 T H E G R E A T C O N T R O V E R S Y 
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Appendix for Great Controversy, Chapter 3
'Era of Spiritual Darkness' |
page 50
| It is one of the leading doctrines of Romanism that the pope is the visible head of the universal church of Christ, invested with supreme authority over bishops and pastors in all parts of the world. More than this, the pope has been given the very titles of Deity. He has been styled "Lord God the Pope" ( see Appendix ), and has been declared infallible. He demands the homage of all men. The same claim urged by Satan in the wilderness of temptation is still urged by him through the Church of Rome, and vast numbers are ready to yield him homage. {GC 50.3} |
Page 50. Titles. — In a passage which is included in the Roman Catholic Canon Law, or Corpus Juris Canonici, Pope Innocent III declares that the Roman pontiff is “the vicegerent upon earth, not of a mere man, but of very God;” and in a gloss on the passage it is explained that this is because he is the vicegerent of Christ, who is “very God and very man.” See Decretales Domini Gregorii Papae IX (Decretals of the Lord Pope Gregory IX), liber 1, De Translatione Episcoporum, (On the Transference of Bishops), title 7, ch. 3; Corpus Juris Canonici (2d Leipzig Ed., 1881), col. 99; (Paris, 1612), tom. 2, Decretales, col. 205. The documents which formed the decretals were gathered by Gratian, who was teaching at the University of Bologna about the year 1140. His work was added to and re-edited by Pope Gregory IX in an edition issued in 1234. Other documents appeared in succeeding years from time to time including the Extravagantes, added toward the close of the fifteenth century, all of these, with Gratian’s Decretum, were published as the Corpus Juris Canonici in 1582. Pope Pius X authorized the codification in canon law in 1904, and the resulting code became effective in 1918. { GC 679.2 }
For the title “Lord God the Pope” see a gloss on the Extravagantes of Pope John XXII, title 14, ch. 4, Declaramus. In an Antwerp edition of the Extravagantes, dated 1584, the words “Dominum Deum Nostrum Papam” (“Our Lord God the Pope”) occur in column 153. In a Paris edition, dated 1612, they occur in column 140. In several editions published since 1612 the word “Deum” (“God”) has been omitted. { GC 679.3}
Page 50. Infallibility. — On the doctrine of infallibility as set forth at the Vatican Council of 1870-71, see Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, Vol. 2, Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council, pp. 234-271, where both the Latin and the English texts are given. For discussion see, for the Roman Catholic view, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, art. “Infallibility,” by Patrick J. Toner, 790ff.; James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers (Baltimore: John Murphy Company, 110th ed., 1917), chs. 7, 11. For Roman Catholic opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility, see Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dollinger (pseudonym “Janus”) The Pope and the Council (New York: Charles Scribner’s sons, 1869); and W.J. Sparrow Simpson, Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (London: John Murray, 1909). For the non-Roman view, see George Salmon, Infallibility of the Church (London: John Murray, rev. Education, 1914). { GC 679.4 }
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page 54
| In the sixth century (Note: 538 AD) the papacy had become firmly established. Its seat of power was fixed in the imperial city, and the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire church. Paganism had given place to the papacy. The dragon had given to the beast "his power, and his seat, and great authority." Revelation 13:2. And now began the 1260 years of papal oppression foretold in the prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation. Daniel 7:25; Revelation 13:5-7. ( See Appendix ) Christians were forced to choose either to yield their integrity and accept the papal ceremonies and worship, or to wear away their lives in dungeons or suffer death by the rack, the fagot, or the headsman's ax. Now were fulfilled the words of Jesus: "Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My name's sake." Luke 21:16, 17. Persecution opened upon the faithful with greater fury than ever before, and the world became a vast battlefield. For hundreds of years the church of Christ found refuge in seclusion and obscurity. Thus says the prophet: "The woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days." Revelation 12:6. {GC 54.2} |
