Early Christian heresies up to the Great Schism (1054), organized by doctrinal area. Each entry summarizes what it taught, when and where it appeared, and how the Church responded.
The Fathers did theology in public conflict, not abstraction. These controversies forced the Church to define orthodoxy with precision about God, Christ, grace, Scripture, worship, and the Church.
Major councils in this period
Questions about Law, canon, and the unity of God's revelation.
What It Taught
Gentile Christians must keep the Mosaic Law (circumcision and food laws) to be fully saved.
When and Where
1st century and later pockets.
How It Was Fought
New Testament debates (especially Paul); later Fathers argued the Law is fulfilled in Christ, not a salvation requirement.
What It Taught
Jesus is Messiah but not fully divine (often treated as a purely human prophet), with strong Torah observance and rejection of Paul.
When and Where
1st-4th centuries, especially Palestine and Syria.
How It Was Fought
Early Fathers (such as Justin and Irenaeus) rejected it for denying Christ's divinity and apostolic teaching.
What It Taught
The God of the Old Testament is different from the Father of Jesus; rejected the Old Testament and used a cut-down New Testament canon.
When and Where
Mid-2nd century onward; spread widely for centuries.
How It Was Fought
Condemned early by church leadership; patristic refutations helped clarify the canon and the unity of God.
Matter treated as evil, salvation by secret knowledge, and denial of full incarnation.
What It Taught
Salvation through secret knowledge; material world flawed or evil; lesser creator (Demiurge); frequent denial of Christ's real humanity.
When and Where
Mainly 2nd-3rd centuries across many regions.
How It Was Fought
Major patristic refutations (especially Irenaeus and others); the Church emphasized one God, good creation, and true incarnation.
What It Taught
Complex hierarchy of aeons, salvation by gnosis, and often docetic or elitist themes.
When and Where
2nd-3rd centuries in wider Gnostic networks.
How It Was Fought
Rejected by Fathers as incompatible with apostolic faith, catholic worship, and the public gospel.
What It Taught
Multi-level cosmos and salvation-through-knowledge patterns similar to broader Gnosticism.
When and Where
2nd-3rd centuries.
How It Was Fought
Refuted in patristic anti-Gnostic writing and rejected by bishops as speculative and anti-incarnational.
What It Taught
Mythic retellings with Seth or serpent symbolism and cosmic hierarchies replacing apostolic doctrine.
When and Where
2nd-3rd centuries.
How It Was Fought
Rejected as mythic alternatives to the biblical narrative and the rule of faith.
What It Taught
Gnostic worldview claiming special knowledge; often accused of moral license (with varied source reports).
When and Where
2nd century onward in scattered circles.
How It Was Fought
Refuted in heresiological literature and condemned for elitism and doctrinal corruption.
What It Taught
Jesus only seemed human; His suffering and death were not truly real.
When and Where
1st-2nd centuries and wherever Gnostic influence spread.
How It Was Fought
Early bishops and Fathers insisted on real incarnation, real cross, and real resurrection; later conciliar Christology rules it out.
What It Taught
Strict Light-versus-Darkness dualism; matter as evil; minimized Christ's humanity; highly ascetic structure.
When and Where
3rd century onward across East and West.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by church and imperial authority; strong theological rebuttals, especially by Augustine after his conversion out of it.
What It Taught
Dualist, anti-sacramental, and anti-icon tendencies with rejection of much ecclesial structure.
When and Where
7th-9th centuries in Armenia and Asia Minor, later relocated groups.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by Byzantine church and state as a serious heresy.
What It Taught
Balkan dualism, rejection of sacraments, icons, and hierarchy, often with docetic tendencies.
When and Where
10th-11th centuries in Bulgaria and surrounding regions (before and after 1054).
How It Was Fought
Condemned by Orthodox authorities and suppressed as a major medieval threat.
Disputes over whether God is one in essence and three in persons.
What It Taught
Father, Son, and Spirit are not distinct persons but one God acting in different roles.
When and Where
2nd-3rd centuries.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by bishops and refuted by theologians; later creeds presume real personal distinction within the Trinity.
