“his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat”

This lesson is part II of II, please first read “Heresy by the Century (First to Tenth)”
 
Eleventh Century

Eastern Schism – Schism is a break but not a heresy. With a heresy there is doctrinal error involved. The churches of the west (the Roman Rite) and the churches of the east (various rites) were united under one common Papa (Pope) for over 1000 years. The Eastern Schism ended this unity and although no heresy was or is involved (both the east and west are still not united), the disunity allows the enemy to be more successful in sowing falsehood. If the eastern churches and the western churches were united the front against Satan’s would be more fortified.

Twelfth Century

Catharism / Albigensianism – A modified form of the Manichaean heresy that flourished in Southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It claimed that a good deity created the world of the spirit, and an evil god the material world, including the human body, which is under its control. The good deity sent Jesus Christ, as a creature, to deliver human souls from their imprisonment. Albigensians favored suicide and advocated abstaining from marriage.
 
Thirteenth Century

Inquisition – “Heretics were criminals under civil and canon law. While infidels were not forced to enter the Church nor punished for their unbelief, all baptized souls were held accountable for the purity of faith. The rapid growth of heresies in the thirteenth century provoked the Church to conduct investigations. Those who were found guilty were turned over to the state for punishment.” [1] There were many abuses on especially the state arm of the Inquisition, abuses that brought about the death of even Saint and holy men and women. Saint Joan of Arc who was tried and put to death by a branch of the Inquisition as well as Fr. Savanorola, a Dominican priest who was burned at the stake are examples of this abuse. Both were not heretics but were falsely accused of heresy.

Fifteenth Century

Humanism – Humanism is good in that it encourages the free use of the treasures of antiquity without compromising the truths of the Gospel. Christian humanism began with Dante (1265-1321), while pagan humanism reached its peak in Petrarch (1304-74). Popes Pius II, Sixtus IV, and Leo X favored Christian humanism and did much to promote it. St. Thomas More (1478-1535) typified its best spirit in England. After the French Revolution the extreme humanistic spirit rebelled against Christian revelation and the Church.

Nationalism – The phrase "Pro deo et patria" means for God and Country. Nationalism, which is similar to Absolutism, is a loyalty to Country before Church. As history has proven many countries determine how to love and serve God or promote the idea that the love of country is love of God. The better motto is “For God, Church and Country” in that order with the understanding that Jesus Christ, the Word incarnate and the Church are one so therefore God and Church are first, country is second.

For the following 500 years please also see
Search: 500 Years of Blindness

Sixteenth Century

Protestantism – There was much need of Church reform in the Sixteenth Century and every reason to protest, but not at the expense of rejecting truth. The Protestant revolt has led to a splintering of over 30,000 ecclesial communities or denominations. Each community and even with some communities it is hard to nail down which truths of the Church are rejected and which are embraced. The Council of Trent in 1563 addressed the many falsehoods. The equal validity of Scripture and Apostolic Tradition was confirmed. The Sacraments were carefully defined and Protestant errors refuted.

Seventeenth Century

Absolutism - Government in civil society in which the authority is totally vested in the ruler. In the case of Church and State relations, the State trumps the Church in all matters. The Church has no authority and in many cases the State has enforced the Church to sign oaths and allegiance to the head of the State instead of the Holy Father.

Eighteenth Century

Naturalism - The view that the only reality that exists is nature, so that divine grace is either denied or ignored. 

Freemasonry - The teachings and practices of a secret international organization whose modern origins date from the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Freemasonry began as a fraternity of Deists in Europe, and its basic orientation has been naturalistic, i.e., anti-supernatural, ever since. Its hostility to the Catholic Church has evoked numerous declarations of the Holy See, notably of Popes Clement XII (1738), Pius IX (1864) and Leo XIII (1884). The Code of Canon Law (1918) decreed that no Catholic may join "Masonic sects or any other similar associations which plot against the Church" (Canon 2335). 

Nineteenth Century

Skepticism - The theory that the real truth of things cannot be known with certainty. Skepticism is the seed of Relativism. If truth cannot be known who am I to say that what I believe is true and that what you believe is not true. Truth is therefore not absolute but unknown. Saint Thomas Aquinas writes, “True itself, speaks truly or there’s nothing true.” Jesus Christ is Truth. Skepticism teaches that we cannot know with certainty that Christ is what He says He is, and if He is not truth, then nothing is true.


Twentieth Century

Secularism - Technically the philosophy of naturalism advocated since the nineteenth century, first in England and then elsewhere. It is a closed system that affirms that human existence and destiny are fully explainable in terms of this world without reference to eternity. On its social side, secularism promotes the advancement of humanity's lot in this life, and charges Christianity with indifference to poverty and suffering because of its alleged preoccupation with God and the life to come.