Page 54. Prophetic Dates. — An important principle in prophetic interpretation in connection with time prophecies is the year-day principle, under which a day of prophetic time is counted as a calendar year of historic time. Before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan they sent twelve spies ahead to investigate. The spies were gone forty days, and upon their return the Hebrews, frightened at their report, refused to go up and occupy the promised land. The result was a sentence the Lord passed upon them: “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years.” Numbers 14:34. A similar method of computing future time is indicated through the prophet Ezekiel. Forty years of punishment for iniquities awaited the kingdom of Judah. The Lord said through the prophet: “Lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.” Ezekiel 4:6. This year-day principle has an important application in interpreting the time of the prophecy of the “two thousand and three hundred evenings and mornings” ( Daniel 8:14, R.V.) and the 1260-day period, variously indicated as “a time and times and the dividing of time” ( Daniel 7:25), the “forty and two months” ( Revelation 11:2; 13:5), and the “thousand two hundred and threescore days” ( Revelation 11:3; 12:6). { GC 681.1 }
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Page 56 ( Forged Writings )
| Notwithstanding that vice prevailed, even among the leaders of the Roman Church, her influence seemed steadily to increase. About the close of the eighth century, papists put forth the claim that in the first ages of the church the bishops of Rome had possessed the same spiritual power which they now assumed. To establish this claim, some means must be employed to give it a show of authority; and this was readily suggested by the father of lies. Ancient writings were forged by monks. Decrees of councils before unheard of were discovered, establishing the universal supremacy of the pope from the earliest times. And a church that had rejected the truth greedily accepted these deceptions. ( See Appendix ) Great Controversy, page 56.1 Read entire Chapter 3
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Page 56. Forged Writings. — Among the documents that at the present time are generally admitted to be forgeries, the Donation of Constantine and the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals are of primary importance. “The ‘Donation of Constantine’ is the name traditionally applied, since the later Middle Ages, to a document purporting to have been addressed by Constantine the Great to Pope Sylvester I, which is found first in a Parisian manuscript (Codex lat. 2777) of probably the beginning of the ninth century. Since the eleventh century it has been used as a powerful argument in favor of the papal claims, and consequently since the twelfth it has been the subject of a vigorous controversy. At the same time, by rendering it possible to regard the papacy as a middle term between the original and the medieval Roman Empire, and thus to form a theoretical basis of continuity for the reception of the Roman law in the Middle Ages, it has had no small influence upon secular history.”—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, vol. 3, art. “Donation of Constantine,” pp. 484, 485. { GC 681.2}
The historical theory developed in the “Donation” is fully discussed in Henry E. Cardinal Manning’s The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, London, 1862. The arguments of the “Donation” were of a scholastic type, and the possibility of a forgery was not mentioned until the rise of historical criticism in the fifteenth century. Nicholas of Cusa was among the first to conclude that Constantine never made any such donation. Lorenza Valla in Italy gave a brilliant demonstration of its spuriousness in 1450. See Christopher B. Coleman’s Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine (New York, 1927). For a century longer, however, the belief in the authenticity of the “Donation” and of the False Decretals was kept alive. For example, Martin Luther at first accepted the decretals, but he soon said to Eck: “I impugn these decretals;” and to Spalatin: “He [the pope] does in his decretals corrupt and crucify Christ, that is, the truth.” { GC 682.1 }
It is deemed established that (1) the “Donation” is a forgery, (2) it is the work of one man or period, (3) the forger has made use of older documents, (4) the forgery originated around 752 and 778. As for the Catholics, they abandoned the defense of the authenticity of the document with Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, in 1592. Consult for the best text, K. Zeumer, in the Festgabe fur Rudolf von Gneist (Berlin, 1888). Translated in Coleman’s Treatise, referred to above, and in Ernest F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (New York, 1892), p. 319; Briefwechsel (Weimar ed.), pp. 141, 161. See also The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1950), vol. 3, p. 484; F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 2, p. 329; and Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dollinger, Fables Respecting the Popes of the Middle Ages (London, 1871). { GC 682.2 }
The “false writings” referred to in the text include also the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, together with other forgeries. The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals are certain fictitious letters ascribed to early popes from Clement (A.D. 100) to Gregory the Great (A.D. 600), incorporated in a ninth century collection purporting to have been made by “Isidore Mercator.” The name “Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals” has been in use since the advent of criticism in the fifteenth century. { GC 682.3 }
