Foresaw the Papacy Casting Down the Truth
By Jean Vuilleumier
Tradition Supplanting the Word of the Living God—Frank Admissions from Within—Cunning Bishops In his studies on the eighth and ninth chapters of Daniel, Mr. Vuilleumier devotes three articles to the papacy as it is foretold in that prophecy. The article this week shows that the Bible was set aside and tradition was offered in its place. Next week his article will tell of the papal persecutions as admitted and taught in Catholic writings; while the third article of the series will consider the papal claims to divine prerogatives, in which the pope assumes the position of the vicar of Jesus Christ. EDITOR. As we have seen, the symbolic horn of Daniel 8 represented the Roman power in both its phases, the pagan and the papal. The same description and the same prophetic delineations must therefore apply to both. We have seen how well they were met in the history of the Roman Empire, and it remains for us to inquire whether they were also fulfilled by the history of the papal power. Let us therefore reread the verses which describe the character and doings of the horn: “And it cast down truth to the ground, and it did its pleasure and prospered.” “A king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper and do his pleasure; and he shall destroy the mighty ones and the holy people. And through his policy he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and in their security shall he destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without hand.” Verses 12, 23–25. If we sum up this description, we have the following three leading features, to which we will confine our study: 1. making war upon the truth through craft and deception; 2. persecution of God’s people; 3. claims to divine attributes. As we endeavor to demonstrate that these features are all to be found in the doctrine and history of the papacy, we do this without any ill feeling toward our Catholic readers. On the contrary, we long to see them enjoying the liberty to be found in Jesus Christ approached without any intermediates; the sweetness and peace received through salvation by faith without any human merits; and the power for holy living which this salvation brings to the human soul. To this effect, we pray God that what follows may open their eyes to the real character, as God reveals it through prophecy, of the great papal domination which holds so many millions of souls in bondage. The prophecy says that he “shall magnify himself in his heart,” that he “shall be mighty” and “do his pleasure,” and “cast down truth”; but he shall succeed “not by his own power,” but by means of “craft” and through “dark sentences,” which may refer to the use of an unknown language. The twofold character of deception and antagonism to the truth is confessed in a curious document written centuries ago by the Catholic clergy. We do not reproduce it because it contains anything new or unknown, but because it is a candid confession made by high dignitaries in the Roman Church. Soon after the Reformation, Julius III, who had been, while he was cardinal, a leading member of the Council of Trent, finding that persecution in Catholic lands was not succeeding in destroying the new faith, called together, in 1553, in the city of Bologna, in Italy, a gathering of bishops to study the matter and make suggestions as to whether a new policy should be adopted or the old one retained. The result of the consultation was the document which we shall now quote at length. It was addressed to the pope, and was meant to remain absolutely secret, but somehow the hand of God has disclosed it for the benefit of the people. It was published in 1829 in a Protestant paper of Paris, France, Les Archives du Christianisme, pages 29–40, and reproduced in the Signal in 1890. The document is Latin, and bears the following title: “Concilium quorundam Episcoporum Bononiae congregatorum quod de ratione stabiliendæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ, Julio III. Pont. Max. datum est, etc. Bononiæ 20 Oct. 1553.” Here are the signatures: Vincentius de Durantibus, Episc. Thermularum Britannis; Egidius Falceta, Episc. Caprolanus; et Gerhardus Busdragus, Episc. Thessalonicensis. Following is a portion of this document: “It is perfectly true that Lutherans admit all the articles of the symbols of the apostles, of Nice and of Athanasius; for we should not deny (especially among ourselves) what we know to be true. These same Lutherans will admit no other doctrine than that taught by the prophets, by Christ, and by the apostles, and they desire that we all should confine ourselves to that extremely limited number of truths and practices which were accepted in the very time of the apostles or soon after them; they wish us to follow the example of those ancient churches, and to reject all the traditions of which it cannot be demonstrated as clear as day that they were given and taught by Jesus Christ or by the apostles themselves. Such are the errors held by our opponents. As for us, on the contrary, in harmony with the opinion of your holiness, we