Heresy

"Heretic" and "Heretical" redirect here. For the website, see Heretical (website). For other uses, see Heretic (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with hearsay.
For other uses, see Heresy (disambiguation).
The Gospel (allegory) triumphs over Heresia and the Serpent. Church of King Gustaf Vasa, Stockholm, Sweden, sculpture by Burchard Precht.
The burning of the pantheistic Amalrician heretics in 1210, in the presence of King Philip II Augustus. In the background is the Gibbet of Montfaucon and, anachronistically, the Grosse Tour of the Temple. Illumination from the Grandes Chroniques de France, c. 1255-1260.

Heresy is any provocative belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs.[1] Heresy is distinct from both apostasy, which is the explicit renunciation of one's religion, principles or cause,[2] and blasphemy, which is an impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.[3]

The term is usually used to refer to violations of important religious teachings, but is used also of views strongly opposed to any generally accepted ideas.[4] It is used in particular in reference to Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Marxism.[5]

In certain historical Christian, Islamic and Jewish cultures, among others, espousing ideas deemed heretical has been and in some cases still is subjected not merely to punishments such as excommunication, but even to the death penalty.

Etymology

The term heresy is from Greek αἵρεσις originally meant "choice" or "thing chosen",[6] but it came to mean the "party or school of a man's choice"[7] and also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live. 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. Heresiology is the study of heresy.

Christianity

Former German Catholic friar 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 To this day, the Papal decree has not been rescinded.

According to Titus 3:10 a divisive person should be warned two times 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.[8] In contrast correct teaching is called sound not only because it builds up in the faith, but because it protects against the corrupting influence of false teachers.[9]

The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy. They saw deviations from Orthodox Christianity as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit.[10] Tertullian 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.]" Saint Peter of Antioch referred to Christians that refused to venerate religious images as having "Jewish minds".[10]

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 ὀρθός, orthos "straight" + δόξα, doxa "belief") and the Gnostics' teachings as heretical. He also pointed out the concept of apostolic succession to support his arguments.[11]

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",[12] 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 councils[13] and then enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority.[14]

The first known usage of the term in a legal context was in AD 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I,[15] 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. This reinforcement of the Church's authority gave church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the church considered heretical.

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.[16][17][18] However, his accusers were excommunicated both by Ambrose of Milan and Pope Siricius,[19] who opposed Priscillian's heresy, but "believed capital punishment to be inappropriate at best and usually unequivocally evil".[16] For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were also known to execute those they considered heretics, including Catholics. The last known heretic executed by sentence of the Roman Catholic Church was Spanish schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoll in 1826. The number of people executed as heretics under the authority of the various "ecclesiastical authorities"[note 1] is not known.[note 2] One of the first examples of the word as translated from the Nag Hammadi's Apocalypse of Peter was" they will cleave to the name of a dead man thinking that they will become pure. But they will become greatly defiled and they will fall into the name of error and into the hands of an evil cunning man and a manifold dogma, and they will be ruled heretically".

Catholicism

Massacre of the Waldensians of Mérindol in 1545.

In the Roman Catholic Church, obstinate and willful manifest heresy is considered to spiritually cut one off from the Church, even before excommunication is incurred. The Codex Justinianus (1:5:12) defines "everyone who is not devoted to the Catholic Church and to our Orthodox holy Faith" a heretic.[25] The Church had always dealt harshly with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 11th century these tended to centre around individual preachers or small localised sects, like Arianism, Pelagianism, Donatism, Marcionism and Montanism. 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 Bosnia, 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.[26] The Cathar Crusade was initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc.[27][28] 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.

Cristiano Banti's 1857 painting Galileo facing the Roman Inquisition.

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, 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.[29]

Pope St. Gregory 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."[30] The identification of Jews and heretics in particular occurred several times in Roman-Christian law,[25][31]

Eastern Christianity

In Eastern Christianity heresy most commonly refers to those beliefs declared heretical by the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Since the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation, various Christian churches have also used the concept in proceedings against individuals and groups those churches deemed heretical. The Orthodox Church also rejects the early Christian heresies such as Arianism, Gnosticism, Origenism, Montanism, Judaizers, Marcionism, Docetism, Adoptionism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism and Iconoclasm.

Protestantism

In his work "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543), German Reformation leader Martin Luther claims that Jewish history was "assailed by much heresy", and that Christ the logos swept away the Jewish heresy and goes on to do so, "as it still does daily before our eyes." He stigmatizes Jewish Prayer as being "blasphemous" (sic) and a lie, and vilifies Jews in general as being spiritually "blind" and "surely possessed by all devils." Luther calls the members of the Orthodox Catholic Church "papists" and heretics, and has a special spiritual problem with Jewish circumcision.[32]

In England, the 16th-century European 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.[33][34][35] 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).[36] Under Mary, around two hundred and ninety people were burned at the stake between 1555 and 1558 after the restoration of papal jurisdiction.[36] 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."[37] The last execution of a "heretic" in England occurred under James VI and I in 1612.[38] 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.[39]

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 . 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". It should be noticed that the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox communions generally regard the Puritans themselves as having been heterodox or heretical.

