Heresies in the Early Church

             Catholic doctrine derives from the revealed truths contained in the Deposit of Faith that Christ entrusted to his Church and which is found in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. However, from the earliest days of Christianity, there were some who corrupt these teachings. The people who were corrupting these teachings were called heresies. Heresy is the denial or alteration of some part or parts of the Deposit of faith. These heresies came around when the Church was fairly new and the Church did not need people disrupting their teachings so early into her existence. It would only drive new believers away from the Church, which is the opposite of what the Church wanted.

             There are many different Heresies that exist. Gnosticism is the first. The word Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word gnosis and refers to a set of beliefs that only some people may achieve through secret knowledge and salvation. According to Gnostics, Christ had been sent with a secret knowledge to basically hand out to those he deemed worthy. Not everyone could receive this special knowledge. The Second Heresy is Arianism. Arius, a priest from Alexandria in Egypt, claimed that Jesus Christ was not eternally God and thus not equal to the Father. Apollinarianism originated from Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea in Syria. Apollinaris denied the existence of a human mind and will in Christ; this lead people to believe that Christ did not live a complete human life as a man. The fourth Heresy is Nestorianism. Patriarch Nestorius maintained Christ was the unity of two persons: one divine and one human. He would not allow Mary to be called the Mother of God. The final Heresy is Monophysitism. Monophysites claimed that there is only one nature in Christ, not two. The name means “only one nature.” This Heresy taught the human nature of Christ was “incorporated” into the divine nature, in the same way a drop of water is absorbed into an ocean.