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So an error once affirmed could not be denied nor even dropped, and the Bible and reason had to be interpreted and twisted to match the infallible decrees of fallible men. No wonder it was found that it required a very expert theologian to interpret the Scriptures so as to make them agree with the so-called infallible decrees. No wonder either that, from expediency, Antichrist—

Proscribed the Bible. The history of Papacy shows clearly that, while professing to reverence the Bible as the Word of God, it has kept it in the background and its own infallible words in the front. Not only so, but it has proscribed God's Word entirely, as unfit to be read and dangerous to the people, that its own infallible word might have full control. It well knew that the Bible was dangerous to its power, and a constant denouncement of its blasphemous pretentions.

In the days of Papal power, the possession or reading of the Bible by the people was treated as a criminal offence. The art of printing and the general revival of learning resulting therefrom, about the sixteenth century, secured the resurrection of the Bible from the sepulcher of dead languages where Antichrist had long kept it hidden, forbidding the translating of it under severe penalties. And when an awakening spirit of independence began to scatter it in living languages among the people, Bible-burning was no uncommon thing; and long and loud were the merciless curses that issued from the Vatican against the presumptuous sinners who dared to translate, publish or read the Word of God.

When Wiclif published his translation, Pope Gregory sent a bull to the Oxford University condemning the translator as "run into a detestable kind of wickedness." Tyndale's translation was also condemned; and when Luther published his German translation, Pope Leo. X. issued a bull against him. Nevertheless, the work went

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grandly and steadily forward: the Bible was to have a complete resurrection, and was destined to shed light upon men of every nation and language. Slowly the Church of Rome came to realize this, and resolved, therefore, to permit the translation of the Scriptures into modern languages, by Catholic translators, accompanied with Catholic notes. These, however, were not to be given to the people, except where there was danger of their receiving the Protestant translations. The Rhemish translation declares this.

The following show the character of some of the Notes of the Reims-Douay version, that latterly has been superseded by the Challoner version, called the Douay Bible, very similar, but with less pointed notes. A note on Matt. 3 reads: "Heretics may be punished and suppressed; and may, and ought, by public authority, either spiritual or temporal, to be chastised or executed." One on Gal. 1:8 reads: "Catholics should not spare their own parents, if heretics." On Heb. 5:7 the note reads: "The translators of the Protestant Bible ought to be translated to the depths of hell." And on Rev. 17:6 the comment reads: "But the blood of Protestants is not called the blood of saints, no more than the blood of thieves, man-killers, and other malefactors, for the shedding of which, by the order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer."

The following are some of the restrictions imposed when it was found that the reading of the Bible could not be entirely prevented. The fourth rule of the Index Expurgatoris says:

"If any shall have the presumption to read or possess the Bible without written permission, he shall not receive absolution until he have first delivered up such Bible to the ordinary. Book-sellers who shall sell or otherwise dispose of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, to any person not having such permission, shall forfeit the value of the books, … and be subjected by the bishop to such other penalties as

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the bishop shall judge proper, according to the quality of the offence."

Said the Council of Trent, in its session A.D. 1546:

"In order to restrain petulant minds, the council decrees that in matters of faith and morals, and whatever relates to the maintenance of Christian doctrine, no one, confiding in his own judgment, shall dare to wrest the sacred Scriptures to his own sense of them, contrary to that which hath been held, and still is held, by the holy mother church, whose right it is to judge of the true meaning."

From the bull of Pius VII., against Bible Societies, issued June 29, 1816, to the Primate of Poland, we quote:

"We have been truly shocked at this most crafty device … Having, because of the great importance of the subject, conferred in council with our venerable brethren, the cardinals of the holy Roman Church, we have, with the utmost care and attention, deliberated upon the measures proper to be adopted by our pontifical authority, in order to remedy and abolish this pestilence as far as possible. … Of your own accord you have already shown an ardent desire to detect and overthrow the impious machinations of these innovators; yet, in conformity with our office, we again and again exhort you that whatever you can achieve by power, provide by counsel, or effect by authority, you will daily execute with the utmost earnestness. … The Bible printed by heretics is to be numbered among other prohibited books, conformably to the rules of the Index."

The same pope in 1819 issued a bull against the use of the Scriptures in the schools of Ireland. We quote:

"Information has reached the ears of the sacred congregation that Bible Schools, supported by the funds of the heterodox, have been established in almost every part of Ireland; in which the inexperienced of both sexes are invested with the fatal poison of depraved doctrines. … Every possible exertion must therefore be made, to keep the youth away from these destructive schools. … Do you labor with all your might to keep the orthodox youth from being corrupted by them, an object which will, I hope,

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be easily effected by the establishment of Catholic schools throughout your diocese."

Here we have a candid admission of the real object of the establishment of Catholic parochial schools in Great Britain and North America, viz.: to protect their lines. Antichrist has no other object in offering education to the common people. Ignorance and superstition are Papacy's bulwarks; and the centuries of its power, including what is known as the dark ages, prove this. The education of the clergy under restrictions was not neglected; but, that no provision was made for the education of the people, the dense ignorance of all old Roman Catholic countries is strong proof. Schools and Bibles have ever been Antichrist's unendurable enemies, and would not be tolerated, except as they became necessities, upon which a false light must be thrown for the preservation of Antichrist's existence.

From a bull by Leo XII. to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, A.D. 1825, we quote:

"It is no secret to you, venerable brethren, that a certain society, vulgarly called the Bible Society, is audaciously dispreading itself through the whole world. After despising the traditions of the holy fathers, and in opposition to the well known decree of the Council of Trent, this society has collected all its forces, and directs every means to one object:—to the translation, or rather to the perversion, of the Bible into the vernacular languages of all nations."

Even the late Pope Pius IX. expressed his anguish of heart at the triumph on every hand of this great enemy of Antichrist, the Bible. He said, "Accursed be those very crafty and deceitful societies called Bible Societies, which thrust the Bible into the hands of the inexperienced youth."

True, it was decreed at the Roman Catholic Plenary Council of Baltimore, A.D. 1886, that an approved Bible shall be permitted in Catholic schools of the United States. This, however, betokens no change in the real sentiment of Antichrist; it is but another stroke of its far-sighted

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policy, in deference to the spirit of liberty in this country, which abhors such restraints. They well knew, however, that the liberty and not the Bible was wanted; and inquiry discovers that now, two years after, the Bible is not to be found in Catholic schools hereabouts.

The doctrine of the natural, inherent immortality of man (that a human existence once begun can never cease) was another fruitful error, borrowed from Grecian philosophy. And, being admitted, it led naturally to the conclusion that if existence must continue forever, then the Bible expressions concerning the destruction of finally wilful sinners, the second death, etc., must be construed to mean the opposite of what they say, everlasting life, in some condition. Next, it was easy to decree that to the wicked it must be a life of suffering; and the torments were frequently pictured upon the walls of the churches as well as by the words of zealous priests and monks. This error was the more easily impressed upon the converts because the Greek philosophers (then the leaders of the world in matters of science, religion and philosophy, whose ideas, as Josephus shows, had even begun to tincture Judaism) had long held and taught a punishment for the wicked in death. To their credit, however, be it noted that they never descended to the horrible blasphemies of God's character and government taught to the world by Antichrist. Next, it was in order to fix a place for this torment and call it hell, and to seek passages of Scripture referring to sheol and hades and gehenna which describe the real wages of sin, the first and second deaths, and dextrously to apply these and the parables of our Lord and the symbols of Revelation, so as to delude themselves and the whole world on this subject and most grievously to malign and blaspheme the character and plan of God, our all-wise and gracious Heavenly Father.

Purgatory was brought in, to relieve and make endurable

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this terrible dose of doctrine, and withal to give Antichrist a firmer hold upon the people. It claimed to hold the keys of heaven and hell and to have power to remit the pains of purgatory: not only the Adamic penalty, and the weaknesses inherited thereby, but also the penalties of willful, deliberate sins. What a leverage of power this gave, over an ignorant people, can be easily imagined—especially when the emperors and chief men of earth acknowledged and bowed before the deceiver.

