POPES WHO ARGUABLY FELL INTO MATERIAL (PERSONAL) HERESY

POPES WHO ARGUABLY FELL INTO

 MATERIAL (PERSONAL) HERESY

Most Catholics even non-Catholics do not have the 

proper un derstanding of Papal infallibility. A POPE 

IS ONLY INFALLIBLE WHEN HE SPEAKS EXCATHEDRA OR WHEN 

WHAT HE TEACHES FALLS IN LINE WITH TRADITION/ THE 

INFALLIBLE EXTRAORDINARY OR ORDINARY MAGESTERIUM. WHEN 

HE FAILS TO DO SO YOU MUST REJECT, ANY NOVELTY OR 

HERESY, AND MAINTAIN TRADITION/ANTIQUITY.

POPE ST. MARCELLINUS (296-304)

Marcellinus, during the persecutions of the Emperor

Diocletian in 303-304, offered incense to the idols of

the pagan gods.  Therefore, he apostatized, left the 

Catholic Faith, and left the Church.  Catholic theology

teaches that it is possible for this to happen with a

pope as with any other man, as a pope is a man and has

freewill to accept or reject the Catholic Faith.

The Catholic faithful were so scandalized by the pope's

apostasy that they accosted him and reproached him 

severely.  Under pressure from the Catholic faith, 

Marcellinus publicly recanted his error and deposed 

himself.  He declared himself unworthy of Christian 

burial and excommunicated all who might presume to bury

him.  His body lay above ground for 35 days 

decomposing. 

POPE LIBERIUS (352-355)

By his own admission (Letter "Studens Paci"), 

Liberius signed an heretical semi-Arian profession of

faith at Sirmium in 357, during the period of the 

Arian heresy in the Church.  He also excommunicated 

St. Athanasius, who was courageously defending the 

orthodox Catholic faith.

Liberius also signed, in December 359, when he was 

under pressure at the hands of the Emperor, who was 

holding him prisoner at Byzantium, a semi-Arian formula

that had already been accepted by all the (heretic) 

Eastern bishops, 160 in number, meeting at Seleucia,

and by 400 (heretic) Western bishops, at Rimini -- by

all of them except St. Hilary, St. Athanasius, and a

tiny handful of others, whom Liberius went so far as

to condemn and excommunicate.

These facts are attested to by St. Athanasius 

(History of the Arians, sec. 41; Apologia against

the Arians, sec. 89), St. Hilary of Potiers 

(Historical Fragments, Ad Constantium), and St. Jerome

(Chronicle), who wrote:  "Liberius, conquered by the

tedium of exile, WITH HERETICAL PERVERSITY, signed 

[the profession of semi-Arian faith] and entered into

 Rome as a conqueror."

Neither St. Athanasius nor St. Hilary had any problem

resisting the heretical politics of Pope Liberius. 

POPE ZOSIMUS (417-418)

Pope Zosimus, in the presence of the Roman clergy, 

recognized as orthodox the heretical statements of 

Pelagius, which had been condemned by Pope Innocent I

and the two Councils of Carthage.

Pelagianism, which denied the doctrine of Original Sin

and man's need for grace, was a virulent heresy of the

time, against which St. Augustine wrote numerous tracts

(The Remission of Sins and the Baptism of Children, 

The Spirit and the Letter, Letter to Hilary, Nature 

and Grace, Perfect Justice, The Acts of Pelagius, The

Grace of Christ, and Original Sin).

The pope condemned those who held the orthodox Catholic

faith as calumniators (Letter "Postquam nobis," 

November 21, 417; Letter "Magnum pondus") and demanded

a formal retraction from the orthodox African bishops,

St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Aurelius of Carthage.

In response, St. Augustine and St. Aurelian took a 

solemn oath with God as witness (obtestatio), affirming

that the prior Catholic doctrine prevailed over the 

judgment of the pope, which was upheld by a plenary

council of all Africa assembled.  Confronted with 

resistance to his part in perpetuating heresy, Pope 

Zosimus finally recanted and renewed the 

excommunication of the heretic Pelagius.

It was around this time that St. Augustine uttered the

famous words (or something close to them):  

Roma locuta est; causa finita est, in a Sermon CXXXI

of September 417.  Pope Zosimus was waffling on his 

precedessor's, Pope St. Innocent I's, anathema against

the heretic Pelagius.  St. Augustine meant by his 

statement since Rome had already spoken on the matter

(a reference to Pope St. Innocent I's anathema against

Pelagius), the case ought not to be reopened, even by

Pope Zosimus, who ought to give his assent to the 

solemn judgment of his predecessor. 

