Henry Zlotkowski
Church History Per 6
11/7/14
Chapter Five Essay
Introduction- During the time of St. Augustine there were many different heresies, that didn’t believe exactly what the Christians did. Some of the major ones would argue and debate with St. Augustine about why their religion had the correct churches orthodoxy belief. But it never seemed to work. The three major ones were the Manichaean, Donatist, and Pelagians. St. Augustine would rebut their beliefs and teach them the Church’s orthodoxy.
Body Paragraph 1- The first heresies that had heretical beliefs and St. Augustine had to address the churches orthodoxy beliefs were the Manichaean’s. The Manichaean’s believed in two gods known as dualism. They are very similar to Gnosticism. They thought sin wasn’t your fault it was the devil working through you. St. Augustine rebutted that by saying that there is only one true God. He said we were born with free will and it’s not evils fault. Only way to get rid of free will is to get baptized. He related this to the Adam and Eve story that everyone knew, he says we need to get rid of the fate that Adam and Eve gave to us. That is the first heresies that St. Augustine had to rebut there beliefs and teach them the Church’s orthodoxy.
Body Paragraph 2- The second heresies that had heretical beliefs and St. Augustine had to address the churches orthodoxy beliefs were the Donatist’s. They believed in the validity of the sacraments. They thought that the sacraments wouldn’t really be reliable if the priest had sin before. They thought that the priest couldn’t have sins or else the their sacrament wouldn’t really count. St. Augustine said that the orthodoxy was that the priest doesn’t matter that the Holy Spirit works through the priest. That makes the sacraments reliable and they don’t have to remake the sacraments. He also says that not every human is perfect so the priest will sin. That is the second heresies that St. Augustine had to rebut their beliefs and teach them the Church’s orthodoxy.