Rome and the Bible: The History of the Bible through the Centuries and Rome’s Persecutions against It

318 Pages·1996·11.8 MB·English

by  David W. Cloud

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
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―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

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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).
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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.
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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. George Faber identifies this as a
production of Peter the Valdo (Faber, pp. 379-
384).
In the THIRTEENTH CENTURY, the
ALBIGENSES made the following confession
at the conference of Montreal: ―That the
Church of Rome was not the spouse of Christ,
but the Church of confusion, drunk with the
blood of the martyr. That the polity of the
Church of Rome was neither good nor holy,
nor established by Jesus Christ‖ (Peter Allix,
The Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient
Churches of the Albigenses, 1821 edition, first
published in 1692, p. 178). The
BOHEMIANS, a colony of Waldenses in
Bohemia, held the following beliefs in the
13th century: ―The first error, saith he, is that
the Church of Rome is not the Church of Jesus
Christ, but an assembly of wicked men, and
the whore that sits upon the beast in the
Revelation. … They declare the pope to be the
head and ringleader of all errors‖ (Allix,
Ancient Churches of Piedmont, pp. 242-259).
Harlot of Revelation 17 by illustrator Lucas

Cranach, from the Luther Bible
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The LOLLARDS of the 14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES maintained ―that the Church of
Rome was not the Church of Christ, but of infidel heathens; and they despised all
ecclesiastical laws, together with all the Bishops and Ministers of the Church‖ (Allix,
Ancient Churches of the Albigenses, p. 230). The Petrobusians also judged the pope to be
the antichrist (Allix, Ancient Churches of the Albigenses, p. 142).
Throughout THE REFORMATION ERA, Rome was considered the Mother of Harlots.
On September 9, 1560, Pastor Jean Louis Paschale of Calabria, just before he was burned
alive in the presence of Pope Pius IV in Rome, turned to the pope and ―arraigned him as
the enemy of Christ, the persecutor of his people, and the Anti-Christ of Scripture, and
concluded by summoning him and all his cardinals to answer for their cruelties and
murders before the throne of the Lamb‖ (J.A. Wylie, History of the Waldenses, c. 1860, p.
120).
Martin Luther said, ―I believe the pope is the masked and incarnate devil because he is the
Antichrist‖ (Table Talks, Vol. 54, No. 4487, p. 346). The Articles of Schmalkald call the
pope ―the vertiable Antichrist.‖ Calvin called the pope ―antichrist‖ (Treatise I:276). The
Second Scotch Confession of Faith (1580) called the pope ―that Roman Antichrist.‖ The
Irish Articles of Religion (1615), No. 80, called the pope ―that man of sin.‖ The Savoy
Declaration (1658) called the pope ―antichrist.‖ Bible translator William Tyndale identified
the pope as the antichrist in his treatise The Practice of Prelates and in the preface to the
1534 edition of his New Testament.
Their successors in the 17TH, 18TH, AND 19TH CENTURIES persisted in this. Many
of the early Protestant Bibles contained dramatic wood cuttings portraying the Scarlet
Woman of Revelation 17, plainly identifying the Roman Catholic Church with this apostate
religious system. The cuttings accompanying the Luther New Testament were made by
Cranach. In his 1893 work titled Union with Rome, Bishop Christopher Wordsworth of the
Church of England stated the view that prevailed among Protestants at that time: ―… we
tremble at the sight, while we read the inscription, emblazoned in large letters, ‗Mystery,
Babylon the Great,‘ written by the hand of St. John, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, on
the forehead of the Church of Rome.‖ These examples could be multiplied almost
endlessly.
Old-line Protestants, independent Baptists, and other fundamentalist Christians continue
TODAY to identify Rome with Revelation 17.
Our Purpose in Writing This Book
Our goal is four-fold:
First, we want to remind our generation of this history. Rome, understandably, does not
want its history remembered, and those who publish these matters are often viciously
attacked by Catholic apologists and their sympathizers. To ignore this history, though, is to
fail to understand current events. To understand the modern ecumenical movement, for
8
example, one needs to understand the last 2,000 years of church history. One of the
reasons why this present generation of Christians is ignorant of true church history,
general speaking, is the lack of sound material that is readily available. (There are massive
materials available for those who are able to visit specialized theological libraries or who
can purchase expensive out-of-print volumes, but here we are referring to the lack of
material READILY available to the average Christian.) North America is filled with
Christian bookstores of various sorts, but few contain sound church histories. Those
popularly available, for the most part, are biased toward Rome in that they treat it as a
genuine expression of the Christian church and they do not properly document the
existence and persecution of separatist Christians all through the centuries.
Second, we want to give the history of the Bible as it has been transmitted through the
centuries. We have documented the translation of the Scriptures into the chief languages
and have shown Rome‘s attitude toward this sacred work.
Third, we want to encourage God‘s people to value and stand for the Word of God. Seeing
the price that was paid by former generations that stood for the Scriptures, we should be
motivated to be very bold and courageous in the face of this same age-old apostasy. The
mood of the hour is compromise and pacifism, but boldness and conflict have always been
required in the defense of God‘s Word. Let us not be guilty of drawing back from the heat
of the battle.
Fourth, we want to reintroduce this generation to the history of the Old English Bible. The
details surrounding the revision of 1611 have been covered in a number of books, but the
period prior to that, from Wycliffe to 1611, has been overlooked in most books currently in
print and commonly distributed to our churches. We have therefore included biographies
of Wycliffe, Tyndale, Coverdale, Rogers, and other men associated with that fascinating
era.

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―But there were false prophets also among the
people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you, who privily shall bring in
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that
bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction. And many shall follow their
pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of. And through
covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you: whose judgment
now of a long time lingereth not, and their
damnation slumbereth not.‖
—2 Peter. 2:1-3
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