Modern era

The era of mass persecution and execution of heretics under the banner of Christianity came to an end in 1826 with the last execution of a "heretic", Cayetano Ripoll, by the Catholic Inquisition.

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".[40]

Perhaps due to the many modern negative connotations associated with the term heretic, such as the Spanish inquisition, the term is used less often today. The subject of Christian heresy opens up broader questions as to who has a monopoly on spiritual truth, as explored by Jorge Luis Borges in the short story "The Theologians" within the compilation Labyrinths.[41]

Islam

Mehdiana Sahib: the Killing of Bhai Dayala, a Sikh, by Indian Muslims at Chandni Chowk, India in 1675
Main article: Bid‘ah

The Baha'i Faith is considered an Islamic heresy in Iran.[42] To Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, Sikhs were heretics.

Ottoman Sultan Selim the Grim, regarded the Shia Qizilbash as heretics, reportedly proclaimed that "the killing of one Shiite had as much otherworldly reward as killing 70 Christians."[43]

Starting in medieval times, Muslims began to refer to heretics and those who antagonized Islam as zindiqs, the charge being punishable by death.[44]

In some modern day nations and regions in which Sharia law is ostensibly practiced, heresy remains an offense punishable by death. One example is the 1989 fatwa issued by the government of Iran, offering a substantial bounty for anyone who succeeds in the assassination of author Salman Rushdie, whose writings were declared as heretical.

Judaism

Main article: Heresy in Judaism

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.[45] 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.

Other religions

Buddhist literature mentions a wrathful conquest of Buddhist heretics (see Padmasambhava) and the existence of a Buddhist theocracy.[46]

Neo-Confucian heresy has been described.[47]

The act of using Church of Scientology techniques in a form different than originally described by Hubbard is referred to within Scientology as "squirreling" and is said by Scientologists to be high treason.[48] The Religious Technology Center has prosecuted breakaway groups that have practiced Scientology outside the official Church without authorization.

Non-religious usage

The term "heresy" is used not only with regard to religion but also in the context of a political theory such as Marxism.[49][50][51]

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,[52] Asimov's views are in Forward: The Role of the Heretic. mentioning religious, political, socioeconomic and scientific heresies. 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.

The revisionist paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who published his findings as The Dinosaur Heresies, treated the mainstream view of dinosaurs as dogma.[53] "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." page 27 "Most taxonomists, however, have viewed such new terminology as dangerously destabilizing to the traditional and well-known scheme..." page 462. This book apparently influenced Jurassic Park. The illustrations by the author show dinosaurs in very active poses, in contrast to the traditional perception of lethargy. He is an example of a recent scientific endoheretic.

Immanuel Velikovsky is an example of a recent scientific exoheretic; he did not have appropriate scientific credentials or 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 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.

Selected quotations

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ 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 385 AD until the last official Roman Catholic "heresy execution" in 1826 AD would require far more complete historical documentation than is currently available. The Roman 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.[20] The Vandals were overthrown; orthodoxy was restored; "No toleration whatsoever was to be granted to heretics or schismatics."[21] Heretics were not the only casualties. 4000 Roman soldiers were killed by heretical peasants in one campaign.[22] Some lists of heretics and heresies are available. About seven thousand people were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Inquisition, which lasted for nearly seven centuries.[23] 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.[24] 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.

