“Who
Are the Popes of Rome – and Where Are They Found?”
Prepared
by Darryl Eberhart, Editor of ETI & TTT Newsletters // Website: www.toughissues.org
A
5-Page Handout // All emphasis is mine unless otherwise stated. // Jan.
28, 2011 (Updated: Feb. 12, 2011)
ANSWER: Noah Webster’s 1828
American Dictionary of the English Language defines the term “pope”
as follows: “The bishop of Rome, the head of the [Ed.: Roman] Catholic
Church.”
While there have been a few decent, moral popes throughout history (e.g., Pope John Paul I), the majority of popes certainly seem to have been very vile men. Here are a few quotations of Peter De Rosa, a Roman Catholic author, that were taken from his excellent book, “Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy” (Crown Publishers, Inc., New York; 1988) – a book that I highly recommend folks read:
“Many [Ed.: popes] were sons of priests, bishops and popes; some were bastards; one was a widower, another an ex-slave; several were murderers, some unbelievers; some were hermits, some heretics, sadists and sodomites; many became popes by buying the papacy (simony), and continued their days selling holy things to rake in the money; one at least was a Satan-worshipper; some fathered illegitimate children, some were fornicators and adulterers on a grand scale…” (Page 30)
“Popes had mistresses of fifteen years of age, were guilty of incest and sexual perversions of every sort, had innumerable children, [Ed.: and] were murdered in the very act of adultery…” (Page 397)
“What
history shows is that, for more than six centuries without a break, the papacy
was the sworn enemy of elementary justice. Of eighty popes
in a line from the thirteenth century on, not one of them disapproved of
the theology and apparatus of Inquisition. On the contrary, one after
another added his own cruel touches to the workings of this deadly machine.” (Pages 175 and 176)
“Throughout the nineteenth century, the papacy had been pressurizing [Ed.: sic; most Americans would probably use the word “pressuring”] governments to deny their citizens those rights [Ed.: e.g., freedom of conscience and freedom of religion] which were denied citizens in the Papal States. From 1831 the popes attacked each new constitution – the Austrian, French, Belgian – as ‘godless’. Why? Because they dared like atheists to grant freedom of conscience; freedom of the press; free parliamentary institutions for which all were entitled to vote, regardless of their religion or lack of it; complete equality of all citizens before the law. The papacy kept urging other Italian states to imitate its own repression. For example, in 1852 [Ed.: Pope] Pius IX persuaded Tuscany to forbid Jewish doctors to practice medicine. The overriding impression given was: The one thing [Ed.: Papal] Rome cannot abide is freedom in any form.” (Page 247)
Roman Catholic writer, John Acton (1843-1902), tells us: “The Inquisition is peculiarly the weapon and peculiarly the work of the popes. It stands out from all those things in which they cooperated, followed or assented as the distinctive feature of Papal Rome. It was set up, renewed, and perfected by a long series of acts emanating from the supreme authority of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church. No other institution, no doctrine, no teaching, no ceremony is so distinctly the individual creation of the papacy, except the dispensing power [Ed.: i.e., the civil power that carried out the penalties, such as execution, for the Roman Catholic Church]. It is the principal thing with which the papacy is identified, and by which it must be judged. The principle of the Inquisition is the pope’s sovereign power over life and death. Whoever disobeys him [Ed.: i.e., the pope] should be tried, and tortured, and burnt. If that cannot be done, [Ed.: then] formalities may be dispensed with, and the culprit may be killed like an outlaw. That is to say, the principle of the Inquisition is murderous, and a man’s opinion of the papacy is regulated and determined by his opinion of religious assassination.”
In 1523 Pope Adrian VI
(1459-1523; pope: 1522-23) stated:
“It is beyond question that he [Ed.:
i.e., the pope] can err even
in matters touching the faith. He does this when he teaches heresy by his own
judgment or decretal. In truth, many Roman pontiffs [Ed.:
i.e., popes] were heretics.”
