WHAT IS A HERESY? BOOK 2 CHAPTER 18 HAS EVERY HERESY BEEN CONDEMNED ALREADY? ~ WILLIAM OF OCKHAM


CHAPTER 18 

HAS EVERY HERESY BEEN CONDEMNED ALREADY? 

Student I now observe how useful it was to ask which truths should be adjudged catholic, because from the explanation of that question it can be clear to someone with understanding which errors should be regarded as heresies. It seems also to follow from what has been investigated about catholic truths that every heresy has been condemned because if every catholic truth has been approved by the church it seems that every heresy has been condemned by the same church, since every heresy is opposed to some catholic truth. When one of [two] contraries is approved, however, it is certain that the other is rejected and condemned. Therefore do not conceal [from me] whether any learned men hold that every heresy has been condemned.

Master Many hold and try to prove that every heresy has been condemned. For the general council celebrated under Innocent III, about which we read in Extra, De hereticis, c. Excommunicamus [col.787], seems to think this. For it says, "We excommunicate and anathematise every heresy that exalts itself against this holy, catholic and orthodox faith that we expounded above." It is clearly established from these words that every heresy has been excommunicated and anathematised, and as a consequence every heresy has been condemned.

Student It does not seem from this text that every heresy has been condemned, but only that every heresy exalting itself against the faith that the general council expounded earlier in the Chapter Firmiter found in Extra, De summa trinitate et fide catholica [col.5] has been condemned.

Master They prove that every heresy has simply been condemned by the said chapter Excommunicamus from the fact that every heresy exalting itself against the faith expounded in the said chapter Firmiter has been condemned. For in that chapter Firmiter the whole of catholic faith is approved. Therefore every heresy is rejected and condemned simply by the chapter Excommunicamus which condemns every heresy that exalts itself against the faith that is expounded and approved in the chapter Firmiter. That the Chapter Firmiter approves simply the whole of catholic faith is expressly clear since in its assertion and approval it says: "This holy Trinity, individual according to a common essence and distinct according to their personal properties, has bestowed its salvific teaching on the human race firstly through Moses, the holy prophets and their other servants according to the very well ordered arrangement of time. And at length the only begotten son of God, Jesus Christ, made flesh by the whole Trinity together, was conceived of Mary, ever virgin, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, became a true man, made up of a rational soul and human flesh, one person with two natures, and very clearly demonstrated the way to life." We are given to understand by these words that the aforesaid council clearly approves the whole teaching of Christ and his servants who handed on catholic truths to the human race. Therefore simply every heresy is also condemned by the chapter Excommunicamus, and the gloss on 24, q. 1, para. 1 [s. v. qui vero; col.1382] notes this clearly when it says, "Every heresy has been condemned and every heretic, however hidden he is, has been excommunicated."

William of Ockham, Dialogus,
part 1, book 2, chapters 17-34

Text and translation by John Scott.
Copyright © 1999, The British Academy





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