Even in the apostolic times, heresies had arisen in the church, and before the council of Nice, the catalogue of sects had already swelled to considerable dimensions. Without attempting any enumeration of these heresies, it may be said in general that the sects of the early centuries dre all reducible to two classes: (1) Those which attempted to associate the Christian doctrines with Judaism; (2) Those which ingrafted Christianity upon the Gentile religions or the Gentile philosophies. And this latter class naturally subdivides itself into (1) The sects which were tinged with the errors of the oriental philosophy; and (2) Those which drew their errors from the Grecian schools. Of all these we find traces, more or less distinctly marked, in the sects of the later ages.
From the very date of the establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire, heresy appears to have been regarded as a crime cognizable by the civil law; and Constantine enacted several severe laws for its repression, which were continued and extended by his successors, and were collected into a single title, De Ilecretici$, mu the Justinian code. The penalties of heresy ordained by these enactments are very severe, extending to corporal punishment, and even to death; and they all proceed on the distinct assumption that a crime against religion is a crime against the state. These enactments of the Roman law were embodied in the various codes of the European kingdoms; and in considering the history of the middle ages, it is necessary to recollect that the principle above referred to, as to the social bearing of the crime of and of other crimes against religion, pervades the whole system of mediaeval jurisprudence. It is further to be remembered, that the principles of many of the mediaeval sects were anti-social and communistical, as well as opposed to the doctrines of the church; and that their leaders, in many instances, by adopting violent and revolutionary means for the propagation of their doctrines, drew upon themselves the punishment of anarchy and rebellion, as well as of heterodoxy in religion. Still, with even these allowances, Catholic historians themselves admit that the medieval procedures against heresy were in many instances excessive, as were, indeed, also the processes and penalties of the criminal code.
In English law (2 Hen. IV. c. 15), heresy consisted in holding opinions contrary to Catholic faith and the determination of Holy church; and by common law the offender was to be tried in time provincial synod by the archbishop and his council; and, after conviction, was to be given up to the king to be dealt with at his pleasure, the king being competent to issue a writ de Imeretico comburendo; but the statute above referred to empowered the diocesan to take cognizance of heresy, and on conviction, to hand over the criminal directly, and without waiting for the king's writ, to the sheriff-major or other competent officer, This statute continued practically in force, with certain modifications, till the 29 Charles II. c. 9., since which time heresy is left entirely to the cognizance of the ecclesiastical courts; but, as there is no statute defining in what heresy consists, and as, moreover, much of the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts has been withdrawn by the various toleration acts: and, above all, as the effect of various recent decisions hits been to widen almost ifidefinitely the the doctrinal formularies of the English church, it be said that the jurisdiction of these courts in matters of heresy is practically limited to preventing ministers of the ,.-stab fished church from preaching in opposition to the doctrine and the articles of the establishment from which they derive their emoluments, and that, even in determining what is to be considered contrary to the articles, a large toleration has been juridically established. See the recent trial of Dr Rowland Williams, and the judgment given by Dr Lushingtou in the court of arches. For the history and literature of heretical sects, see the various ecclesiastical historians, as also Stockniann's Lexicon Hccresium (Leip. 1719); De Cresari's Hwresiologia (Rome, 1736); Fritz's Retzerlexicon (Wilrzburg, 1834); Arnold's Ketzerhistorie (Frankfort, 1699); Walch's Geschichte der Retzereien (Leip. 1762); and Darstellung der Theresieen (Bonn, 1837).