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{{trope}}
[[The Heretic]] is a traitor to [[The Church]] and/or its [[Canon]]. Most commonly, he was once a member of its congregation or even its [[Good Shepherd|clergy]] but got officially excommunicated for propagating beliefs that go against [[The Church]]'s official dogma. Often, the Church sends out [[Knight Templar|Knights Templar]] to [[Kill It Withwith Fire|Kill Them With Fire]] along with [[Burn the Witch|witches]]. Just being a heretic doesn't mark you evil by default: A heretic to a [[Saintly Church]] is often [[Chaotic Evil]], but a heretic to a [[Corrupt Church]] or a [[Path of Inspiration]] may well be a [[Defector From Decadence]].
 
To qualify as a heresy worthy of condemnation, the "heresy" should have an intrinsic connection to doctrines of the church in question. Someone who merely disagrees with the Church as an outsider is not a heretic - for instance, Hypatia of Alexandria. Wiccans are not considered "heretics" to the Catholic religion, but Padre Ned Reidy was put on trial for heresy.
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== [[Literature]] ==
* The Damned One is the history's greatest heretic in ''[[Arcia Chronicles]]''. The twist in his case is that he is actually {{spoiler|St. Erasti, one of the most (if not ''the'' most) revered saints of [[The Church]]. This knowledge was so dangerous that [[The Church]] [[Written Byby the Winners|erased all connections]] between St. Erasti and the Damned One from history after his defeat}}.
* ''[[The Name of the Rose (Literature)|The Name of the Rose]]'', by [[Umberto Eco]], entirely revolves around the theme of the thin line between orthodoxy and heresy, and what happens when people cross it.
* Nicholas Harpole in ''[[The Company Novels|In The Garden of Iden]]''.
* In [[David Eddings]]' ''[[The Redemption of Althalus]]'', one of [[The Atoner|Althalus]]' major enemies is a "defrocked" priest.
** From the same author, there's [[Recurring Villain]] Martel in the ''[[Elenium]]'', a former [[The Paladin|Church Knight]] who turned to the worship of the [[God of Evil|Dark God Azash]] and committed various atrocities since.
* The Church in the ''[[Safehold]]'' series brands the entire nation of Charis as being heretics, mainly because they had the gall to survive the Church's attempts to obliterate them out of sheer paranoia. So far, despite having called down a holy war upon the Charisians, they have yet to learn that many of the leaders of Charis really ''are'' heretics, although the heresy they believe in (That the Archangels were not really divine messengers) is actually true.
* In the [[Disgaea]] [[Disgaea Novels|novels]] we meet [[Our Angels Are Different|angel]] [[Disgaea Novels (Light Novel)/Characters|Ozonne]] who propagates beliefs that go against [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven|Celestia]]'s official dogma and is considered to be a heretic, but she is not excommunicated for it because the [[Big Good|big boss]] [[Physical God|Seraph Lamington]] want to let heretics run free.
* The Preacher in ''Children of Dune'' certainly counts as this. He wanders the cities and settlements on the planet Arrakis, speaking out against the religion that has grown around the late Paul Atreides and his sister Alia. Of course it turns out that {{spoiler|the Preacher actually ''is'' Paul, having walked blind into the desert several years before, thus essentially excommunicating '''himself''' from the dogmatic power structure that he had begun to hate.}}
 
 
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* The reformation had just started at the start of [[The Tudors]], but gained momentum as the series went on. Because of that the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|list grew ever longer]]. Here goes: [[Femme Fatale|Anne Boleyn]], [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Thomas Cromwell]], [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Archbishop Cranmer]], [[Complete Monster|Thomas Boleyn]], [[The Woman Wearing the Queenly Mask|Catherine Parr]], [[Girl in Thethe Tower|Anne Parr]], [[Magnificent Bastard|Edward Seymour]], [[Magnificent Bastard|Anne Stanhope]], [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|Thomas Seymour]], [[Put Onon a Bus|The Duchess of Suffolk]], [[Cool Teacher|Kate Ashley]] and [[One-Scene Wonder|Anne Askew]]. Some of them suffered for it, all the others at least lived in fear of discovery.
** [[Wise Beyond Their Years|Elizabeth]] and [[A Child Shall Lead Them|Edward]] are also raised this way.
** During the course of the series quite a few minor characters got burned and tortured for this reason as well.
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* The Heretic from ''[[Halo]] 2'', an Elite who learned the truth about the "Great Journey" from 343 Guilty Spark and tried to warn the others. The Arbiter is branded a heretic at the beginning for his failure in the previous game, but that's really just an excuse to have him executed for his failure. Though later he does join the "heathen" humans and renounces all believes of the Covenant.
* [[Final Fantasy Tactics|Ramza]] gets branded as one when he runs afoul of their [[Ancient Conspiracy]] and kills a (demon-possessed) bishop in self defense. On the other hand, Olan Durai is also burned at stake for trying to reveal the truth behind The Lion War and Ramza's unsung heroism.
* Billy from ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' rejects the doctrines of his church once he learns of its sponsorship and purpose.
* ''[[Xenosaga (Video Game)|Xenosaga]]'': Pellegri stops just short of accusing her superior, Margulis, of heresy when he questions the authority of Lord Heinlein.
** On that note, Shion and Jin, who both are likely to have extensive ties to the Ormus religion - physically beat the crap out of '''The Pope''' at the end of ''Episode II''.
* Yuna becomes a heretic in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' when she resolves to reject the teachings of Bevelle and fight Sin to destruction.
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