Persecuted As Predicted.

FACTS OF FAITH By Christian Edwardson

Chapter  12

The Waldenses

     (118) While Constantine's purchased converts, and the superficial-minded multitude followed the popular church, there were many honest, God-fearing Christians, who resented this sinful compromise with paganism; and, when they saw that all their protests were useless, they withdrew to places where they could more freely follow their conscience and bring up their children away from the contamination of the fallen church, which they looked upon as the "Babylon" of Revelation 17. Several hundred Sabbath-keeping Christian churches were established in southern India, and some were found even in China. Likewise the original Celtic Church in England, Scotland, and Ireland kept the seventh-day Sabbath. St. Patrick, Columba, and the churches they established kept the seventh day.

     The majority of these original Christians settled, however, in the Alps, a place naturally suited for their protection, being situated where Switzerland, France, and Italy join. They could, therefore, more easily get protection in one or another of these countries, as it would be harder for the Papacy to get joint action of all these countries in case of persecution. Then, too, these mountains were so steep and high, the valleys so narrow, and the passes into them so difficult, that it would seem as though God had prepared this hiding place for His true church and truth during the Dark Ages. William Jones says:

     "Angrogna, Pramol, and S. Martino are strongly fortified by nature on account of their many difficult passes and bulwarks of rocks and mountains; as if the all-wise Creator, says Sir Samuel Morland, had, from the beginning, designed that place as a cabinet, wherein to put some inestimable jewel, or in which to reserve many thousand souls, which should not bow the knee before Baal." - "History of the Christian Church," Vol. I, p. 356, third ed. London: 1818.

     (119) Sophia V. Bompiani, in "A Short History of the Italian Waldenses" (New York: 1897), quotes from several unquestionable authorities to show that the Waldenses, after having withdrawn to the Alps because of persecution, fully separated from the Roman church under the work of Vigilantius Leo, the Leonist of Lyons, who vigorously protested against the many false doctrines and practices that had been adopted by the Church. Jerome (A.D. 403-306) wrote a very cutting book against him in which he says:

     "'That monster called Vigilantius...has escaped to the region where King Cottius reigned, between the Alps and the waves of the Adriatic. From thence he has cried out against me, and, ah, wickedness! There he has found bishops who share his crime.'" Sophia V. Bompiani the remarks: "This region, where King Cottius reigned, once a part of Cisalpine Gaul, is the precise country of the Waldenses. Here Leo, or Vigilantius, retired for safety from persecution, among a people already established there of his own way of thinking, who received him as a brother, and who thenceforth for several centuries were sometimes called by his name [Leonists]. Here, shut up in the Alpine valleys, they handed down through the generations the doctrines and practices of the primitive church, while the inhabitants of the plains of Italy were daily sinking more and more into the apostasy foretold by the Apostles." - "A Short History of the Italian Waldenses," pp. 8, 9.

     "The ancient emblem of the Waldensian church is a candlestick with the motto, Lux lucet in tenebris ['The light shineth in darkness']. A candlestick in the oriental imagery of the Bible is a church, and this church had power from God to prophesy in sackcloth and ashes twelve hundred and sixty days or symbolic years." - Id., p. 17.

     Dr. W. S. Gilly, an English clergyman, after much research, wrote a book entitled: "Vigilantius and His Times," giving the same information.

     Roman Catholic writers try to evade the apostolic origin of the Waldenses, so as to make it appear that the Roman is the only apostolic church, and that all others are later novelties. And for this reason they try to make out that the Waldenses originated with Peter Waldo of the twelfth century. Dr. Peter Allix says:

     (120) "Some Protestants, on this occasion, have fallen into the snare that was set for them....It is absolutely false, that these churches were ever founded by Pete Waldo....It is a pure forgery." - "Ancient Church of Piedmont," pp. 192. Oxford: 1821.

     "It is not true, that Waldo gave this name to the inhabitants of the valleys: they were called Waldenses, or Vaudes, before his time, from the valleys in which they dwelt." - Id., p. 182.

     On the other hand, he "was called Valdus, or Waldo, because he received his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys." - "History of the Christian Church," William Jones, Vol. II, p. 2. See also Sir Samuel Morland's "History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont," pp. 29, 30.

     Henri Arnaud, a leading pastor among the Waldenses, says:

     "Their proper name, Vallenses, is derived from the Latin word vallis, and not, as has been insinuated, from Valdo, a merchant of Lyons." - "The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," Henri Arnaud, p. xiii. London: 1827.

     The Roman Inquisitor, Reinerus Sacho, writing about 1230 A.D., says:

     "The heresy of the Vaudois, or poor people of Lyons, is of great antiquity. Among all sects that either are, or have been, there is none more dangerous to the Church, than that of the Leonists, and that for three reasons: the first is, because it is the sect of the longest standing of any; for some say that it has been continued down ever since the time of Pope Sylvester; and others, ever since that of the apostles. The second is, because it is the most general of all sects; for scarcely is there any country to be found where this sect hath not spread itself. And the third, because it has the greatest appearance of piety; because, in the sight of all, these men are just and honest in their transactions, believe of God what ought to be believed, receive all the articles of the Apostles' Creed, and only profess to hate the Church of Rome." - Quoted on page 22 of William Stephen Gilly's "Excursion," fourth edition. London: 1827.

     (121) Now it must be clear as the noonday sun, that Reinerus would not have written as he did, if the Waldenses had originated with Peter Waldo, only seventy-five years before; nor could Waldo's followers have multiplied and spread over the whole world in so short a time, under great persecution, and with so slow means of travel.

