Titus 3:10-11 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
In modern times, in modern religious circles, and in modern Bibles, “an heretick” has been downgraded to a divisive person. Mark Ward wants the word to be one of his false friends. An heretic is a schismatic, but particularly so in Christian context due to being divisive in not holding the faith once delivered to the saints. An heretic is not merely someone who is honestly mistaken about some matters concerning the Scriptures, but one who holds heterodox views and separates the saints over them.
Around circa AD 180 Irenaeus of Lyons used the term heretic (in context of Titus 3:10) in reference to those he considered “corrupters of the truth” (Against Heresies, Book III.3.4.). The word would continue in that way, with that understanding.
Rowland Taylor (1510-1555) was a religious reformer in England during the reign of Queen Mary I. He opposed Catholic teachings, including the celibacy of priests, transubstantiation, and concomitation. On March 26, 1554, he was arrested for heresy because he was spreading the word of God in public. He was killed and burned at the stake on February 9, 1555.
Taylor is referenced in John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1610, p. 1383). Taylor, writing on the brink of execution, spoke of heresy and heretics in this way:
“It is heresie to defend any doctrine against the holy Scripture. Therefore the Lord Chauncellor and Bishops consenting to his sentence against mee, be heretickes. For them have given sentence against the marriage of Priests, knowing that S. Paul to Timothie and Titus writeth plainely, that bishops, priests, and deacons, may be married…
“My second cause why I was condemned an heretick is, that I denied Transubstantiation and Concomitation, two ingling words of the papists, by the which they do beleeve and will compell all other to beleeve that Christs naturall body is made of bread, and the Godhead by and by to bee joined thereunto…”
Definition of Hereticke in a 1622 dictionary
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