# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1965_S275 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) THEOLOGY OF FELLOWSHIP 275 b. The Subjective Elements of Heresy Among the subjective elements of heresy, which are to be found in the person of the heretic, Augustine lists obstinacy, perversity, intractability, and the desire for personal gain and glory. Writing to a friend, Honoratus, who was himself under the influence of heresy, and whom Augustine was seeking to win away from it, he writes: A heretic, as I suppose, is one who for some temporal advantage, and chiefly for his own glory and preemi- nence, begets or follows new and false opinions.® To the subjective characteristics of the genuine heretic, in Augustine’s opinion, belongs obstinacy in de- fending his error. Those ... in the Church of Christ who savor anything morbid and depraved, and, on being corrected that they may savor what is wholesome and right, contumaciously resist, and will not mend their pestiferous and deadly dogmas, but persist in defending them become heretics, and going without [scil. the Church] are to be reckoned as enemies... 8 A clear recognition of the subjective elements which characterize the genuine heretic enables St. Augustine to draw a sharp line of distinction between a heretic and an erring person who is not a heretic. Not to be classed as heretics, according to Augustine, are persons who are deceived by a heretic, and in ignorance follow him. Writing to Honoratus, who was enmeshed in the toils of the Manichaean heresy, he writes: If I thought, Honoratus, that there was no difference between a heretic and one who follows heretics, I should judge that my tongue and my pen alike should remain quiescent in this matter. But there is a great difference. A heretic, as I suppose, is one who for some temporal advantage, and chiefly for his own glory and preemi- nence, begets or follows new and false opinions. He who trusts such men is deluded by some illusory appearance of truth and piety. This being so, I thought I ought not keep silent... 7 Also not an heretic, according to St. Augustine, is a person in the Catholic church, who holds an heretical opinion, however in the erroneous persuasion that it is the teaching of the church. Concerning such a person Augustine says: I consider him as not yet a heretic unless, when the doc- trine of the Catholic faith is made clear to him, he chooses to resist it, and prefers that which he already holds® According to Augustine people who inherited error are not to be accounted heretics. . . . those who maintain their own opinion, however false and perverted, without obstinate ill will, especially those who have not originated their own error by bold presumption, but received it from parents, who had been led astray and had lapsed, those who seek truth with careful industry, ready to be corrected when they have found it, are not to be rated among heretics.9 Less sharp is Augustine’s definition of schism and schismatic, though he is firm on the proposition that neither heretics nor schismatics are true members of the church. Concerning the difference between a heretic and a schismatic he says: It is customary also to ask wherein schismatics differ from heretics, and to find that it is not a different faith which makes schismatics, but the fact that a group has broken fellowship.1° When Cresconius, who was in the Donatist schism, resented having Donatists called heretics, he stated the difference between heresy and schism as follows: A heresy is a sect following different beliefs; a schism a separation following the same beliefs. Augustine accepted this. However, he adds a bit later: I can approve even more that distinction between schism and heresy, according to which a schism is said to be a recent dissension in the congregation from some di- versity of opinion (for a schism cannot happen, unless those who make it follow something different); a heresy, however, is a schism which has become old (in- veteratum). He offers that if the Donatists will concede this, he will call them schismatics rather than heretics.1 4. The Concept of Heresy and Heretic in Luther We consider it useful to append to this study of the concept of heresy and schism in St. Augustine a study of the concept of heresy and heretic in Luther, who owed so much in his theology initially to Augustine. Luther, even as Augustine, knows an objective and a subjective side in heresy and heretics. Essentially his statements agree with those of the Bishop of Hippo. On the objective side of heresy he says: A heretic is a person who does not believe those parts [seil. of the Christian doctrine] which are necessary to believe.12 Tetzel had called Luther a heretic because he had written against indulgences. That, countered Luther, is not a heresy since the matter of indulgences is not an article of faith. Commenting on Acts 24:14 Luther says: Within Christendom all those are called heretics, who step outside the unity and common manner of the Chris- tian faith .. . and believe in a manner peculiar to them- selves, and choose ways for themselves; therefore the two words catholicus and haereticus are against each other. Catholicus he is called who is with the multitude and agrees wholly with the entire congregation in faith and spirit; as St.Paul says to the Ephesians, ch. 4, v. 5; one baptism, one faith, one Lord, one Spirit, etc.; but haereticus he is called who invents a way and party of his own. Therefore haereticus really means a man who has his own opinion in divine matters, a peculiar man (ein Sonderling) who knows something better, and chooses his own way to heaven.13 Commenting on Ps. 11:1, Luther writes: The holy fathers understood this Psalm of the heretics, and rightly so; only we must understand under heretics all those who teach a different righteousness than the righteousness which avails before God like the Jews and all those who urge works, or all who trust in their works, of whom the Church today is full... 14 Again Luther writes: This is a mark of all heretics, hypocrites, and enthusiasts, that they invent their own picture of God.15 Again he says: That man is not to be called a heretic who, contrary to the commands of the Church omits ceremonies, even though he sins, because he does not keep what he prom- ised... . That man must be called a heretic who errs stubbornly in an article of faith, and maintains his error.16 Similar expressions could be multiplied on the objec- tive side of heresy.