Note (return) — Chapter II

Addendum II.—The idea of heresy is always decided by the idea of the Church. The designation 'αιρεσις implies an adherence to something self-chosen in opposition to the acknowledgment of something objectively handed down, and assumes that this is the particular thing in which the apostasy consists. Hence all those who call themselves Christians and yet do not adhere to the traditional apostolic creed, but give themselves up to vain and empty doctrines, are regarded as heretics by Hegesippus, Irenæus, Tertullian, Clement, and Origen. These doctrines are as a rule traced to the devil, that is, to the non-Christian religions and speculations, or to wilful wickedness. Any other interpretation of their origin would at once have been an acknowledgment that the opponents of the Church had a right to their opinions,184 and such an explanation is not quite foreign to Origen in one of his lines of argument.185 Hence the orthodox party were perfectly consistent in attaching no value to any sacrament186 or acts esteemed in their own communion, when these were performed by heretics;187 and this was a practical application of the saying that the devil could transform himself into an angel of light.188