Masses for the dead followed; and rich and poor alike felt it a duty to pay, and liberally, too, to have these. The efficacy of masses, for the relief of purgatorial sufferings, is claimed to be omnipotent, so that not even Jehovah or Christ could interfere with it. This became a source of great income to Antichrist; for the priests were not slow to remind the dying, if wealthy, of the propriety of leaving liberal bequests for masses for themselves, lest those who inherited their wealth should neglect the matter. And, indeed, within the present year warnings of a similar kind have appeared in the Roman Catholic journals, urging that less money be spent upon funeral flowers, that the more might be spent for masses for the dead.

Indulgences came in, some time before the Crusades: we know that indulgences were offered, as a bounty, to secure volunteers for these Crusades, "Holy Wars." By Papal edict, whoever would engage in these holy wars would not only have forgiveness for sins past, but also merit to offset sins future; and thus be guaranteed against certain purgatorial sufferings. These indulgences, Roman Catholics tell us, are not designed to be licenses to commit sins, but are rewards of merit which offset or cancel a certain number of days or years of purgatorial anguish: so that if a man's sins made him liable to one thousand years of suffering, and he, at one time, or at various times, secured indulgences

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to the amount of one thousand years, either for money, or for services rendered to Papacy, or by penances done, he would go free; if he had to his credit nine hundred years indulgence, he would have to endure one hundred years of suffering; and if indulgences were reckoned to much overbalance his penalties, he would probably be accounted a saint, of special influence in heaven, to be prayed to and adored. Of this order Louis, king of France, the Crusader, would be an example. He was canonized, and is now adored and prayed to as Saint Louis.

There is indeed a difference between this view of Indulgences and a license to commit sins; and yet it is very slight; for Papacy affixed to various common sins a certain amount of suffering, and not only could sins past be thus offset and cancelled, but those who had reason to think that they might commit certain sins, in the future, could thus provide beforehand merit to cancel them. Besides this, some, called plenary [full] indulgences, are certainly understood to cover all sins, past and future.

The practice even at the present day seems scarcely credible. Romanists have certain prayers, a repetition of which constitutes a ground for indulgence for a limited period; and many added together, they claim, will protect from wrath a long time. Thus, those who say the Hail, Holy Queen are granted forty days of indulgence, while for saying the Litany of the Blessed Virgin there is an indulgence of two hundred days; and for those who say the Blessed be the Holy, Immaculate and Most Pure Conception of the Virgin Mary one hundred years indulgence is granted, etc., etc. In the darker ages, when indulgences were freely offered for money and for services in the persecution of infidels and heretics, it may readily be imagined to what corruption this blasphemous doctrine led.

To crimes generally committed by the rich, who could pay liberally, enormous penalties were affixed, while the

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basest violations of justice, more common among the poorer classes, were lightly excused. Thus, marriage with a first cousin cost $5,000, while wife-murder or parricide cost only $20. Spanheim says: "The institution of Indulgence was the mint which coined money for the Roman Church; the gold mines for the profligate nephews and natural children of the popes; the nerves of the Papal wars; the means of liquidating debt, and the inexhaustible fountain of luxury to the popes."

To regulate this traffic a graded scale of penalties was affixed to various sins—so many days or years in purgatory for each; and a scale of prices was also arranged to correspond, so that those obtaining indulgence for a murder or a theft, for infanticide, or adultery, or perjury, or other sins, could be charged at different rates. By this means penances were canceled and the torments of purgatory mitigated or ended, at the pleasure of Antichrist's agents. We cannot wonder that the people speedily got to understand that so much money paid for so much sin.

To such an extent was crime increased by these indulgences, that the indignation of the better classes of society was aroused to rebellion against the church. Men's eyes began to be opened, and they saw the clergy, from the highest dignitaries of the church down to the lowest orders of officials, steeped in iniquity.

As the darkest hour precedes the storm, so just before the great Reformation movement was, morally, the darkest hour of Antichrist's dark reign. There the open and shameful traffic in indulgences produced nausea, and led Luther and other zealous papists to question and examine the entire system, both in its moral, and afterward in its doctrinal, aspects. Finally, Luther struck the true idea—that Papacy was indeed the Antichrist. And, having discovered this, he fearlessly pointed out some of the symbols

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of Revelation, and showed their applicability and partial fulfillment in the Papal Hierarchy.

On this subject we quote the following from the pen of the well known clergyman, Lyman Abbott. He says:

"Among other conditions, for which indulgences were formerly granted more than now, was the contribution of money to the church. This traffic reached its height in the beginning of the sixteenth century, under Leo X., who published indulgences to all who would contribute toward the erection of St. Peter's [Cathedral] at Rome. His chief agent for the sale of indulgences in Germany was one John Tetzel. The notorious vices of Tetzel did not prevent him from being selected as the bearer of these pardons to other purer souls, and no extravagance seemed to him too great, so that it brought money to his coffers. He declared that the red cross, which accompanied him wherever he went, had as great efficacy as the cross of Christ—that there was no sin so great that he could not remit it. 'Indulgences save not the living alone, they also save the dead. The very moment that the money chinks against the bottom of the chest, the soul escapes from Purgatory and flies free to heaven.' Such were some of his blasphemous declarations. A regular scale of prices was established. 'Polygamy cost six ducats; sacrilege and perjury, nine; murder, eight; witchcraft, two.' It was this open and shameless traffic which, more than anything else, led to the Reformation. Indulgences continued to be granted, not only for acts of worship, but also for contributions in money to the church; but the public and open sale of indulgences is now banished, for the most part, from the Church of Rome."

Another writer quotes Tetzel's language further, thus:

"Draw near and I will give you letters duly sealed, by which even the sins you shall hereafter desire to commit shall be all forgiven you. There is no sin so great that indulgence cannot remit. Pay, only pay largely and you shall be forgiven. Ye priests, ye nobles, ye tradesmen, ye wives, ye maidens, ye young men, hearken to your departed parents and friends, who call to you from the bottomless abyss,

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'We are enduring horrible torment; a small alms would deliver us. You can give it. Will you not?' With ten groschen you can deliver your father from purgatory. Our Lord God no longer deals with us as God—He has given all power to the Pope."

The following is handed down as a copy of the blanks used by Tetzel, filled out with the name of the purchaser, his sins, etc.:

"Our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on thee …, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy sufferings. I, in virtue of the Apostolic power committed to me, absolve thee from all … excesses, sins and crimes that thou mayest have committed, however great and enormous they may be, and of whatever kind, … I remit the pains thou wouldst have had to endure in purgatory, … I restore thee to the innocence and purity of thy baptism, so that, at the moment of death, the gates of the place of torment shall be shut against thee, and the gates of paradise open to thee. And if thou shouldst live long, this grace continueth unchangeable till the time of thy end. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. The brother, John Tetzel, commissary, hath signed this with his own hand.

———."

As to the immediate present we cannot say, but we know that, only a few years since, printed indulgences with prices affixed were kept on sale, at tables, in some of the large Roman Catholic churches of Mexico and Cuba.

IT WAS GIVEN HIM TO MAKE WAR WITH THE SAINTS AND TO OVERCOME THEM—TO WEAR OUT THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH.

Did the papal counterfeit kingdom hold and exercise power over the truly consecrated children of God, and overcome them, "wear them out" by a long period of oppression, or crushing, as the Hebrew text implies? We answer, Yes: every means that could be thought of was employed to crush out the very spirit of true Christianity (John 8:36; Gal. 5:1; 2 Cor. 3:17), and to substitute

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the spirit, doctrines and forms of Antichrist. It was at first less of an open attack on the faithful than of a slow, persistent, crushing oppression, dealing more particularly with opposing teachers; and wearing out the patience and also the faith of many. This persistent worrying, and wearing out, are well illustrated in the institution of the Confessional, in which Antichrist not only took cognizance of every criticism and every word of objection to that system, uttered in the hearing of the confessing one, but under threat of future penalties compelled him to confess and repent of any opposing thoughts or acts of his own. This, too, was soon so backed by the civil power that to utter any protest against the church could be construed as treason against the civil power, which was upheld by papal authority.