What It Taught
Because Father and Son are the same person, the Father Himself suffered on the cross.
When and Where
2nd-3rd centuries in some circles.
How It Was Fought
Rejected for confusing the persons of Father and Son.
What It Taught
The Son is not eternal God in the same way as the Father and is created or unequal in being.
When and Where
4th century, with long political and missionary aftereffects.
How It Was Fought
Nicaea (325) condemned it; Constantinople (381) reaffirmed Nicene orthodoxy.
What It Taught
The Son is of similar substance to the Father, not the same substance.
When and Where
4th century debates.
How It Was Fought
Defeated through mature Nicene theology insisting on full consubstantiality.
What It Taught
The Son is merely similar to the Father, avoiding substance language.
When and Where
4th century.
How It Was Fought
Rejected by Nicene defenders as evasive and doctrinally unstable.
What It Taught
The Son is unlike the Father in essence (radical Arian form).
When and Where
4th century.
How It Was Fought
Rejected as incompatible with Christian worship of Christ.
What It Taught
A highly rationalized anomoean theology claiming exhaustive conceptual access to divine essence.
When and Where
4th century.
How It Was Fought
Refuted by Cappadocian theology and condemned in the anti-Arian settlement.
What It Taught
The Holy Spirit is not fully God, but a created or lesser being.
When and Where
4th century.
How It Was Fought
Constantinople (381) condemned it and taught the Spirit is Lord and glorified with Father and Son.
What It Taught
Father, Son, and Spirit are three separate gods.
When and Where
Especially 6th-century philosophical-theological disputes.
How It Was Fought
Condemned for destroying monotheism; orthodoxy teaches one essence in three persons.
What It Taught
The Son and or Spirit are lesser divine beings beneath the Father.
When and Where
Various forms across early centuries.
How It Was Fought
Nicene theology progressively clarified equality of persons in one God.
What It Taught
God has a literal human body or physical shape.
When and Where
4th-5th century controversies, often among some monastic groups.
How It Was Fought
Rejected because God is spirit and not bodily in essence.
Conflicts over Christ's person, natures, operations, and wills.
What It Taught
Jesus begins as a mere man and is adopted as Son of God later (often at baptism or resurrection).
When and Where
2nd-3rd centuries; revived in 8th-century Spain.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by local synods and later Western authorities, including Frankfurt (794) for the Spanish form.
What It Taught
Christ had a human body but not a full human rational soul or mind; the Logos replaced it.
When and Where
Late 4th century.
How It Was Fought
Constantinople (381) condemned it; Christ must be fully human to heal and save humanity.
What It Taught
Over-separates divinity and humanity in Christ, effectively dividing Him into two subjects; rejects Theotokos in the orthodox sense.
When and Where
Early 5th century; long afterlife in East Syriac contexts.
How It Was Fought
Ephesus (431) condemned it; Chalcedon (451) further clarified orthodox Christology.
What It Taught
After incarnation Christ has only one nature; humanity is fused, absorbed, or confused into divinity.
When and Where
Mid-5th century onward.
How It Was Fought
Chalcedon (451) taught one person in two natures without confusion or division.
What It Taught
Christ's body was inherently incorruptible and unlike ours in truly human conditions.
When and Where
Later one-nature controversies.
How It Was Fought
Rejected as undermining real and complete humanity.
What It Taught
Attributed ignorance to Christ in ways judged incompatible with orthodox Christology.
When and Where
Later Christological disputes.
How It Was Fought
Rejected in post-Chalcedonian clarification of person and natures.
What It Taught
Christ has one energy or operation as a compromise formula before will debates.
When and Where
7th century.
How It Was Fought
Rejected as inadequate and as a pathway to monothelite error.
What It Taught
Christ has only one will (typically divine), not both divine and human wills.
When and Where
7th century, at times backed by imperial policy.
How It Was Fought
Constantinople III (680-681) condemned it and affirmed two wills corresponding to two natures.
Debates over original sin, grace, and the beginning of faith.
What It Taught
Denied original sin in a strong sense and taught humans can obey and be saved without interior transforming grace.