Dave Hunt, on pages 244, 245, and 247 of his book “A Woman Rides the Beast”, tells us: “Roman Catholic apologists deceitfully try to absolve their Church of any responsibility in the actual burnings of heretics. They claim that the Inquisition was the work of the State [Ed.: i.e., the “dispensing power”].
…The
penalties were [Ed.: indeed] executed by the civil authorities, but
only as the secular arm of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church…
…If
the [Ed.: civil] authorities refused to execute the condemned [Ed.:
i.e., those individuals condemned by the Roman Catholic Inquisition],
they would themselves be brought before the [Ed.: Inquisitional]
Tribunal and consigned to the flames.
It was the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] popes themselves who invented the Inquisition and saw that it was carried out.
…The popes
themselves were the authority behind the Inquisitions. They wielded the
power of life and death even over emperors. Had any pope opposed the
Inquisition, he could have stopped it during his papacy at least.
[Ed.: But no popes bothered to stop the Inquisition; rather, 80 popes
in a row, according to Roman Catholic author Peter De Rosa, blessed the
barbaric “holy” Inquisition!]
…The Roman pontiffs, who originated and directed the Inquisitions, threatened excommunication against any who failed to carry out the inquisitors’ decrees.”
Bob Bush, a former Roman Catholic Jesuit priest, tells us: “I wanted to follow the Word of God and, unfortunately, the Pope who is held up as the
[Ed.: alleged; supposed] leader of Christendom holds onto things [Ed.:
e.g., doctrines and rituals] that contradict the Word of God. It is
very important for everyone to know that the new code of Canon Law number 333
actually says: ‘There is neither appeal or recourse against a decision
or decree of the Roman
Pontiff [Ed.: i.e., the pope].’ This is in the new code of Canon Law that came out in 1983. That
means that the Pope
has absolute power and absolute authority as defined in the law books,
and everyone is familiar with the decree of Papal infallibility.”
Charles
Chiniquy (a former Roman Catholic priest of 25 years) stated on page 85 of the
Chick Publications’ edition of his book, “The
Priest, The Woman, and The Confessional”: “Have not the
popes [Ed.: e.g., Pope Pius IX in his “Syllabus of Errors”
of 1864] publicly and repeatedly anathematized the sacred principle of
Liberty of Conscience? Have they not boldly said, in the teeth of the nations of
Europe, that Liberty of Conscience must be destroyed – killed at
any cost? Has not the whole world heard the sentence of death to liberty
coming from the lips of the old man of the Vatican [Ed.: i.e., the pope]?”
Philip De Courcy, on page 286 of his book “Standing Room Only: A Contemporary Exposé of the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Agreement”, tells us: “The procession of popes and the history of the papacy are an embarrassment to all that is called biblical Christianity. It is a blight on Christ’s name, an injustice to [Ed.: the Apostle] Peter, and a corruption of the gospel.”
Dr. Ronald Cooke, on pages 5, 7, and 9 of his book “The Death of the Pope of Rome”, tells us: “When one looks at the lives of the popes of Rome he sees a ghastly array of egregious evils, heinous crimes, and glaring sins which cannot be matched by any other group of men in the annals of history. Other men and other organizations have committed great atrocities and evils, but never on such a wide scale, or for such a long time, as the Popes of Rome.
The evils of the Popes are compounded by the fact that while committing all the evils,
atrocities, massacres, inquisitions, immoralities, and teaching all the
false doctrines of Rome, ALL THESE DEMONIC MONSTERS CLAIMED AT THE SAME TIME TO
BE THE VICAR OF CHRIST ON EARTH [Ed.: emphasis in the original]. Roman Catholic scholars, such as
Malachi Martin, one of the leading Roman Catholic scholars of the 20th
century, describe in great detail the evils of the Roman Catholic papacy. So if people today do not know of such evils, it is not because they
never happened or have not been publicized, it is because people are willfully
IGNORANT of them [Ed.:
emphasis in the original].
…And they [Ed.: i.e.,
the popes
of Rome] were some of the worst scoundrels, miscreants, and murderers
who ever cursed the world with their presence.
