholic Church|Catholic Church|heresy], the Catholic Church makes a distinction between material and formal heresy. Material heresy means in effect "holding erroneous doctrines through no fault of one's own" due to inculpable ignorance and "is neither a crime nor a sin" since the individual has made the error in good faith. Formal heresy is "the wilful and persistent adherence to an error in matters of faith" on the part of a baptised person. As such it is a grave sin and involves ipso facto excommunication; a Catholic that embraces a formal heresy is considered to have automatically separated his or her soul from the Catholic Church. Here "matters of faith" means dogmas which have been proposed by the infallible magisterium of the Church and, in addition to this intellectual error, "pertinacity in the will" in maintaining it in opposition to the teaching of the Church must be present.
Heresy has been a concern in Christian communities at least since the writing of the Second Epistle of Peter: "Even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them". In the first two or three centuries of the early Church, heresy and schism were not clearly distinguished. A similar overlapping occurred in medieval scholasticism. Heresy is understood today to mean the denial of revealed truth as taught by the Church. Nineteenth-century theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher defined it as "that which preserved the appearance of Christianity, and yet contradicted its essence". This article contains the movements and denominations which have been declared as heresy by the Catholic Church.
The following listing contains those opinions which were either explicitly condemned by Chalcedonian Christianity before 1054 or are of later origin but similar. Details of some modern opinions deemed to be heretical by the Catholic Church are listed in an appendix. All lists are in alphabetical order.
Early Christianity
Traditionally, orthodoxy and heresy have been viewed in relation to the "orthodoxy" as an authentic lineage of tradition. Other forms of Christianity were viewed as deviant streams of thought and therefore "heterodox", or heretical. This view was dominant until the publication of Walter Bauer's Rechtgläubigkeit und Ketzerei im ältesten Christentum in 1934. Bauer endeavoured to rethink early Christianity historically, independent from the views of the church. He argued that originally unity was based on a common relationship with the same Lord rather than on formally defined doctrines and that a wide variety of views was tolerated. With time, some of these views were seen as inadequate. He went on to attribute the definition of "orthodoxy" to the increasing power and influence of the Church of Rome. In 1959, Henry Chadwick argued that all Christian communities were linked by the foundational events which occurred in Jerusalem and continued to be of defining importance in the forging of doctrinal orthodoxy. McGrath comments that historically Chadwick's account appears to be much more plausible.For convenience the heresies which arose in this period have been divided into three groups: [|Trinitarian/Christological]; [|Gnostic]; and [|other heresies].
Trinitarian/Christological heresies
The term Christology has two meanings in theology: it can be used in the narrow sense of the question as to how the divine and human are related in the person of Jesus Christ, or alternatively of the overall study of his life and work. Here it is used in the restricted, narrow sense.The orthodox teaching concerning the Trinity, as finally developed and formally agreed at Constantinople in 381, is that God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being in three hypostases, misleadingly translated as "persons". The Christological question then arose as to how Jesus Christ could be both divine and human. This was formally resolved after much debate by the Ecumenical Councils of 431, 451 and 680.
| Heresy | Description | Origin | Official condemnation | Other |
| Adoptionism | Belief that Jesus was born as a mere man, was supremely virtuous and that he was adopted later as the "Son of God" by the descent of the Spirit on him. | Propounded by Theodotus of Byzantium, a leather merchant, in Rome c.190, later revived by Paul of Samosata | Theodotus was excommunicated by Pope Victor and Paul was condemned by the Synod of Antioch in 268 | Alternative names: Psilanthropism and Dynamic Monarchianism. Later criticized as presupposing Nestorianism |
| Apollinarism | Belief that Jesus had a human body and lower soul but a divine mind. Apollinaris further taught that the souls of men were propagated by other souls, as well as their bodies. | Proposed by Apollinaris of Laodicea | Declared to be a heresy in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople | |
| Arabici | Belief that the soul perished with the body, and that both would be revived on Judgement Day. | Founder unknown, but associated with 3rd-century Christians from Arabia. | Reconciled to the main body of the Church after a council in 250 led by Origen. | |