When and Where
Early 5th century.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by North African councils and reaffirmed by Ephesus (431); Augustine's anti-Pelagian work was decisive.
What It Taught
The first movement toward faith begins in unaided human will, with grace assisting afterward.
When and Where
5th-6th centuries.
How It Was Fought
Condemned at Orange (529), highly authoritative in the West.
Who belongs to the Church and how grace is mediated in ecclesial life.
What It Taught
Claimed continuing prophetic revelations with extraordinary authority, often overriding normal church order and governance.
When and Where
Late 2nd century onward.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by regional synods and criticized for undermining apostolic authority and ecclesial order.
What It Taught
The Church cannot restore grave post-baptismal sinners, especially those who denied Christ under persecution.
When and Where
Mid-3rd century and later remnants.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by synods; the Church upheld forgiveness and restoration through repentance.
What It Taught
Sacraments are invalid if ministers are morally unworthy; true Church must be morally pure.
When and Where
4th-5th centuries in North Africa.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by councils (including Arles 314), heavily refuted by Augustine, and later suppressed by imperial policy.
What It Taught
Continuous prayer alone is the true path, downplaying sacraments and ordinary church life while claiming direct sensory divine experience.
When and Where
4th-5th centuries with later echoes.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by Eastern synods as anti-sacramental and anti-ecclesial.
Errors in devotion that either overreach or distort received doctrine.
What It Taught
Offered sacrifice-like worship to Mary, effectively treating her as divine.
When and Where
4th century (reported in Arabia).
How It Was Fought
Rejected by Fathers as idolatry: Mary is honored but not worshiped.
What It Taught
Denied Mary's perpetual virginity in forms treated by many Fathers as a serious doctrinal error.
When and Where
Late 4th-century controversies.
How It Was Fought
Opposed in patristic argument, though not defined by an ecumenical council in this era.
The icon controversy and the theology of depiction after the incarnation.
What It Taught
Veneration of icons is idolatry, icons should be destroyed, and Christ's humanity should not be depicted.
When and Where
8th-9th centuries in the Byzantine Empire.
How It Was Fought
Condemned at Nicaea II (787), with final restoration of icons in 843 in the East.
Smaller or regional movements frequently listed in heresy handbooks.
What It Taught
Marriage is evil; at times banned meat and wine; treated material creation as impure.
When and Where
2nd century onward in multiple regions.
How It Was Fought
Condemned in various regions; the Church affirmed marriage and creation as good gifts.
What It Taught
Observed Pascha on 14 Nisan regardless of weekday (calendar discipline conflict).
When and Where
2nd-4th centuries, especially Asia Minor.
How It Was Fought
Handled mostly as a major discipline dispute, then gradually standardized through wider church decisions.
What It Taught
Rejected the Gospel of John and Revelation, often to resist Logos theology and some apocalyptic readings.
When and Where
2nd-century reports.
How It Was Fought
Rejected by church writers defending Johannine canon and Logos doctrine.
What It Taught
Elevated Melchizedek as a divine being, at times above Christ.
When and Where
Late 4th-5th century reports.
How It Was Fought
Refuted in patristic writing and rejected for undermining Christ's unique priesthood.
What It Taught
Ascetic-esoteric synthesis with dualist and Gnostic-style elements; sources differ on details but the movement was condemned.
When and Where
Late 4th-5th centuries in Spain.
How It Was Fought
Condemned by regional synods as heresy.
What It Taught
Later targeted claims linked to Origenist trajectories, including pre-existence of souls and universal restoration in certain speculative forms.
When and Where
Especially 5th-6th century monastic and theological conflicts.
How It Was Fought
Condemnations associated with Constantinople II (553) and related imperial-church actions, rejecting propositions judged incompatible with the rule of faith.
What It Taught
A controversy over writings and figures suspected of Nestorian tendencies and whether condemning them would compromise Chalcedon.
When and Where
6th century.
How It Was Fought
Addressed at Constantinople II (553), with attempts to preserve Chalcedonian orthodoxy while condemning suspect texts.
Historical labels can be broad and sources can vary. This guide follows mainstream patristic and conciliar framing and is designed for study, catechesis, and historical orientation.