"THE
HERETICS themselves also, since they are thought to have the Christian
name and sacraments, Scriptures, and profession, cause great grief in
the hearts of the pious, both because many who wish to be Christians are
compelled by their dissensions to hesitate, and many evil-speakers also
find in them matter for blaspheming the Christian name, because they
too are at any rate "called" Christians. By these and similar depraved
manners and errors of men, those who will live piously in Christ suffer
persecution, even when no one molests or vexes their body; for they
suffer this persecution, not in their bodies, but in their hearts."
~St. Augustine: The City of God, 18, 51.