| Arianism | Denial of the true divinity of Jesus Christ taking various specific forms, but all agreed that Jesus Christ was created by the Father, that he had a beginning in time, and that the title "Son of God" was a courtesy one. | The doctrine is associated with Arius who lived and taught in Alexandria, Egypt. | Arius was first pronounced a heretic at the First Council of Nicaea, he was later exonerated as a result of imperial pressure and finally declared a heretic after his death. The heresy was finally resolved in 381 by the First Council of Constantinople. | All forms denied that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial with the Father" but proposed either "similar in substance", "similar", or "dissimilar" as the correct alternative. |
| Collyridianism | Belief that the Trinity consists of the Father, Son, and Mary and that the Son is a result of the marital union between the other two. | Described by Epiphanius in his Panarion. | The existence of the sect is subject to some dispute due to the lack of historical evidence aside from the writings of Epiphanius. | |
| Docetism | Belief that Jesus' physical body was an illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is, Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality, he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die. | Tendencies existed in the 1st century, but it was most notably embraced by Gnostics in subsequent centuries. | Docetism was rejected by the ecumenical councils and mainstream Christianity, and largely died out during the first millennium AD. | Gnostic movements that survived past that time, such as Catharism, incorporated docetism into their beliefs, but such movements were destroyed by the Albigensian Crusade. |
| Luciferians | Strongly anti-Arian sect in Sardinia | Founded by Lucifer Calaritanus, a bishop of Cagliari | Deemed heretical by Jerome in his Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi | |
| Macedonians or Pneumatomachians | While accepting the divinity of Jesus Christ as affirmed at Nicaea in 325, they denied that of the Holy Spirit which they saw as a creation of the Son, and a servant of the Father and the Son. | Allegedly founded in the 4th century by Bishop Macedonius I of Constantinople, Eustathius of Sebaste was their principal theologian. | Opposed by the Cappadocian Fathers and condemned at the First Council of Constantinople. | This is what prompted the addition of "And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son is equally worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the Prophets", into the Nicene Creed at the second ecumenical council. |
| Melchisedechians | Considered Melchisedech an incarnation of the Logos and identified him with the Holy Ghost. | Refuted by Marcus Eremita in his book Eis ton Melchisedek | It is uncertain whether the sect survived beyond the 9th century. They were probably scattered across Anatolia and the Balkans following the destruction of Tephrike. | |
| Monarchianism | An overemphasis on the indivisibility of God at the expense of the other "persons" of the Trinity leading to either Sabellianism or to Adoptionism. | Stressing the "monarchy" of God was in Eastern theology a legitimate way of affirming his oneness, also the Father as the unique source of divinity. It became heretical when pushed to the extremes indicated. | ||
| Monophysitism or Eutychianism | Belief that Christ's divinity dominates and overwhelms his humanity, as opposed to the Chalcedonian position which holds that Christ has two natures, one divine and one human or the Miaphysite position which holds that the human nature and pre-incarnate divine nature of Christ were united as one divine-human nature from the point of the Incarnation onwards. | After Nestorianism was rejected at the First Council of Ephesus, Eutyches emerged with diametrically opposite views. | Eutyches was excommunicated in 448. Monophysitism and Eutyches were rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Monophysitism is also rejected by the Oriental Orthodox Churches | |
| Monothelitism | Belief that Jesus Christ had two natures but only one will. This is contrary to the orthodox interpretation of Christology, which teaches that Jesus Christ has two wills corresponding to his two natures | Originated in Armenia and Syria in AD 633 | Monothelitism was officially condemned at the Third Council of Constantinople. The churches condemned at Constantinople include the Oriental Orthodox Syriac, Armenian, and Coptic churches as well as the Maronite church, although the latter now deny that they ever held the Monothelite view and are presently in full communion with the Bishop of Rome. Christians in England rejected the Monothelite position at the Council of Hatfield in 680. | |
| Nestorianism | Belief that Jesus Christ was a natural union between the Flesh and the Word, thus not identical, to the divine Son of God. | Advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine was informed by Nestorius' studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch. | Condemned at the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, leading to the Nestorian Schism. | Nestorius rejected the title Theotokos for the Virgin Mary, and proposed Christotokos as more suitable. Many of Nestorius' supporters relocated to Sassanid Persia, where they affiliated with the local Christian community, known as the Church of the East. Over the next decades, the Church of the East became increasingly Nestorian in doctrine, leading it to be known alternately as the Nestorian Church. |
