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Heresy (from Greek αἵρεσις, which originally meant "choice", also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live one's life) was redefined by the Catholic church as a belief that conflicted with established Catholic dogma. Eventually it took on the meaning of an accusation levied against members of another group which has beliefs that conflict with those of the accusers. It is usually used to discuss violations of religious or traditional laws or codes, although it is used by some political extremists to refer to their opponents. It carries the connotation of behaviours or beliefs likely to undermine accepted morality and cause tangible evils, damnation, or other punishment. In some religions, it also implies that the heretic is in alliance with the religion's symbol of evil, such as Satan or chaos.^[1] It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause,^[2] and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion.^[3] The founder or leader of a heretical movement is called a heresiarch, while individuals who espouse heresy or commit heresy, are known as heretics. Heresiology is the study of heresy.

The word heresy is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies something slightly different in each. In certain historical Christian and Jewish cultures, heresy was punishable by law.

Heresy in the abstract[link]

Non-religious use of the English term heresy began no later than Geoffrey Chaucer (late 1300s).

Heresy is an opinion held in opposition to that of authority or orthodoxy. It is primarily used in a religious context, but by extension (and with increasing frequency), to secular subjects. The term assumes the existence of an orthodoxy.

Scientist/author Isaac Asimov considered heresy as an abstraction ^[4]; mentioning religious, political, socioeconomic and scientific heresies. He divided scientific heretics into endoheretics (those from within the scientific community) and exoheretics (those from without). Characteristics were ascribed to both and examples of both kinds were offered. Asimov concluded that science orthodoxy defends itself well against endoheretics (by control of science education, grants and publication as examples), but is nearly powerless against exoheretics. He acknowledged by examples that heresy has repeatedly become orthodoxy.

In a secular multi-polar world, the term heresy has lost utility outside of a well-defined (usually religious) context. In an argument among the religious, the scientific, the political and the economic, all groups can defend different orthodoxies. Within Christianity, Catholics and Protestants also defend different orthodoxies. While heresy is pejorative in a religious context (and in some political contexts), it may be complimentary in other contexts where innovation is more welcome.

Even in semi-religious context, heresy is not necessarily a pejorative. Religious heresy is a historical fact and Christianity was a major influence in Western History. The studies of the philosophy, politics, sociology, economics and psychology of religion may all consider heresy dispassionately.

Religious heresy[link]

Christianity[link]

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (June 2011)

The use of the word heresy in the context of Christianity was given wide currency by Irenaeus in his tract Contra Haereses (Against Heresies) to describe and discredit his opponents during the early centuries of the Christian Community. He described the community's beliefs and doctrines as orthodox (from ὀρθός, orthos "straight" + δόξα, doxa "belief") and the Gnostics' teachings as heretical. He also pointed out the concept of apostolic succession to support his arguments^[5].

Heretics usually do not perceive their own beliefs as heretical. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church holds Protestantism as espousing numerous heresies^{[clarification needed]}, while some Protestants retrospectively considered Roman Catholicism the "Great Apostasy". The Roman Catholic Church derives claims of orthodoxy from a system of ecclesial authority while Protestants view the Bible alone as authoritative.

Constantine I, acceptor of Christianity as a religion of the Roman Empire, the first baptized Roman Emperor, set precedent for later policy. The Emperor was, by Roman law, Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of all recognized religions. Constantine established Christian orthodoxy by councils of bishops and enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority^[6].

Massacre of the Waldensians of Mérindol in 1545.

The first known usage of the term in a secular legal context was in 380 AD by the "Edict of Thessalonica" of Theodosius I^[7]. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as "heresy". By this edict, in some sense, the State's authority and that of the catholic Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and State was the sharing of State powers of legal enforcement between Church and state authorities. At its most extreme reach, this new secular reinforcement of the Church's authority gave Church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the Church considered heretical.

