'It is true that highwaymen, grave-robbers, and sorcerers have their sides torn to pieces; it is also true that the martyrs undergo this same suffering. What is done is the same, but the purpose and reason why it is done is different. And so it is that there is a great difference between the criminals and martyrs.
In these cases we not only consider the torture but we first look for the intention and the reasons why the torture is inflicted. And this is why we love the martyrs - not because they are tortured but because they are tortured for the sake of Christ. But we turn our backs on the robbers - not because they are being punished but because they are being punished for their wickedness.
So, too, in the matter of fasting, you must pass a judgment. If you see people fasting for the sake of God, approve what they do; if you see that they do this against God’s will, turn your back on them and hate them more than you do those who drink, revel, and carouse. And in the case of this fasting we must inquire not only into the reason for fasting but we must consider also the place and the time.’
St. John Chrysostom, Father, Archbishop, Doctor of the Church (c. 347–407 A.D.)
And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life, maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting, than having two feet, to be cast into the hell of unquenchable fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.
And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.
Mark 9:42-47
If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth.
John 15:6
'With regard to heretics two points must be observed: one, on their own side; the other, on the side of the Church. On their own side there is the sin, whereby they deserve not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication, but also to be severed from the world by death. For it is a much graver matter to corrupt the faith which quickens the soul, than to forge money, which supports temporal life. Wherefore if forgers of money and other evil-doers are forthwith condemned to death by the secular authority, much more reason is there for heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.
On the part of the Church, however, there is mercy which looks to the conversion of the wanderer, wherefore she condemns not at once, but “after the first and second admonition,” as the Apostle directs: after that, if he is yet stubborn, the Church no longer hoping for his conversion, looks to the salvation of others, by excommunicating him and separating him from the Church, and furthermore delivers him to the secular tribunal to be exterminated thereby from the world by death. For Jerome commenting on Galatians 5:9, “A little leaven,” says: “Cut off the decayed flesh, expel the mangy sheep from the fold, lest the whole house, the whole paste, the whole body, the whole flock, burn, perish, rot, die. Arius was but one spark in Alexandria, but as that spark was not at once put out, the whole earth was laid waste by its flame.”
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church
. . . in blazing fire, inflicting punishment on those who do not acknowledge God these will pay the penalty of eternal ruin, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power, . . .
2 Thessalonians 1:8-9
The body is of infinitely less value than the soul. If the death penalty for heresy saves souls from Hell, it is properly carried out by civil society.
The majority of souls go to Hell. And how many more now that there is no Christian religion in government?
Catholicism is a revealed truth, it being the Faith is a fact of history and a spiritual and material reality. Other Protestant and secular history is false history, lies, in the service of Satan. Those who purvey it teach Hell’s history. That these lies be resisted strongly by some societies in their civil authorities is quite proper. The vague secularism that teaches religions are all things you choose based on what you feel, and has its own version of history, is all of course, fiction.
It is not a case of equivalency. There is no equivalency between criminal punishment for someone doing the work of the devil, and someone doing the work of Christ.
A heretic being put to death is not the same thing as a faithful Christian being put to death. One person is in the service of Satan, the other in the service of Christ.
A murderer only kills a person’s body, but teaching another person heresy kills the person’s soul forever.
In these times, there is no more Christendom, so it is of course no longer something that should be done. If Christendom still existed and could be prevented from falling by just war, or the death penalty, these would again be just to be used.
‘It is a certain, well established fact that no other crime so seriously offends God and provokes His greatest wrath as the vice of heresy. Nothing contributes more to the down fall of provinces and kingdoms than this frightful pest.’
St. Charles Borromeo
‘Heresy is from the Greek word meaning “choice”. . . But we are not permitted to believe whatever we choose, nor to choose whatever someone else has believed. We have the Apostles of God as authorities, who did not. . . choose what they would believe but faithfully transmitted the teachings of Christ. So, even if an angel from heaven should preach otherwise, he shall be called anathema.’
St. Isidore of Seville
