Chronology of Heresies

A heretic is someone who denies part of Tradition and keeps part of Tradition.

In arguing with heretics, it is important to recognize and honor that part of the Tradition which they preserve while describing the part they reject with "clarity and charity" (motto of The Station of the Cross Catholic Radio).

In today's jargon, heresies are "memes" that circulate in our culture. Like genes, memes mutate and combine with other memes to produce new variants of the old heresies.

I have used "15 Major Heresies and Those Who Fought Them" as a springboard for the development of the table below.

name	date	proponent	opponent	comments
Pelagianism	400-418	Pelagius	St. Augustine	Pelagius "denied original sin as well as Christian grace. ... [He] regarded the moral strength of man's will (liberum arbitrium), when steeled by asceticism, as sufficient in itself to desire and to attain the loftiest ideal of virtue. The value of Christ's redemption was, in his opinion, limited mainly to instruction (doctrina) and example (exemplum), which the Saviour threw into the balance as a counterweight against Adam's wicked example, so that nature retains the ability to conquer sin and to gain eternal life even without the aid of grace."
Semipelagianism	428-529	French monks.	Council of Orange, 529	The essence of Semipelagianism is: In distinguishing between the beginning of faith (initium fidei) and the increase of faith (augmentum fidei), one may refer the former to the power of the free will, while the faith itself and its increase is absolutely dependent upon God; the gratuity of grace is to be maintained against Pelagius in so far as every strictly natural merit is excluded; this, however, does not prevent nature and its works from having a certain claim to grace; as regards final perseverance in particular, it must not be regarded as a special gift of grace, since the justified man may of his own strength persevere to the end.
Gnosticism			St. Irenaeus
Arianism		Arius	St. Athanasius
Nestorianism		Nestorius	St. Cyril of Alexandria
Monotheletism			St. Maximus the Confessor
Albigensianism			St. Dominic
Latin Averroism			St. Thomas Aquinas
Calivinism		Calvin	St. Francis de Sales	T = Total Depravity U = Unconditional Election L = Limited Atonement I = Irresistable Grace P = Perseverance of the Saints (Once Saved)
Monophysitism	451	Alexandria	Pope St. Leo the Great	Condemned at Council of Chalcedon.
Iconoclasm		Emperor Leo II	St. John of Damascus
Jansenism		Cornelius Jansen	St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Free Spirit movement (Quietism)		Meister Eckhart?	Bl. John of Ruysbroeck
Modernism		Tyrrell, Loisy, von Hugel	Pope St. Pius X
Origenism			St. Methodius of Olympus
Indifferentism			Pope Pius XI

Links

• "15 Major Heresies and Those Who Fought Them."
• "The Great Heresies."