Within five years of the official "criminalization" of heresy by the emperor, the first Christian heretic to be prosecuted, Priscillian was executed in 385 by Roman officials. For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were also known to execute those whom they considered as heretics, including Catholics. The last known heretic executed by sentence of the Roman Catholic Church was Cayetano Ripoll in 1826. The number of people executed as heretics under the authority of the various "ecclesiastical authorities"^{[note 1]} is not known. ^{[note 2]}

The Roman Catholic Church had always dealt harshly with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but before the 11th century these tended to centre around individual preachers or small localised sects, like Arianism, Pelagianism, Donatism, Marcionism, Montanism. The diffusion of the almost Manichean sect of Paulicians westwards gave birth to the famous XI-XII century heresies of Western Europe. The first one was that of Bogomils in modern day Bosnia, a sort of sanctuary between Eastern and Western Christianities. By the 11th century, more organised groups such as the Patarini, the Dulcinians, the Waldensians, the Cathars, the Tisserands, were beginning to appear in the towns and cities of Northern Italy, Southern France and Flanders, which were the most urbanized areas of Europe at the time. They mainly spread among the textile workers, whence come the name of some of these movements. In western Mediterranean France the Cathars grew to represent a popular mass movement and the belief was spreading to other areas.^[13] The Cathar Crusade was initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the Cathar heresy in Languedoc.^[14][15]Heresy was a major justification for the Inquisition and for religious wars associated with the Reformation. The division in Christianity has had lasting impact on Western History.

Perhaps due to the many modern negative connotations associated with the term heretic, such as the Spanish inquisition, the term is used less often today. There are however, some notable exceptions: see for example Rudolf Bultmann and the "character" of debates over ordination of women and gay priests. The subject of Christian heresy opens up broader questions as to who has a monopoly on spiritual truth, as explored by Jorge Luis Borges in the short story "The Theologians" within the compilation Labyrinths.^[16]

A few early modern scientists were accused of heresy by the Catholic Church. Giordano Bruno, who believed that the universe contained numerous suns, planets, and worlds similar to Earth, and that other such worlds could contain sentient beings, was condemned as a heretic by the Church and burned at the stake by secular authorities. Some sources claim that Bruno's scientific views motivated his prosecution, but other sources say that only his theological views motivated it, in particular, "that Christ was not God but merely an unusually skillful magician, that the Holy Ghost is the soul of the world, that the Devil will be saved, etc."^[17][18] Galileo Galilei was also brought before the Inquisition for alleged heresy, but recanted and was condemned a life time house arrest instead of being burnt at the stake.

Also Eastern Christianity fought against heresies, the most famous of which was Iconoclasm.

Orthodox Judaism[link]

Orthodox Judaism considers views on the part of Jews which depart from the traditional Jewish principles of faith to be heretical. In addition, the more right-wing groups within Orthodox Judaism hold that all Jews who reject the simple meaning of Maimonides's 13 principles of Jewish faith are heretics.^[19] As such, most of Orthodox Judaism considers Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism to be heretical movements, and regards most of Conservative Judaism as heretical. The liberal wing of Modern Orthodoxy is more tolerant of Conservative Judaism, particularly its right wing, as there is some theological and practical overlap between these groups.

Islam[link]

Many in the two main bodies of Islam—Sunnis and the Shi'as—have regarded the other as heretical. Groups like the Ismailis, the Hurufiya, the Alawis, the Bektashi and even the Sufis have also been regarded as heretical by some, such as the ultra-conservative Salafi. Although Sufism is often though not completely accepted as valid by Shi'a and many Sunnis, the relatively recent movement of Wahhabism view it as heretical.

Starting in medieval times, Muslims began to refer to heretics and those who antagonized Islam as zindiqs, the charge being punishable by death.^[20]

Other religions[link]

Hinduism ignored or absorbed its heretics. The Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter XVI) makes passing reference to heretics (as the Unheavenly). The Shwasamvedyopanishad opposes standard but diverse Hindu beliefs. Buddhism defines wrong views (micchā diṭṭhi). Buddhist literature mentions a wrathful conquest of Buddhist heretics (see Padmasambhava) and a Buddhist theocracy once existed. Neo-Confucian heresy has been described.^[21]

The Church of Scientology uses the term "squirreling" to refer to unauthorized alterations of its teachings or methods.

Contemporary heresy[link]

Recent religious heresies have been handled as internal Church matters, sometimes with little publicity. Contemporary religious heresies are discussed in detail elsewhere.