| Patripassianism | Belief that the Father and Son are not two distinct persons, and thus God the Father suffered on the cross as Jesus. | similar to Sabellianism | ||
| Psilanthropism | Belief that Jesus is "merely human": either that he never became divine, or that he never existed prior to his incarnation as a man. | Propounded by Theodotus of Byzantium, a leather merchant, in Rome c.190, later revived by Paul of Samosata | Rejected by the ecumenical councils, especially in the First Council of Nicaea, which was convened to deal directly with the nature of Christ's divinity. | See Adoptionism |
| Sabellianism | Belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three characterizations of one God, rather than three distinct "persons" in one God. | First formally stated by Noetus of Smyrna c. 190, refined by Sabellius c. 210 who applied the names merely to different roles of God in the history and economy of salvation. | Noetus was condemned by the presbyters of Smyrna. Tertullian wrote Adversus Praxeam against this tendency and Sabellius was condemned by Pope Callistus. | Alternative names: Patripassianism, Modalism, Modalistic Monarchianism |
| Subordinationism | Belief the Son and the Holy Spirit are not co-equal with the Father. Subordinationists believe that the Son and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to the Father in either nature, role, or both. | Condemned as heretical in the Second Council of Constantinople. | - | |
| Tritheism | Belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three independent and distinct divine beings as opposed to three persons of one being and one essence |
Gnosticism
Gnosticism refers to a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God. Gnosticism is a rejection and vilification of the human body and of the material world or cosmos. Gnosticism teaches duality in Material versus Spiritual or Body versus Soul. Gnosticism teaches that the natural or material world will and should be destroyed by the true spiritual God in order to free mankind from the reign of the false God or Demiurge.A common misperception is caused by the fact that, in the past, "Gnostic" had a similar meaning to the current usage of the word mystic. There were some Orthodox Christians who as mystics taught gnosis who could be called gnostics in a positive sense.
Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Gnosticism may have been earlier than the 1st century, thus predating Jesus Christ. It spread through the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, becoming a dualistic heresy to Judaism, Christianity and Hellenic philosophy in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths, and the Persian Empire. Conversion to Islam and the Albigensian Crusade greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few isolated communities continue to exist to the present. Gnostic ideas became influential in the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.
| Heresy | Description | Origin | Official condemnation | Other |
| Manichaeism | A major dualistic religion stating that good and evil are equally powerful, and that material things are evil. | Founded in 210–276 AD by Mani | Condemned by Emperor Theodosius I decree in 382 | Thrived between the 3rd and 7th centuries and appears to have died out before the 16th century except in southern China. |
| Paulicianism | A Gnostic and dualistic sect | The founder of the sect is said to have been an Armenian by the name of Constantine, who hailed from Mananalis, a community near Samosata. | Repressed by order of Empress Theodora II in 843 | |
| Priscillianism | A Gnostic and Manichaean sect | Founded in the 4th century by Priscillian, derived from the Gnostic-Manichaean doctrines taught by Marcus. Priscillian was put to death by the emperor Magnus Maximus for the crime of magic. | Condemned by Synod of Zaragoza in 380. | Increased during the 5th century despite efforts to stop it. In the 6th century, Priscillianism declined and died out soon after the Synod of Braga in 563. |
| Naassenes | A Gnostic sect from around 100 AD | The Naassenes claimed to have been taught their doctrines by Mariamne, a disciple of James the Just. | Dealt as heresy by Hippolytus of Rome | |
| Sethian | Belief that the snake in the Garden of Eden was an agent of the true God and brought knowledge of truth to man via the fall of man | Syrian sect drawing their origin from the Ophites | Dealt as heresy by Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Philaster | Sect is founded around the Apocalypse of Adam. |
| Ophites | Belief that the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve was a hero and that the God who forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge is the enemy. | Dealt as heresy by Hippolytus of Rome | ||
| Valentianism | A Gnostic and dualistic sect | Gnostic sect was founded by Ex-Catholic Bishop Valentinus | Considered heresy by Irenaeus and Epiphanius of Salamis |
Other Early Church heresies
| Heresy | Description | Origin | Official condemnation | Other |
| Antinomianism | Any view which holds that Christians are freed by grace from obligations of any moral law. St Paul had to refute a charge of this type made by opponents because of his attitude to the Mosaic Law | Some gnostics taught that since the matter was opposed to the spirit, the body was unimportant. Similar views were found among some anabaptists in the sixteenth century as a consequence of justification by faith and later among some sects in seventeenth-century England. | Decree on Justification, Chapter XV Council of Trent | Few groups have declared themselves Antinomian, and the term has often been used by one group to criticize another's views. |