In the first flush of papal exaltation, the people as a whole were nominally members of the church or else pagans; and all who professed Christ were expected to conform to the usages and regulations of the gradually self-exalting hierarchy. Error, always more popular than truth, when exalted to influence and power, hunted down, proscribed and made disreputable the truth, and all who held it. This was the time when, as pictured in Revelation, the true Church, woman, fled into the wilderness, into solitude (Rev. 12:6), an outcast because of her fidelity to the truth, and to the true Lord and Head of the Church. In this time, when apostates were being exalted as princes, the true, humble saints were experiencing what the Lord had warned them, and all who will live godly in this present time, to expect, persecution. The mother-in-law was against the daughter-in-law, father against son, and brother against brother; and a man's foes were often indeed they of his own household. Could anything be conceived of more likely to wear out or crush the saints of the Most High than such a course, persisted in for centuries?

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To gain an idea of the ferocity and relentlessness of this persecution, we must again turn to the pages of history.

The persecutions of the Christians under Pagan Rome were not worthy of comparison with those under Papal Rome, being less frequent, more limited in extent and much less severe. It is stated, on the authority of the early Christians, that the majority of the Roman magistrates who exercised in the provinces the authority of the emperor, or of the senate, and in whose hands was the power of life and death, behaved like men of polished manners and liberal education, who respected the rules of justice. They frequently declined the odious task of persecution, dismissed charges against the Christians with contempt, as Pilate and Herod attempted to do in the case of our Lord (Luke 23:14-16, 20, 22; Matt. 27:24), or suggested to accused Christians some legal evasion. When possible, they used their power much oftener for the relief than for the oppression of Christians; and the Pagan tribunals were often their surest refuge against their Jewish accusers.* The cruel persecution under the execrable tyrant Nero, who burned some of the Christians to divert public suspicion from himself, forms one of the darkest pages in the history of Pagan Rome; but his victims were comparatively few. The victims of Pagan persecution were not communities generally, but prominent individuals. These persecutions of leading representatives, even, were not so much a fixed, persistent determination of opposition on the part of the government as a result of uncontrollable popular clamor, awakened by superstition, which it seemed to the rulers necessary to satisfy in the interest of peace and order. Several instances illustrative of this are found in the career of the Apostle Paul, as well as of other apostles (Acts 19:35-41; 25:24-27; 26:2, 3, 28). Even the more general persecutions, under the Roman emperors, lasted for

* Gibbon, Vol. II, pages 3-33.

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but brief periods, except that under Diocletian, which continued with varying severity for ten years. Between these persecutions were often long periods of peace and quiet. Under the emperors, though greatly harassed, Christianity was not worn out, but, as we have seen, it greatly prospered.

How different the persecutions of Papacy, which laid hold not only of prominent opposers but of all, and whose persecutions lasted not for a few months only, but incessantly! What under Pagan emperors had been a passing rage or frenzy, under the popes was reduced to a regular system, animated by religious fanaticism and scheming ambition,—and inspired with a Satanic zeal, energy and cruelty unparalleled in the annals of history. The apostate church laid aside the sword of the spirit, and, grasping the arm of the empire, turned its carnal weapons with relentless fury upon every weaker opponent that stood in the way of its ambition; while it courted, flattered and deceived those in authority until it gained their confidence and usurped their place and power.

Both heathenism and heresy then became the subjects of persecution—especially the latter. The so-called Christian clergy, says Edgar, "misapplied the laws of the Jewish theocracy, and the transactions of the Jewish annals, for the unchristian and base purpose of awakening the demon of persecution against the mouldering remains of Grecian and Roman superstition. … They dissolved the ancient fabric of Polytheism and transferred its revenues to the use of the church, the state and the army. … Gentilism was expelled from the Roman territory. … Coercion in general was substituted for conviction, and terror for the gospel. One blushes to read of a Symmachus and a Libanius, two heathen orators, pleading for reason and persuasion in the propagation of religion, whilst a Theodosius

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and an Ambrosius, a Christian emperor, and a Christian bishop, urge violence and constraint."

Upon the accession of Constantine to the sovereignty of Rome, he was inclined to tolerate all religions, as was shown by the celebrated edict of Milan, which granted religious freedom to every individual of the Roman empire. Such a measure should have been hailed with joy by the Christian Church, which had so longed for liberty under previous persecutions; but such was not the case. The true spirit of Christianity had departed, and now the ambition of the church was to exalt itself as rapidly as possible by crushing out every spark of liberty and subduing all things to itself. Accordingly, says Gibbon,* "His [Constantine's] ecclesiastical ministers soon contrived to reduce the impartiality of the magistrate, and to awaken the zeal of the proselyte … and he extinguished the hope of peace and toleration, from the moment that he assembled three hundred bishops within the walls of the palace." The emperor was there persuaded to declare that those who resisted the judgment of this clerical body in matters of faith should prepare themselves for immediate exile. And their decisions were declared to be of divine authority. This spirit of intolerance soon ripened into bitter and relentless persecution. Constantine issued two penal laws against heresy, and his example was followed by succeeding emperors, Valentinian, Gratian, Theodosius, Arcadius and Honorius. Theodosius published fifteen, Arcadius twelve, and Honorius no less than eighteen of these statutes. These are recorded in the Theodosian and in the Justinian codes, to the disgrace of their priestly and imperial authors.

What Antichrist was pleased to call heresy, much of which was truth and righteousness endeavoring to hold a

* Vol. II, page 236.

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footing, was classed as worse than infidelity, and both were opposed by kings, emperors and theologians; and both were persecuted, especially the former, by the Inquisition. When, about the beginning of the thirteenth century, there came a revival of learning, and men began to awaken from the sleep and troubled dreams of the dark ages, those from whose minds the truth had not been entirely eradicated were stimulated, and the standard of truth was raised in opposition to the grosser errors of Antichrist. Then the persecuting spirit of Antichrist was aroused to furious action, to crush out the opposition.

Kings and princes who trembled for the security of their crowns, if they to any extent incurred the pope's displeasure, and whose realms might be laid under a dreaded interdict, should they or their people refuse to render absolute obedience to the pope's commands, were sworn to exterminate heresy, and admonished to purify their provinces from heretical perversity, on the pain of having their dominions wrested from them; and those barons who neglected to aid in the work of persecution forfeited their estates. Kings and princes, therefore, were not tardy in their efforts to comply with the mandates of the Papacy, and the barons and their retainers were at their service, to aid in the work of destruction.

Even before this awakening, as early as the year 630, the Council of Toledo compelled the king of Spain, on his accession to the throne, to swear to tolerate no heretical subjects in the Spanish dominions; and it was declared that the sovereign who should violate such oath would "be accursed in the sight of the everlasting God, and become the fuel of eternal fire." But the awful import of such demands was much more fully realized when the awakening began, and when Antichrist had obtained the maximum of his power.

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The Council of Oxford in 1160 consigned a company of Waldenses, who had emigrated from Gascony to England, to the secular arm for punishment. Accordingly, King Henry II. ordered them, men and women, to be publicly whipped, branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron, and driven, half-naked, out of the city in the dead of winter; and none were permitted to show them pity or to grant them the slightest favor.

Frederick, the emperor of Germany, A.D. 1224, sentenced heretics of every description, alive, to the flames, their property to confiscation, and their posterity, unless they became persecutors, to infamy. Louis, king of France, A.D. 1228, published laws for the extirpation of heresy, and enforced their execution. He forced Raymond, Count of Toulouse, to undertake the extermination of heresy from his dominions without sparing friend or vassal.

From the earliest encroachments of the power which by degrees developed into the papal system, resistance was made; but that resistance was offered only by a faithful few, whose influence made little impression on the overwhelming tide of worldliness that swept in upon the church. Gradually, as they discerned the error, some quietly withdrew themselves from the great apostasy, to worship God according to the dictates of conscience, even at the risk of persecution. Notable among these were some, afterward called Waldenses, Albigenses, Wycliffites and Huguenots. These, though called by several names had, so far as we can judge, a common origin and a common faith. "Waldensianism," says Rainerous (3.4), the noted Inquisitor of the thirteenth century, "is the ancientest heresy; and existed, according to some, from the days of [pope] Sylvester, and according to others, from the days of the apostles." Sylvester was pope when Constantine was emperor and confessed Christianity; and thus we see

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that the truth was not without its adherents from the first, who, though humble and unpopular, resolutely resisted Papacy and the papal doctrines of purgatory, image-worship, invocation of saints, worship of the Virgin Mary, prayer for the dead, transubstantiation, celibacy of the clergy, indulgences, mass, etc., and discountenanced pilgrimages, festivals, the burning of incense, sacred burial, the use of holy water, sacerdotal vestments, monachism, etc., and held that the teaching of the Sacred Scriptures should be received, in opposition to the traditions and claims of the Church of Rome. They regarded the pope as the head of all errors, and claimed that the remission of sins is obtained through the merits of the Lord Jesus, only.