…How has the papacy
conducted itself in the past? It would require many volumes to recount the crimes,
sins, cruelties, debaucheries, immoralities, perversions, errors, and
blasphemies of the Papal See.”
Dave Hunt, on page 78 of his book “A
Woman Rides the Beast”, tells us:
“As for abominations, even Catholic historians admit that among the popes
were some of the most degenerate and unconscionable ogres in all history.
Their numerous outrageous
crimes, many of which are almost beyond belief, have been recited by many
historians from preserved documents that reveal the depths of papal depravity…”
Henry
H. Halley, in “Halley’s Bible Handbook”, tells us: “[Ed.:
Imperial] Rome fell. But Rome came to life again, as a world power, in the
name of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church. The popes of Rome were
the heirs and successors of the Caesars of Rome. The Vatican is [Ed.:
located] where the Palace of the Caesars was. The [Ed.: Roman Catholic] popes
have claimed all the authority the Caesars claimed, and more. The Papal
Palace, throughout the centuries, has been among the most luxurious in
all the world. Popes have lived in pomp and splendor unsurpassed
by earthly kings. In no place on earth is there more ostentatious pageantry and
show of magnificence than at the coronation of a pope.
…The
horrors of the Inquisition, ordered and maintained by the popes,
over a period of 500 years, in which unnumbered MILLIONS [Ed.: of
human beings made in the image of God] were tortured and burned,
constitute the most brutal, beastly and devilish picture in all
history.”
Bishop William
Shaw, a Church historian, tells us: “The most ghastly abomination of
all was the system of torture [Ed.: within the Inquisition]. The
accounts of its cold-blooded operations make one shutter at the capacity of
human beings for cruelty. And it was decreed and regulated
by the popes who ‘claim’ to represent Christ on earth…”
Dave Hunt, on pages 95-97 of his book “A Woman Rides the Beast”, tells us: “…They [Ed.: i.e., the popes of Rome] labored mightily to satisfy their lust for power and pleasure and wealth. No justification for making themselves the absolute and infallible rulers over the Church, much less the world, could be found in the writings of the early [Ed.: Church] Fathers and certainly not in Scripture. Therefore the popes had to find other support. The means they chose was to rewrite history by manufacturing allegedly historical documents. The first of these bold forgeries was ‘The Donation of Constantine’… It was followed by pseudo-‘Isidorian Decretals’, which were early papal decrees allegedly compiled by Archbishop Isidore (560-636) but actually fabricated in the ninth century. These frauds became the foundation for much ‘tradition’ still relied upon today.
…The ‘Isidorian Decretals’ involved about a hundred concocted decrees allegedly promulgated by the earliest popes, along with counterfeit writings of supposed Church authorities and synods.
…Devout Catholics would be shocked to learn that much of the ‘apostolic tradition’ they have been told supports Roman Catholicism (and is to be regarded upon the same level as Scripture) was actually a deliberately manufactured fraud. The doctrines built upon these forgeries became so interwoven into [Ed.: Roman] Catholicism that even after the hoax was exposed the popes were reluctant to make the necessary corrections. Pope after [Ed. allegedly] ‘infallible’ pope endorsed the counterfeit. To make a clean break from centuries of accumulated lies would tear apart the very fabric of Roman Catholicism.”
Hector
Macpherson, on pages 108 and 109 of “The Jesuits in History”, tells
us: “In the fatal year 800, when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of
the Romans by [Ed.: Pope] Leo III, there was set upon Western Europe the Papacy,
a colossal system whose object is despotic rule of man and society in all
spheres, sacred and secular. The Papacy claimed not only to possess
the ‘Keys of Heaven’, but also to rule the earth. The pope
came to be regarded as the sole representative of Deity on earth, and from him
must the empire be held.
…In its egotistical blindness, and intoxicated with the fumes of sacerdotal conceit, the Papacy set itself in opposition to the spirit of nationality, which in the Middle Ages was beginning to create order out of the disorders caused by the fall of the Roman Empire. Foiled in its endeavors to reign unchecked over rising nationalities the Papacy attempted to rule through monarchs devoted to the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church.”
