Please note that most Catholics are never taught the history of their church or religion and so are totally unaware of the contents of this article and its ramifications…

Forbidden to own or even read copies of God’s precious Word in the vernacular, many groups of evangelical believers during the Middle Ages nevertheless did so.  Groups such as the Waldensians in France, Italy and Spain, the Hussites in Bohemia and the Lollards in England rejected all the false teachings of Catholicism and were thus viciously persecuted and martyred by Rome for their refusal to bow the knee to Rome’s false god.  Others, by God’s grace, survived Rome’s Inquisitions against them, paving the way for the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century.

Martin Luther

The most well known name associated with the Reformation is that of Martin Luther.  A Roman Catholic monk, he strove for spiritual perfection according to the rites and rituals of his Church yet he had no assurance of salvation:

Instead he suffered intense depression and guilt that the sacraments and works of the Church did nothing to dispel.  He could only feel convicted, not forgiven, by God and he despaired of ever attaining the righteousness demanded by God in Romans 1:17.  When the Holy Spirit revealed to him that this righteousness was a free gift received only through faith in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus, Luther at last found the peace for which he had been searching.  He described this glorious experience as being ‘reborn’.

Luther’s revelation undermined the Roman Church’s claims of ‘sacerdotal mediation’ – i.e. clergy superiority over the ‘laity’.  For if salvation is a matter between God and the individual, there is no need for ‘ordained priests’ and all the rigmarole associated with their office: All Christians are priests (Revelation 1:6) and can enter the Holy of Holies (Matthew 27:51). 

This truth revealed all the Roman Church’s sacraments to be useless as the means of grace; indeed they were not just irrelevant but harmful as they detracted from the real means of grace: the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When Rome talks about “all the means of grace”, she is implying that there are means of earning grace.  But the very definition of grace is that it cannot be earned.

It was the matter of the sale of ‘indulgences’ [3] by Tetzel, a papal envoy in Saxony in 1517, which brought Luther’s Reformation into the public domain – and the wrath of Rome upon his head. 

The system of indulgences was very profitable for Rome.  Through this practice she had come to own vast areas of land in Europe by the 16^th century.  The jingle made famous by Tetzel at the time of Luther, “As soon as the gold in the coffer rings / right then a soul to Heaven springs”, was already commonplace at least a century earlier.  But whereas others had previously criticized the abuse of the system, Luther now denounced the theology behind it.  In his 95 theses, which he pinned up on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg for all to read, he declared:

Luther subsequently burned a papal bull issued from Rome condemning his actions, denouncing, as he did so, the pope as Antichrist (i.e. as usurping Christ’s rightful place).  He was summonsed to appear before the Emperor Charles V and was there ordered to withdraw his writings against Rome.  He refused:

Scripture highlights the importance of acting on one’s God-given conscience rather than on the orders of men (e.g. in John 8:9, Acts 24:16 and Romans 2:15).  It was on the twin issues of Justification by Faith Alone and Sola Scriptura that the Protestant Reformation was founded and defended against all the unscriptural and Babylonian paraphernalia of Roman Catholicism.

Counter-Reformation

Needless to say, as Luther’s teachings began to spread across Europe the Catholic Church did not meekly acquiesce but fought for all it was worth to regain its power through whatever means necessary:

England

England’s Reformation was a stop-start affair.  Making a hesitant beginning under Henry VIII (who remained and died a Catholic), it advanced quickly, but all too briefly, during the five-year reign of his son Edward VI – only to be strangled during the following five years under Edward’s half-sister, Mary Tudor.

A staunch Catholic, Mary was well named ‘Bloody Mary’ for the hundreds of Protestants she and her husband, Philip II of Spain, had consigned to the fires of Smithfield.  Bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, John Hooper and Thomas Cranmer are perhaps the best known of her victims who suffered at the stake for refusing to accept the abomination of transubstantiation and other Romish doctrines.  But many, many others also suffered martyrdom purely for their Christian Faith at her hands.  The brave words of Latimer to Ridley as they were bound to the stake to die together have been quoted countless times throughout the centuries by teachers of the Reformation:

Tragically, in carrying out her Church’s commands, Queen Mary genuinely believed she was doing the will of God.  Christ warned that apostasy in the Church would reach such depths:

When Mary died (childless), she was succeeded by Elizabeth I whose primary concern as Queen was to restore peace and stability to England after the horrors of the previous five years.  Leaning towards Protestantism (which allowed many Marian exiles to return to Britain) but unwilling to fully nail her colours to the mast, she adopted a via media (middle way) in religion that enabled the Reformation to proceed once again, albeit more slowly than many would have liked. 

The Spanish Armada

Rome made several attempts during the reign of Elizabeth to bring England back under subjugation; all of them miraculously thwarted.  The Spanish Armada is perhaps the most famous example.  Unable to persuade Elizabeth to marry him – and thus take England back under Rome through the succession – Philip II of Spain launched a massive naval attack on England in 1588.