St. Augustine made his statement, then, at a time when

a pope was in the process of lending aid and comfort

to heretics, when he should have been holding fast to

what his predecessor had decreed.  The great Saint was

not saying that every decision of Rome must be blindly

obeyed; otherwise, he would have supported the reigning

pope.  He was warning people, the Pope included, that

Rome had already spoken on this matter and that it

would be gravely wrong for anyone (even, presumably,

a pope) to attempt to reverse a solid and sound 

judgment on a matter of Catholic doctrine. 

POPE ANASTASIUS (496-498)

This pope appears held in Hell in Dante Alighieri's

Inferno (Canto XI, lines 8-9):

...Anastasio papa guardo, lo qual trasse Fotin dela

via dritta. 

[...I hold Pope Anastasius,whom Photinus drew from the

straight path.]

In mediaeval tradition, this pope was held to have been

persuaded by Photinus, a deacon of Thessalonica, to 

deny the divine birth of Christ.  Although later 

scholarship has cast doubt on the correctness of this

tradition, the point is that it was a widely held 

opinion of the Church that a pope was a heretic, so 

widely held, in fact, that this pope appears as a 

heretic in one of the most read and influential texts

of the Middle Ages, written by a Franciscan Tertiary 

and praised by several subsequent popes as showing 

consonance with the Apostolic Tradition. 

POPE VIGILIUS (537-555)

Vigilius became to all appearances a supporter of 

heresy when, in 553, he refused to uphold firmly the

Church's teaching that Christ had two Wills, against

"Monothelism."  He did not condemn either this or the

older Monophysite heresy.  The Roman deacon Pelagius

attacked Vigilius on this account and charged him with

heresy, for which he was excommunicated by Vigilius. 

It was Pelagius, however, who succeeded him as pope,

only to fall into similar habits of temporizing and

diplomatic duplicity as his predecessor!

The Emperor Justianian had called a kangaroo council

to rescind the condemnation of the heresy of 

monophysitism, a heresy that denied the two natures,

human and divine, of Christ.  Pope Vigilius, who 

wished to return to Rome from exile, in a decree, or

Iudicatum, recanted his former orthodox Catholic 

position, condemned the orthodox decree of the Council

of Chalcedon (451), and excommunicated the 

bishop-authors of that decree (the so-called Three

Chapters of Theodoret).

As a result of this action, he was excommunicated for

heresy by an African Council and forced to annul the

Iudicatum, although he continued to support it 

privately in correspondence with the emperor.   

The Fifth Oecumenical Council at Constantinople (553)

excommunicated Pope Vigilius, and the next year he 

recanted again, saying that he had been deceived by

the devil.  

Having thus succumbed to public and personal heresy,

Pope Virgilus died before he reached Rome.  His heresy

had a great repercussion on the Church of the time. In

the West, it even caused a schism in northern Italy.

POPE BONIFACE IV (608-615)

Pope Boniface manifested strong tendencies toward the

Nestorian heresy, which denied the correct doctrine of

the two natures of Christ and denied that the Blessed 

Virgin Mary was the Mother of God.  This heresy was 

condemned by the Councils of Ephesus (431) and 

Chalcedon (451) and persists in parts of the East to

this day.

St. Columbanus wrote to the pope vehemently 

reprimanding him for his heretical tendencies 

(Epistula V), called upon the pope to prove his 

orthodoxy and to call a council to clarify the 

doctrinal confusions that the pope had created.

POPE HONORIUS I (625-638)

Honorius is, among all the popes in any way guilty 

of heresy, both the best known and the most culpable.

The phrase he used when justifying his compromise with

the heretics has a surprisingly up-to-date ring about

it, for all that it was spoken in 634:  "We must be 

careful not to rekindle ancient quarrels."  On the 

strength of this argument, he allowed error to spread 

freely, with the result that truth and orthodoxy were 

effectively banished.  Pope Honorius wrote a letter 

approving the heresy of the Patriarch Sergius of 

Constantinople, monothelitism, which held against the 

doctrine of the human and divine natures of Christ 

that there was only a single will in Christ.

This heresy was strongly opposed by St. Sophronius, 

later Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Maximus the 

Confessor, and various popes.  St. Sophronius called 

a council to combat the heresy, at which the constant 

teaching of the Church on the two natures, human and 

divine, in Christ was demonstrated.  Pope Honorius in 

reply reproved the orthodox Catholic patriarch and 

enlisted the help of the heretical emperor Heralitus.