The faith and works of this people were a stand for reformation, and a protest against error, long before the days of Luther; and they, and other opposers of Romanism, were hunted and hated and persecuted with pitiless fury, by papal emissaries. The Waldenses and Albigenses were the most numerous bodies of Protestants against Papacy; and when the literary awakening of the thirteenth century came, it was mainly from these that the truth shone out, though reflected and intensified in utterance by Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, and others. And their doctrines, backed by simplicity and morality, shone out with the greater luster in contrast to the pompous pride and flagrant immoralities of the then exalted Papacy.

Then it was that popes, councils, theologians, kings, crusaders and inquisitors combined their fiendish powers to exterminate every opponent, and to extinguish the faintest rays of dawning light. Pope Innocent III. first sent missionaries to the districts in which the doctrines of the Albigenses had gained foothold, to preach Romanism, work miracles, etc.; but, finding these efforts unavailing, he proclaimed a crusade against them and offered to all

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who would engage in it the pardon of all sins and an immediate passport to heaven without passing through purgatory. With full faith in the pope's power to bestow the promised rewards, half a million men, French, German and Italian, rallied around the standard of the cross, for the defence of Catholicism and the extinction of heresy. Then followed a series of battles and sieges covering a space of twenty years. The city of Beziers was stormed and taken in 1209, and the citizens, without regard for age or sex, perished by the sword to the number of sixty thousand, as reported by several historians. The blood of those who fled to churches, and were murdered there by the holy crusaders, drenched the altars and flowed through the streets.

Lavaur was besieged in 1211. The governor was hanged on a gibbet, and his wife was thrown into a well and crushed with stones. The citizens were without discrimination put to death, four hundred being burned alive. The flourishing country of Languedoc was devastated, its cities burned, and its inhabitants swept away by fire and sword. It is estimated that one hundred thousand Albigenses fell in one day; and their bodies were heaped together and burned.

All this rioting in blood and villainy was done in the name of religion: professedly for the glory of God and the honor of the church, but really to uphold Antichrist, sitting in the temple of God [the church], showing himself that he is a god—a powerful one—able to conquer and destroy his enemies. The clergy thanked God for the work of destruction, and a hymn of praise to God for the glorious victory at Lavaur was composed and sung. The dreadful carnage at Beziers was accounted as the visible judgment of heaven on the heresy of Albigensianism. The crusaders attended high mass in the morning, and proceeded throughout the day to waste the country of Languedoc and murder its inhabitants.

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Be it remembered, however, that these open crusades, against the Albigenses and Waldenses, were undertaken merely because the so-called heresy had gained a strong hold upon large portions of these communities. It would be a great mistake to suppose that the crusades were the only persecutions: the quiet, steady crushing of individuals, in the aggregate numbering thousands, all over Papacy's wide domain, went steadily on, wearing out the saints of the Most High.

Charles V., Emperor of Germany and King of Spain and the Netherlands, persecuted the friends of the Reformation throughout his extensive dominions. Supported by the Diet of Worms, he proscribed Luther, his followers and his writings; and condemned all who should aid Luther or read his books, to the confiscation of their property, the ban of the empire and the penalty of high treason. In the Netherlands the men who followed Luther were to be beheaded, and the women buried alive or if obstinate to be committed to the flames. Though this wholesale law was suspended, the work of death in all its horrid forms proceeded. The Duke of Alva boasted of the execution of 18,000 Protestants in six weeks. Paolo reckons the number who in the Netherlands were executed on account of their religion at 50,000; and Grotius gives the list of the Belgic martyrs at 100,000. Charles, with his dying breath, exhorted his son, Philip II., to carry on to completion the work of persecution and extermination of heresy which he had begun, which advice Philip was not slow to follow. With fury he stimulated the spirit of persecution, consigning Protestants to the flames without discrimination or pity.

Francis and Henry, the French kings, followed the example of Charles and Philip in their zeal for Catholicism and the extermination of heresy. The massacres of Merindol, Orange and Paris are forcible illustrations of their

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zeal in the cause of Antichrist. The massacre of Merindol, planned by the French king and approved by the French parliament, was committed to the president, Oppeda, for execution. The president was commissioned to slay the population, burn the towns and demolish the castles of the Waldenses, large numbers of whom resided in that section. Roman Catholic historians admit that in compliance with this commission thousands, including men, women and children, were massacred, twenty-four towns were ruined, and the country was left waste and desolate. Men, women and children fled to the woods and mountains for safety and were pursued and put to the sword. Many who remained in the towns met the same or a worse fate. Five hundred women were thrown into a barn which was set on fire, and when any leaped from the windows they were received on the points of spears. Women were violated and children were murdered in sight of their parents, who were powerless to protect them. Some were dashed over precipices and others were dragged naked through the streets.

The massacre of Orange, 1562, was of a similar character to that of Merindol, and is described with precision by Catholic historians. The Italian army sent by Pope Pius IV. was commanded to slay men, women and children; and the command was executed with terrible cruelty. The defenseless heretics were slain with the sword, precipitated from rocks, thrown on the points of hooks and daggers, hanged, roasted over slow fires and exposed to shame and torture of every description.

The massacre in Paris on St. Bartholomew's day, August 24, 1572, equaled in cruelty, but exceeded in extent, the massacres of Merindol and Orange. This has also been detailed by Catholic historians, one of whom, Thuanus, stigmatizes it as "a ferocious cruelty, without a parallel in all antiquity." The tolling of the tocsin at

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midnight, August 23, gave the signal of destruction, and the dreadful scenes of Merindol and Orange began to be re-enacted against the hated Huguenots. The carnival of death lasted seven days; the city flowed with human blood; the court was heaped with the slain on which the king and queen gazed with extreme satisfaction. The body of Admiral Coligny was dragged through the streets; and the river Seine was covered with floating dead bodies. Accounts of the number killed vary from 5,000 to 10,000. The work of destruction was not confined to Paris, but extended very widely through the French nation. On the preceding day special messengers were dispatched in every direction ordering a general massacre of the Huguenots. The same scenes were accordingly enacted in nearly all the provinces, and estimates of the number slain vary from 25,000 to 70,000.

In these dreadful scenes of carnage Antichrist found extreme satisfaction. The pope and his court exulted at the victory of Catholicism over Waldensianism at Merindol, and the impious Oppeda was styled "The defender of the faith and the hero of Christianity." The French king went to mass, and returned solemn thanks to God for the victory over and massacre of the Huguenots at Paris. This carnage, sanctioned by the French king and parliament and Roman Catholic subjects, was probably at the direct instigation of the pope and the Papal Hierarchy. That it was highly approved, at least, is evident from the fact that at the Papal Court the news was received with great rejoicing. The pope, Gregory XIII., went in grand procession to the church of Saint Louis to render thanks to God for the signal victory. He at once proclaimed a jubilee, and sent a nuncio to the French court, who in the pope's name praised "the exploit so long meditated and so happily executed for the good of religion." A medal was struck by

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the king in memory of the massacre, bearing the inscription, "Pietas Excitavit Justitiam," Piety Aroused Justice.

Medals commemorative of the event were also coined in the Papal mint by order of the pope. One of these is now on exhibition in Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, Pa. Its face presents a raised figure of the pope and the abbreviated inscription, Gregorius XIII., Pontifex Maximus Anno I., the first year of his pontificate, A.D. 1572. On the reverse side of this medal is a representation of a destroying angel, bearing in the left hand a cross, and in the right hand a sword, before whom, prostrate and fleeing, a band of Huguenots, men, women and children, is represented, whose faces and figures express horror and despair. Under this are the words, Ugonottorum Strages 1572, which signifies, The slaughter of the Huguenots, 1572.