Dr. R. Laird Harris (Professor of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis) stated: “The fact is: the popes are not infallible. …They [Ed.: i.e., the popes of Rome] not only contradict themselves, but [Ed.: they also] contradict the [Ed.: Holy] Bible as well. All the fanfare of wealth, the tinsel of ceremony, and the prestige of power which we witness at [Ed.: Papal] Rome cannot avail before God.”
Hector Macpherson, on page 116 of his book “The Jesuits in
History”, stated: “The
Canon Law, among other things, declares that the Pope
is the lord of all kings, and all people; that the [Ed.:
Roman Catholic] Church
can use force in carrying out her discipline; that her clergy are exempt
from the civil tribunals of the land; that all laws contrary to Canon Law
are void; that all education must be under the control of the Bishops; that the Pope can depose ‘heretical’ sovereigns; that he can release from
oaths and prisons; that the priests have power to direct the people in their
political duties; and that ‘heresy’ is to be punished with death.”
Dave Hunt, on page 55 of his book “A Woman Rides the Beast”, tells us: “Pope Leo XII reproved [Ed.: French King] Louis XVIII for granting the ‘liberal’ French Constitution, while Pope Gregory XVI denounced the Belgian Constitution of 1832. His outrageous encyclical, ‘Mirari vos’, of August 15, 1832 (which was later confirmed by Pope Pius IX in his 1864 ‘Syllabus Errorum’), condemned freedom of conscience as ‘an insane folly’ and freedom of the press as ‘a pestiferous error, which cannot be sufficiently detested’. He reasserted the right of the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church to use force, and like countless popes before him demanded that civil authorities promptly imprison any non-Catholics who dared to preach and practice their faith.”
David
I. Kertzer, on page 213 of his book “The Popes Against the Jews”,
tells us: “In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, the Vatican
began to use anti-Semitism to build mass political support for the [Ed.:
Roman Catholic] Church. Yet anti-Semitism had to be
handled with care, especially insofar as the popes themselves were
concerned. The hierarchy saw the Roman Catholic Church as the divinely ordained
carrier of a message of universalism, love, and charity. With pogroms [Ed.:
i.e., organized persecution and massacres of Jews] spreading across eastern
Europe, and with charges of Jewish ritual murder, Jewish economic crimes, and
Jewish treason leading to violence in both western and central Europe, the popes
and their secretaries of state tried to put some public distance between
themselves and the anti-Semitic campaigns. In their public statements, no
pope himself would publicly charge the Jews with ritual murder,
nor – in so many words – argue that they were a foreign body destroying
Christian society. The popes themselves would not publicly call
for revoking the Jews’ civil rights, or for sending them back to the ghettoes.
Indeed, in their public pronouncements, the popes generally avoided any specific mention of the Jews at all, permitting the Vatican to deny that the Holy See bore any responsibility for the anti-Semitic movement in Europe. But out of the limelight, and with the assistance of their secretaries of state, the popes regulated the anti-Semitic campaigns conducted in the [Ed.: Roman Catholic] Church press – most notably through ‘L’Osservatore romano’ and ‘Civilta cattolica’ [Ed.: an official Jesuit journal], over which they exercised control. At the same time, through their diplomatic service, they worked quietly to shape the political use of anti-Semitism more directly, as we have seen was the case in Austria.”
On January 14, 1934, German Knight of Malta Franz von Papen stated: “The [Ed.: Nazi] Third Reich is the first power which not only recognizes, but which puts into practice the high principles of the papacy.”
Martin Luther (1483-1546), former Augustinian monk and Roman Catholic
priest – and German theologian, religious Reformer, and Bible translator –
stated: “It is a horrible
thing to behold the man [Ed.:
i.e., the Pope of Rome] who styles
himself Christ’s vicegerent, displaying a magnificence that no emperor can
equal. Is this being like the poor Jesus or the humble [Ed.: fisherman, the
Apostle Simon] Peter? He [Ed.: i.e., the Pope] is, say they, the
lord of the world! But Christ, whose vicar he boasts of being, said, ‘My
kingdom is not of this world.’ Can the dominions of a vicar extend beyond
those of his superior?”
