I think the notion of killing heretics, as in the crusade against the Cathars was a heresy imported from Islam.
A military leader asked how he could determine if a Cathar was a heretic.
“Neco es omnes, Dio se agnoscet”. was reportedly the response that the learned monk gave.
Kill them all, G-d knows his own.
That’s not a heresy “in post modern dress” or otherwise today - not in the Church anyway.
Today, heretics are given TV shows..
:)
Long on gossip short on facts.
You wrote:
“I think the notion of killing heretics, as in the crusade against the Cathars was a heresy imported from Islam.”
False. Christians - and secular states like the Roman Empire - were killing violent heretics before Islam existed.
“A military leader asked how he could determine if a Cathar was a heretic. “Neco es omnes, Dio se agnoscet”. was reportedly the response that the learned monk gave. Kill them all, G-d knows his own.”
Actually, no. You made two mistakes: 1) Your first mistake is believing it ever happened. No contemporary source supports the story. Caesarius of Heisterbach probably invented the quote for dramatic effect. 2) You also have the quote wrong. It is “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.” http://gahom.ehess.fr/relex/dialogusmiraculorum1/CdH-Dialog.mir.-Vol1/CdH-Dialog.mir.-Volume1-308.html Even the version of the quote you use is odd in that it appears in several different spellings on the internet. That leads me to believe it is made up, phony quote made up by people sitting online with a Cassel’s dictionary and little knowledge about history. Don’t be fooled.