A picture of the St. Bartholomew Massacre was hung in the Vatican. It had a scroll at the top, on which was inscribed, in Latin, words signifying, The Pontiff approves the fate of Coligny. Coligny was a prominent leader of the Huguenots and one of the first to fall. After he was killed, his head was severed from his body and sent to the queen (who had it embalmed and sent as a trophy to Rome), while his body was dragged by the populace through the streets of Paris. The king was shortly afterward seized with the horrors of remorse from which he never recovered. It is recorded that to his confidential physician he said, "I know not what has happened to me, but in mind and body I am shaking as in a fever. It seems to me every moment, whether waking or sleeping, that mangled bodies present themselves to me with hideous faces and covered with blood." He died in great agony, covered with a bloody sweat.

In 1641 Antichrist proclaimed a war of religion in Ireland, and called on the people to massacre the Protestants

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by every means in their power. The deluded people heard the command as the voice of God, and were not slow to execute their commission. Protestant blood flowed freely throughout Ireland, houses were reduced to ashes, towns and villages were almost destroyed. Some were forced to murder their own relatives, and then to take their own lives, the last words that fell upon their ears being the assurances of priests, that their dying agonies were but the beginnings of eternal torment. Thousands died of cold and hunger, while endeavoring to emigrate to other lands. In Cavan, the road for twelve miles together was stained with the bloody tracks of wounded fugitives; sixty children were abandoned in the flight, by parents fiercely hunted, and it was declared that any who should in any way help these little ones should be buried by their sides. Seventeen adults were buried alive at Fermaugh, and seventy-two at Kilkenny. In the province of Ulster alone, over 154,000 Protestants were either massacred or expelled from Ireland.

O'Niel, the primate of Ireland, pronounced this a pious and lawful war, and Pope Urban VIII. issued a bull dated May 1643, granting full and absolute remission of all their sins to those who had taken part in "gallantly doing what in them lay, to extirpate and wholly root out the pestiferous leaven of heretical contagion."

THE INQUISITION OR "HOLY OFFICE."

To Dominic, the leading spirit in this crusade, is ascribed the honor of inventing the infernal Inquisition, though Benedict, who is zealous in ascribing to Saint Dominic the honor of being the first Inquisitor General, is doubtful as to whether the idea first suggested itself to Pope Innocent or to Saint Dominic. It was first established by Pope Innocent III., in 1204.

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St. Dominic was a monster, devoid of every feeling of compassion, who seemed to find his chief delight in scenes of torture and misery. During the crusade against the Albigenses, with a crucifix in his hand he led and encouraged the holy warriors to deeds of death and destruction. The Inquisition or Holy Office is today a tribunal in the Roman Catholic Church for the discovery, repression and punishment of heresy and other offences against the Church of Rome.* But in Dominic's day it had no legal tribunal, nor were the instruments of torment brought to the perfection exhibited in later days. Nevertheless, Dominic, without such machinery, found abundant means of torture, in dislocating joints, tearing nerves, and lacerating the limbs of his victims, and in burning at the stake those whose convictions were unshaken by other means, and who would not renounce their faith and liberties.

Under his commission from Pope Innocent, to punish with confiscation, banishment and death the heretics who would not receive his gospel, Dominic stimulated the civil magistracy and populace to massacre the heretical Waldenses; and he at one time committed one hundred and eighty Albigenses to the flames. It was for such faithfulness in the service of Antichrist that he was canonized a saint, and is to-day adored and prayed to by Roman Catholics. The Roman Breviary (somewhat like a Prayer Book), referring to St. Dominic, lauds "his merits and doctrines which enlightened the church, his ingenuity and virtue which overthrew the Tolossan heretics, and his many miracles which extended even to the raising of the dead." The Roman Missal, which embraces the service connected with the administration of the Lord's supper, eulogizes his merits, and prays for temporal aid through his intercession. Thus Antichrist still upholds and honors its faithful heroes.

* The Chair of St. Peter, page 589.

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It would be impossible briefly to convey any adequate conception of the horrors of the Inquisition, or of the dreadful fear which it inspired among the people. Those not loud in their praise of Antichrist, or who ventured a criticism of his methods, were suspected of heresy; and such persons, without warning or redress, were liable to imprisonment in a dungeon for an indefinite time until a convenient season for trial, both the accuser and the accusation often being equally unknown to them. The proceedings of these trials were conducted secretly, and tortures were often employed to extort confessions. The tortures inflicted were almost too appalling to be credited in this age and land of freedom, yet their reality is confirmed by evidence which even Catholic historians cannot deny; and their fruitless attempts to apologize for them only tend to substantiate the evidence. Instruments of torture, relics of the Inquisition, are still in existence which would render denial unavailing. The "Holy Office" even employed physicians to watch the process of torture and stop it when death seemed likely to relieve the sufferer; and the victim was allowed partially to recover, that the torture might be applied a second or even a third time. These tortures were not always inflicted as punishments for the offence of heresy: they were in general for the purpose of compelling the accused to confess, retract or implicate others, as the case might be.

Even within the present century, after the Inquisition had lost many of its horrors, it was still terrible. The historian of Napoleon's wars, describing the capture of Toledo by his army, incidentally mentions the opening of the Inquisition prison, and says:

"Graves seemed to open, and pale figures like ghosts issued from dungeons which emitted a sepulchral odor. Bushy beards hanging down over the breast, and nails grown like bird's claws, disfigured the skeletons, who with

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laboring bosoms inhaled, for the first time for a long series of years, the fresh air. Many of them were reduced to cripples, the head inclined forward and the arms and hands hanging down rigid and helpless. They had been confined in dens so low they could not rise up in them, and in spite of all the care of the [army] surgeons many of them expired the same day. On the following day General Lasalle minutely inspected the place, attended by several officers of his staff. The number of machines for torture thrilled even men inured to the battle field, with horror."

"In a recess in a subterranean vault, contiguous to the private hall for examinations, stood a wooden figure made by the hands of monks and representing the Virgin Mary. A gilded glory encompassed her head, and in her right hand she held a banner. It struck all at first sight as suspicious that, notwithstanding the silken robe, descending on each side in ample folds from her shoulders, she should wear a sort of cuirass. On closer scrutiny it appeared that the fore part of the body was stuck full of extremely sharp nails and small narrow knife-blades, with the points of both turned toward the spectator. The arms and hands were jointed, and machinery behind the partition set the figure in motion. One of the servants of the Inquisition was compelled by command of the General to work the machine as he termed it. When the figure extended her arms, as though to press some one lovingly to her heart, the well-filled knapsack of a Polish grenadier was made to supply the place of a living victim. The statue hugged it closer and closer, and when the attendant, agreeably to orders, made the figure unclasp her arms and return to her former position, the knapsack was perforated to the depth of two or three inches, and remained hanging on the points of the nails and the knife blades."

Racks of various sorts were invented, and applied as means of torture. One of the simplest methods is explained thus: The victim, stripped of all clothing, had his arms fastened behind his back with a hard cord, with which, by the action of a pulley, he was raised off his feet,

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to which weights were attached. The sufferer was several times let fall, and raised with a jerk, which dislocated the joints of his arms and legs, while the cord by which he was suspended penetrated the quivering flesh to the very bone.

A reminder of such outrages in the name of Christ came to public notice recently. A Bible Society's printing-office in Rome being crowded for space, it rented a large room near the Vatican. A large and peculiar ring in the ceiling attracted attention, and inquiry discovered the fact that the room in which they are now busy printing the Bible, "the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God," by which Antichrist has already been rendered powerless to oppress and wear out the saints, is the very room once used by the Inquisition as a torture-chamber; the pulley-ring having probably been used to rack many a poor, gagged sufferer.

Those convicted of heresy were sometimes sentenced to what was called an Act of Faith. The ecclesiastical authority transferred the condemned to the secular power, while the clergy, in pretense of mercy, implored the magistracy to show compassion to the condemned, and, holding up the cross, pleaded with the victim to recant and save his present and future life. The magistrates knew well their part, and showed no mercy except to recanters; thus gaining the blessings and titles of Defender of the Faith, and Exterminator of Heretics. The condemned heretic, dressed in a yellow coat variegated with pictures of dogs, serpents, flames and devils, was led to the place of execution, tied to the stake and committed to the flames.