Relativism - In philosophy, the view that there is no absolute truth or certitude. It is claimed that truth depends entirely on variable factors such as person, place, time, and circumstances. Moral relativism holds that there are no unchangeable principles of human behavior, either because all truth is relative or because there are no inherently evil actions, since everything depends on other factors, such as customs, conventions, or social approval.

Search: What is Evil?

Atheism – Atheism is the denial of a personal God who is totally distinct from the world he created. Modern atheism has become so varied and widespread that the Second Vatican council identified no less than eight forms of disbelief under the single term atheismus: “Some people expressly deny the existence of God. Others maintain that man cannot make any assertion whatsoever about Him. Still others admit only such methods of investigation as would make it seem quite meaningless to ask questions about God. Many, trespassing beyond the boundaries of the positive sciences, either contend that everything can be explained by the reasoning process used in such sciences, or, on the contrary, hold that there is no such thing as absolute truth. With others it is their exaggerated idea of man that causes their faith to languish; they are more prone, it would seem, to affirm man than to deny God. Yet others have such a faulty notion of God that when they disown this product of the imagination their denial has no reference to the God of the Gospels. There are also those who never enquire about God; religion never seems to trouble or interest them at all, nor do they try to see why they should bother about it” (Church in the Modern World, I, 19). In the light of this array of infidelity, it was only logical for the Council to declare that atheism is one of the greatest problems facing mankind in the world today.

For more on heresy and it’s history see the following Link to Liturgy Lessons
Search: full of Grace
Search: Two Fishing Stories
Search: Truth and Lies (Relativism)

We must remember that in order to have bad you must first have good. In order to have falsehood you must first have truth. Falsehood is a deprivation, perversion or absence of truth. The best way to dispel falsehood is to know the truth! “The prophet Hosea, on seeing the Chosen People far from the happiness to which they had been called, wrote: ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. (Hos. 4:6)’ We too can see great masses of our fellow men steeped in sin and misery, distraught and totally confused because they are bereft of divine truth.” [2] Where do we get our knowledge of Jesus from? Is it from the opinion of a pastor who is interpreting the scripture alone, without the aid of the Church? Is it from the History Channel or other forms of media that perpetuate the Arian heresy, highlighting the humanity of Christ and rejecting His divinity? Do we conform Jesus Christ to our life or do we believe in the Jesus Christ as presented by the Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? We should consult the teachings of the Church in all areas, rather than going with what we have been taught or what is popular belief. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is available to us and is a source of truth in a world of lies.
 
How do we fight this false doctrine? We can fight false doctrine by sowing good seed. We do this through evangelization. We are all called to evangelize! “Let us go forth, then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos Aires: I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the center and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength, light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life.” [3]
 
“We have to take advantage of the thousand and one opportunities we get in daily life to sow the good seed of Christ – when, for example, travelling, or reading a newspaper, or chatting with friends, or attending to our children’s education, or taking part in the activity of a professional association, or voting in an election. Many such opportunities will arise spontaneously, like life itself, and others we will create deliberately, with the help of grace and our native ability, all in the service of Christ: we are his voice in the world.” [4] If the evil one, his devils and his followers are working hard to sow weeds, we must work harder to sow wheat. We must uproot the weed show in our hearts and replace it with the wheat the Christ offers.

We must never lose hope, for Christ and His Church are victorious. “Our Lord here teaches us, under the symbolism of two parables, what we are to believe concerning His Church, which is His kingdom, a kingdom that rises indeed here on earth, but is to be perfected in heaven. What is this grain of mustard-seed, which is hidden under ground, is unseen by man’s eye, then appears as the least of herbs, but finally, becomes a tree? It is the Word of God, at first hidden in Judea, trampled on by man’s malice even so as to be buried in a tomb, but, at length, rising triumphantly and reaching rapidly to every part of the world. Scarcely had a hundred years elapsed since Jesus was put to death, when His Church was vigorous even far beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. During the past nineteen centuries, every possible effort has been made to uproot the tree of God; persecution, diplomacy, human wisdom, all has tried, and all have but wasted their time. True, they succeeded, from time to time, in severing a branch; but another grew in its place, for the sap of the tree is vigorous beyond measure.” [5]
 
Discussion Questions: Why is it difficult to engage in evangelization? Would it be easier to evangelize to strangers, friends, or family? Why? What is one way you could evangelize to a friend, stranger, or family? 

[1] Warren H. Carroll, 2000 Years of Christianity
[2] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 28.2
[3] Pope Francis, Papal Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 40-41
[4] Fernandez, In Conversation with God 4, 28.2
[5] Abbot Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Book 4