Martin Luther also stated: “We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist.”
Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556),
an English churchman and archbishop of Canterbury, stated: “Wherefore it
followeth Rome
to be the seat of antichrist, and the pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many
other Scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.”
John Knox (1505-1572;
Scottish Protestant clergyman and religious Reformer) stated: “[Ed.:
The Pope is] the very antichrist,
and ‘son of perdition’, of whom [Ed.: the Apostle] Paul
speaks.”
French Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564)
stated:
“Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman
pontiff Antichrist. …I
shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in II Thessalonians 2) are not capable
of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.”
Cotton Mather (1663-1728;
American clergyman and writer) stated:
“The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the
Christian Church: and in the Pope
of Rome all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously
answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous
blindness upon them.”
John Wesley (1703-1791;
English clergyman and evangelist) stated:
“He [Ed.: i.e., the Pope]
is in an emphatic sense, ‘the Man of Sin’, as he increases all
manner of sin above measure. And he [Ed.: i.e., the Pope]
is, too, properly styled ‘the Son of Perdition’, as he has caused the
death of numberless multitudes, both of his opposers and followers. …He it is…that ‘exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped’ [Ed.: II
Thessalonians 2:4]…claiming
the highest power and highest honor…claiming the prerogatives which belong to God alone.”
Alexander Hislop, on page 3
of the Chick Publications’ edition of his book “The Two Babylons”,
stated: “Her [Ed.: i.e., the papal
system’s] judgment is now evidently hastening on; and just as it
approaches, the Providence of God, conspiring with the Word of God, by light
pouring in from all quarters, makes it more and more evident that [Ed.: Papal]
Rome is in very
deed the Babylon of the Apocalypse; that the essential character of her
system, the grand objects of her worship, her festivals, her doctrine and
discipline, her rites and ceremonies, her priesthood and their orders, have all
been derived from ancient Babylon; and, finally, that the Pope himself is truly and properly the lineal representative of [Ed.:
Babylonian king] Belshazzar.”
ANSWER: The popes are found on the pages of history, frequently guilty of ordering the torture and murder of thousands upon thousands of innocent people made in the image of God! The popes are found ordering “crusades” not only against Muslims, but also against Bible-believing Christian groups, such as the Albigensian and Waldensian Christians. For centuries the popes, as rulers of the Papal States in central and north central Italy, are found persecuting Jews. For centuries the popes are found opposing the reading of the Holy Scriptures in the common man’s language, such as English, Spanish, Italian, etc. – and even ordering the burning of both Bibles and those Bible-believing Christians who possessed, distributed, and/or translated the Bible!
The popes are nowhere to be found on the pages of the New Testament of the Holy Bible! Isn’t it interesting that these popes – who claim a direct line of succession from the Apostle Peter – are not once mentioned in the New Testament? Isn’t it interesting that the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans (i.e., his epistle – his letter – to the Christians at Rome), yet not once did he mention the Apostle Peter, much less refer to Peter as the Bishop of Rome, and even much less refer to Peter as the “pope”?
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE POPES
OF ROME:
1. Read the 484-page hardback
book, “Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy”, by
Roman Catholic author Peter De Rosa (Crown Publishers, Inc., New York; First
American Edition, 1988). To obtain a copy of this book, please check your local
bookstore or local library, or do an Internet search for it.
2. Read the 1836-page
“electronic book” (CD-ROM in PDF format), “Vatican Assassins”
(Third Edition, 2007), by Eric Jon Phelps. To order this “electronic book”
via credit card, please call LOWVEHM, Inc. at 1-610-589-5300. Their
Internet website is www.vaticanassassins.org.
3. Read the 544-page paperback
book, “A Woman Rides the Beast” (1994), by Dave Hunt. To order this
book via credit card, please call The Berean Call at 1-800-937-6638
(orders only; 8 A.M. – 5 P.M. Pacific time).
***PERMISSION
IS GIVEN TO COPY***