Rome has persistently denied direct involvement by the papacy in the Armada.  Today, historians, school-teachers, and the media often hide the Catholic forces that lay behind this, and other, conflicts.  Instead they seek to imply that such disputes were simply between nations and had little or no religious significance.  But the original Official Despatch from Rome to Philip II, found in the Spanish State Archives at Simancas (and published by the British Government), shows that Pope Sixtus V agreed with Philip II that:

However, incredible storms and other acts of God caused the ruin of the Spanish fleet.  Thomas Fenner, one of Drake’s captains, recognized the Lord’s intervention for what it was.  He even wrote in his report:

Assassination Plots

Previous to this, in 1570, Pope Pius V had issued a papal bull excommunicating Elizabeth, declaring her to be no longer Queen of England.  This put her life in danger from her Catholic subjects who were taught that their allegiance belonged to the pope before their national Sovereign.  Ten years later Pope Gregory XIII authorized the following statement against Elizabeth:

Among the numerous assassination attempts were the Ridolfi plot (financed by Pope Pius V) in 1571, the Throgmorton Plot in 1583, Dr. Parry’s Plot in 1584 and the Babington plot in 1586.  All of these planned to murder Elizabeth and put her Catholic cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, on the throne of England.  This was treason, and Elizabeth reluctantly agreed to have Mary and her accomplices put to death as traitors.

It is instructive to note that, while Mary Tudor had hundreds of Protestants burnt at the stake on religious grounds alone, none of whom had committed any form of treason, the same could not be said of those Catholics (who have since been ‘beatified’ [12] by Rome) put to death under Elizabeth.

The Gunpowder Plot

In 1605, shortly after James I (James VI of Scotland) had succeeded to the English throne, Rome tried again to reclaim England.  The Gunpowder Plot, instigated by Catholics and resourced by Jesuits, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament – thus allowing Romanists to seize the government of England.  Once again, however, God kept this nation.  The plot was discovered and the leading conspirators executed.

(Note that the English Government providentially learned of the plot before its final implementation.  The Government allowed it to reach its full maturity so as to enable the nation to see for itself how treacherous and dangerous Catholicism really was to England.  It is verifiable from extant primary sources [14] that there was active Jesuit involvement emanating from the Vatican in the inception of the plot, and that all the traitors involved were Catholics.  But when did Christ ever tell His followers to murder men for Him?  Was Rome really “constantly moving forward toward divine truth”?)

The Later Stuarts

During the reigns of the pro-Catholic Kings Charles I, Charles II and James II, Catholic influence gradually crept back into Britain through various forms of legislation and subsequent persecution of dissenters.  The pro-Catholicizing tendencies of William Laud, Archbishop to Charles I, led to the English civil war in 1642.  Under Charles II, for example, the Scottish Covenanters suffered severe persecution; the worst years (from 1684-5) being dubbed ‘The Killing Times’ [15].

Charles II’s brother, James II, had been received into the Catholic Church several years prior to his accession to the throne in 1685 and fully intended to restore Romanism into the Kingdom.  When his son was born, English politicians, determined to allow “no popery in this realm”, sought William of Orange (who had already proved himself an able defender against the Catholic Louis XIV of France) to become King.  James II fled to France, and the Lord God once again saved England from a return to Roman bondage.  After hundreds of years of dark, Catholic oppression, the Bill of Rights (1689) declared that

This Bill later became the Act of Settlement (1701) – Britain’s attitude to which has dramatically weakened in recent years!  England has forgotten her God-given heritage, but there are clandestine reasons for this.  Books exposing the history of Rome have been ‘lost’ from libraries over the centuries, and Rome’s servants have managed to remove some of the incriminating records held in National archives (although God has miraculously preserved others) [17].

Martyrs in Scotland, Wales and Ireland

We have mentioned some of the Protestant martyrs in England who died during the reign of Mary Tudor.  Throughout the rest of Britain the persecution was also present.  In Wales there were martyrs like Rawlins White and Dr. Robert Farrar who died at the hands of Rome’s followers.  Three of Scotland’s martyrs were Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart (both burned at the stake) and Helen Stark, put into a sack with her newborn child and drowned because she would not pray to ‘the Virgin’ Mary.  Her story is one of incredible grace and courage as can be witnessed in a letter she wrote to her husband shortly before her death:

As for Ireland, the Romanists there murdered in a single year (1641) tens of thousands of their civilian Protestant neighbours [19].  No grievance could possibly begin to justify these actions.  This massacre was perpetrated with a terrifying ferocity and barbarity against men, women and children unequalled since Medieval times – if it was not worse [20].  The butchery was even more breath-taking because the Irish Catholics had promised safe passage to the inhabitants of many Protestant towns, only to renege on their oaths as soon as the trusting souls came out.

