Early Heresies
The early Church dealt not only with external Roman persecution, but also with internal persecution in the form of false teachings, known as heresies. One of the earliest falsehoods that sought to reshape the Church’s fundamental teachings was Gnosticism (from the Greek gnosis, which means “knowledge”). Gnostics held to a negative view of the material world and believed it was the creation of an evil god, whereas spiritual things were positive and the work of a benevolent god. The dualist construct of the Gnostics presented the history of the world as a battle between the God of Goodness and Light and the God of Evil and Darkness. They believed that human souls were good (because they were spiritual) but imprisoned in evil, material human bodies.
Gnosticism was an ancient belief that predated the Faith and proved resilient because it assimilated teachings of various religions in order to accumulate adherents. It attempted to present Jesus as a spiritual being who only appeared human (thus denying the Incarnation) and who came to earth to provide the way to free the spirit from the evils of the material world. Those who joined the group were promised this secret knowledge of Jesus. Gnostics did not practice baptism and did not hold to the centrality of the Eucharist, since a good spiritual god would never imprison his presence in an evil material object. Their rejection of the material world led to the renunciation of marriage and the sexual act between man and woman — that union, in their eyes, might result in a good soul’s imprisonment in an evil body in the form of an infant. Additionally, their view of material things led to the bizarre belief that the highest form of worship was suicide, which freed the good soul from the bad body.54
The early Christian bishop Irenaeus (140–202), born in Smyrna, was a disciple of Saint Polycarp, who in turn had been a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist. Irenaeus was the bishop of Lyons in the imperial province of Gaul (modern-day France). He was an exceptional scholar, educated at Rome in philosophy and literature. He oriented his writing on the tasks of defending “true doctrine from the attacks of heretics” and explaining “the truth of the faith clearly.”55 In Against Heresies, his elaborate five-part survey of Gnosticism, he accurately identified the core teaching of the heresy: the origin of evil.56 Gnosticism sought to explain why evil exists in the world by attributing evil to material things. Irenaeus refuted this tenet by illustrating that the origin of evil is the wrong use of free will. Evil exists because men and women, given free will by a loving Creator, choose to perform evil actions — there is nothing inherently evil about material things.
Irenaeus also included a list of the Roman pontiffs, beginning with Saint Peter and ending with the reigning pope at the time of his writing, Eleutherius (r. 175–189). Interestingly, only four of the thirteen popes listed were born in the city of Rome, which illustrates the universality of the Church at this early stage. Irenaeus also presented the features of a true Church, in order to help Christians and new converts discern which communities were orthodox and which were heretical. He stressed that an authentic Christian community was one that preached a consistent message throughout the world and was founded upon apostolic succession — certainty of truth in doctrinal matters rests with churches that can trace apostolic origins. Irenaeus stressed that Christian teaching must be public — not secret like the Gnostics preached — guided by the Holy Spirit, and completely united:
The Church, though dispersed throughout the world … having received [this faith from the apostles] … as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down with perfect harmony as if she possessed only one mouth.57
Most importantly, Irenaeus highlighted the primacy of the Church in Rome, which is “the greatest and most important and best known of all, founded and organized by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul. For with this Church [Rome], because of her more powerful preeminence all churches must agree.”58 Irenaeus’s Against Heresies clearly illustrates that the early Christians believed the test of orthodoxy was unity with the Church in Rome and her bishop, the pope.
Marcion the Heretic
Marcion, a wealthy shipowner from Constantinople and the son of the bishop of Sinope (in modern-day Turkey), came to Rome in the year 135. He had semi-Gnostic tendencies, believing the material world was evil. These tendencies led him into heresy when he denied the humanity of Jesus, believing Christ’s human body was an optical illusion. Marcion is best known for his false interpretation of Scripture. He preached a dichotomy of the Old and New Testaments, arguing that the God portrayed in the Old Testament was a stern, wrathful judge, whereas the God of the New Testament was a loving father. The difference could only be explained by recognizing they were two different gods, a belief that still finds adherence in the modern world. He tried to convince the Roman Church that his interpretation was correct, but when his heresy was rejected in the summer of 144, he established his own church. Marcion’s church imitated the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church with Marcion, of course, as the head. Marcionites practiced a rigorous moral life and reserved baptism for celibates, eunuchs, and dedicated widows.
Saint Polycarp (D. 155)
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna (modern-day Turkey), was a disciple of Saint John the Evangelist, the recipient of one of Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s letters, and one of the most respected members of the Church. He had spent some time in Constantinople, where he met Marcion. Toward the middle of the second century, Polycarp was an elderly man near ninety when, shortly before his death, he made a journey to Rome to discuss an important matter with the pope.
While in Rome, Polycarp saw Marcion walking down the street, but made no move to acknowledge him. Marcion, offended, maneuvered to cross paths with the saintly bishop. When he was near Polycarp, Marcion called out, “Don’t you recognize me?” Polycarp responded, “I do indeed: I recognize the firstborn of Satan!”59 Polycarp, who preached strenuously against heresy, had no time for the egotistical founder of a heresy itself.
Soon after Polycarp returned home from his consultation with the pope, a persecution of Christians began in Smyrna. At a festival held in honor of Emperor Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161), anti-Christian outbursts erupted from a mob. Christians were arrested and martyred by being thrown to wild beasts in the arena; however, the mob’s bloodlust was not slaked. They demanded the life of the aged and venerable Polycarp. The bishop was sentenced to die by burning at the stake, but when all the preparations had been made and the fire lit, it miraculously failed to touch him. He was cut down from the stake and killed by the executioner’s dagger.60
Montanism
The late second century was witness to another heresy that greatly affected the Church. Montanus was a recent convert to the Faith who, along with two women, Maximilla and Prisca, who had left their husbands to follow him, began to utter prophecies and claim direct revelations from the Holy Spirit. Montanus argued that private revelations held equal authority to Scripture and the teaching of the Church. Montanus’s followers practiced a strict asceticism with severe penitential disciplines, including extreme fasting. Montanus believed sins committed after baptism could not be forgiven. This rigorist position produced a conflict in the Church between those favoring mercy toward Christians who gave in during the persecutions (known as lapsi), and rigorists who believed the lapsi could not reenter communion. Montanus also called his followers to renounce material goods, marriage, and the marital act, and to seek out martyrdom. Ultimately, Montanus’s insistence on equal authority of private revelation and Scripture helped to “reinforce the conviction that revelation had come to an end with the apostolic age, and so to foster the creation of a closed canon