Papal Persecutions in the Light of Prophecy
By Jean Vuilleumier
Catholic Admissions and Teaching Concerning Persecution — Her Own Authorities Only Are Quoted — Literal Fulfillment of the Prophetic Word This is the second of three articles by Elder Vuilleumier on the papacy as presented in the prophecy of Daniel 8 and 9. Last week he showed how the papacy fulfilled the prophecy by setting aside the Bible and endeavouring to place tradition and the decrees and teachings of the church in its stead. This week he shows how the persecutions by the papal power fulfil the predictions of the prophet. Next week his article will show that the papal claims that fallible men possess the infallible attributes of Almighty God are also a fulfilment of prophecy. In presenting these articles, there is no disposition to be at war with the papal power. We believe that Catholics as well as Protestants should study these great prophecies. A power that will openly defend persecution is certainly not following in the footsteps of Christ. Editor. The prophecy says, in the second place, that the horn “shall destroy (or ‘corrupt,’ margin) wonderfully;” that he “shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people” (Hebrew, “the people of the saints”), “and in their security shall he destroy many.” Dan. 8:24, 25. Only too literally, alas, has this prediction been fulfilled in the history of the papacy! And O, what sad chapters in the history of Roman error have we to disclose in order to show the veracity of these words of God! But it must be done, and done unflinchingly, so that God’s word may be vindicated, and His children duly warned. And in order to leave no shadow of doubt in any mind, we shall quote exclusively from Catholic authorities, who will tell us that the Catholic Church claims to have a right to persecute, and confess that she has persecuted, giving the facts from her history. “THE CHURCH HAS PERSECUTED”
A noted Catholic organ, the Western Watchman, published in St. Louis, in its issue of December 24, 1908, contained the following unequivocal admission: “The church has persecuted. Only a tyro in church history will deny that. The Apologists in the days of Roman imperial domination inveighed against persecution, and with Tertullian declared that ‘it was no part of religion to persecute religion.’ But after the days of Constantine, and under the reign of that first Christian emperor, the attitude of Christians underwent a change, and persecution of pagans took place in many places in the empire. One hundred fifty years after Constantine, the Donatists were persecuted, and sometimes put to death. Against these extreme measures, St. Augustine raised his voice; but he was willing that they should be despoiled of their churches and of their goods. Protestants were persecuted in France and Spain with the full approval of the church authorities. We have always defended the persecutions of the Huguenots, and the Spanish Inquisition.” The “Catholic Encyclopedia” tells us, on the strength of the papal bull Ad Extirpanda, published in 1252, that “the civil authorities were enjoined by the popes, under pain of excommunication, to execute the legal sentences that condemned impenitent heretics to the stake.”—Volume 8, page 34. EMPERORS OBEYED THE POPES
The same encyclopedia shows how well the early Christian emperors obeyed the popes in this respect. We quote quite fully. Every word here has weight. “When Constantine had taken upon himself the office of lay bishop, episcopus externus, and put the secular arm at the service of the church, the laws against heretics became more and more rigorous. From Constantine to Theodosius and Valentinian III (313–424) various penal laws were enacted by the Christian emperors against heretics, as being guilty of crime against the state. In both the Theodosian and Justinian codes they were styled infamous persons; all intercourse was forbidden to be held with them; they were deprived of all offices of profit and dignity in the civil administration, while all burdensome offices, both of the camp, and of the curia, were imposed upon them; they were disqualified from disposing of their own estates by will, or of accepting estates bequeathed to them by others; they were denied the right of giving or receiving donations, of contracting, buying and selling; pecuniary fines were imposed upon them; they were often proscribed and banished, and in many cases scourged before being sent into exile. In some particularly aggravated cases, sentence of death was pronounced upon heretics, though seldom executed in the time of the Christian emperors of Rome. “Theodosius is said to be the first who pronounced heresy a capital crime; this law was passed in 382 against the Encratites, the Saccophori, the Hydroparastatae, and the Manicheans. Heretical teachers were forbidden to propagate their doctrines publicly or privately; to hold public disputations; to ordain bishops, presbyters, or any other clergy; to hold religious meetings; to build conventicles or to avail themselves of money bequeathed to them for that purpose. Slaves were allowed to inform against their heretical masters and to purchase their freedom by coming over to the church. The children of heretical parents were denied their patrimony and inheritance unless they returned to the Catholic Church. The books of heretics were ordered to be burned. Vide ‘Codex Theodosianus,’ lib. XVI, tit. 5, ‘De Haeretic.’—‘Catholic Encyclopedia,’ volume 7, page 230.” THE POPES WERE THE INSTIGATORS
Remember that all this barbarity, although credited to the emperors, was committed at the instigation of the popes. And what was required of the emperors, and so faithfully performed by them, was also taught to their successors, the barbarian kings, and equally well carried out by them through the long night of the Middle Ages, the noonday of papal absolutism. As to the moral character and the teaching of the people whom the hierarchy sought to suppress, we will leave it to their persecutors to inform us. We read as follows from the same Catholic standard work, in an article on the Waldenses, who were especially noticeable in the twelfth century: “The organization of the Waldenses was a reaction against the great splendor and outward display existing in the medieval church; it was a practical protest against the worldly lives of some contemporary churchmen. Amid such ecclesiastical conditions, the Waldenses made the profession of extreme poverty a prominent feature in their own lives, and emphasized by their practice the need of the much neglected task of preaching. . . . Among the doctrinal errors which they propagated was the denial of purgatory, and of indulgences, and prayers for the dead. They denounced all lying as a grievous sin, refused to take