"Judaism as such was not a heresy in Christian law, nor was a believing Jew a heretic. Judaism is not considered a heresy, but another faith."

The Maranos were tried, and rightly found guilty of heresy. They were under the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church through baptism, hence their public declaration that they were Catholics, while they were secretly following Jewish practices, was heretical. It was their action that caused the Inquisition to be instituted in Spain in 1480, which lasted until 1492.
   The common understanding among Protestants, that they are considered by the Catholic Church to be heretics, caused Pope Pius IX to declare in 1863,

"There are those who live in error, and who are strangers to the true Faith and Catholic unity through no fault of their own. Far be it from the members of the Catholic Church to exhibit any enmity towards them in any way. Rather let them fulfill all the duties of Christian charity towards them, above all to the poor, the sick, and those afflicted in any way amongst them."

Heresy is a sin. It is so declared in Jewish as well as Christian law. St. Paul enumerates heresies among "works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:20). A Catholic who denies one or more of the teachings of Christ is held by the Church to be a heretic. The Catholic Church teaches with absolute authority in matters of faith and morals, hence she is obligated to declare, as did St. Paul,

"Even if . . . an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you other than that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Gal. 1:8).

This applies to the denial of a single basic Christian teaching, for to deny one of God's teachings is to deny God. Hence a Catholic who proclaims belief in only nine of the Ten Commandments, for instance, is a heretic, as the denial of one of the Commandments is a denial of God, its Author. The same thing applies to every article in the Apostles Creed, and other teachings of the Church.
   Heresy, properly understood, is worse than murder. Murder robs man of his physical life, which at best is limited to a short term of years; whereas heresy robs man of his spiritual inheritance; it murders the soul, with the result that the heretic is deprived of an eternity of happiness, in the event of dying unrepentant.
   Trial and punishment for Heresy is of Jewish and not of Catholic origin, its objective being to keep pure in hearts the teachings of God; and to safeguard the attainment of eternal life. Look under "Heresy and Heretics" in "Vallentine's Jewish Encyclopedia" for an understanding of the Orthodox Jewish concept of the subject. This is what you will find,

"The term 'heretic' in connection with Judaism may conveniently be applied to any one who does not accept the two Torahs--the Written and Oral--in which Jewish teaching is contained. Apart from the idolaters of ancient times, the Talmud knows four main kinds of such heretics, which however, it is not always careful to distinguish: (l) the Cultheans or Samaritans, who accepted only the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua as inspired, and rejected the rest of the Scriptures; (2) the Sadducees and Boethusians, who rejected the Oral Law; (3) the MINIM--Judaeo-Christians (that is converts from the Synagogue to the Church) and Gnostics --who desired to supplement the TORAH of Moses with some other TORAH of superior authority; (4) the APIKORSIM, who denied the divine origin of the TORAH. The Karaite heresy, which appeared later, was essentially the same as that of the Sadducees" (p. 279).

Charges of heresy are not so frequent among non-Catholics today as they were in the religious past, on account of religious indifference, and theological incoherence. In our country, in which about one-third of the Jews of the world reside, a man may believe anything or nothing and be designated by sons of Israel as a Jew. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise could stand up in his "Free Synagogue," in Carnegie Hall, and shout out,

"I do not believe that the Ten Commandments were given by God on tablets of stone and handed to Moses on Mount Sinai. If that be heresy, then banish me from the Synagogue."

This sensational statement obtained the desired front page in the public press throughout the country. Of course, no one can be charged with heresy in a Synagogue that is "Free" from dogma, and from control of any one but the Rabbi himself. Heresy assumes an authoritatively defined belief and practice, such as obtains in the Catholic Church. Hence I asked at the time, "Who has any right to try Rabbi Wise for heresy, in a pulpit where he may speak on any thing he desires, in any manner that suits him personally? The Rabbi was only making a 'stageplay' when he challenged any one to try him for denying the Mosaic miracle." The so-called Jew or Jews, Einstein, went a step further. He denied belief in a personal God, while speaking in a Jewish Theological Seminary. Was he tried for heresy? Not at all. He would very likely have been, and rightly so, were he a member of an Orthodox Synagogue.
   I told in my last letter of Spinoza, whose denial of belief in a personal God caused him to be excommunicated by the sons of Jews who were deported from Spain and Portugal on account of the heretical conduct of the Maranos. Spinoza was banished from Amsterdam, and to avoid assassination, after "a fanatic made an attempt on his life with a knife," he left his native city where the "curses had been pronounced upon him" by the rabbis in their leading Synagogue. Gabriel da Costa, is another leading Jew whose tragic life and treatment by these Amsterdam Jews, on account of his heretical teachings, was most dramatic. It inspired Gutzkow's tragedy, "Uriel Acosta"; and Zangwill's "Dreamers of the Ghetto." His denial of the immortality of the soul was rightly called a heresy. The Rabbis caused him to be arrested in Amsterdam, fined 300 guilders, and his "heterodox book to be publicly burned." Let the Encyclopedia of Jewish Knowledge say a further word about him:

"He fled to Hamburg, but soon returned to Amsterdam, and in 1633 became, in his own words, 'an ape among the apes', offering his submission to the Synagogue. Formalist he could not be, and his contrariness resulted in his being made subject to the 'great ban.' For seven years he lived silent and solitary, boycotted even by his relatives. Then he yielded, made confession of error and suffered the ignominy of a public scourging and 39 stripes. He went home, wrote an impassioned sketch of his own life, 'A Specimen of Human Existence,' and shot himself" (p. II).