| Audianism | Belief that God has the human form and that one ought to celebrate Jesus' death during the Jewish Passover. | Named after the leader of the sect, Audius, a Syrian who lived in the 4th century. | The First Council of Nicaea condemned quartodecimanism in 325. Cyril of Alexandria condemned anthropomorphism at his Adversus Anthropomorphites | |
| Barallot | Held all things in common, even wives and children | Were also called "Compliers" due to their love of sensual pleasures | ||
| Circumcellions | A militant subset of Donatism* | See Donatism | Outlawed by Emperor Honorius in 408 | Relied on violence. |
| Donatism | Donatists were rigorists, holding that the church must be a church of saints, not sinners and that sacraments administered by traditores were invalid. They also regarded martyrdom as the supreme Christian virtue and regarded those that actively sought martyrdom as saints. | Named for their second leader Donatus Magnus | Condemned by Pope Melchiades | Donatists were a force at the time of Saint Augustine of Hippo and disappeared only after the Arab conquest. |
| Ebionites | A Jewish sect that insisted on the necessity of following Jewish law and rites, which they interpreted in light of Jesus' expounding of the Law. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah but not as divine. | The term Ebionites derives from the Hebrew evionim, meaning "the Poor Ones" | Justin Martyr considered them heretical at Dialogue with Trypho the Jew chapter xlvii | In 375, Epiphanius records the settlement of Ebionites on Cyprus, later Theodoret of Cyrrhus reported that they were no longer present there. |
| Euchites / Messalians | Belief that:
| Originating in Mesopotamia, they spread to Asia Minor and Thrace. | Bishop Flavian of Antioch condemned them about 376 | The group might have continued for several centuries, influencing the Bogomils of Bulgaria, the Bosnian church, the Paterenes and Catharism. |
| Iconoclasm | The belief that icons are idols and should be destroyed. | From late in the seventh century onwards some parts of the Greek Church reacted against the veneration of icons. In 726 Emperor Leo III ordered the destruction of all icons and persecuted those who refused. The policy continued under his successors till about 780. Later Leo V launched a second attempt which continued till the death of the emperor Theophilus in 842 | Condemned by Nicea II in 787 which regulated the veneration | Leo III may have been motivated by the belief that the veneration of icons, particularly in the excessive form it often took, was the chief obstacle to the conversion of Jews and Muslims |
| Marcionism | An Early Christian dualist belief system. Marcion affirmed Jesus Christ as the saviour sent by God and Paul as his chief apostle, but he rejected the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew God. Marcionists believed that the wrathful Hebrew God was a separate and lower entity than the all-forgiving God of the New Testament. This belief was in some ways similar to Gnostic Christian theology, but in other ways different. | Originates in the teachings of Marcion of Sinope at Rome around the year 144. | Many early apologists, such as Tertullian on his Adversus Marcionem condemned Marcionism | Marcionism continued in the West for 300 years, although Marcionistic ideas persisted much longer. Marcionism continued in the East for some centuries later. Similar heresies would arise with Catharism in 1200s France and Positive Christianity in Nazi Germany. |
| Montanism | The beliefs of Montanism contrasted with orthodox Christianity in the following ways:
| Named for its founder Montanus, Montanism originated at Hierapolis. It spread rapidly to other regions in the Roman Empire during the period before Christianity was generally tolerated or legal. | The churches of Asia Minor excommunicated Montanists. Around 177, Apollinarius, Bishop of Hierapolis, presided over a synod which condemned the New Prophecy. The leaders of the churches of Lyon and Vienne in Gaul responded to the New Prophecy in 177 | Although the orthodox mainstream Christian church prevailed against Montanism within a few generations, labelling it a heresy, the sect persisted in some isolated places into the 8th century. |
| Pelagianism | Belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without Divine aid. | Named after Pelagius. The theology was later developed by C(a)elestius and Julian of Eclanum into a complete system. and refuted by Augustine of Hippo but his final position never gained general acceptance in the East. | Pelagianism was attacked in the Council of Diospolis and condemned in 418 at the Council of Carthage and the decision confirmed at the Council of Ephesus in 431. | |
| Semipelagianism | Belief that Augustine had gone too far in attacking Pelagianism and taught that some come to faith by mercy and grace but others through free will alone. | This view arose in the East and was purportedly taught by John Cassian, who was opposed by Prosper of Aquitaine. Whether Cassian taught this is disputable. | Condemned by the Council of Orange in 529 which slightly weakened some of Augustine's more extreme statements. | The label "Semipelagianism" dates from the seventeenth century. |