Torquemada, another famous Inquisitor General, furnished a marked illustration of the spirit of Antichrist. Roman Catholic writers admit that he caused ten thousand two hundred and twenty persons, men and women, to be burned alive. Llorente, who was for three years the Secretary General of the Inquisition, and had access to all the documentary evidences, in his Reports, published

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in 1817 (4 vols.), shows that between the years 1481 and 1808, by order of this "Holy Office" alone, no less than 31,912 persons were burned alive, and nearly 300,000 tortured and condemned to serve penances. Every Catholic country in Europe, Asia and America had its Inquisition.

We cannot here trace Antichrist's persecutions of everything resembling reforms, liberty of conscience or political freedom. Suffice it to say, this persecution extended to every country where Papacy had a footing: to Germany, Holland, Poland, Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Abyssinia, India, Cuba, Mexico and some South American states. Space forbids our reciting individual cases which would serve to show that many of the martyrs were truly saints and heroes, who under the most horrible sufferings had grace sufficient, and were often enabled, while dying by inches, to sing hymns of praise and thanks to the true Head of the true Church, and, like him, to pray for their enemies who, as he had foretold, persecuted them for his sake.*

Neither will we, for the same reasons, particularize all the awful, sickening, soul-harrowing tortures, inflicted upon some of the Lord's jewels because of faithfulness to their convictions. It is estimated, by those who seemingly have given the subject thorough investigation, that Papacy, during the past thirteen hundred years, has, directly or indirectly, caused the death of fifty millions of people. And it may safely be said that human and Satanic ingenuity were taxed to their utmost to invent new and horrible tortures, for both the political and religious opponents of Antichrist; the latter, heretics, being pursued with tenfold

* To those desiring a fuller account of these awful times we commend Macaulay's History of England; Motley's Dutch Republic; D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation; White's Eighteen Christian Centuries; Elliot on Romanism; and Fox's Book of Martyrs.

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fury. Besides the common forms of persecution and death, such as racking, burning, drowning, stabbing, starving and shooting with arrows and guns, fiendish hearts meditated how the most delicate and sensitive parts of the body, capable of the most excruciating pain, could be affected; molten lead was poured into the ears; tongues were cut out and lead poured into the mouths; wheels were arranged with knife blades attached so that the victim could be slowly chopped to pieces; claws and pincers were made red hot and used upon sensitive parts of the body; eyes were gouged out; finger nails were pulled off with red hot irons; holes, by which the victim was tied up, were bored through the heels; some were forced to jump from eminences onto long spikes fixed below, where, quivering with pain, they slowly died. The mouths of some were filled with gunpowder, which when fired, blew their heads to pieces; others were hammered to pieces on anvils; others, attached to bellows, had air pumped into them until they burst; others were choked to death with mangled pieces of their own bodies; others with urine, excrement, etc., etc.

Some of these fiendish atrocities would be quite beyond belief were they not well authenticated. They serve to show to what awful depravity the human heart can descend; and how blind to right, and every good instinct, men can become under the influence of false, counterfeit religion. The spirit of Antichrist degraded and debased the world as the spirit of the true Christ and the power and influence of the true Kingdom of God would have elevated and ennobled men's hearts and actions, and as they will do, during the Millennium. This is to a slight extent illustrated by the advance in civilization, and the increase of justice and mercy, since the power of Antichrist began to wane, and the word of God began to be heard, and heeded, even slightly.

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Truly, no device of which we can conceive could have been better calculated to deceive and oppress mankind. Advantage has been taken of every depraved disposition and weakness of fallen men; every base passion has been stimulated and appealed to, and the gratification of those passions rewarded. The vicious were thus allured and enlisted as its devotees, while those of nobler cast were engaged by other means—by an outward and hypocritical show of piety, self-denial and charity manifested in its monastic institutions, but which served only to lead many such far from the paths of virtue. The gay and the frivolous found ample satisfaction in its parade and show, its pomp and ceremony; the enterprising and chivalrous in its missions and crusades; the profligate in its indulgences; and the cruel bigot in its enterprises for oppressing its opponents.

In horror and wonder we ask ourselves, Why did kings, and princes, and emperors, and the people at large, permit such atrocities? Why did they not arise long ago and smite down Antichrist? The answer is found in the Scriptures (Rev. 18:3): The nations were drunk (stupefied), they lost their senses in drinking the mixed wine (doctrine, false and true mixed) given them by the apostate church. They were deceived by the claims of Papacy. And, truth to tell, they are only partly aroused from their stupor yet; for though the ambassadors of kings, falling before the pope, do not as of old address him as the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," nor think of him as "a God with power over all things on earth and in heaven," yet they are still far from realizing the truth, that Papacy has been, and is, Satan's counterfeit of the true Kingdom.

While kings and soldiers wearied of such inhuman work, it was not so with the holy (?) hierarchy; and we find the General Council of Sienna, A.D. 1423, declaring that the spread of heresy in different parts of the world was due to

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the remissness of the Inquisitors—to the offence of God, the injury of Catholicism and the perdition of souls. Princes were admonished, by the mercy of God, to exterminate heresy if they would escape divine vengeance; and plenary indulgences were granted to all who would engage in the work of destruction or provide arms for the purpose. These enactments were published in the churches every Sabbath. And Roman Catholic theologians and historians are by no means few who have wielded their pens in the unholy cause of justifying, recommending and praising the persecution of heresy. Bellarmine, for instance, declares that the apostles "abstained from calling in the secular arm only because there were in their day no Christian princes." Doctor Dens, a celebrated Roman Catholic theologian, published a work on theology in 1758, which is regarded by papists to-day as standard authority, especially in their colleges, where it ranks as Blackstone does on English civil law. This work breathes the spirit of persecution throughout. It condemns the patrons of heresy to confiscation of goods, banishment from the country, confinement in prison, infliction of death and deprivation of Christian burial.

One of the authorized curses published in the Romish Pontifical, to be used against Protestants, reads as follows:

"May God Almighty and all his saints curse them with the curse with which the devil and his angels are cursed. Let them be destroyed out of the land of the living. Let the vilest of deaths come upon them, and let them descend alive into the pit. Let their seed be destroyed from the earth; by hunger, and thirst, and nakedness and all distress let them perish. May they have all misery and pestilence and torment. Let all they have be cursed. Always and everywhere let them be cursed. Speaking and silent let them be cursed. Within and without let them be cursed. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot let them be cursed. Let their eyes become blind, let their ears become deaf, let their mouth become dumb, let their

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tongue cleave to their jaws, let not their hands handle, let not their feet walk. Let all the members of their body be cursed. Cursed let them be, standing or lying, from this time forth forever; and thus let their candle be extinguished in the presence of God, at the day of judgment. Let their burial be with dogs and asses. Let hungry wolves devour their corpses. Let the devil and his angels be their companions forever. Amen, Amen; so be it, so let it be."

This is the spirit of Papacy; and all who possess the spirit of the true Christ should readily recognize so base a counterfeit.

Since errors of doctrine lie at the very foundation of all these errors of conduct, it cannot be doubted that if circumstances were again favorable, the doctrines being unchanged, their bad spirit and bad fruits would shortly again appear, in similar acts of injustice, oppression, superstition, ignorance and persecution; and any and all means conceivable would be resorted to, for restoring, upholding and extending the counterfeit Kingdom of God. In proof of this, let us cite a few incidents which recently chanced to come to our attention, as follows:

In Ahuehuetitlan, Guererro, Mexico, August 7, 1887, a native Protestant missionary, named Abraham Gomez, and two assistants, were murdered in cold blood by natives, at the instigation of a Roman Catholic priest, Father Vergara, who, when celebrating mass the day previous, is reported to have urged his people to "make an example of the minister of Satan" who had come among them; adding, that they might kill him with all safety, counting upon protection from the chief of police as well as the priest. The priest's word was law to the benighted people, and to the civil authorities. The mangled body of the poor missionary, shot and hacked to pieces, was dragged through the streets, subject to all sorts of indignities, a warning to others. For this no redress could be obtained.