References

  1. ↑ "Heresy | Define Heresy at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  2. ↑ "Apostasy | Learn everything there is to know about Apostasy at". Reference.com. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
  3. ↑ "Definitions of "blasphemy" at Dictionary.com". Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2015-11-27.
  4. ↑ "heresy - definition of heresy in English from the Oxford dictionary". oxforddictionaries.com.
  5. ↑ Daryl Glaser, David M. Walker (editors), Twentieth-Century Marxism (Routledge 2007 ISBN 978-1-13597974-4), p. 62
  6. ↑ Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Heresy". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  7. ↑ Bruce, F.F. The Spreading Flame, Exeter:Paternoster 1964, p. 249
  8. ↑ The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Corporation, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1987—footnote to Titus 3:10
  9. ↑ The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Corporation, Hodder & Stoughton, London 1987—footnote to Titus 1:9
  10. 1 2 Michael, Robert (2011). A history of Catholic antisemitism : the dark side of the church (1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk. ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 28–30. ISBN 978-0230111318. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  11. ↑ W.H.C. Frend (1984). The Rise of Christianity. Chapter 7, The Emergence of Orthodoxy 135-93. ISBN 978-0-8006-1931-2. Appendices provide a timeline of Councils, Schisms, Heresies and Persecutions in the years 193-604. They are described in the text.
  12. ↑ Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Milan, Edict of". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  13. ↑ Chadwick, Henry. The Early Christian Church, Pelican 1967, pp 129-30
  14. ↑ Paul Stephenson (2009). Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor. Chapter 11. ISBN 978-1-59020-324-8. The Emperor established and enforced orthodoxy for domestic tranquility and the efficacy of prayers in support of the empire.
  15. ↑ Charles Freeman (2008). A.D. 381 - Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State. ISBN 978-1-59020-171-8. As Christianity placed its stamp upon the Empire, the Emperor shaped the church for political purposes.
  16. 1 2 Everett Ferguson (editor), Encyclopedia of Early Christianity (Routledge 2013 ISBN 978-1-13661158-2), p. 950
  17. ↑ John Anthony McGuckin, The Westminister Handbook to Patristic Theology (Westminster John Knox Press 2004 ISBN 978-0-66422396-0), p. 284
  18. ↑ "Priscillian". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  19. ↑ Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church, Pelican, London, 1967. p.171
  20. ↑ Edward Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 37, Part III. line feed character in |location= at position 12 (help)
  21. ↑ W.H.C. Frend (1984). The Rise of Christianity. page 833. ISBN 978-0-8006-1931-2.
  22. ↑ Edward Gibbon. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Chapter 21, Part VII.
  23. ↑ James Carroll (2001). Constantine's Sword. page 357. ISBN 0-618-21908-0.
  24. ↑ Will & Ariel Durant (1950). The Age of Faith. page 778.
  25. 1 2 Michael, Robert (2011). A history of Catholic antisemitism : the dark side of the church (1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk. ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 219. ISBN 978-0230111318. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  26. ↑ "Massacre of the Pure." Time. April 28, 1961.
  27. ↑ Joseph Reese Strayer (1992). The Albigensian Crusades. University of Michigan Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-472-06476-2
  28. ↑ Will & Ariel Durant (1950). The Age of Faith. Chapter XXVIII, The Early Inquisition: 1000-1300. line feed character in |location= at position 20 (help)
  29. ↑ Fantoli (2005, p. 139), Finocchiaro (1989, pp. 288–293).
  30. ↑ Michael, Robert (2011). A history of Catholic antisemitism : the dark side of the church (1st Palgrave Macmillan pbk. ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 76. ISBN 978-0230111318. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  31. ↑ Constitutio Sirmondiana, 6 + 14; Theodosius II - Novella 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
  32. ↑ Luther, Martin; Rydie, Coleman, ed. (February 18, 2009). On The Jews and Their Lies. lulu.com. ISBN 978-0557050239. Retrieved 9 February 2015.
  33. ↑ "Encyclopedia of Tudor England". google.com.
  34. ↑ Ron Christenson, Political Trials in History (Transaction Publishers 1991 ISBN 978-0-88738406-6), p. 302
  35. ↑ Oliver O'Donovan, Joan Lockwood O'Donovan, From Irenaeus to Grotius (Eerdmans 1999 ISBN 978-0-80284209-1), p. 558
  36. 1 2 Dickens, A.G. The English Reformation Fontana/Collins 1967, p.327/p.364
  37. ↑ Neill, Stephen. Anglicanism Pelican, pp.96,7
  38. ↑ MacCullough, Diarmaid. Thomas Cranmer Yale 1996, p.477
  39. ↑ MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation Penguin 2003, p. 679
  40. ↑ An example is the Notification regarding certain writings of Fr. Marciano Vidal, C.Ss.R.
  41. ↑ Borges, Jorge Luis (1962). Labyrinths. New York: New Directions Publishing Corporation. pp. 119–126. ISBN 978-0-8112-0012-7.
  42. ↑ Sanasarian, Eliz (2000). Religious Minorities in Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 0-521-77073-4.
  43. ↑ Jalāl Āl Aḥmad (1982). Plagued by the West. Translated by Paul Sprachman. Center for Iranian Studies, Columbia University. ISBN 978-0-88206-047-7.
  44. ↑ John Bowker. "Zindiq." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. 1997
  45. ↑ The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides' Thirteen Principles Reappraised, by Marc B. Shapiro, ISBN 1-874774-90-0, A book written as a contentious rebuttal to an article written in the Torah u'Maddah Journal.
  46. ↑ (Buddhism Five precepts)
  47. ↑ John B. Henderson (1998). The construction of orthodoxy and heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and early Christian patterns. ISBN 978-0-7914-3760-5.
  48. ↑ Welkos, Robert W.; Sappell, Joel (29 June 1990). "When the Doctrine Leaves the Church". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  49. ↑ "Religion: Anti-Religion". TIME.com. 6 May 1940.
  50. ↑ Ludwig von Mises, Trotsky's Heresy - Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis
  51. ↑ "Exploring the high moments and small mountain roads of Marxism". isreview.org.
  52. 1 2 Donald Goldsmith (1977). Scientists Confront Velikovsky. ISBN 0-8014-0961-6.
  53. ↑ Robert T. Bakker (1986). The Dinosaur Heresies. ISBN 978-0-8065-2260-9.
  54. ↑ Coutou, Diane. Ideas as Art. Harvard Business Review 84 (2006): 83–89.
  55. ↑ Daybreak, R.J. Hollingdale trans., Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 18. Available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/37646181/Nietzsche-Daybreak

External links

Look up heresy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heresy.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Heresy
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 05, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.