p. 8 | Rome's Answer to the Reformation by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 16, 1914

Rome's Answer to the Reformation

By W. A. S.

OUR workers who have the book must appreciate, we are sure, the added historical matter that appears in the new "History of the Sabbath," which is a revision and an enlargement of Elder J. N. Andrews's standard "History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week." Elder L. R. Conradi, who has revised and rewritten the historical portion, has had the advantage of access to many libraries and authorities not so accessible thirty or forty years ago.

The new book gives the evidence for the stand which the Catholic Council of Trent took on the Sabbath question in its answer to the challenge of the Reformers. The Reformation was based on the open Bible, and its battle cry was, The Bible as the authority in all doctrine and practice. Blow after blow was struck at the papal system until it felt itself fairly tottering. The Council of Trent was called really to give Rome's answer to the Reformation. The council continued intermittently from 1545 to 1562. Its decisions constitute a restatement of Rome's position.

Searching long and diligently for some argument by which to meet the challenge of the Reformers, that the Word of God alone was the standard of doctrine, the council seized upon the Sabbath question as affording the ground of its answer to the Reformation. It was in the closing days of the council, "History of the Sabbath" tells us, that "Caspar del Fossa, Archbishop of Rheggio, made the following statement in his opening discourse, Jan. 18, 1562:—

Such is the condition of the heretics today that they appeal to no other matter more than that they, under the pretense of the Word of God, overthrow the church: as though the church, which is the body of Christ, could be opposed to this Word, or the head to the body. Yea, the authority of the church is most gloriously set forth by the Holy Scriptures; for while on the one hand she recommends the same, declares them divine, offers them to us to be read, explains them faithfully in doubtful messages, and condemns whatever is contrary to them, on the other hand, the legal precepts of the Lord contained in them have ceased by virtue of the same authority. The Sabbath, the most glorious day in the law, has been changed into the Lord's Day. . . . This and other similar matters have not ceased by virtue of Christ's teaching (for he says he came to fulfill the law, not to destroy it), but they have been changed by virtue of the authority of the church. Should this authority cease (which would surely please the heretics), who would then witness for truth, and confound the obstinacy of the heretics?

It was in seeking for the real test of church authority, for the mark of its power above the Word of God, that the council seized upon this change of the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first. The new "History" quotes the following from Holtzman's "Canon and Tradition," page 263, giving testimony to the adoption by the council of the declaration of the Archbishop of Rheggio:—

The council agreed fully with Ambrosius Pelargus that under no condition should the Protestants be allowed to triumph by saying that the council had condemned the doctrine of the ancient church. But this practice caused untold tribulation without serving as a safeguard. For this business, to be sure, "almost divine prudence" was requisite—which was indeed awarded to the council on the sixteenth of March, 1562, by the Spanish ambassador. Really they could scarcely find their way in the many labyrinthian passages of an older and a newer comprehension of tradition, which were constantly crossing and recrossing each other. But even in this they were destined to succeed. Finally, at the last opening on the eighteenth of January, 1562, their last scruple was set aside; the Archbishop of Rheggio made a speech in which he openly declared that tradition stood above Scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the church had changed Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority. With this, to be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was declared that tradition does not signify antiquity, but continual inspiration.

Ever since that time Rome has unceasingly thrown in the face of Protestants their inconsistency in declaring for the Bible as the rule of faith and doctrine while yet accepting the first day in place of the seventh as the day of rest and worship.

There Rome issued its challenge, and unfortunately the Protestantism of that time was not ready to meet the challenge. True, isolated believers here and there met it in a practical way by turning from the Sunday of the Papacy to the Sabbath of the Lord. Sabbath keepers began to spring up all through Europe in those times.

Still Rome presses its challenge, and meets no answer amidst the great body of Protestant opinion. But the Lord has given the answer in the message of Sabbath reform; and with the rise of this advent message and movement Rome's challenge is being answered in every land today.

Over two thousand years ago the prophet Daniel was shown the working of the Papacy, trampling the truth underfoot, and seemingly triumphant; and for his sake and for the sake of the Lord's children, this question was asked in heaven, "How long shall be the vision?" Dan. 8:13. How long shall this apostasy be allowed apparently to triumph and tread underfoot the truth of God? The reply was, in effect, that at the end of the great prophetic period of twenty-three hundred years the Lord would give the final answer to the Papacy. Then the judgment was to sit, which, as it closes, will bring the final judgments of heaven upon error and sin.

Through the long centuries that promise of the Lord has stood, and when the year 1844 brought the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary and the hour of God's judgment, it brought also this advent movement into the world, proclaiming to all men the Lord's answer to Rome's challenge. Truly the battle rages round the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, which is the divinely appointed sign or mark of loyalty to the God of heaven.