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Heresiarch
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In Christian theology, a heresiarch (also hæresiarch, according to the Oxford English Dictionary; from Greek: αἱρεσιάρχης, hairesiárkhēs via the late Latin haeresiarcha[1]) or arch-heretic is an originator of heretical doctrine or the founder of a sect that sustains such a doctrine.[1]
List of heresiarchs
[edit]- Simon Magus, the purportedly founder of Gnosticism
- Nicholas of Antioch, one of the Seven Deacons, founder of Nicolaism
- Montanus, founder of Montanism
- Theodotus of Byzantium, propounder of Adoptionism
- Valentinus, founder of Valentinianism
- Sabellius, founder of Sabellianism
- Marcion, founder of Marcionism
- Basilides, founder of Basilideanism
- Novatian, founder of Novatianism
- Arius, founder of Arianism
- Donatus Magnus, founder of Donatism
- Apollinaris of Laodicea, founder of Apollinarianism
- John Philoponus, founder of tritheism
- Macedonius I of Constantinople, founder of Macedonianism
- Aëtius & Eunomius, leaders of Anomoeanism
- Bonosus of Serdica, propounder of Antidicomerianism
- Priscillian, founder of Priscillianism
- Pelagius, founder of Pelagianism
- Eutyches of Constantinople, founder of Eutychianism
- Sergius I of Constantinople, founder of monoenergism
- Augustine of Hippo refers to Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, as a heresiarch.[2]
- Nestorius & Theodore of Mopsuestia, condemned as heresiarchs by the Council of Ephesus & Controversy of Three Chapters, for promoting Nestorianism, but venerated in Church of the East denominations.
- Dioscorus of Alexandria & Severus of Antioch, condemned as heresiarchs by the Council of Chalcedon, for promoting allegedly monophysitism, thereby causing the Chalcedonian schism, but the Oriental Orthodox Church disagrees with this interpretation, stating that they believed not in monophysitism, but in miaphysitism, in contrast to the dyophisitism espoused by Pope Leo I.
- Photius of Constantinople, condemned as a heresiarch, due to the Photian schism. The Eastern Orthodox Church counters this by labelling Pope Nicholas I as a heresiarch due to the filioque.
- Menocchio, an Italian miller who was burned at the stake in 1599
- Catholics, especially traditionalist Catholics such as Hilaire Belloc, consider Martin Luther, John Calvin, and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation to be arch-heretics.[3]
- Conversely, some fundamentalist Protestants (including Alexander Hislop and Charles Chiniquy) have used the term to refer to the papacy and the members of the Roman Curia.
- Martin of Armenia, the fictional founder of the Old Russian Rite used by the Old Believers
Dante's Inferno
[edit]In his Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri represents the heresiarchs as being immured in tombs of fire in the Sixth Circle of Hell. In Cantos IX and X of the Inferno, Virgil describes the suffering these souls experience, saying "Here are the Arch-Heretics, surrounded by every sect their followers... / Like with like is buried, and the monuments are different in degrees of heat."[4] Among the historical figures that Dante specifically lists as arch-heretics are Epicurus, Farinata Degli Uberti, Frederick II of Sicily, and Pope Anastasius II.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Cross and Livingstone, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church 1974
- ^ Augustine and Manichaeism, Gillian Clark
- ^ Hilaire Belloc, "What was the Reformation?"
- ^ Dante's Inferno, Canto IX, 125–129
