The Decline Of The Church:
Part 4:
The measures adapted by the Roman Catholic leadership to secure their dominion were both unscriptural and repugnant. They assumed for themselves the power of filling all important seats in the church; of deposing those who would not bend a knee, and therefore creating puppet bishops, abbots, and canons for their own pleasure, and leaving few in office to oppose them. Men loyal to their cause were selected for these stations as one would select specific tools for a particular work.
They reserved to themselves the revenues of the richest posts; and, if any kings, nobles, or bishops had incurred their displeasure, the usual appeasement was some large grant of land or money.
They sent the popes ambassadors into the various provinces, with almost unlimited power to control their spiritual concerns. These were extortionists exacting money from the people by the cruelest means; they sold relics and indulgences and also ecclesiastical benefices to the highest bidders.
They commanded all priest to abstain from marriage; they held over all who opposed them with the threat of excommunication from the church; which, in that age, was a judgment tenfold worse than death. If excommunicated, the whole community would at once unite against the person or persons. It was thought to be the sentence from God, fearing that if they favored the excommunicated person, they would also be subject to the same sentence.
Inquisitions:
But a still more terrible scourge lay ahead for the followers of Jesus Christ by which the supreme authority of the pope would be maintained; it was the dark period called the inquisition. They were established in the 13th century, and continued for centuries to be a tremendous engine of power. It was incidentally caused by the increase in what the Catholic Church called heretics; those who dared to think for themselves; to call in question the power of the Pope, or who viewed him as the Antichrist predicted by John’s in Revelation.
Because there were many in Gaul, Pope Innocent the 3ed sent envoys in 1204 A.D. to eradicate them root and branch. These bloodhounds having Demonic power at their head, called themselves inquisitors; and so serviceable were they to the Papal cause, they would be established in every city. A tremendous court was erected by them, first at Thoulouse, and afterwards in the various cities.
These embracing three inquisitors or judges, a fiscal proctor, two secretaries, a magistrate, a messenger, a reviewer, a gaoler (a jailer) an agent of confiscated possessions, several assessors, counsellors, executioners, physicians, surgeons, doorkeepers, familiars, and visitors, all of whom were sworn to secrecy.
By this court men were tried for heresy for any opposition to Rome, for any supposed charges of magic, sorcery, Judaism and witchcraft; and if found guilty, they were either imprisoned for life, or put to the most lingering and tormenting death. To give it authority, the Emperor of German, and the King of France were persuaded to maintain it, grant it protection and to commit to the flames such as were pronounced by the inquisitors worthy of death.
Thus was the inquisition established, they being the guardians of the most horrible tribunal, an engine of death, indescribably and horrific. No function of the Church at Rome had done more to keep whole nations in subjection to the dominion of the Popes as did they Inquisitors, as they sweep over the land, shedding an ocean of innocent blood.
The inquisitors held emperors and kings in subjection, and would call out monarchs with their armies, to subdue any rebels or rebellious in order to keep their world in bondage. But men would be bound by even stronger chains than these. Superstitions were increased by every art and device, until reason was lost, and the world of the Roman Catholic Church raved in mind, word and deed in an awful mania.
With the utmost boldness, the pontiff and monks continually imposed upon the weakness of mind of the multitude of people, by presenting to them hypocritical relics of ancient saints, a skull, a finger, a jaw, a bone, or a tooth. They even held up to the admiring crowd, the clothes in which Christ was supposed to have been wrapped in his infancy; including pieces of the manger in which he was laid; of the cross on which he was hung; of the spear which pierced his side; of the bread which he broke at the last supper, and would you believe, portions of the virgin Mary’s milk, and of the Savior’s blood.
Making of saints:
Having persuaded them to adore the relic, it was now easy to lead them to hold dear the spirit of the saint; and hence preceded the work of Canonization (to declare a man a saint.)
The deluded and the fanatical had long been accustomed to have a particular patron among the eminent saints who had departed from this earth. The principle of this had existed in heathen idolatry. The gods of Greece and Rome were deified heroes. Papal Rome had become pagan, and she must have her guardian divinities. Every man must have one for himself, from the degrading supposition that one saint was incapable of saving two persons.
These saints virtually took the place of Christ as mediators between God and man. They were supposed to be able to avert dangers, and heal maladies, and keep off evil spirits, and prepare the soul for heaven. The pontiffs profited by this new proneness to idolatry, and decreed that no deceased person should be considered a saint, unless canonized by the church. This threw an immense power into their hands. They made the tutelary gods of the deluded people; and often made saints of those who had been their greatest minions. The first that was formally sainted by the bishop of Rome was Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, in the tenth century.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com