In
religion, recantation may be required to avoid
punishment or imposed to obtain
pardon from a
sin such as: •
Heresy (wrong choice) which means questioning or
doubting dogmatic established beliefs •
Blasphemy (evil-speaking) which is the act of insulting or showing contempt for a religious
deity. •
Apostasy which implies either revolt against or renunciation or abandonment of a prescribed religious
duty, especially
disloyalty sedition and
defection. One of the more famous recantations in religious history was that of
Thomas Cranmer, by which he recanted the Protestant or Anglican faith in favor of the
Roman Catholic beliefs, after his imprisonment by
Queen Mary. In
Protestantism, recantation may be requested by or ordered from an ecclesiastical authority such as a
synod or
ecumenical council. In the
Roman Catholic Church, the
Inquisition,
Holy Office, or even on rare occasion the contemporary
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith required an act of renunciation to enforce an
orthodoxy. In a
secular state, if ordered to recant by religious authority, one who refused to recant may be
anathematized or
excommunicated or subject to
social exclusion. In a
theocracy, an order to recant may include threats of physical punishment such as
prison or
corporal punishment which may include
death or lethal cruelty such as the
burning at the stake suffered by
Joan of Arc. ==References==