HERESWITHA
256
HERESY
edited by Frere and Brown for Henry Bradshaw Society, I
(London. 1903). vol. II in preparation. The Mappa Mimdi was
publi.shed in facsimile in 1S69. See also Miller. Die Herefurd-
karte (1S96). ^ „
Edwin Burton.
Hereswitha (HAERF.s^^D, Here.swyde), vS.ajnt, daughtfr of llereric and Beorhtswith and sister of St. Hilda of Whitby. She was tlie wife of jEthelhere, King of East Anglia, to whom she bore two sons, Aldwulf and Alfwold. By the "Liber Eliensis" she is stated to have been tlie wife of King Anna, the elder brother of King j!;thelhere, but this is certainly a mistake. Her husband having Ijeen killed in the battle of Winwaed (655), St, Hereswitha became a nun at the Abbey of Chelles, then in the Diocese of Paris, where she remained until the end of her life. Her feast is variously assigned — by Stanton to 3 Septem- ber, by the second edition of the English Martyrology to 20 September, by the first edition and by Ferrari to 23 September. Bucelinus, however, assigns it to 1 December, and the Bollandists propose to discuss her cultus on that date.
Ada SS.. 20 Sept., VI. 106; Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, IV, xxiii, in Mon. Hist. Brit., 234; Eckenstein, Woman under Monasticism (Cambridge, 1896). 82. 96-7; Florence or Wor- CE.STER, Genealogia and AdChron. Append, in Mon. Hist. Brit., 628, 636; Hole in Diet. Christ. Biog., s. v.; Liber Eliensis, ed. Stewart (London. 1848); Stanton, Menology oj England and Wales (London, 1887), 435.
Leslie A. St. L. Toke.
Heresy. — I. Connotation and Definition; II. Dis- tinctions; III. Degrees of heresy; IV. Gravity of the sin of heresy; V. Origin, spread, and persistence of heresy; VI. Christ, the Apostles, and the Fathers on heresy; VII. Vindication of their teaching; VIII. Church legislation on heresy: ancient, medieval, present-day legislation; IX. Its principles; X. Eccle- siastical jurisdiction over heretics; XI. Reception of converts; XII. Role of heresy in history; XIII. In- tolerance and cruelty.
I. Connotation and Definition. — The term her- esy connotes, etymologically, both a choice and the thing chosen, the meaning Ijeing, however, narrowed to the selection of religious or political doctrines, adhesion to parties in Church or State. Josephus applies the name (ai/)c(ris) to the three religious sects prevalent in Judea since the Machabean period: the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Essenes (Bel. Jud., II, viii, 1; Ant., XIII, v, 9). St. Paul is described to the Roman governor Felix as the leader of the heresy (alpiaeui) of the Nazarenes (Acts, xxiv, 5) ; the Jews in Rome say to the same Apostle: "Concerning this sect [aip^o-ews], we know that it is everywhere contra- dicted " (Acts, xxviii, 22). St. Justin (Dial., xviii, 108) uses atpearii in the same sense. St. Peter (II, ii, 1) applies the term to Christian sects: "There shall be among you Ijing teachers who shall bring in sects of perdition [aipiaeus diroXefas]". In later Greek, philosophers' schools, as well as religious sects, are "heresies".
St. Thomas (II-II, Q. xi, a. 1) defines heresy: " a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the
'^ faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas". "The right Christian faith consists in giving one's voluntary assent to Clirist in all that truly belongs to His teach- ing. There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from Christianity: the one by refusing to believe in Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity common to Pagans and Jews; the other by restricting belief to certain points of Christ's doctrine selected and fash- ioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics. The subject-matter of both faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit of the faith, that is, the sum total of truths revealed in Scripture and Tradition as proposed to our belief by the Church. The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves
"Jv.to his own approval. The heretical tenets may be
/
adhered to from involuntary causes: inculpable
ignorance of the true creed, erroneous judgment, im-
perfect apprehension and comprehension of dogmas:
in none of these does the will play an apiireciuble jiart,
wherefore one of the necessary conditions of sinfulness
— free choice — is wanting and such heresy is merelj'
objective, or material. On the other hand the will
may freely incline the intellect to adhere to tenets
declared false by the Divine teaching authority of the
Church. The impelling motives are many: intellectual
pride or exaggerated reliance on one's own insight;
the illusions of religious zeal; the allurements of
political or ecclesiastical power; the ties of material
interests and personal status; and perhaps others
more dishonourable. Heresy thus willed is imputable
to the subject and carries with it a varying degree of
guilt; it IS called formal, because to the material
error it adds the informative element of "freely
willed".
Pertinacity, that is, obstinate adhesion to a partic- ular tenet is required to make here»y formal. For as long as one remains willing to submit to the Church's decision he remains a Catholic Christian at heart and his wrong beliefs are only transient errors and fleeting opinions. Considering that the human intellect can assent only to truth, real or apparent, studied perti- n.acity, as distinct from wanton opposition, supposes a firm subjective conviction which may be sufficient tO' inform the conscience and create " good faith". Such firm convictions result either from circumstances over which the heretic has no control or from intellectual delinquencies in themselves more or less \-oluntary and imputable. A man Ijorn and luirtured in hereti- cal surroundings may live and die without ever having a doubt as to the truth of his creed. On the other hand a born Catholic may allow himself to drift into whirls of anti-Catholic thought from which no doctrinal authority can rescue hiin. and where his mind becomes^ incrusted with convictions, or considerations suffi- ciently powerful to overlay his Catholic con.science. It is not for inan, but for Him who scarcheth the reins and heart, to sit in judgment on the guilt which attaches to an heretical conscience.
II. Distinctions.^ — Heresy differs from apostasy (q. v.). Theapostatea^deabandons wholly the faith of Christ either by embracing Judaism, Islamism, Paganism, or simply by falling into naturalism and complete neglect of religion; the heretic always re- tains faith in Christ. Heresy also differs from schism. Schismatics, says St. Thomas, in the strict sense, are they who of their own will and intention separate themselves from the unity of the Church. The unity of the Church consists in the connexion of its members with each other and of all the members with the head. Now this head is Christ whose representative in the Church is the supreme pontiff. And therefore the name of schismatics is given to those who will not submit to the supreme pontiff nor communicate with the members of the Church suliject to him. Since the definition of Papal Infallibility, schism usually implies the heresy of denying this dogma. Heresy is opposed to faith; schisni to charity; so that, although all heretics are schismatics because loss of faith in\olves separation from the Church, not all schismatics are necessarily heretics, since a man may, from anger, pride, anibition, or the like, sever himself from the commimion of the Church and yet believe all the Church proposes for our belief (II-II, Q. xxix, a. 1). Such a one, however, would be more properly called rebellious than heretical.
III. Degrees of Here.sy. — Both matter and form of heresy admit of degrees which find expression in the following technical formula of theology and canon law. Pertinacious adhesion to a doctrine contradic- tory to a point of faith clearly defined liy the Church is heresy pure and simple, heresy in the first degree. But if the doctrine in question has not been expressly