Today, heresy can be without a religious context as the holding of ideas that are in fundamental disagreement with the status quo in any practice and branch of knowledge. Religion is not a necessary component of the term's definition. The revisionist paleontologist Robert T. Bakker, who published his findings as The Dinosaur Heresies, treated the mainstream view of dinosaurs as dogma.^[22] He is an example of a recent scientific endo-heretic. Immanuel Velikovsky is an example of a recent scientific exo-heretic; He did not have appropriate scientific credentials or publish in scientific journals. His books, scientific arguments against his books, rebuttals and extensive commentary are available. While the details of his work are in scientific disrepute, the concept of catastrophic change (extinction event, punctuated equilibrium) has gained acceptance in recent decades.

The term heresy is also used as an ideological pigeonhole for contemporary writers because by definition heresy depends on contrasts with an established orthodoxy. For example, the tongue-in-cheek contemporary usage of heresy, such as to categorize a "Wall Street heresy" a "Democratic heresy" or a "Republican heresy", are metaphors which invariably retain a subtext that links orthodoxies in geology or biology or any other field to religion. These expanded metaphoric senses allude to both the difference between the person's views and the mainstream, and the boldness of such a person in propounding these views.

Example publication titles (from Google Scholar):

• From heresy to dogma: An institutional history of corporate environmentalism
• The British heresy in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language)
• Teacher leadership as distributed leadership: heresy, fantasy or possibility?
• The heresy of self-love: A study of subversive individualism
• Fire and water: Scientific heresy in the Forest Service
• The lesbian heresy: A feminist perspective on the lesbian sexual revolution
• All great truths are iconoclastic: selective decontamination of the digestive tract moves from heresy to level 1 truth
• Apartheid is a Heresy
• Spectrum Auctions: Yesterday's Heresy, Today's Orthodoxy, Tomorrow's Anachronism, Taking the Next Step to open Spectrum Access
• The Quest for Quality. Sixteen Forms of Heresy in Higher Education.

Variance from orthodox Marxism–Leninism is described as "right" or "left deviationism".

Selected quotations[link]

• Thomas Aquinas: "...a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas" (Summa Theologica, c. 1270)
• Thomas Aquinas: "Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death." (Summa Theologica, c. 1270)
• Isaac Asimov: "Science is in a far greater danger from the absence of challenge than from the coming of any number of even absurd challenges."^[4]
• Augustine of Hippo: "For it is the wrongdoing of the opposing party which compels the wise man to wage just wars" (City of God, Chapter 7, c. 426)
• Gerald Brenan: "Religions are kept alive by heresies, which are really sudden explosions of faith. Dead religions do not produce them." (Thoughts in a Dry Season, 1978)
• Geoffrey Chaucer: "Thu hast translated the Romance of the Rose, That is a heresy against my law, And maketh wise folk from me withdraw;" (The Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, c. 1386)
• G. K. Chesterton: "Truths turn into dogmas the instant that they are disputed. Thus every man who utters a doubt defines a religion." (Heretics, 12th Edition, 1919)
• G. K. Chesterton: "But to have avoided [all heresies] has been one whirling adventure; and in my vision the heavenly chariot flies thundering through the ages, the dull heresies sprawling and prostrate, the wild truth reeling but erect." (Orthodoxy, 1908)
• Benjamin Franklin: "Many a long dispute among divines may be thus abridged: It is so. It is not. It is so. It is not." (Poor Richard's Almanack, 1879)
• Helen Keller: "The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next." (Optimism, 1903)
• Lao Tzu: "Those who are intelligent are not ideologues. Those who are ideologues are not intelligent." (Tao Te Ching, Verse 81, 6th century BCE)
• James G. March on the relations among madness, heresy, and genius: "... we sometimes find that such heresies have been the foundation for bold and necessary change, but heresy is usually just new ideas that are foolish or dangerous and appropriately rejected or ignored. So while it may be true that great geniuses are usually heretics, heretics are rarely great geniuses."^[23]
• Montesquieu: "No kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ." (Persian Letters, 1721)
• Elie Wiesel: "The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference." (unsourced, from WikiQuote)

