What's the first recorded case of the Church's persecuting heretics?
score:6
It's difficult to give a definitive answer because of the ambiguity of words like "heretic" and "persecute". I presume that if Mr X says to Mr Y, "No, I disagree with you", that's not persecution. If he has him tortured and killed over the disagreement, that pretty clearly is persecution. But there's a wide range in the middle. If X tells people that Y is a dangerous kook and they shouldn't associate with him, is that persecution? What if so many people follow X that Y is completely ostracized from society, can't get a job, etc?
All that said, I suspect the first case would be the repudiation of Arianism at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The Arians were exiled and their books banned, which I think qualifies as persecution. This took place shortly after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, and so suddenly Christians went from being outlawed and persecuted themselves to having political power and influence.
Constantine was an emperor, i.e. a dictator, so it's not surprising that when he learned that his new-found religion was facing division and disagreement, he decided to step in and "solve" the problem by declaring which side was right and ordering everyone to fall in line or else. AFter all, that's what he would do if his generals disagreed about how to wage a war, or if his bureaucrats disagreed about how to administer some law.
More post
- 📝 What is the Catholic Church's official position on the Spanish Inquisition?
- 📝 Do Trinitarians believe Jesus has (or had) two centres of consciousness?
- 📝 Is it possible to get into heaven, but then be cast out at a later date?
- 📝 What is the significance of Eve being created as a "helper fit for [Adam]?"
- 📝 Did Paul write the Epistle to the Hebrews?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for a resistable enabling (prevenient) grace?
- 📝 How do those who believe that salvation cannot be lost interpret Revelation 3:14-22?
- 📝 Is every single minute of the year a mass being celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church? If so, since when?
- 📝 Who said "he would be called a Nazarene"?
- 📝 What are the biblical arguments against the papacy and papal succession?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of former Pagans being supernaturally reached by God (or an angel) with the Gospel before any human missionary arrived?
- 📝 The first conception or the first coitus?
- 📝 Has the Catholic Church attempted a reconciliation of the attributes of the Universal Church in the Creeds?
- 📝 Do all YEC believe flat earth?
- 📝 What effect did the 1897 decree regarding the Johannine Comma have on Catholic scholarship?
- 📝 Do Jehovah's Witnesses have one Saviour or Two?
- 📝 Will we be able to eat anything in Heaven?
- 📝 Does the Jerusalem Bible teach that Adam had a wife before Eve?
- 📝 Where can I find a simple but complete taxonomy of churches?
- 📝 If you believe that Messiah Jesus is a human being what logic you have to guess that he could be a God or son of God?
- 📝 When did the immutability of God become entrenched in Christian literature?
- 📝 Is an adulterous priest still a priest?
- 📝 Where can I find the text of "Prayer" by Father Faber?
- 📝 What is the earliest use of the phrase "the Lord's law of health" in reference to the LDS Word of Wisdom?
- 📝 Is prayer effectively second-guessing God?
- 📝 According to the Roman Catholic Church, is halal meat being offered up to idols?
- 📝 During creation the Bible says, God saw that various things were 'good'. Did He not know they were going to be good?
- 📝 Should the "angel of the abyss" be capitalized?
- 📝 How do Jehovah Witnesses explain differences between NWT and Hebrew/Latin/Greek in Zechariah 12:10 and Acts 20:28?
- 📝 Why aren't any dinosaurs written in the bible?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What's the first recorded case of the Church's persecuting heretics?
- 📝 When is the first documented case of Christians praying to the dead saints?
- 📝 When was the first recorded account of pre-tribulation teaching?
- 📝 What is the first recorded observation of Good Friday?
- 📝 When is the first documented case of making a confession to a priest?
- 📝 What was the first recorded near death experience of a Christian claiming to have one?
- 📝 Has a substantial case been made from the New Testament that burning heretics is against the will of the Spirit?
- 📝 Can somebody summarize the different "branches" of Christianity to me, and explain why they exist in the first place?
- 📝 What's is the case for premarital sex being an instance of πορνεία (p**neia)?
- 📝 How does the Catholic church explain Matthew 19:9, which seems to allow divorce in case of sexual misconduct?
- 📝 When in the development of trinitarian doctrine was the word "persons" first applied to God?
- 📝 What is the case for interpreting the Genesis creation account literally?
- 📝 When did the one-way monologue sermon first become a normal feature of church assemblies?
- 📝 According to LDS (Mormon) teaching, who was the first God who began the eternal progression?
- 📝 Who first distinguished between the inerrancy of the Bible and the inerrancy of the original autographs?
- 📝 When is the first time in church history we find a prayer ending with "in Jesus' name, amen"?
- 📝 What evidence do we have today about Christian groups not represented at the first four ecumenical councils?
- 📝 Did God kill the first borns in Exodus, according to Jehovah's Witnesses?
- 📝 Did the first Christian believers keep the Sabbath and if so on which day?
- 📝 Who was the first Church Father to argue for executing heretics?
- 📝 Who are David and Sibyls in the first stanza of Dies Iræ?
- 📝 What are the first references to a tradition of fasting before partaking of the Lord's Supper?
- 📝 Was Jesus recorded on the census?
- 📝 Why did God need to plant the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden in the first place?
- 📝 What is the Catholic understanding of the first sin committed by Adam and Eve?
- 📝 What happened to the wives of priests when celibacy was first instituted in the Catholic church?
- 📝 When was the word "trinity" first applied to God in Christianity?
- 📝 When did Peter become the first Pope, according to Roman Catholic tradition?
- 📝 Why is Mark not the first gospel?
- 📝 Who was the first to reject the historicity of Adam?