oaths, and considered the shedding of human blood unlawful.” To any unbiased mind, it will appear evident that these so-called “heretics” were no more nor less than the “little flock” whom God was using to maintain the light of the true gospel. The same article tells how this light spread: “The preaching of Waldes [the founder of the Waldenses] and his disciples obtained immediate success not only in France, but in Italy and Spain. The church sought to avert by persuasion the danger of numerous defections. As early as 1191 a religious conference was held between Catholics and Waldenses at a place which has not been recorded; it was followed by a second held at Pamiers in 1207. The latter meeting brought about the return to the church of Duran of Huesca and several other Waldenses. With the authorization of Innocent III, they organized themselves into the special religious order of the poor Catholics for the conversion of the Waldenses. This purpose was only attained in a very small degree; but force soon checked the heretical movement. In 1192, Bishop Otto of Toul ordered all Waldenses to be put in chains and be delivered up to the episcopal tribunal. Two years later, King Alphonso II of Aragon banished them from his dominions and forbade any one to furnish them with shelter or food. These provisions were renewed by Pedro II at the council of Gerona (1197), and death by burning was decreed against the heretics.” A CRUSADE OF EXTERMINATION
The “Historical Atlas of Universal History,” published in French by two Catholic scholars, J. Baquol and J. H. Schnitzler (Strasburg, 1873), gives the following details on the crusade of extermination directed against the Waldenses. Concerning502maps 80 and 83 of volume 2, we read that “Pierre de Bruys, enemy of the mass, and condemned by the council of Toulouse (1119), was burned alive at Saint-Gilles in 1147; his disciple Henry, a monk who threw off the cowl, was condemned in 1148 to perpetual imprisonment. . . . “Three princes were regarded as the supporters of the sect condemned by the church; and as their submission did not seem complete enough, a crusade was preached against them and their states in the name of the pope, by the monks of Citeaux in 1208 and the following years. These were Raymond VI, count of Toulouse; Raymond-Roger II, viscount of Béziers, of Carcassonne and Albi; and Raymond-Roger I, count of Foix. This crusade, the first result of which was the sack of Béziers and that of Carcassonne, was repeated in 1215, 1219, and 1226. This bloody war lasted more than 20 years; it was terminated by the entire defeat of the South [of France], the extirpation of the so-called heretical belief, the destruction of the Provencal nationality, with the special civilization which had developed it.” On the next map, this work gives details of the sack of Béziers, where 20,000 persons were massacred or burned to death. It was on this occasion, July 22, 1209, that Abbot Arnold, being asked how the heretics were to be distinguished from the faithful, made the incredible reply: “Slay all [Catholics and heretics]; God will know His own.” Some authors place the number of victims as high as 30,000 and even 60,000. Two hundred seventy-five years later, we find the Waldenses again multiplying on both sides of the Alps, thanks to a period of peace and the protection of King Louis XI. But, says the “Catholic Encyclopedia,” “this period of peace was followed in 1488 by a crusade summoned by [Pope] Innocent VIII against the Waldenses.” As the encyclopedia gives no details on the crusade, we will supply the following information from impartial history. Innocent published two bulls against “these people apparently pious and holy,” as he called them. In these proclamations, he called upon all to join the crusade; and as inducements, he offered the release from all ecclesiastical taxes and all oaths, the free possession of ill-acquired property, and the remission of sins, while they received unlimited permission to kill, plunder, and ruin. Imagine the scenes of destruction of which the peaceful Vaudois valley became the theater. Their temples and houses were burned, and their fields turned into wilderness. After another period of peace, as recorded in the encyclopedia, “in 1656 violence was again fruitlessly resorted to. Later in the same century [1686, 1699], some of them, under stress of renewed persecution, emigrated to Switzerland and Germany.” While the “Catholic Encyclopedia” tells the truth, it does not tell all the truth. Let us hear some details on the “violence” of 1655 from the pen of an eyewitness, Pastor Jean Léger, who was at the time moderator of the Vaudois churches. His description of what follows was signed by many witnesses, and their signatures were certified by a notary. On Palm Sunday, April 18, 1655, under the command of Marquis de Pianesse, an army of soldiers and Capuchin monks suddenly invaded the valleys. The scenes that followed the assault are thus described by Pastor Léger: “Here the father had seen his children torn in two by hands or swords. There the mother had seen her daughter forced or massacred in her presence. The daughter had witnessed the mutilation of the living body of her father; the brother had seen the persecutors fill the mouth of his brother with powder and set fire to it, tearing his head into shreds; pregnant women had seen their own bodies opened and the fruit taken out alive. What more shall I say, my God! The pen falls from my hands. Corpses scattered or planted on poles; children’s limbs cast in the middle of the street; brains plastered against the rocks; human trunks found without arms or legs, half scalped or with the eyes torn from the head and the nails from the feet; others tied to trees, with the chest emptied of heart or lungs; here bodies of women more mutilated still; there the ground seemed to utter the moans of unfortunate victims buried alive: everywhere mourning, dread, desolation, and death.”—“General History of the Vaudois Churches,” by Jean Léger, volume 2. Fourteen thousand persons who had escaped the massacre were put into jail. One year later, when they were set at liberty, thanks to the intervention of European powers, they had been so reduced by hardships, barbarous treatment, and disease, that there were only three thousand left, and they had to seek refuge in the neighboring countries, in the middle of winter. Let this suffice! Can anyone reading these lines doubt that he has been witnessing the fulfilment of what God called, so many centuries ago, “the transgression which maketh desolate”? And can any one doubt that the history of the papacy furnishes strong evidence that it is the very power that was to “destroy wonderfully,” in their security, many of “the holy people,” of “the people of the saints”?