p. 18 | Why Bishop Ferrer Was Martyred by K. C. Russell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 16, 1909

Why Bishop Ferrer Was Martyred

By K. C. Russell

BISHOP FERRER, an English martyr of the sixteenth century, was burned at the stake because he refused to subscribe to the following articles and other accusations on points of doctrine:—

“He was required to renounce matrimony and to give up his wife; to grant the natural presence of Christ’s body and blood in the sacramental elements of bread and wine; to acknowledge the mass to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead; to agree that general councils lawfully congregated never did and never can err; to acknowledge that men are not justified before God by faith only, but that hope and charity are necessarily required to justification; that the Catholic (or rather Romanish) Church, which only has authority to expound Scripture and to define controversies of religion, and to ordain things appertaining to public discipline, is visible, and like unto a city set upon a mountain for all men to understand.”—“Memorials of the English Martyrs,” page 139.

The reader should remember that the foregoing articles, to which the martyred Bishop Ferrer was asked to subscribe, are not obsolete or outgrown by the lapse of three and one-half centuries, as multitudes of so-called Protestants believe. The Roman Catholic Church loudly boasts that she never has and never can change. The only reason that true Protestants are not required to subscribe to the same articles that Bishop Ferrer was, is because the Catholic Church has not yet regained her former authority and power to persecute.

We are, however, told by the spirit of prophecy that the time is coming when these things will be repeated, as will be seen from the following from “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 449:— “In the near future we shall see these words fulfilled, as the Protestant churches unite with the world and with the papal power against commandment-keepers. The same spirit which actuated papists in ages past, will lead Protestants to pursue a similar course toward those who will maintain their loyalty to God.”

The evidences are rapidly multiplying which show conclusively that the Catholic Church is speedily regaining her former power. It is high time that every true Protestant should awaken and sound the warning message against the Papacy.

K. C. RUSSELL.