Pseudo-Isidore took as the basis of his forgeries a collection of valid canons called the Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis, thus lessening the danger of detection, since collections of canons were commonly made by adding new matter to old. Thus his forgeries were less apparent when incorporated with genuine material. The falsity of the Pseudo-Isidorian fabrications is now incontestably admitted, being proved by internal evidence, investigation of the sources, the methods used, and the fact that this material was unknown before 852. Historians agree that 850 or 851 is the most probable date for the completion of the collection, since the document is first cited in the Admonitio of the capitulary of Quiercy, in 857. { GC 682.4 }
The author of these forgeries is not known. It is probable that they emanated from the aggressive new church party which formed in the ninth century at Rheims, France. It is agreed that Bishop Hincmar of Rheims used these Decretals in his deposition of Rothad of Soissons, who brought the Decretals to Rome in 864 and laid them before Pope Nicholas I. { GC 682.5 }
Among those who challenged their authenticity were Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), Charles Dumoulin (1500-1566), and George Cassender (1513- 1564). The irrefutable proof of their falsity was conveyed by David Blondel, 1628. { GC 683.1 }
An early edition is given in Migne Patrologia Latina, CXXX. For the oldest and best manuscript, see P. Hinschius, Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianiae at Capitula Angilramni (Leipzig, 1863). Consult The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1950), vol. 9, pp. 343-345. See also H. H. Milman, Latin Christianity (Vols.), vol. 3; Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dollinger, The Pope and the Council (1869); and Kenneth Scott Latourette, A history of the Expansion of Christianity (1939), vol. 3; The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, art. “False Decretals,” and Fournier, “Etudes sure les Fausses Decretals,” In Revue D’Historique Ecclesiastique (Louvain) vol. 7 (1906), and vol. 8 (1907). { GC 683.2 }
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1888 Edition
Notwithstanding that vice prevailed, even among the leaders of the Romish Church, her influence seemed steadily to increase. About the close of the eighth century, papists put forth the claim that in the first ages of the church the bishops of Rome had possessed the same spiritual power which they now assumed. To establish this claim, some means must be employed to give it a show of authority; and this was readily suggested by the father of lies. Ancient writings were forged by monks. Decrees of councils before unheard of were discovered, establishing the universal supremacy of the pope from the earliest times. And a church that had rejected the truth, greedily accepted these deceptions. { GC88 56.2 } No Appendix
page 57
| Another step in papal assumption was taken, when, in the eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII proclaimed the perfection of the Roman Church. Among the propositions which he put forth was one declaring that the church had never erred, nor would it ever err, according to the Scriptures. But the Scripture proofs did not accompany the assertion. The proud pontiff also claimed the power to depose emperors, and declared that no sentence which he pronounced could be reversed by anyone, but that it was his prerogative to reverse the decisions of all others. ( See Appendix ) {GC 57.2} |
Page 57. The Dictate of Hildebrand (Gregory VII). — For the original Latin version see Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, Ann. 1076, vol. 17, pp. 405, 406 of the Paris printing of 1869; and the Monumenta Germaniae Historica Selecta, Vol. 3, p. 17. For an English translation see Frederic A. Ogg, Source Book of Medieval History (New York: American Book Co., 1907), ch. 6, sec. 45, pp. 262-264; and Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, Source Book for Medieval History (New York: Charles Scribner’s sons, 1905), sec. 3, item 65, pp. 136-139. { GC 683.3 }
For a discussion of the background of the Dictate, see James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, Rev. Ed., Ch. 10; and James W. Thompson and Edgar N. Johnson, An Introduction to Medieval Europe, 300-1500, pages 377-380. { GC 683.4 }
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page 59
| Then the way was prepared for the introduction of still another invention of paganism, which Rome named purgatory, and employed to terrify the credulous and superstitious multitudes. By this heresy is affirmed the existence of a place of torment, in which the souls of such as have not merited eternal damnation are to suffer punishment for their sins, and from which, when freed from impurity, they are admitted to heaven. (See Appendix.) {GC 58.3} |
