Adolf Harnack · 7 of 25
Appendix II. Church and Heresy.
II. The idea of heresy is always decided by the idea of the Church. The designation ἅιρεσις an adherence to something self-chosen in opposition to the acknowledgment of something objectively handed down, and assumes that this is the particular thing in which the apostasy consists. Hence all those who call themselves Christians and yet do not adhere to the traditional apostolic creed, but give themselves up to vain and empty doctrines, are regarded as heretics by Hegesippus, Irenæus, Tertullian, Clement, and Origen. These doctrines are as a rule traced to the devil, that is, to the non-Christian religions and speculations, or to wilful wickedness. Any other interpretation of their origin would at once have been an acknowledgment that the opponents of the Church had a right to their opinions, and such an explanation is not quite foreign to Origen in one of his lines of argument. Hence the orthodox party were perfectly consistent in attaching no value to any or acts esteemed in their own communion, when these were performed by heretics; and this was a practical application of the saying that the devil could transform himself into an angel of light.
But the Fathers we have named did not yet completely identify the Church with a harmoniously organised institution. For that very reason they do not absolutely deny the Christianity of such as take their stand on the rule of faith, even when these for various reasons occupy a position peculiar to themselves. Though we are by no means entitled to say that they acknowledged orthodox schismatics, they did not yet venture to reckon them simply as heretics. If it was desired to get rid of these, an effort was made to to them some deviation from the rule of faith; and under this pretext the Church freed herself from the Montanists and the Monarchians. Cyprian was the first to proclaim the identity of heretics and schismatics, by making a man’s Christianity depend on his belonging to the great episcopal Church confederation. But, both in East and West, this theory of his became established only by very imperceptible degrees, and indeed, strictly speaking, the process was never completed at all. The distinction between heretics and schismatics was preserved, because it prevented a public denial of the old principles, because it was advisable on political grounds to treat certain schismatic communities with indulgence, and because it was always possible in case of need to prove heresy against the schismatics.