The New York Independent having called attention to

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this bloody massacre, the following retort was made by the Freeman, New York Roman Catholic journal:

"They [Protestant missionaries] see honest people kneel, at the sound of the Angelus, in honor of the Annunciation and the Incarnation. The Bible, they say, will soon wipe out such 'superstition.' A light burns before an image of the Mother of God. 'Ha!' cries the missionary, 'We shall soon teach the benighted to break that symbol!' and so on. If the killing of a few missionaries of this kind would keep others like them at home, we should almost (we Papists are so wicked!) be inclined to say: 'On with the dance; let joy be unconfined.'"

A minister by the name of C. G. Moule tells a painful story, which has gone the rounds of the press, of the persecution, in Madeira, of Robert Kelley and the converts resulting from his labors, who, with their children, nearly one thousand persons in all, suffered expatriation as the penalty for receiving a crumb of truth.

In Protestant Prussia, so called, Pastor Thummel has been arrested for insulting the Roman Catholic Church. He published a pamphlet criticizing Papacy, in which one of the "insulting" remarks was to the effect that Papacy is an apostasy "built upon superstition and idolatry."

Recently the Caroline Islands were in dispute between Prussia and Spain, and the pope got himself appointed arbitrator or judge, to settle the dispute. (Much in this reminds one of his former power and policy as arbiter or supreme judge of nations.) The pope decided in favor of Spain. A man-of-war, fifty soldiers and six priests were at once dispatched by Spain; and on their arrival Mr. Doane, an American missionary, was made a prisoner and cut off from all intercourse with his converts, without cause, except that he refused to surrender his mission work and property to the priests; and because, the islands now belonging to Spain, and Spain belonging to the pope, none but the pope's religion could be tolerated.

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A gentleman, formerly a Roman Catholic, and a friend of the writer, states that recently, when traveling in South America, he was assaulted with stones and obliged to flee for his life, because he would neither uncover his head nor kneel with the multitude, when the Romish priests bearing the crucifix and host passed along the streets. And a similar case, in which three Americans were struck by the priests, mobbed by the people and arrested by the police in the city of Madrid, Spain, for a like offence, is no doubt still fresh in the minds of many who read the daily papers.

The Converted Catholic quotes as follows from the Watchman, a Roman Catholic journal published at St. Louis, Mo.:

"Protestantism! We would draw and quarter it. We would impale it and hang it up for crows' nests. We would tear it with pinchers and fire it with hot irons. We would fill it with moulten lead, and sink it in hell-fire a hundred fathoms deep."

In the light of the past, it is entirely probable that with such a spirit, if the power were possessed, the Editor of the Watchman would soon extend his threats beyond "Protestant-ism" to the persons of Protestants.

In Barcelona, Spain, by order of the government, a large number of copies of the Bible were recently burned—of course at the instigation of the Church of Rome. The following, translated from the Catholic Banner, the organ of Papacy there, shows that they approved and appreciated the action. It said:

"Thank God, we have at last turned toward the times when those who propagated heretical doctrines were punished with exemplary punishment. The re-establishment of the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition must soon take place. Its reign will be more glorious and fruitful in results than in the past. Our Catholic heart overflows with faith and enthusiasm; and the immense joy we experience, as we begin to reap the fruit of our present campaign, exceeds

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all imagination. What a day of pleasure will that be for us, when we see Anti-clericals writhing in the flames of Inquisition!"

To encourage another crusade, this paper says: "We believe it right to publish the names of those holy men under whose hands so many sinners suffered, that good Catholics may venerate their memory:

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THE PAPAL MILLENNIUM.

As the true Kingdom of the true Christ is to last a thousand years, so the Papal counterfeit looks back upon the period of its greatest prosperity, which began A.D. 800 and closed in the dawn of the present century, as the fulfillment of the Millennial reign foretold in Rev. 20. And the period since, in which Papacy has gradually lost

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all of its temporal power, suffered many indignities from nations formerly its supporters, and been greatly despoiled of territories, incomes and liberties long claimed and possessed, Romanists regard as the little season of Rev. 20:3, 7, 8, at the close of the Millennium, during which Satan was to be loosed.

And the dates which mark the beginning and the close of Papacy's Millennium of ignorance, superstition and fraud are clearly shown in history. A Roman Catholic writer* thus refers to the beginning of this religious empire: "The coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West, by Pope Leo, A.D. 800, was really the commencement of the Holy Roman Empire."†

Although Papacy was organized, as a religious system, long before, and was even set up in temporal power in 539, yet it was Charlemagne who first actually bestowed and formally recognized the temporal dominion of the pope. As Charlemagne was the first emperor over the Holy Roman Empire, A.D. 800, so Francis II., was the last, and he voluntarily surrendered his title in 1806.‡ As, prior to the year 800, Papacy was rising, supported by the Roman beast (people) and by its horns (powers),

* The Chair of St. Peter.

† The Holy Roman Empire was the title of the political institution of the middle ages. It had its start in Charlemagne. Fisher's Universal History, 262, describes it thus: "In theory it was the union of the world-state and the world-church, an undivided community under Emperor and Pope, its heaven-appointed secular and spiritual heads." Since the popes, as in Christ's stead, anointed the emperors, they were its real heads.

‡ By the battle of Marengo, 1800, and of Austerlitz, 1805, Germany was twice laid prostrate at the feet of Napoleon. A result of the latter defeat was the erection of the Confederation of the Rhine, under the protectorate of the French ruler. This event put an end to the old German or Roman Empire, after a duration of a thousand years.—White's Universal History, 508.

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so since 1800 it has been cast off from temporal authority over kings and peoples, and has been torn and pillaged by those who formerly gave it support (Rev. 17:16, 17). To-day, though still the recipient of honors, and still possessed of a wide influence over the consciences of the people, Papacy bemoans its loss of everything resembling temporal dominion.

The careful student will note four periods, more or less distinctly marked, in the development and exaltation of Antichrist, and the same number distinctly marking its fall. In its development the four dates are:

1st. In Paul's day, about 50, a beginning of the secret working of the iniquitous ambition was the start.

2nd. Papacy, the Man of Sin, was organized as a hierarchy, i.e., the church came to an organized condition, and the popes came to be recognized as the Head, representing Christ, reigning in the church and over the nations, gradually, from about 300 to 494.*

3rd. The time when the popes began to exercise civil authority and power, as will hereafter be shown, A.D. 539. (Vol. III., Chap. iii.)

* The popedom struggled long for mastery as the head of the church, and gradually obtained recognition and dominion. That this dominion was generally recognized by 494, is clearly shown by the Romanist writer of The Chair of St. Peter, page 128. After giving in detail acknowledgments of the Roman Bishop as supreme pontiff by various councils, bishops, emperors, etc., he summarizes thus:

"These words were written as far back as the year of our Lord 494. … On the whole, then, it is clear, from the foregoing authentic evidence, that the primacy of the Chair of St. Peter had so far developed itself in the fifth century, that the pope was then universally regarded as the center of Christian unity—the Supreme Ruler and Teacher of God's church, the Prince of Bishops, the Final Arbiter of appeals in ecclesiastical causes from all parts of the world, and the Judge and Moderator of General Councils."

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4th. The time of exaltation, A.D. 800, when, as already shown, the Holy Roman Empire was formed, and the pope, crowning Charlemagne emperor, was recognized as himself King of kings, Emperor of emperors, "another God, on earth."

The four periods of the fall of papal influence are as follows:

1st. The period of the Reformation, which may be said to have had its start in 1309, in the writings of Marsiglio, followed by Wiclif, Huss, Luther, etc.

2nd. The period of Napoleon's success, the degradation of the popes, and the casting aside finally of the title "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire," by Francis II., A.D. 1800-1806.

3rd. The final rejection of the pope as ruler over Rome and the so-called Papal States of Italy, by the pope's subjects and the King of Italy, 1870, by which Antichrist is left without the slightest temporal authority.

4th. The final extinction of this counterfeit hierarchy, near the close of the "Day of Wrath" and judgment already begun, which will close, as shown by the "Times of the Gentiles," with the year 1914.

IS THERE ROOM FOR DOUBT?