Page 59. Purgatory.— Dr. Joseph Faa Di Bruno thus defines purgatory: “Purgatory is a state of suffering after this life, in which those souls are for a time detained, who depart this life after their deadly sins have been remitted as to the stain and guilt, and as to the everlasting pain that was due to them; but who have on account of those sins still some debt of temporal punishment to pay; as also those souls which leave this world guilty only of venial sins.”—Catholic Belief (1884 ed.; Imprimatur Archbishop of New York), page 196. { GC 683.5 }
See also K. R. Hagenbach, Compendium of the History of Doctrines (T. and T. Clark ed.) vol. 1, pp. 234-237, 405, 408; vol. 2, pp. 135-150, 308, 309; Charles Elliott, Delineation of Roman Catholicism, B. 2, ch. 12; The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12, art. “Purgatory.” { GC 683.6 }
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| Still another fabrication was needed to enable Rome to profit by the fears and the vices of her adherents. This was supplied by the doctrine of indulgences. Full remission of sins, past, present, and future, and release from all the pains and penalties incurred, were promised to all who would enlist in the pontiff's wars to extend his temporal dominion, to punish his enemies, or to exterminate those who dared deny his spiritual supremacy. The people were also taught that by the payment of money to the church they might free themselves from sin, and also release the souls of their deceased friends who were confined in the tormenting flames. By such means did Rome fill her coffers and sustain the magnificence, luxury, and vice of the pretended representatives of Him who had not where to lay His head. (See Appendix.) {GC 59.1} |
Page 59. Indulgences. —For a detailed history of the doctrine of indulgences see Mandell Creighton, A History of the Papacy From the Great chism to the sack of Rome (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1911), vol. 5, pp. 56-64, 71; W.H. Kent, “Indulgences,” The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7, pp. 783-789; H. C. Lea, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church (Philadelphia: Lea Brothers and Co., 1896); Thomas M. Lindsay, A History of the Reformation (New York; Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1917), vol. 1, pp. 216-227; Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1953), vol. 2, pp. 53, 54, 62; Leopold Ranke, History of the Reformation in Germany (2d London ed., 1845), translated by Sarah Austin, vol. 1, pp. 331, 335-337, 343-346; Preserved Smith, The Age of the Reformation (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920), pp. 23-25, 66. { GC 683.7 }
On the practical outworkings of the doctrine of indulgences during the period of the Reformation see a paper by Dr. H. C. Lea, entitled, “Indulgences in Spain,” published in Papers of the American Society of Church History, Vol. 1, pp. 129-171. Of the value of this historical sidelight Dr. Lea says in his opening paragraph: “Unvexed by the controversy which raged between Luther and Dr. Eck and Silvester Prierias, Spain continued tranquilly to follow in the old and beaten path, and furnishes us with the incontestable official documents which enable us to examine the matter in the pure light of history.” { GC 684.1}
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| The Scriptural ordinance of the Lord's Supper had been supplanted by the idolatrous sacrifice of the mass. Papal priests pretended, by their senseless mummery, to convert the simple bread and wine into the actual "body and blood of Christ."--Cardinal Wiseman, The Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist, Proved From Scripture, lecture 8, sec. 3, par. 26. With blasphemous presumption, they openly claimed the power of creating God, the Creator of all things. Christians were required, on pain of death, to avow their faith in this horrible, Heaven-insulting heresy. Multitudes who refused were given to the flames. (See Appendix.) {GC 59.2} |
Page 59. The Mass. —For the doctrine of the mass as set forth at the council of trent see The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent In Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. 2, pp. 126-139, where both Latin and English texts are given. See also H. G. Schroeder, Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (St. Louis, Missouri: B. Herder, 1941). { GC 684.2}
For a discussion of the mass see The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol 5, art. “Eucharist,” by Joseph Pohle, page 572ff.; Nikolaus Gihr, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Dogmatically, Liturgically, Ascetically Explained, 12th ed. (St. Louis, Missouri: B. Herder, 1937); Josef Andreas Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, its Origins and Development, translated from the German by Francis A. Brunner (New York: Benziger Bros., 1951). For the non-Catholic view, see John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, B. 4, chs. 17, 18; and Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Doctrine of the Real Presence (Oxford, England: John H. Parker, 1855). { GC 684.3 }
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