The heresy of monothelitism, to which Pope Honorius 

personally held, was condemned by Pope Severinus 

(640-640), Pope John IV (640-642) in 642, Pope Theodore

I (642-649), who excommunicated the Patriarch of 

Constantinople for defending the error, Pope St. Martin

I 9649-655), who died a martyr for defending the 

orthodox Catholic doctrine, and Pope Eugenius I 

(654-657).

Finally, the Third Oecumenical Council of 

Constantinople (680-681) condemned the heresy of 

monothelitism and condemned and excommunicated Pope 

Honorius (after his death) as a heretic, as did 

Pope St. Leo II, who followed the Council, in these 

words: "Having found that [Honorius's letters] are in

complete disagreement with the Apostolic dogmata and

the definitions of the Holy Councils, and of all the 

approved Fathers; and that, on the contrary, they

lead to the false doctrines of the heretics, we 

absolutely reject and condemn them as being poisonous

to souls.

"We also state that Honorius, formerly pope of the 

elder Rome, had been also rejected from God's Holy 

Catholic Church and is being anathematized, on account 

of the writings that he sent to Sergius,where he 

adopted his ideas in everything, and reaffirmed his 

impious principles.  He is shown to be incapable of 

enlightening this Apostolic Church by the doctrine of 

Apostolic Tradition, in that he allowed its immaculate

faith to be blemished by a sacrilegious betrayal."

All the great Oecumenical Councils since then have 

endorsed this verdict. Even while proclaiming the 

dogma of Papal Infallibility, the Church upheld the 

anathema cast many centuries ago upon one of her 

Pontiffs on account of heresy.

Moreover, Pope Honorius admonished the bishops of 

Spain to be benevolent toward the errors of the 

Jewish religion, which had been condemned by the 

Council of Toledo (633), presided over by St. Isidore

of Seville.  St. Braulio of Saragossa publicly 

reproved the pope, charging that he could not believe

that "the astuteness of the serpent had been able to

leave traces of his passing over the stone of the 

Apostolic See."

THE CHURCH WAS ABSOLUTELY CLEAR THAT POPE HONORIUS WAS

CONDEMNED AND EXCOMMUNICATED BY THE CHURCH AS A 

HERETIC, WHO WROTE HERESY IN HIS OFFICIAL PAPAL 

LETTERS. 

#1. Honorius was condemned by the Third Oecumenical 

Council of Constantinople specifically as a heretic

who had taught heresy, not just because he was just

negligent and failed to teach the true Faith when it

was in danger of subversion.  The Council's findings

were as follows: We find that these documents 

[including those of Honorius] are quite foreign to the

Apostolic dogmata, to the declarations of the Holy

Councils, and to all the accepted Fathers, and that

they follow the false teachings of the heretics. 

We expel and anathematize from the Holy Church of God

Honorius, who was some time pope of Old Rome, because

of what we found written by him to Sergius, that in all

respects he followed his view and confirmed his 

impious doctrines....  

To Honorius, the heretic, anathema!...  [The devil]

has actively employed them [including Honorius]...   

We slew them [including Honorius] with anathema, as

lapsed from the faith and as sinners, in the morning

outside the camp of the tabernacle of God. 

#2. Pope Leo confirmed the documents of this Council 

with a sentence that actually confirms that Honorius

Moreover, [we anathematize] also Honorius, who ruled

this Apostolic Church, not by the doctrine of 

Apostolic Tradition; rather, he tried by profane 

treason to overthrow the immaculate Faith of the 

Roman Church.  Necnon et Honorium (anathematizamus), 

qui hanc Apostolicam ecclesiam, non Apostolicæ 

Traditionis doctrina lustravit, sed profana proditione

immaculatam fidem subvertere conatus est.” 

(Mansi, Tomus XI. p. 731] 

#3. The Council of Trullo was held just a few years 

after Constantinople III.  It stated that Honorius had

been condemned specifically because he taught heresy:

This council taught that we should openly profess our

faith that in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, our 

true God, there are two natural wills, or volitions, 

and two natural operations; and condemned by a just

sentence those who adulterated the true doctrine and

taught the people that in the one Lord Jesus Christ

there is but one will and one operation:  to wit, 

Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus of Alexandria, Honorius of

Rome, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter. 