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up heresy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Some quotes and information in this article came from the Catholic Encyclopedia.
• (French) Cathars of the middle age, Philosophy and History.
• What Is Heresy? by Wilbert R. Gawrisch (Lutheran)

Matthew James Norman (born 17 September 1986^[1]), an Australian citizen, was convicted in Indonesia for drug trafficking as a member of the Bali Nine. In 2005, Norman was arrested in a room at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta together with three others. Police uncovered 334 g (11.8 oz) of heroin in a suitcase in the room. After a criminal trial, on 15 February 2006 Norman was sentenced to life imprisonment.^[2] His appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court to have the sentence reduced suffered a shock when the Supreme Court imposed the death penalty on 6 September 2006.^[3] A subsequent appeal to the Indonesian Supreme Court, following a full confession by Norman to his role in the plan to import heroin from Bali to Australia, resulted in the original sentence of life imprisonment being reinstated.^[4]

Alleged trafficking conspiracy[link]

From Quakers Hill^[5] in Sydney's western suburbs, Norman was employed at Eurest, a catering company, where he met colleagues Martin Stephens, Renae Lawrence, and his supervisor, Andrew Chan. All four would later be convicted of drug trafficking as fellow members of the Bali Nine.^[6]

Media reports based on the testimony of co-conspirator, Renae Lawrence, claim that Norman was involved in an attempt in December 2004, at trafficking from Indonesia to Australia. This attempt was allegedly organised by Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen and involved Norman, Lawrence, Andrew Chan, and others. The delivery was aborted when heroin suppliers failed to deliver "due to a financial matter or someone knowing about the plan the shipment was cancelled".^[7]

On or about 8 April 2005, Norman arrived in Bali with Si Yi Chen and checked into the White Rose Hotel. It was reported that Norman and Chen "hardly ever left their room".^[8]

On 14 April, Norman, Chen, Lawrence and Stephens checked in to Adhi Dharma hotel, with Nguyen arriving in the same hotel two days later. It was reported that police took the room next to Norman and Chen.^[8] In the evening of Sunday 17 April, appearing like tourists, Norman, Nguyen, and Chen checked into the Melasti Hotel. Myuran Sukumaran, who was also with them, with his bags, left them with the others as he decided to go to the Hard Rock Hotel complex.^[9]

Arrest in Indonesia[link]

Approximately 20 minutes after checking in, Norman, aged 18, was arrested at the Melasti Hotel in Kuta on 17 April 2005 with Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, Myuran Sukumaran and Si Yi Chen. Indonesian police claim the group were in possession of 334 g (11.8 oz) of heroin and bundles of plastic wrapping, Elastoplast tape, and a set of scales, indicating involvement in a plan to transport drugs to Australia.^[9]

Earlier that day at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Indonesian police also arrested the following drug mules after they were found carrying various amounts of heroin concealled on their bodies. Martin Stephens was found to be carrying 3.3 kg (7.3 lb); Renae Lawrence was found to be carrying 2.689 kg (5.93 lb); Michael Czugaj was found to be carrying 1.75 kg (3.9 lb) and Scott Rush was found to be carrying 1.3 kg (2.9 lb) of heroin. Alleged co-ringleader, Andrew Chan was also arrested the same day whilst seated on an Australian Airlines flight waiting to depart Denpasar for Sydney. At the time Chan was arrested, he was carrying three mobile phones and a boarding pass. No drugs were found in his possession.^[8]

Of the nine arrested, Norman was the youngest.^[5]

Criticisms of Australian Federal Police tipoff[link]

Wikinews has related news: Bali Nine refused access to federal police files

Lee Rush, the father of Scott Rush, a fellow member of the Bali Nine, said that he contacted the Australian Federal Police (AFP) prior to the commission of the offence, fearing his son was travelling to Bali and would commit a drug-related crime. Rush senior claims then to have received assurances from the AFP that they would tell his son he was under surveillance to dissuade him from going through with the crime before the group's departure from Indonesia. Scott Rush's lawyers said he was never contacted. It was revealed that the AFP alerted Indonesian police that a crime was to be committed approximately two weeks before the arrests, and had commenced an investigation about ten weeks prior to the arrests.^[10][11][12] When the Bali Nine were arrested, the news of the tipoff became public^[13] and there was criticism of the role of the AFP in protecting the interests of Australian citizens.^[12] Commenting on the matter at the time, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty was reported as saying:

