TWENTY WAYS OF ESTABLISHING FROM EXTERNAL BEHAVIOR A PRESUMPTION THAT A PERSON IS A HERETIC CHAPTER 8 ~ WILLIAM OF OCKHAM


CHAPTER 8

TWENTY WAYS OF ESTABLISHING FROM EXTERNAL BEHAVIOR A PRESUMPTION THAT A PERSON IS A HERETIC 

Disciple Describe another way by which someone should be convicted of pertinacity.

Master Some say [third way] that he who holds that the universal church errs or has erred since the christian church began to gather together ought to be judged as pertinacious, even if he believes that the christian faith handed down by Christ and the apostles contains nothing which is false. For they say that such a person should not be examined about whether he is ready to be corrected but, by the very fact that he says this, he should be regarded as pertinacious.

Disciple Do all the learned think this way?

Master Some hold the contrary, saying that out of simplicity and ignorance someone can say without pertinacity and heretical wickedness that the church errs or has erred. And one who says this, therefore, should be examined punctiliously about whether he is ready to be corrected; and if he is indeed ready to be corrected he should not be judged as pertinacious or a heretic; if he refuses to be corrected, however, he should be numbered among the pertinacious and the heretics.



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