The nature of these deaths was so horrible that even Foxe, who recorded the appalling manner of martyrdom of so many victims of Rome, says “such [deaths] could have been invented only by demons instead of men”.  Some acts were so unutterably inhuman that he could not bring himself to relate them.  For the sake of unsuspecting readers, we have decided not to give the details of these mind-numbing crimes.  Suffice it to say that inventions like the spiked ‘Iron Maiden’, which trapped and slowly drained its victims of their blood, were far from being Rome’s most depraved techniques for destroying God’s People.  If the reader requires further information, the Recommended Materials section for this webpage provides it.

Nowadays we hear almost nothing of this whole ghastly episode.  But the Romish spirit is the same as ever, and remains strong in Ireland where, while ‘front’ organizations are demanding peace, unforgiving Catholic groups are using any method (however ungodly) to bring Ulster back under the yoke of a Catholic government – and thus Rome.

Protestant Martyrs in Europe

Along with the Catholics Francis I and Henry II of France, Louis XIV was responsible for the deaths of very many French Protestants (known from 1560 as ‘Huguenots’).  The infamous St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre on 24 August 1572 actually lasted three days and three nights with tens of thousands of men, women and children being slain simply for their faith.  Philip II was delighted at such a ‘victory’ for Rome and Pope Gregory XII commissioned the artist Vasari to paint a mural of the massacre; which is still on display in the Vatican today.  Repentant indeed.

In 1685 the persecution of Huguenots began again.  All Protestant worship was suppressed, churches were destroyed, and Huguenot children were forced to be brought up as Catholics.  Those who escaped France fled to Protestant Britain, Holland, Prussia and Switzerland.

For readers who suppose that this is all prehistoric information, the ‘Holy’ Inquisition was still going on in the 19^th Century and Protestants in France were still being martyred for their faith that recently.  And, because spiritual forces remain the same, history has a nasty habit of repeating itself – as we shall see in a moment.  (The Inquisition only curtailed its overt activities because Napoleon demanded that it do so.  The department of the Vatican that ran the Inquisition has never been closed down and remains operational to this day.  Is it not remarkable the lengths to which Rome will go to accommodate pagans while attacking true Christians?)

In the Netherlands, Protestants were put to death by being burnt at the stake, beheaded, hanged, drowned, walled up, racked, or buried alive.  In the following extract from a letter, written by three martyrs in Antwerp to their brethren just before their deaths, can be seen once again the Spirit of Christ so lacking in their Roman persecutors:

Rome's Track Record   

Unpleasant though it is to relate these dreadful facts, it is necessary to do so to expose the true spirit behind Rome.  Just as the physical Babylon of the Old Testament was a tyrant to God’s people before Christ came, so the spiritual Babylon that is Rome has been a tyrant to the people of God since Christ’s day.

When challenged on its past, Rome’s adherents usually reply that “other churches have done bad things too” or “Catholics have been martyred by Protestants also”.  This cannot absolve Rome – especially as she makes such lofty claims for her Church [23].  But regardless of Rome’s claims, the sins of any ‘Protestants’ have been utterly incomparable with her own behaviour.  (And besides, no true evangelical would put someone to death purely because of the latter’s faith.)

Rome’s track record:

• Has not just been the persecution of a few by a few – though that alone would have been wrong.

• It has not just been confined to one or two localities – sinful though that, too, would be.

• It has not just been for a brief period.

• Nor have people suffered using means that were ‘normal’ to the society of the day.

Instead it has been the grotesque and systematic persecution and torture of millions of people (common estimates actually put it at tens of millions [24],) throughout many countries, for hundreds of years, without any justification.  It has been the rape and slaughter of innocent people, often simply for owning a Bible or for refusing to commit idolatry… 

It has not just been condoned by its leaders, but instigated and resourced by them.  Yes, these appalling acts have been both demanded and organized by the ‘divinely-appointed’ archbishops, cardinals, and ‘popes’ of Rome – the leaders of an institution which insists it is the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth; the leaders who claim they are the ‘Apostolic succession’.  This all makes Rome’s guilt incomparable with the sins of any Protestant group.

Rome may now reluctantly be offering “apologies” for these past “mistakes” but such statements are vague, muted and hundreds of years too late to be meaningful.  Besides, until Rome explains how these extraordinarily demonic things happened, and she proves that the diabolical spirit behind them has been purged from Romanism, there is no reason to trust that they won’t recur when it suits her – especially given that her heresies have actually become worse in the intervening time.

Indeed, if the reader is tempted to imagine that this all ended a long time ago, we would implore them to study Rome’s more recent deeds.  See, for instance, The Vatican’s Holocaust by Avro Manhattan, in the Recommended Materials section for this webpage, for the truth about Rome’s unspeakable and widespread atrocities against non-Catholics in Yugoslavia during the 1930s and 1940s [25].  In countries where Catholicism is the dominant religion, Rome’s persecution of Protestants and other dissenters remains to this day.  It is only in predominantly non-Catholic countries – i.e. where she has yet to seduce the populace into joining her – that she puts on such a charming face.

Elizabeth McDonald
March 2013

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