Part 20 (2/2)
Pope Innocent III gave orders concerning them as follows:
”Therefore by this present apostolical writing, we give you a strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted with them. You shall exercise the rigor of ecclesiastical power against them and all those who have made themselves suspected by a.s.sociating with them. They may not appeal from your judgments, and, if necessary, you may cause the princes and people to suppress them with the sword.”--_Quoted from Migne, 214, col. 71, in Thatcher and McNeal's ”Source Book for Medieval History,” p. 210._
As the truth spread, so also the papal church redoubled its efforts by sword and flame. The historian Lecky says:
”That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other inst.i.tution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history. The memorials, indeed, of many of her persecutions are now so scanty that it is impossible to form a complete conception of the mult.i.tude of her victims, and it is quite certain that no powers of imagination can adequately realize their sufferings.”--_”History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe,” Vol. II, p. 32._
Motley, in his ”Rise of the Dutch Republic” (part 3, chap. 2), tells how Philip II of Spain--who declared that he would ”never consent to be the sovereign of heretics”--sent the Duke of Alva to take over the Netherlands:
”Early in the year the most sublime sentence of death was promulgated which has ever been p.r.o.nounced since the creation of the world. The Roman tyrant [Nero] wished that his enemies'
heads were all upon a single neck, that he might strike them off at a blow; the Inquisition a.s.sisted Philip to place the heads of all his Netherlands subjects upon a single neck for the same fell purpose. Upon February 16, 1568, a sentence of the Holy Office condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics. From this universal doom only a few persons, especially named, were excepted. A proclamation of the king, dated ten days later, confirmed this decree of the Inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant execution, without regard to age, s.e.x, or condition. This is probably the most concise death warrant that was ever framed.
Three millions of people, men, women, and children, were sentenced to the scaffold in three lines.”
Roman Catholic writers admit that the papal church has sought to exterminate what it calls heresy, by the power of the sword.
The _Western Watchman_ (St. Louis), Dec. 24, 1908, says:
”The church has persecuted.... Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with the full approval of the church authorities. We have always defended the persecution of the Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition. Wherever and whenever there is honest Catholicity, there will be a clear distinction drawn between truth and error, and Catholicity and all forms of error. When she thinks it good to use physical force, she will use it.”
Prof. Alfred Baudrillart, rector of the Catholic Inst.i.tute of Paris, says:
”The Catholic Church is a respecter of conscience and of liberty.... She has, and she loudly proclaims that she has, a 'horror of blood.' Nevertheless, when confronted by heresy, she does not content herself with persuasion; arguments of an intellectual and moral order appear to her insufficient, and she has recourse to force, to corporal punishment, to torture.
She creates tribunals like those of the Inquisition, she calls the laws of the state to her aid, if necessary she encourages a crusade, or a religious war, and all her 'horror of blood'
practically culminates into urging the secular power to shed it, which proceeding is almost more odious--for it is less frank--than shedding it herself. Especially did she act thus in the sixteenth century with regard to Protestants. Not content to reform morally, to preach by example, to convert people by eloquent and holy missionaries, she lit in Italy, in the Low Countries, and above all in Spain, the funeral piles of the Inquisition. In France under Francis I and Henry II, in England under Mary Tudor, she tortured the heretics, whilst both in France and Germany during the second half of the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth century if she did not actually begin, at any rate she encouraged and actively aided, the religious wars.”--_”The Catholic Church, the Renaissance and Protestantism” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1908), pp. 182, 183._
She has done it--the Church of Rome has worn out the saints of the Most High. The prophet in vision saw an ecclesiastical kingly power rise among the kingdoms of the divided Roman Empire. Its look was more stout than its fellows, and the prophet heard it speaking ”very great things,”
and saw it wearing out the saints of the Most High through the long centuries.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SHAME OF RELIGIOUS WARS
Christ viewing the battle fields of history, where millions of His followers have been slain in His name.]
”Guilty!” is the clear verdict of history, against the Church of Rome on these two counts of the prophetic indictment.
”And Think to Change Times and Laws”
The power that was to speak great words against the Most High, and to wear out the saints of the Most High, was further--in its self-exalting opposition to G.o.d--to a.s.sume to lay hands upon times and laws, evidently the times and the laws of the Most High; for to say that such a power would lay hands on the laws of men, changing or setting aside human legislation, would signify less than the preceding counts. This third specification states a climax in the indictment--the self-exalting, persecuting power was to lay hands upon the very law of the Most High.
It is clearly the same power that the apostle Paul said would rise to dominion after his time: ”Then shall be revealed the lawless one.” 2 Thess. 2:8, A.R.V.
G.o.d's Law Unchangeable
Just as the laws of a government express its character, so the law of G.o.d is a reflection of the divine character. ”The law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. 19:7. ”Wherefore the law is holy,” said the apostle, ”and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12.
Jesus declared, ”I delight to do Thy will, O My G.o.d: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Ps. 40:8. And He maintained the unchangeable, enduring integrity of that law: ”Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pa.s.s, one jot or one t.i.ttle shall in no wise pa.s.s from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:18.
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