ROME and the BIBLE The History of the Bible through the Centuries and Rome’s Persecutions against It By David W. Cloud Copyright © 1996 by David W. Cloud ISBN 1-58318-003-6 First printing, October 1996 Second edition revised, January 1997 Third edition revised and enlarged, September 2001 Fourth edition enlarged May 2009 Published by Way of Life Literature P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368 866-295-4143 (toll free) [email protected] (e-mail) http://www.wayoflife.org (web site) Canada: Bethel Baptist Church, 4212 Campbell St. N., London, Ont. N6P 1A6 519-652-2619 (voice) 519-652-0056 (fax) Printed in Canada by Bethel Baptist Print Ministry Contents Introduction 5 Part I: Rome Enshrouded the Bible with Error 11 Part II: Rome Set up a Corrupt Biblical Standard 28 Part III: Rome Persecuted the Bible 44 The First Millennium 46 1000-1350 A.D. 49 Peter Waldo 53 Pope Innocent III, Father of the Inquisition 61 John Wycliffe and the Lollards 77 The Gutenberg Press 105 Persecutions against the Waldensians in the 15th Century 107 French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese Bibles 113 William Tyndale and the English Bible 134 Miles Coverdale and the Great Bible 182 John Rogers and the Matthew’s Bible 184 The Geneva Bible 191 The Greek Received Text 192 The Spanish Bible 198 The Council of Trent Curses Bible Believers 207 The Persecuting Popes 1550-1800 A.D. 213 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre 223 First Catholic English Bible 227 Waldenses Brutally Tormented and Driven from Mountains 239 Papal Bulls against Bible Societies in the 19th Century 245 Part IV: Rome Changes Tactics in the Twentieth Century 269 Part V: Has Rome Changed? 282 Appendix 1: Directory for the Inquisitors 291 Appendix 2: Peter vs. the Popes 294 Bibliography 296 Index 309 3 ―In the Bible, the Almighty addresses us as by a voice from heaven, ‗Look unto me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else,‘ (Isa. xliv. 22) The Church of Rome stands by, and presumes to decide who shall, and who shall not, hear these words of the Almighty Saviour; and if any person at all hear them, it is by her permission. … To assume the power of permitting creatures to hear what God shall speak, is assuming a power and authority at least equal to that of God, and a right to control, or at least to regulate the manner of his communicating his will to his own creatures.‖ – William M‘Gavin, The Protestant, 1819 4 Introduction The Charge of ―Catholic Bashing‖ We know from long experience that as soon as we publish this book our detractors will claim that we hate Roman Catholics, and they will charge us with ―Catholic bashing‖ and with narrow-minded sectarianism. Such a claim, though, would require the ability to look into another man‘s heart, and we know that no one has such ability. The Lord being our witness, we do not hate Roman Catholic people. We are not vindictive or mean- spirited. We wish no one any harm. On the contrary, our zeal is for the one true gospel of Jesus Christ, and we have been taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostle to warn of false gospels (Galatians 1). A faithful shepherd resists wolves. Our prayer is that every Roman Catholic will understand the perfect sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Bible. Some years ago, during a visit to Western Australia, we visited the home of an elderly Catholic lady. We asked her if she was prepared to die, if she knew that her sins were forgiven and that she was going to Heaven. She hesitated for some moments and then replied that she did not believe that anyone could know such a thing. She told me that she was doing what she could and going to mass and hoping for the best. We read Scriptures to her from the book of Hebrews, such as ―For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified‖ (Heb. 10:14), showing the sufficiency and completeness of Christ‘s Atonement. We also read Scriptures to her that guarantee eternal life to the believer because of God‘s gift of salvation in Christ: ―These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God‖ (1 John 5:13). This dear old lady‘s attitude illustrates the sad fruit of Rome‘s false sacramental gospel, which offers no security because it is not founded upon the once-for-all, utterly-sufficient Atonement of Calvary. In commenting on an excerpt from this book that was printed several months before the book‘s publication, a Roman Catholic reader gave the following judgment: ―One gets the impression that ANY enemy of Catholics is your friend and that you are more intent on attacking Catholics than on loving and serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Beware the bitter root that eats up common sense in an unreasoning hatred of Catholics. It will not serve you well and it will be a stench in the nostrils of God.