"The unbelief of heretics, who confess their belief in the Gospel
and resist that faith by corrupting it, is a more grievous sin than that of the heathens,
because the heathens have not accepted the faith in any way at all.
Hence, the unbelief of heretics is the worst sin."
-St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
and resist that faith by corrupting it, is a more grievous sin than that of the heathens,
because the heathens have not accepted the faith in any way at all.
Hence, the unbelief of heretics is the worst sin."
-St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Pope Leo X, Exsurge Domine, Condemning the Errors of Martin Luther, June 15, 1520, # 33:
"It is an error to believe: That heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit."
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Q. 11, Art. 3:
"On their side [the heretics] is the sin whereby they have deserved, not only to be separated from the Church by excommunication but also to be banished from the world by death. For it is a much heavier offense to corrupt the faith, whereby the life of the soul is sustained, than to tamper with the coinage, which is an aid to temporal life. Therefore 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.”
St. Thomas Aquinas:
"If heretics be altogether uprooted by death, this is not contrary to Our Lord's command."
St. Thomas More:
"Heresy is a kind of treason, and if a heretic persisteth in his false belief, he may be handed over to be burned."
Pope Clement XII:
"Error will never be suppressed unless the criminal elements of depravity be consumed in flames."
St. Ignatius of Loyola:
"If you were a heretic, you would go to the stake."
St. John Chysostom:
"Christ did not forbid us to reprove heretics, to silence their mouths, to restrict their liberty of speech, to scatter their assemblies. . .When they have not profited from the forbearance of the Lord, they must then receive their inevitable chastisement."
"If heretics be altogether uprooted by death, this is not contrary to Our Lord's command."
St. Thomas More:
"Heresy is a kind of treason, and if a heretic persisteth in his false belief, he may be handed over to be burned."
Pope Clement XII:
"Error will never be suppressed unless the criminal elements of depravity be consumed in flames."
St. Ignatius of Loyola:
"If you were a heretic, you would go to the stake."
St. John Chysostom:
"Christ did not forbid us to reprove heretics, to silence their mouths, to restrict their liberty of speech, to scatter their assemblies. . .When they have not profited from the forbearance of the Lord, they must then receive their inevitable chastisement."
Homosexual Priests Must Be Put to Death
St. Pius V, Constitutionn Horrendum Illud scelus, August 30, 1568:
"That horrible crime, on account of which corrupt and obscene cities were destroyed by fire through divine condemnation, causes us most bitter sorrow and shocks our mind, impelling us to repress such a crime with the greatest possible zeal.
Quite opportunely the Fifth Lateran Council [1512-1517] issued this decree:
"Let any member of the clergy caught in that vice against nature, given that the wrath of God falls over the sons of perfidy, be removed from the clerical order or forced to do penance in a monastery" (Chap. 4, X, V, 31).
So that the contagion of such a grave offense may not advance with greater audacity by taking advantage of impunity, which is the greatest incitement to sin, and so as to more severely punish the clerics who are guilty of this nefarious crime and who are not frightened by the death of their souls, we determine that they should be handed over to the severity of the secular authority, which enforces civil law. Therefore, wishing to pursue with greater rigor than we have exerted since the beginning of our pontificate, we establish that any priest or member of the clergy, either secular or regular, who commits such an execrable crime, by force of the present law be deprived of every clerical privilege, of every post, dignity and ecclesiastical benefit, and having been degraded by an ecclesiastical judge, let him be immediately delivered to the secular authority to be put to death, as mandated by law as the fitting punishment for laymen who have sunk into this abyss."