The Oecumenical Council II Nicea also recorded that

Honorius held the heresy along with the other heretics:

We have also anathematised the idle tales of Origen,

Didymus, and Evagrius; and the doctrine of one will 

held by Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, and Pyrrhus, or 

rather, we have anathematized their own evil will.

POPE FORMOSUS (891-896)

Pope Stephen VI (VII) (896-897) had the body of Pope

Formosus (891-896), his second-to-last predecessor,

although not charged with heresy, exhumed, vested in

papal vestments, seated on a throne, formally placed

on trial before the Roman Synod (sometimes called the

Cadaver Synod) for having invalidly usurped the papal

throne.  When he was found guilty, Formosus was then

stripped of his papal vestments, and the three fingers

of his right hand -- the fingers with which he 

conferred blessings -- were cut off and cast away 

contemptuously.  Formosus' body was then thrown into 

the Tiber River.  Stephen deposed the dead pope, 

annulled all his decrees, and pronounced all the 

ordinations conferred by him invalid.  Although several

of Stephen's successors rehabilitated Formosus, Pope 

Sergius III (904-911) upheld Stephen's actions.   

Boniface VI (896), Stephen's immediate predecessor, 

was an excommunicated priest.  Formosus had himself 

been excommunicated in 872.  

POPE BENEDICT IX (1032-1044; 1045; 1047-8)

in 1049 Pope Benedict IX was excommunicated not for 

heresy, but for simony by a Lateran synod.   

He reportedly renounced the papal throne in exchange 

for the income of the annual St. Peter's Pence 

collection.  

POPE PASCHAL II (1099-1118)

In 1111 Pope Paschal II succumbed to the secular 

power and demanded that all bishops and abbots resign

so that the secular power could make its own 

appointments (lay investiture).  To a man, including 

St. Bruno of Segni, the bishops and abbots refused to 

obey the pope.

Paschal was declared suspect of heresy.  In 1112 Guido 

of Burgundy, Archbishop of Vienne and the future Pope 

Callistus II, with St. Hugh of Grenoble and St. 

Godfrey of Amiens, also acted against the pope at a 

provincial synod.          

In 1116, like St. Peter, the pope in public repented 

bitterly of the error that he had made in undermining 

the authority of the Church and acting against the 

common good of the Church.  

POPE JOHN XXII (1316-1334)          

In three sermons from 1331 until 1333 preached and 

wrote against the common opinion of theologians, 

preaching instead that the souls of the just do not 

enjoy the Beatific Vision immediately after death, 

nor are the wicked at once eternally damned, but that 

all await the final judgment of God at the Last Day.  

The pope was denounced as a heretic and demanded to be 

brought before a council for trial and condemnation.   

Yet he persisted in teaching this error, even throwing 

into the papal dungeon one who accused him of heresy. 

Eventually, however, the pope appointed a commission 

of theologians to examine the question, which easily 

showed him that his teaching was contrary to the 

almost universal opinion of theologians.  On the day 

before his death, December 3, 1334, he issued the Bull 

Ne Super His in the presence of the College of 

Cardinals, formally and solemnly revoking his opinion.

On January 29, 1936, his successor, Pope Benedict XII, 

published this document, along with his own 

Constitution, Benedictus Deus, which declared 

authoritatively and perpetually concerning the matter.

John XXII, upon his deathbed, solemnly recanted every

opinion, every teaching contrary to the Catholic Faith,

alluding to his heretical sermon given on the Feast of

All Saints in 1331, "determinationi Ecclesiae ac 

successorum nostrorum" [submitting all that he may have

said or written on the subject to the judgement of the

Church and of his successors].  

Such instances do not leave any room for doubt but 

that it is possible for a Pope to be guilty of heresy,

except in the exercise of the Extraordinary 

Magisterium, which, alone, is intrinsically infallible.

"Papal teaching authority was not thought of as being

independent of the other teaching authorities in the 

Church.  Scholastic theologians like St. Thomas Aquinas

recognized that the Pope could introduce new formulas 

of faith, but Thomas thought of this in the context of 

papal councils like the Lateran councils, and saw 

papal authority to determine the faith as being 

exercised as the head of such a council, not in 

opposition to it or independence from it. 

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http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/05/resistance-is-there-conciliar-church.html

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/05/suarez-on-what-to-do-if-pope-falls-into.html

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2015/02/john-of-st-thomas-on-deposition-of.html

http://tradcatknight.blogspot.com/2014/10/tradcatknight-radio-manifest-heresy.html

 Popes who have fallen into heresy