‖ This false accusation will always be raised when one lifts his voice against error. I replied, ―My friends are not ‗any‘ enemy of Catholics. My friends are those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word above man-made tradition. ―Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way‖ (Psalm 119:128). 5 The truly important thing is not what you or I believe about [historical Christian sects], but what you or I believe about Jesus Christ, the sole Mediator between God and men, and about the Bible, the sole Word of God to man. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His once-for -all sacrifice, ―hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified‖ (Heb. 10:14). The Bible is able to make the man of God ―perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works‖ (2 Tim. 3:16-17). That means we need nothing else. I do consider Rome the enemy of true Christianity, but that is because of its doctrines and history. I did not make Romanism what it is; I am simply documenting it. I do not hate Roman Catholics, but I do hate the blasphemous Roman Catholic system. I hate it for the same reason that I hate Evolution or Communism or any other false system. I hate it because it is false yet it professes to be truth; I hate it because it stands between man and the truth; I hate it because its pompous claims have detracted from the exclusive mediatorship of Jesus Christ; I hate it because multitudes have gone out into eternity lost because of its false gospel. The Psalmist said: ―Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I HATE EVERY FALSE WAY‖ (Psalm 119:128). The Lord Jesus Christ commended the churches for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, and He encouraged the churches that He also hated both the deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:6, 15). The term ―Nicolaitan‖ means ―to conquer the people,‖ and probably referred to the early stages of that proud hierarchical spirit which later resulted in the formation of the Roman Catholic Church. It is a strange and fearful quirk of human nature to charge a man with being an enemy though his only motive is to preach the truth. Thus Paul inquired of the Galatians who were being led astray by false teachers: ―Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?‖ (Gal. 4:16). Rome as the Harlot of Revelation By no means is the Roman Catholic Church the only institution that has persecuted Bible -believing Christians, but no other institution has persecuted more aggressively or for a longer period of time. We believe the Roman Catholic Church is the partial fulfillment of the prophecy in Revelation 17 of a one-world religious Harlot. This is not to say that Revelation 17 is entirely fulfilled by Roman Catholicism. This prophecy will not be completed until the reign of the Antichrist just prior to the coming of the Lord, and will be joined by a conglomeration of other apostate churches and organizations (her daughters), the end result, no doubt, of the present Ecumenical Movement. Even so, every feature of this religious Harlot is found in the Roman Catholic Church: it is yoked together with secular government; it has great wealth; it is clothed in purple and scarlet; it is drunk with the blood of the saints. 6 For a thousand years and more, separatist Bible-believing Christians have identified Rome with the Harlot of Revelation 17. At the end of the NINTH CENTURY, ―Tergandus, Bishop of Treve, called the pope antichrist, yea, a wolf, and Rome, babylon‖ (Martyrs Mirror, 5th English edition, p. 240). In the TENTH CENTURY, Arnulphus, Bishop of Orleans, called the pope antichrist, in a full council at Rheims (Peter Allix, The Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, 1821, p. 229). In the ELEVENTH CENTURY, Berenger of Tours denounced Rome‘s dogmas and maintained that the Roman Church was the See of Satan (George Faber, The History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, 1838, p. 159). The Waldensians, throughout their long history, identified the pope as the antichrist. The Waldensian treatise titled the Noble Lesso, dated 1100 A.D., stated: ―Antichrist, the predicted murderer of the Saints, hath already appeared in his true character, seated monarchally in the seven-hilled city.‖ In the TWELFTH CENTURY, in roughly 1120 A.D., A Treatise Concerning Antichrist identified the pope of Rome as the antichrist.