"One of the things we've got to remember is that we operate within our criminal-justice system here in Australia, and if we only co-operated with countries that had the same criminal-justice system, then our co-operation wouldn't extend very far beyond Australia. We have to work with the systems that operate in other countries, and to a large degree this has been successful, certainly in terms of heroin trafficking."^[14]

Rush took action in the Federal Court of Australia against the AFP for breach of the bilateral treaty between Indonesia and Australia when information was handed by the AFP to the Indonesians. Rush's case claimed that such information should only be released by the Attorney-General. However, the Commonwealth Government maintained that the treaty only applies after a suspect is charged.^[15] The application was dismissed by the Federal Court in January 2006.

Criminal trial[link]

Criminal trials for the accused commenced in the Denpasar District Court on 11 October 2005. Chen, Nguyen, and Norman, all arrested at the Melasti Hotel and earning the numeric epithet, The Melasti Three, were tried together, with the remaining six defendants tried separately.

Wikinews has related news: Bali nine lawyer challenges police on legality of drug case

In December 2005, it was reported that tensions were building between the Bali Nine drug mules and Sukumaran and Chan.^[16] Several days later, lawyers acting for some members of the Bali Nine initially sought the support of the Director of Public Prosecutions to intervene and lay charges for conspiracy to import drugs, so that the nine could be extradited and charged under Australian law.^[17] However, the judges hearing the trial matters in Bali called for Australia not to intervene in Indonesia's right to impose capital punishment;.^[18] Lawyers acting for Stephens, one of the Bali Nine, claimed that the fairness of his trial was in jeopardy following comments made in the media by Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda that Australians should be prepared for members of the Bali Nine to receive a death sentence, if found guilty.^[19]

Sentencing and appeal[link]

Wikinews has related news: Bali Nine ringleaders sentenced to death

During his final plea to judges, Norman said:

"I made a promise to myself that I would not take drugs or be associated with anybody involved of using drugs. I'd ask you today to give the opportunity to restart my new Christian life, which I have found in jail. I ask with all my heart you will let me have the opportunity to help other people in life. In all honesty I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."^{[citation needed]}

Norman's mother, Robyn Norman, said after sentencing a life sentence was a better result than the death penalty, and also thanked the Indonesian government for looking after her son:

"Well, it's better than being shot, I suppose. He's OK. Hopefully they'll keep on looking after him while I'm not here and when I return and spend a bit more time with my son."^{[citation needed]}

On 15 February 2006, Norman was sentenced to life imprisonment. Commenting on the sentences at the time, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Keelty stated:

"I stand by the police and what they've done … The Federal Court actually made a decision saying not only had they acted lawfully but they acted in accordance with government policy."^[20]

Australian Prime Minister at that time, John Howard was reported as commenting:

"The police are there to protect us from the ravages of drugs and I just hope that every young Australian who might in their wildest imagination think that they can get away with this will take a lesson from this"^[20] and "I feel desperately sorry for the parents of these people. I do. All of us as parents will feel that way, but the warnings have been there for decades."^[21]

Appealing against the sentence, on 6 September 2006, his sentence was upgraded to the death penalty.^[3] On 5 March 2008, three judges in the Indonesian Supreme Court in Jakarta decided to spare the lives of Chen, Norman and Nguyen.^[4]

Criminal charges pending in Australia[link]

In an earlier unrelated incident, Norman and Lawrence were arrested on 26 March 2005, travelling along the Pacific Highway in a stolen vehicle. It was reported that police were required to use road spikes to intercept the vehicle. Both were due to appear on 26 April 2005 in the Gosford Magistrates Court to face car theft and traffic related charges. However, due to their arrest in Indonesia nine days earlier, both Norman and Lawrence failed to appear.^[6]

See also[link]

• List of Australians in international prisons
• List of Australian criminals

References[link]