Were considered heresies all religious movements within Christianity that have been condemned by the Catholic church for not agreeing with the established orthodoxy of Catholicism. Heretical movements have existed since the establishment of Christianity in the first centuries after Christ, however, from In the late Middle Ages, these movements became popular and several emerged in various parts of Europe, such as the Cathars, Waldensians, Beguines etc.
O growth of heresies, especially from the 12th century onwards, was a demonstration of popular dissatisfaction with the accumulation of power in the Church and, moreover, anticipated the movements of the Protestant Reformation.
In the early centuries of the Church, the contestation and defense of the Catholic faith were the responsibility of some names of the time, such as Augustine of Hippo and Irenaeus of Liao, who, through preaching and writing, sought to fight the movements heretics. From these early heresies, the Church met in councils and determined the ecclesiastical doctrine of Catholicism.
At medieval heresies they suffered severe persecution from the Church, mainly through violence, when peaceful means failed. The Catholic Church, according to the Inquisitors' Manual, written by a 14th century Catalan theologian, defined heresy as:
Heretic is every proposition that opposes:
a) to everything expressly contained in the Scriptures;
b) to everything that necessarily follows from the meaning of the Scriptures;
c) the content of Christ's words, transmitted to the apostles, who, in turn, transmitted them to the Church;
d) everything that has been the object of a definition in any of the Ecumenical Councils;
e) to all that the Church has proposed to the faith of the faithful;
f) to everything that has been unanimously proclaimed by the Fathers of the Church regarding the reputation of heresy|1|.
Thus, it is evident that any doctrine that questioned the power of the Church based in Rome or that did not was in accordance with established doctrine, was condemned as a heresy and began to suffer persecution.
Heretical century and Court of the Inquisition
Because of the multitude of heretical movements that arose in Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries, historians have come to call them heretical centuries. Heretical movements, in general, used the wealth and great power that the Church possessed as an argument to criticize it and obtain followers for themselves. Historian Nachman Falbel also points out that:
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In fact, we can see in the heretical critique, or better said, in part of this critique, an attempt to point out the errors and deviations from the ecclesiastical institution, from its intervention in secular power at the expense of its mission spiritual; finally, an attempt to alert Christian society that its representatives have distorted the true image of the religion founded by Christ|2|.
Despite this, the Church saw in the heretical movements a great threat, as some of them had the potential to cause civil disobedience against the hierarchy of the time. Thus, the Church chose to institute, from Pope Gregory IX onwards, the Court of the Holy Inquisition, in 1229. The Church extended this task of combating heresies to the secular branch (which is not subject to a religious order), allowing and justifying the use of violence against heretics. Despite this, the first report of a heretic killed at the behest of the Church dates back to the fourth century, when Priscillian was beheaded in 385.
The Court of the Holy Inquisition acted to investigate, try and convict people accused of heresy. If there was a conviction, the accused was handed over to the secular authorities, who applied the established punishment to the guilty: death at the stake. During the process, torture was allowed to be used as a means of obtaining a confession. Heresies are known to have condemned thousands of people, but historians are not sure how many were killed.
Among the various heresies that developed from the 12th century onwards, two of the most important were:
You Cathars or Albigenses: emerged in France and had a dualistic view of the world, that is, the material world was bad and the spiritual world was good. They claimed that the world had been created by Satan, challenged the Trinity, and condemned marriage and procreation. They were persecuted during the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229), and heresy disappeared from the 14th century onwards;
Waldenses: they also emerged in France from the preaching of Pedro Valdo, a wealthy merchant from Lyon who abandoned his trade in 1176 to pursue life as a preacher. They took vows of poverty, challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, and claimed to obey God alone. They were persecuted by the Inquisition, but they survived and founded churches that today operate in several countries.
|1| EYMERICH, Nicholas. Inquisitors' Handbook. Rio de Janeiro: Rose of the Times; Brasília: Universidade de Brasília Foundation, 1993, p.33-34.
|2| FALBEL, Nachman. Medieval heresies. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1977, p.14.
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