We have traced Antichrist's rise, out of an apostasy or falling away in the Christian Church; we have heard its blasphemous claim to be Christ's Kingdom and that its pope is Vicegerent of Christ, another God, on earth; we have heard its great swelling words of blasphemy, arrogating to itself titles and powers belonging to the true Lord of lords and King of kings; we have seen how terribly it fulfilled the prediction, He shall wear out the saints; we have seen that the truth, crushed and deformed, would have been completely buried under error, superstition and

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priestcraft, had not the Lord, at the proper moment, prevented by raising up reformers, thus helping his saints, as it is written, "They that understand among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help"—Dan. 11:33, 34.

In view of all this testimony, is there room for doubt that it was concerning Papacy that the apostles and prophets were inspired to write, describing minutely as they do its prominent characteristics? We think there should remain no doubt in any unbiased mind that Papacy is the Antichrist, the Man of Sin; and that no one man could possibly fulfill the predictions. Papacy's unparalleled success, as a counterfeit Christ, deceiving the whole world, has amply fulfilled our Master's prediction, when, after referring to his own rejection, he said, "If another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive"—John 5:43.

It will be observed, no doubt with surprise, by many, that in our examination of the subject we have in general omitted reference to villainies, gross immoralities, on the part of the popes and other officials, and to the dark deeds of expediency practiced by the Jesuits and other secret orders, who do all sorts of detective work for Papacy. We have omitted these intentionally, not because they are untrue, for even Roman Catholic writers acknowledge many of them; but because our line of argument does not require these evidences. We have shown that the Papal Hierarchy (even if it were composed of the most moral and upright of men, which is not the case, as all history testifies) is the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, the counterfeit and misrepresentative of Christ's Millennial Kingdom, skillfully arranged so as to deceive.

The words of Macaulay, the English historian, serve to show that some without special prophetic light can see Papacy's

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wonderful system:—the counterfeit of the most wonderful of all systems, the Kingdom of God, yet to come.

He says: "It is impossible to deny that the polity of the Church of Rome is the very masterpiece of human [we would say Satanic] wisdom. In truth, nothing but such a polity could, against such assaults, have borne up such doctrines. The experience of twelve hundred eventful years, the ingenuity and patient care of forty generations of statesmen, have improved that polity to such perfection, that among the contrivances of political ability it occupies the highest place."

ANTICHRIST'S FINAL END.

We have traced Papacy to the present time, to the Day of the Lord—the time of Immanuel's presence. This Man of Sin has been developed, has done his awful work, has been smitten with the sword of the Spirit—the Word of God. The spirit of Christ's mouth has rendered him powerless to persecute the saints openly and generally, no matter how strong the desire; and now we ask, What next? What says the Apostle concerning Antichrist's end?

In 2 Thes. 2:8-12, the Apostle Paul declares concerning Antichrist: "Whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the spirit of his mouth, and annihilate with the bright shining of his presence." The light of truth is to penetrate every subject. By exposing rights and wrongs it will lead into the great struggle between these principles, and between the human exponents of each, causing the time of trouble and wrath. In this struggle, wrong and evil shall fall, and right and truth shall triumph. Among other evils now to be finally and utterly destroyed is Antichrist, with which nearly every evil, of theory and practice, is more or less directly connected. And it will be this bright-shining, this sunlight from the Lord's presence, which will produce the day of trouble, because of and in which Antichrist,

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with every other evil system, will be destroyed. "Whose presence is with [accompanied by or during] an energetic operation of Satan [Satanic energy and action] with all power, and signs, and lying delusions, and with every iniquitous deception for those perishing; because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be preserved. And for this reason God will send to them a deluding power, that they might believe the error: so that all not believing the truth, but taking pleasure in iniquity, may be judged" unworthy to share the Millennial Kingdom as joint-heirs with Christ.

We understand these words to imply that in the time of the Lord's presence (since 1874), through this Antichrist system (one of the principal of Satan's agencies for deceiving and controlling the world), as well as through all his other agencies, the devil will make a most desperate resistance to the new order of things about to be established. He will take advantage of every little circumstance, and all the inherited weaknesses and selfishness of the human family, to enlist their hearts and hands and pens in this final struggle against liberty and the full elucidation of truth. Prejudices will be enkindled where, if the truth were clearly seen, none would exist; and passionate zeal will be evoked, and partisan unions formed, which will deceive and mislead many. And this will be so, not because God has not made the truth clear enough to guide all the fully consecrated, but because those who will be deceived were not sufficiently in earnest in seeking out and using the truth provided as meat in due season. And thus it will be manifested that the class misled received not the truth in the love of it, but rather through custom, formality or fear. And the Apostle's assurance seems to be that, in this final death-struggle of Antichrist, notwithstanding he shall seem to gain increased power in the world by new stratagems, deceptions and combinations, yet the true Lord of

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earth, the King of kings, in the time of his presence, will prevail; and shall finally, during the great time of trouble, utterly annihilate Antichrist and destroy forever his power and deceptions.

As to the exact form in which this closing struggle should be expected, we can only make suggestions, based largely upon the symbolic views of the same, given in Revelation. We anticipate the gradual formation throughout the world of two great parties—from both of which the faithful, overcoming saints will stand separate. These two great parties will be composed on the one side of Socialists, Free-thinkers, Infidels, discontents, and true liberty-lovers whose eyes are beginning to open to the facts of the case as they relate both to political and religious mis-government and despotism: on the other side will be gradually associated the opponents of human liberty and equality: Emperors, Kings, Aristocrats; and in close sympathy with these will stand the counterfeit of God's Kingdom, Antichrist, supporting and being supported by earth's civil despots. We expect, too, that Antichrist's policy will be somewhat modified and softened to seek to win back into sympathy and practical co-operation (not actual union) extremists of all Protestant denominations, who even now are panting for a nominal union with each other and with Rome, forgetful that the only true union is that produced and continued by the truth, and not by creeds, conventions and laws. Improbable as this co-operation of Protestants and Catholics may seem to some, we see unmistakable signs of its rapid approach. It is being hastened by the secret workings of Papacy among its people, whereby such politicians as are willing to co-operate with Papacy are assisted into prominent positions in governmental affairs.

Laws may be expected soon through which, gradually, personal liberty will be curtailed, under the plea of necessity

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and the public welfare; until, one step after another being taken, it will finally be necessary to formulate some simple law of religion; and thus Church and State may be in a measure united, in governing the United States of America. These laws, simple as they can be made, to suit all so-called orthodox, i.e., popular religious views, will be calculated to repress and prevent further growth in grace, and in the knowledge now meat in due season. The plea will probably be, the prevention of socialism, infidelity, and political eruption, of the lower and the independent classes.

Evidently, in the near future, as a part of its trouble, and even before the severity of the great trouble of this day of wrath has burst upon the world and wrecked the entire social fabric of earth (preparatory to the new and better one promised under the true Christ), there will be a severe hour of trial and testing of the truly consecrated Church, much as it was in the days of Papacy's triumph; only now the methods of persecution will be more refined and will comport better with the more civilized methods of the present day: the spikes and pincers and racks will have more the form of sarcasm and denunciations, restrictions of liberties, and social, financial and political boycotting. But concerning this, and the new combinations which Antichrist will form in this final struggle against the establishment of the true Millennial Kingdom, more anon.

In concluding this chapter we desire to again impress our readers with the fact that Papacy is the Antichrist, not because of its moral obliquity, but because it is the counterfeit of the true Christ and the true Kingdom. It is because of a failure to realize this fact that many Protestants will be deceived into co-operation with Papacy in opposition to the true King of Glory.

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FAITHFUL UNTIL DEATH.

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"Am I a soldier of the cross,

A follower of the Lamb?

And shall I fear to own his cause,

Or blush to speak his name?

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"Must I be borne to Paradise

On flowery beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas?

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"Are there no foes for me to face?

Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vain world a friend to grace,

To help me on to God?

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"Sure I must fight if I would reign.

Increase my courage, Lord.

I'll bear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by thy Word.

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"Thy saints in all this glorious war

Shall conquer, though they die.

They see the triumph from afar,

By faith they bring it nigh.

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"When thine illustrious day shall rise,

And all thy saints shall shine,

And shouts of vict'ry rend the skies,

The glory, Lord, be thine."

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