p. 1 | Rome a Persecutor by R. F. C.

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 21, 1865

Rome a Persecutor.

By R. F. C.

IN conversing with well-read and dextrous Roman Catholics, I find them disposed to deny that their church has ever been a persecuting power. They endeavor to hide the church behind the civil governments of those countries which were under its influence and control. Say they, The church did not put men to death; it only decided on points of faith, deciding what was heretical; it was the civil power, which for its own safety and preservation executed heretics, as persons endangering the peace and well-being of the state.

It is well to have historic facts at hand to meet such bold assertions and sophistical arguments. The following from the History of the Reformation, vol. iii, p. 374, is to the point:

"The year after the accession of Charles VIII, son of Louis XI, a sickly and timid child, Innocent VIII, had assumed the pontifical tiara, 1484. He had seven or eight sons by different mothers; and hence, according to an epigram of the times, Rome unanimously saluted him with the name of father.

"There was at that time on all the slopes of the Dauphinese Alps, and along the banks of the Durance, a new growth of the old Waldensian opinions. 'The roots,' says an old chronicler, 'were continually putting forth new shoots in every direction! Bold men called the Roman church, the church of devils, and maintained that it was as edifying to pray in a stable as in a church.

"The priests, the Bishops, and the Roman legates uttered a cry of alarm, and on the 5th kalends of May—the 27th of April, 1487, Innocent VIII, the father of the Romans, issued a bull against these humble Christians. 'To arms,' said the pontiff, 'and trample these heretics under foot as venomous serpents!'

"At the approach of the legate, followed by an army of eighteen thousand men, and a number of volunteers who wished to share the spoils of the Waldenses, the latter abandoned their houses and took refuge in the mountains, caverns, and clefts of the rocks, as the birds flee for shelter when the storm begins to lower. Not a valley, nor a wood, nor a rock escaped their persecutors; everywhere in this part of the Alps, and particularly on the Italian side, these poor disciples of Christ were hunted down like beasts of prey. At last the Pope's satellites were worn out; their strength was exhausted, their feet could no longer scale the steep retreats of the 'heretics,' and their arms refused to strike." R. F. C.