Dealing With Heresy

Christians were persecuted for the first 300 years of the Church, dating from the time of Nero and the burning of Rome (which he blamed on the Christians). So for 300 years, the Church remained an underground organization. Christians learned about Jesus of Nazareth and his teachings through word of mouth. It wasn't until 313 A.D., when the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in his Edict of Milan, that Christians were even permitted to affiliate themselves with the Church. Once Christianity became legal, however, it quickly became predominant and eventually the official state religion of the Empire.

Upon leaving the catacombs and entering the public sphere, early Christians began devoting themselves to theological questions not explicitly addressed by the Bible. An example was the nature of Jesus: Scripture says that he was God and that he was man. How could he be both? How were his two natures connected? The second 300 years of the Church (4th -7th centuries) saw a Pandora's Box of theological controversy opened.

In the eyes of the Catholic Church, heresy is the denial of a revealed truth (or the distortion of it) so that others are deceived into believing a theological error. Once Christianity was legalized, Christological Heresies (referring to the nature of Christ) became rampant. Debates could rapidly degenerate into violent arguments and civil authorities (such as the Roman Emperor) occasionally intervened, ordering the religuous leaders-Pope, patriarchs, and bishops- to stop the unrest by settling the issues once and for all.

In the coming days, we'll enter into some of the more infamous heresies that nearly tore the early Church apart.