THE BEGINNING OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
A WRITER in an “Advent Christian” paper, Messiah’s Advocate, endeavoring to show that the Papacy had naught to do with the change of the Sabbath to Sunday as a worship day in the church, represents Sabbatarians as teaching that “the [Roman] Catholic Church was not in existence until the year 538,” and says:— And yet before the year 321, or fully 225 years before the existence of the Papacy, which constitutes the head of the Roman Catholic Church, there existed a church whose bishops desired to see a law enacted to restrain Roman citizens from pursuing their ordinary avocations on Sunday. What church was this which, 225 years before the birth of the Papacy, was keeping Sunday as a day of religious worship? What church was it which, at the Council of Nicea, A.D. 325, decreed the proper observance of the Easter festival to be on a certain Sunday in each year; and which, at the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, commanded the weekly observance of Sunday, and disfellowshipped Saturday observers? Well, let us tell him. It was the great apostasy, led by Rome. No one contends, so far as we know, that “the Catholic Church was not in existence until the year 538.” That church existed in embryo in the very days of the apostle himself, when he said the “mystery of iniquity doth already work.” See 2 Thess. 2:7. It began more vigorous work immediately after his death. Acts 20:29, 30. It continued to grow until under the influence of paganism it blossomed out a full-fledged world-church, in A.D. 325, especially through the overpowering and undue sway of Constantine and ambitious bishops. This influence of the emperor began with the decree of Milan, in A.D. 313, reaching its climax in the Council of Nicea, in A.D. 325. The supremacy of this apostasy was claimed by the bishop of Rome previous to the year 200. Of Victor, bishop of Rome, says Dowling: “In the dispute with the Eastern Christians about the time of observing Easter, Victor excluded them from fellowship with the Church of Rome.” While Victor’s assumption was not regarded, it revealed Rome’s ambition, which later on developed into the full-fledged Papacy. The false theocracy by which man was put in the place of God was in existence in organic form in A.D. 325. What did occur in A.D. 538?—The setting up of the Papacy in the bishop of Rome as “Head over All the Churches” and “The True and Effective Corrector of Heretics.” This power was given to the bishop of Rome in A.D. 533 by Justinian; but on account of opposing Arian powers it could not be carried into effect till the last of these Arian kingdoms, the Ostrogoths, was plucked up, in 538. Here began the persecuting power of the Papacy. The temporal or civil power of the pope as a world ruler did not begin till 756. A simple knowledge of these phases of the Papacy will help materially to an understanding of the subject.