nsequently we should consider what they directly intend, and expel
them, rather than what is beside their intention, and so, tolerate
them.

Reply Obj. 3: According to Decret. (xxiv, qu. iii, can. Notandum),
"to be excommunicated is not to be uprooted." A man is
excommunicated, as the Apostle says (1 Cor. 5:5) that his "spirit may
be saved in the day of Our Lord." Yet if heretics be altogether
uprooted by death, this is not contrary to Our Lord's command, which
is to be understood as referring to the case when the cockle cannot
be plucked up without plucking up the wheat, as we explained above
(Q. 10, A. 8, ad 1), when treating of unbelievers in general.
_______________________

FOURTH ARTICLE [II-II, Q. 11, Art. 4]

Whether the Church Should Receive Those Who Return from Heresy?

Objection 1: It would seem that the Church ought in all cases to
receive those who return from heresy. For it is written (Jer. 3:1) in
the person of the Lord: "Thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers;
nevertheless return to Me saith the Lord." Now the sentence of the
Church is God's sentence, according to Deut. 1:17: "You shall hear the
little as well as the great: neither shall you respect any man's
person, because it is the judgment of God." Therefore even those who
are guilty of the prostitution of unbelief which is spiritual
prostitution, should be received all the same.

Obj. 2: Further, Our Lord commanded Peter (Matt. 18:22) to forgive
his offending brother "not" only "till seven times, but till seventy
times seven times," which Jerome expounds as meaning that "a man
should be forgiven, as often as he has sinned." Therefore he ought to
be received by the Church as often as he has sinned by falling back
into heresy.

Obj. 3: Further, heresy is a kind of unbelief. Now other unbelievers
who wish to be converted are received by the Church. Therefore
heretics also should be received.

_On the contrary,_ The Decretal Ad abolendam (De Haereticis, cap. ix)
says that "those who are found to have relapsed into the error which
they had already abjured, must be left to the secular tribunal."
Therefore they should not be received by the Church.

_I answer that,_ In obedience to Our Lord's institution, the Church
extends her charity to all, not only to friends, but also to foes who
persecute her, according to Matt. 5:44: "Love your enemies; do good
to them that hate you." Now it is part of charity that we should both
wish and work our