Burning Of Heretics

[Guest]

Peace

I have a question about the Holy Church The Spotless Bride Of Christ. When the burning of heretics took place in the past what was the reason for this ? What does the Holy Chuch say about these now ? Are the past ones still considered justified and could they happen again ? Is it possible some of the people burned at the stake could be saints in Heaven or future saints in Heaven ? Thank you for your answer. Godbless.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Guest

[Theoketos]

To answer one of your questions St. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a Heretic.

[CatherineM]

I had this explained to me once this way. If someone today, say a politician or religious leader, started publicly espousing a theology that was heretical, the Vatican or their local bishop would be able to publicly denounce what they were saying. We'd see it in the news, in our Catholic paper, on the internet.

A thousand years ago, there was no internet. If a traveling preacher was going from town to town baptizing people in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, etc or some other bizarre thing, there was no easy way to protect the faithful from falling into heresy because of this heretic. Burning them at the stake was a definitive way to save the souls of those the heretic might corrupt in the future. It is harsh, but all executions in the middle ages were. It was a time when life was cheap, people died at early ages.

The state executed people for a variety of things then that wouldn't happen today in even the most repressive regimes. The church then was much more intertwined with the state than it is today. Everyone wants to point to how bad the church was in burning heretics at the stake, but where is the condemnation of the countries or monarchs who did even worse? We are always held to a higher standard, and should be, but looking back 1000 years with the sensibilities and civilization we have today makes us quick to criticize and second guess people we don't know, and have no idea how hard their lives must have been.