Lateran IV called for excommunication of heretics, and confiscation of their property by the state. This is a legitimate function of the state to maintain social order and to squelch unrest and rebellion. They did not call for the extermination of fellow Christians. Biblical support for such an action comes when we read, "turned his body over to Satan that he learn not to blaspheme" Some points to consider:
1) We do not judge previous societies by today's standards. That is vanity the same way the scribes and Pharisees told Jesus that they would not have killed the prophets as previous generations have done. He called them out on their hypocrisy.
2) Heretics are not fellow Christians, but are in rebellion against the teachings of the Church. There are no heretics in Heaven. There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. We need to define what is a heretic:
St. Thomas (II-II:11:1) defines heresy: "a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the
faith of
Christ, corrupt its
dogmas". "The right
Christian faith consists in giving one's
voluntary assent to
Christ in all that truly belongs to His teaching. There are, therefore, two ways of deviating from
Christianity: the one by refusing to
believe in
Christ Himself, which is the way of infidelity, common to
Pagans and
Jews; the other by restricting
belief to certain points of
Christ's doctrine selected and fashioned at pleasure, which is the way of heretics. The subject-matter of both
faith and heresy is, therefore, the deposit of the faith, that is, the sum total of
truths revealed in
Scripture and
Tradition as proposed to our
belief by the
Church. The believer accepts the whole deposit as proposed by the
Church; the heretic accepts only such parts of it as commend themselves to his own approval. The heretical tenets may be
ignorance of the
true creed,
erroneous judgment, imperfect apprehension and comprehension of
dogmas: in none of these does the will play an appreciable part, wherefore one of the necessary conditions of sinfulness--free choice--is wanting and such heresy is merely
objective, or
material. On the other hand the will may freely incline the
intellect to adhere to tenets declared
false by the Divine teaching authority of the
Church. The impelling motives are many:
intellectual pride or exaggerated reliance on one's own insight; the illusions of religious
zeal; the allurements of political or ecclesiastical power; the ties of material interests and personal status; and perhaps others more dishonourable. Heresy thus willed is imputable to the subject and carries with it a varying degree of guilt; it is called
formal, because to the material
error it adds the informative element of "freely willed".
Pertinacity, that is, obstinate adhesion to a particular tenet is required to make heresy
formal. For as long as one remains willing to submit to the
Church's decision he remains a
Catholic Christian at heart and his wrong
beliefs are only transient
errors and fleeting opinions. Considering that the
human intellect can assent only to
truth, real or apparent, studied pertinacity — as distinct from wanton opposition — supposes a firm subjective conviction which may be sufficient to inform the
conscience and create "good faith". Such firm convictions result either from circumstances over which the heretic has no control or from
intellectual delinquencies in themselves more or less
voluntary and imputable. A man born and nurtured in heretical surroundings may live and die without ever having a doubt as to the
truth of his creed. On the other hand a born
Catholic may allow himself to drift into whirls of anti-Catholic thought from which no doctrinal authority can rescue him, and where his
mind becomes incrusted with convictions, or considerations sufficiently powerful to overlay his
Catholic conscience. It is not for man, but for
Him who searcheth the mind and heart, to sit in judgment on the guilt which attaches to an heretical
conscience.
Fantastic.