desire that all should believe and consider necessary to salvation all doctrines, traditions, constitutions, rules and ceremonies which have been up to this day successively introduced into our churches, be it through the fathers or the councils, or even by any individuals animated by holy zeal. . . . And although we cannot give any certain proof for it (for, between ourselves, we have no hesitation in confessing that we cannot prove what we believe and teach on traditions, and that we have on this point only a few conjectures), yet we recognize them as truth because the Roman Church so teaches. . . .” “This is not a trifling question, but a matter which concerns the prosperity and even the preservation of your see, and the preservation of us all who are members and creatures of this see. For in the days of the apostles (we must confess it here without disguise, but it must rest secret among us), and even several years after the apostles, there was no question of popes or of cardinals; it is a certain fact that the immense revenues appropriated for bishops and priests did not exist; temples were not built in such costly style; there were no monasteries and no abbots; much less were our doctrines, our laws, our present customs recognized; but on the other hand, this domination which we now exercise over the nations was unknown; yea, the ministers of all the churches, without excepting the Roman Church, cheerfully submitted to kings, princes, and magistrates. Let your holiness imagine what would become of us, if by some misfortune we should find ourselves thrown back into this first condition of poverty, humiliation, and slavery, and obliged to obey an authority foreign to that of the church. The question, then, as we have stated, is one of the highest importance. . . .” “By looking into this question closely, we see that the church has acquired the glory, the authority, and the power which it now possesses, only when it was led by bishops full of cunning and astuteness, who, under all circumstances, pressed the Cæsars to use486their authority and their power to confer upon the Roman see the primacy and sovereignty over all the other churches. It seems that Boniface III, among others, obtained this privilege from Emperor Phocas. We see, furthermore, that the church took a greater development from the time when cardinals were created, when the number of bishops was increased, and when our numerous orders of monks and nuns were instituted. There is no doubt but that these popes, these cardinals, these bishops, these monks, these nuns, have by their cunning, by their additions to the teachings of the ancients, and by their practices and ceremonies, caused the church to deviate from the primitive doctrine which held it in poverty and humility, and have thereby acquired for it the credit and authority which she now enjoys. It is therefore necessary, in order to maintain the church in the same condition, to use the same means which placed it there. That is to say, we must use much shrewdness and astuteness, we must increase the number of cardinals, of bishops, of monks, and of nuns. . . .” “Your holiness must see to it that cardinals and bishops will grant ecclesiastical revenue to many laymen’s children. For this is a marvelous way, and the best of them all, to keep them in the faith. There are many among your people that would long ago have embraced the Lutheran doctrine, if they had not been held back solely through the motive that either they themselves, or their brothers, their sons, or their relatives receive revenue from the church. . . .” “This book [the bishops mention a certain book entitled Decretum, written by a Catholic, and beg of the pope to prohibit it] is indeed very dangerous and very damaging to your authority, although in a few places it seems to exalt it; for instance, it denies in several places that the pope has the right of adding the least thing to the doctrine Christ Himself has revealed to us, and which the apostles have taught. Thus it says in the section (canon) ‘Transfertum,’ etc.: ‘Those who preach anything else than what the apostles believed, put falsehood in the place of truth.’ Now this is an entirely Lutheran principle. What is it indeed that our opponents repeat unceasingly, except that it is not allowable to depart, not even by a hair’s breadth, from what used to be in the time of the apostles? And who is there among us who does not depart from it every day? Scarcely have we preserved in our churches any shade of the doctrine and of the discipline which were accepted in the time of the apostles; we have substituted for them a doctrine and a discipline entirely different.” (Certe vix umbram quandam retinemus in nostris ecclesiis ejus doctrinæ et disciplinæ quæ Apostolorum temporibus floruerunt, et prorsus aliam accersivimus.) The above frank and authoritative statement of facts by Catholic prelates to a pope, seems to us fully and absolutely to justify the application to the papacy of the prophetic charge that it did “cast down truth to the ground,” and that it should “cause craft to prosper in his hand.”