Medieval heresies
| Heresy | Description | Origin | Official condemnation | Other |
| Bogomils | A Gnostic dualistic sect that was both Adoptionist and Manichaean. Their beliefs were a synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Slavonic Church reform movement. | Emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread into the Byzantine Empire, Serbia, Bosnia, Italy and France. | ||
| Catharism | Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria, with a strong dualist influence against the physical world, regarded as evil, thus denied that Jesus could become incarnate and still be the son of God. | First appeared in the Languedoc region of France in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. Catharism had its roots in the Paulicians and the Bogomils with whom the Paulicians merged. | Condemned by papal bull Ad abolendam | After several decades of harassment and re-proselytizing, and the systematic destruction of their scripture, the sect was exhausted and could find no more adepts. The last known Cathar prefect in the Languedoc, Guillaume Bélibaste, was executed in 1321. Anti-Old Testament ideas later revived by Positive Christianity in Nazi Germany. |
| Free Spirit | Mixed mystical beliefs with Christianity. Its practitioners believed that it was possible to reach perfection on earth through a life of austerity and spiritualism. They believed that they could communicate directly with God and did not need the Christian church for intercession. | Condemned at the Council of Basel in 1431 | Small groups living mostly in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, during the 14th and 15th centuries. | |
| Fraticelli | Extreme proponents of the rule of Saint Francis of Assisi, especially with regard to poverty, and regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous, and that of individual churchmen as invalidating their status. | Appeared in the 14th and 15th centuries, principally in Italy | Declared heretical by the Church in 1296 by Boniface VIII. | |
| Henricians | According to Peter of Cluny, Henry's teaching is summed up as follows:
| Henry of Lausanne lived in France in the first half of the 12th century. His preaching began around 1116 and he died imprisoned around 1148. | In 1151 some Henricians still remained in Languedoc, for Matthew Paris relates that a young girl, who gave herself out to be miraculously inspired by the Virgin Mary, was reputed to have converted a great number of the disciples of Henry of Lausanne. | |
| Triclavianism | Belief that three, rather than four nails were used to crucify Christ and that a Roman soldier pierced him with a spear on the left, rather than the right side. | Attributed to Albigenses and Waldenses | Supposedly condemned by Pope Innocent III, but most likely never actually considered a heresy by said Pope. | |
| Waldensians | A spiritual movement of the later Middle Ages | Begun by Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who decided to give up all his worldly possessions and began to preach on the streets of Lyon in 1177. | Condemned by papal bull Ad abolendam | Waldensians endured near annihilation in the 17th century. Descendants of this movement still exist. Over time, the denomination joined the Genevan or Reformed branch of Protestantism. |
| Conciliarism | Condemned by papal bull Execrabilis |
Sects declared to be heretical by the Catholic Church
Counter-Reformation movements
| Heresy | Description | Origin | Official condemnation | Other |
| Febronianism | An 18th-century German movement directed towards the nationalizing of Catholicism, the restriction of the power of the papacy in favour of that of the episcopate, and the reunion of the dissident churches with Catholic Christendom | Practice and ideology condemned by Pope Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Immortale Dei, and the First Vatican Council | Compare with Erastianism | |
| Gallicanism | The belief that civil authority – often the State's authority – over the Catholic Church is comparable to that of the Pope | Practice and ideology condemned by Pope Pius VI's Auctorem fidei, Pope Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Immortale Dei, and the First Vatican Council | Compare with Erastianism | |
| Jansenism | A branch of Catholic thought which arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation and the aftermath of the Council of Trent. It emphasized original sin, human depravity, the necessity of divine grace, and predestination. | Originating in the writings of the Dutch theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, Jansenism formed a distinct movement within the Catholic Church from the 16th to 18th centuries. | Condemned by Innocent X's bull Cum occasione on 31 May 1653, and by Pope Pius VI's Auctorem fidei. | |
| Josephinism | The domestic policies of Joseph II of Austria, attempting to impose a liberal ideology on the Church. | Practice and ideology condemned by Pope Pius IX's Syllabus of Errors, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Immortale Dei, and the First Vatican Council | Compare with Erastianism |