In the IV century AD e. Emperor Constantine turned the persecuted Christian religion into an official religion, adopted everywhere in the vast expanses of the Roman Empire. After that, the persecuted and oppressed supporters of Christianity themselves began to reject and pursue their enemies, attributing to them unorthodox, unaccepted beliefs. At the same time, the Roman bishops developed a system of views and concepts, which later became the basis of Catholicism. Everything that did not fall under this system became despised, and later brutally persecuted. People who disagree with generally accepted religious views were called heretics, and the teachings themselves began to be called heresies.
Social causes of heresies
The emergence of heresies in Christianity is usually associated with those social and ideological changes that arose in the life of Christians during the period of persecution. The poorest in the new religion sought reconciliation and equality. Therefore, the gradual process of enrichment of the clergy, strengthening the administrative principle, apostasy during the period of persecution could not but cause condemnation on the part of ordinary believers. In the poorest segments of the population, the ideals of a modest and simple early Christian life continued to live. The conflicting moods of the masses, the diverse interpretations of Christian doctrine and the general dissatisfaction with the well-fed life of the higher clergy gave impetus to the emergence and dissemination of ideas that heretics preached with whom the Catholic Church waged a long and bloody struggle.
Nicene Cathedral
In 313, Emperor Constantine issued the Tolerance Act, according to which all citizens were given freedom of religion. This document, later called the Edict of Milan, essentially designated Christianity as a full-fledged religion. After that, in 325, the Ecumenical Council was held in the city of Nicaea, at which the word "heresy" was first spoken. The first heretic was declared Bishop Arius, who until then was considered one of the pillars of Christianity. Arius preached the creation, the secondary nature of Jesus Christ in comparison with God. Orthodox was the equality between God and Jesus Christ, which later formed the basis of the Trinity dogma. Arius and his followers, called Arians, became the first bearers of the ideas that heretics preached.
Centuries without heretics
In 384, Priscillian was executed - the last of those who were officially convicted of faith in the Roman Empire. But the Catholic Church accepted and actively applied the political vision and methods of strengthening power left in the inheritance by this powerful state. For centuries, Catholicism did not pay attention to the different interpretations of the New Testament, but actively converted European peoples to Christianity. And only after the formation of the Carolingian empire - that is, with the consolidation of secular power, at the turn of the millennium, did Catholicism become a generally accepted religion, and the word "heresy" reappeared in chronicles and annals of that time.
Causes of occurrence
The monks who lived at the beginning of the second millennium often described the healing abilities of the holy relics and various miracles happening to believers. In the same notes there is an extremely disapproving mention of those who ridiculed the holy relics, perhaps the first heretics and were those people who did not recognize the "holy miracles." These ridicule spilled over into the protests held in the name of the gospel - the gospel of meekness, justice, poverty and humility, the gospel of the first Christians and apostles. Those views that the heretics preached were based on evangelical concepts that, in their opinion, reflected the very essence of Christianity.
The start of the persecution
According to medieval annals and chronicles, those who were called heretics denied the authority of the Councils, refused to baptize children, did not recognize the sacraments of marriage and confession. The first example of how the church fought heretics that reached historians dates back to 1022. The sentences of the dissenters burned in Orleans brought to the descendants the essence of what the heretics preached. These people did not recognize the sacrament of communion, they performed baptism with one laying on of hands, and denied the cult of the Crucifixion. It cannot be considered that heretics came from the lower strata of the population. On the contrary, the first victims of bonfires were educated at that time confessors, using theology to justify their dissent.
The execution in Orleans paved the way for brutal repression. The fight against heretics lit fires in Aquitaine and Toulouse. Entire communities of Gentiles brought to the bishops, who spoke before the church courts with the Bible in their hands, proving and explaining with quotes from the Holy Scriptures the correctness of what the heretics preached. How the Catholic Church fought heretics is evident from the verdicts of church judges. Sentenced in full force went to the fire, which did not spare either children or the elderly. Bonfires in Europe are a prime example of how the church fought heretics.
In the XII century, bonfires burned in the Rhine lands. There were so many heretics that the monk Everwin de Steinfeld asked for help from the Cistercian monk Bernard, who has a reputation as a consistent and cruel persecutor of Gentiles. After large-scale pogroms and round-ups, bonfires burned in Cologne. Judicial investigations and sentences of dissidents were no longer a body of unfounded accusations of witchcraft and licentiousness, but contained clear points of disagreement between heretics and orthodox church concepts. Convicted and condemned "Apostles of Satan" accepted their death so steadfastly that they caused concern and grumble of the crowd present at the burning.
Foci of heresy
Despite the fierce repression of the church, heresy foci arose throughout Europe. The popular concept of dualism, as the struggle between good and evil, has found a second wind in heretical movements. The principle of dualism was that the world was not created by God, but by a rebellious angel - Lucifer, which is why there is so much evil, hunger, death and disease in it. At the end of the XII century, dualism was considered one of the most serious heresies. The concept of the battle of good and evil, angel and dragon, was widespread in the early Middle Ages, but the church began to fight this idea much later. This was due to the fact that in the 12th century, royal and ecclesiastical power was strengthened in Europe, life was relatively stabilized, and the principle of dualism - the struggle - became unnecessary and even dangerous. The power and power of God, and therefore of the Church, is what the heretics opposed, and which was a danger to the strengthening of Catholicism.
Heresy spread
In the XII century, the lands of Southern Europe were considered the main centers of heresies. The communities were built in the image and likeness of the Catholic churches, but, unlike the orthodox clergy, women were also given the place in the church administration. Heretics in the Middle Ages were called "good men" and "good women." Later historians began to call them Cathars. This name came from the Middle Ages, the word cattier is translated as a sorcerer worshiping a cat.
It is known that the Cathars had their own church institutes, held their cathedrals, and attracted new adherents to their ranks. If France and Germany destroyed dissent in the bud, then in Italy and Languedoc the Cathars expanded and strengthened their influence. Many noble families of that time adopted the new faith and gave food and shelter to persecuted co-religionists and spread the teachings that the heretics preached.
How the Catholic Church fought heretics
At the beginning of the 13th century Innocent III ascended the papal throne, whose goal was the unification of the entire European world, the return of southern European lands to the monastery. After a series of setbacks, the Catholic Church, having assumed all powers to eradicate heresies and entered into an alliance with the king of France, led a crusade against dissidents. Twenty years of ongoing wars, mass burnings of people led to the complete capture of the Languedoc and the imposition of the Catholic faith. But there remained entire families and communities of people who secretly maintained the customs of their ancestors and resisted the conquerors. It was in order to identify and eradicate the rebellious that the Inquisition was created.
Inquisition
In 1233, the papacy created a special body, which had the right to repent and punish the rebellious. The authority of the Inquisition was transferred to the Dominicans and Franciscans, who carried a new sermon to the Southern lands, based on the tenets of the Catholic Church. Instead of open armed terror, the Inquisition used denunciations and slander as a tool to identify and destroy the rebellious. Compared to the mass executions of the past, the Inquisition killed a few, but it was all the more terrible to be in its hands. Ordinary repentants could get off with confiscation of property and public repentance, for those who defended their right to faith, the sentence was a bonfire. Even the dead were not spared - their remains were exhumed and burned.
Thus, the Catholic Church and heretics fought an unequal battle for the same faith, for the same God. The whole history of the formation of Catholicism is illuminated by the fires of those who died for faith. The extermination of heretics served as further evidence of how a powerful Church, in the name of Christ, destroyed another, weaker Church.