WHAT IS A HERESY?
CAN THE POPE MAKE A NEW ARTICLE OF FAITH?
CHAPTER 14
Student Those last arguments seem strong to me, and yet the arguments for the first opinion seem difficult. Set forth, therefore, how reply is made to them.
Master In response to the first of them those who affirm the second opinion say that, just as often someone is a heretic and yet ought not be judged as a heretic because he is only a secret heretic, so often someone is a heretic because he clings pertinaciously to a heresy and yet because it is not explicitly certain that his assertion is and was heretical he should not be condemned as a heretic before it has become explicitly known to the church that his assertion is and was heretical. After it has become known to the church by careful reflection, however, that his assertion is heretical, he should be condemned as a heretic if he is found to be pertinacious.
Student That reply seems clear to me, except that I am uncertain of which church they are speaking about.
Master They are speaking about the church which is a general council or a pope, because in this case it does not suffice for someone's condemnation that it becomes known to anyone other than a general council or a pope that such an assertion was and is heretical.
Student Tell me how they reply to the examples of the Greeks and Joachim and those who have said that Christ is nothing as a man.
Master They say that those assertions were heretical before, and those who affirmed them pertinaciously were also heretics, yet because it had not earlier become known to the church that their assertions were heretical they should not have been condemned as heretics, but afterwards they should have been condemned as heretics.
Student I understand their reply to that argument. Would you tell me therefore how they reply to the second.
Master They reply that although it pertains to the highest pontiff to define not only by means of teaching but also by authority which assertion should be considered catholic and which heretical, yet he can not make catholic a truth which is not catholic nor is he able to make heretical an assertion which is not heretical. Nevertheless, notwithstanding this, his definition has more effect than the determination of a doctor because after the determination of a doctor anyone at all is permitted, just as before, to opine, and to maintain publicly by opining, the opposite; this is not permitted, however, after a determination by the highest pontiff. It also has another effect because after a correct definition by the highest pontiff any bishop or inquisitor into heretical wickedness is permitted to proceed in accord with canonical laws against those holding the opposite of what has been rightly defined by the highest pontiff, unless such people bring themselves forward to prove that the highest pontiff has made an erroneous definition, in which case recourse should be had to a general council. After a determination by any doctor at all, however, bishops and inquisitors into heretical wickedness are not permitted to proceed against those holding the contrary more than they were before.
part 1, book 2, chapters 1-17
Text and translation by John Scott.
Copyright © 1999, The British Academy
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