     Henri Arnaud, a Waldensian pastor, says of their origin:

     "Neither has their church been ever reformed, whence arises its title of Evangelic. The Vaudois are, in fact, descended from those refugees from Italy who, after St. Paul had there preached the gospel, abandoned their beautiful country and fled, like the woman mentioned in the Apocalypse, to these wild mountains, where they have to this day handed down the gospel from father to son in the same purity and simplicity as it was preached by St. Paul." - "The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," p. xiv of preface by the Author, translated by Acland. London: 1827.

THE WALDENSIAN FAITH

     The Waldenses took the Bible as their only rule of faith, abhorred the idolatry of the papal church, and rejected their traditions, holidays, and even Sunday, but kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and used the apostolic mode of baptism. (See "Ancient Churches of Piedmont," by P. Allix, pp. 152-260.). Their old catechism shows that they believed in justification by faith in the grace of Christ alone, and that obedience to the Ten Commandments was the sure fruit of living faith:

     "Q.--By what means do we hope for grace? A.--By the Mediator Jesus Christ....

     "Q.--What is a living faith? A.--That which worketh by charity.

     "Q.--What is a dead faith? A.--According to St. James, that faith which is without works, is dead....

     "Q.--By what means canst thou know that thou believest in God? A.--By this: because I know that I have given myself to the observation of the commandments of God.

     "Q.--How many commandments of God are there? A.--Ten, as it appeareth in Exodus and Deuteronomy....

     "Q.--Upon what do all these commandments depend? A.--Upon the two great commandments, that is to say: Thou shalt love God above all things, and thy neighbor as thyself." - "Waldenses," Perrin, Part III, Book I, pp. 1-10. (1624 A.D.) "The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois," Henri Arnaud, pp. Xcvi, xcvii, cv. London: 1827.

     (122) Dr. Peter Allix quotes the following from a Roman Catholic author: "'They say that blessed Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist, of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul, as being the son of perdition, who extols himself above everything that is called God: for, from that time, they say, the Church perished.'...

     "He lays it down also as one of their opinions; 'That the Law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of the Sabbath, circumcision, and other legal observances, ought to take place.'" - "Ancient Churches of Piedmont," p. 169 (page 154, edition of 1690). Oxford: 1821.

     In regard to the accusation that the Waldenses practiced circumcision, Mr. Benedict truthfully says:

     "The account of their practicing circumcision is undoubtedly a slanderous story, forged by their enemies and probably arose in this way: because they observed the seventh day they were called, by way of derision, Jews, as the Sabbatarians are frequently at this day, and if they were Jews, it followed, of course, that they either did, or ought to circumcise their followers." - "General History of the Baptist Denomination," Vol. II, p. 414, edition of 1813.

     That this was exactly the way this slander was fastened on Sabbath-keepers, we can see from the "Epistle" written against them by Pope Gregory I (A.D. 590-604), in which he says:

     "It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day....

     (123) "For, if any one says that this about the Sabbath is to be kept, he must needs say that carnal sacrifices are to be offered: he must say, too, that the commandment about the circumcision of the body is still to be retained." - "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers" (Second Series), Vol. XIII, Book 13, epist. 1, p. 92. New York: 1898.

     Going back to Judaism was considered by the Roman Catholic Church as one of the most serious heresies, punishable with death. And any one at all familiar with the tactics of Romanists knows that it has been a practice, only too common among them, to blacken the character of those whom they would destroy, so as to justify their destruction. Dr. Peter Allix says:

     "It is no great sin with the Church of Rome to spread lies concerning those that are enemies of the faith....There is nothing more common with the Romish party, than to make use of the most horrid calumnies to blacken and expose those who have renounced her communion....Calumny is a trade the Romish party is perfectly well versed in." - "Ancient Church of Piedmont," pp. 224, 225. (Pages 205, 206 in edition of 1690.)

     William Jones says:

     "Louis XII, King of France, being informed by the enemies of the Waldenses, inhabiting a part of the province of Province, that several heinous crimes were laid to their account, sent the Master of Requests, and a certain doctor of the Sorbonne, who was confessor to his majesty, to make inquiry into this matter. On their return, they reported that they had visited all the parishes where they dwelt, had inspected their places of worship, but that they had found there no images, nor signs of the ornaments belonging to the mass, nor any of the ceremonies of the Romish church; much less could they discover any traces of those crimes with which they were charged. On the contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, observed the ordinance of baptism, according to the primitive church, instructed their children in the article of the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. The King having heard the report of his commissioners, said with an oath that they were better men than himself or his people.""- "History of the Christian Church," Vol. 2, pp. 71, 72, third edition. London: 1818.

NAMES OF THE WALDENSES

     (124) John P. Perrin of Lyons writes of how the Waldenses went under different names, either from the territory in which they lived, or from the name of the missionary they had sent to that country. He says:

     "First therefore they called them...Waldenses; of the countries of Albi, Albigeois [Abligenses]....

     "And from one of the disciples of Valdo, called Ioseph [Joseph], who preached in Dauphiney in the diocesse of Dye, they were called Iosephists [Josephites]....

     "Of one of their pastors who preached in Albegeois, named Arnold Hot, they were called Arnoldists....

     "And because they observed no other day of rest but the Sabbath dayes, they called them Insabathas, as much as to say, as they observed no Sabbath.

     "And because they were alwayes exposed to continuall sufferings, from the Latin word Pati, which signifieth to suffer, they called them Patareniens.

     "And for as much as like poore passengers, they wandered from one place to another, they were called Passagenes," - "Luther's Fore-Runners," (original spelling) pp. 7, 8. London: 1624.

     This author quotes the following from the Waldensian faith:

     "That we are to worship one only God, who is able to help us, and not the Saints departed; that we ought to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that there was no necessity of observing other feasts." - Id., p. 38.

     Goldastus, a learned German historian (A.D. 1576-1635) says of them:

     They were called "Insabbatati, not because they were circumcised, but because they kept the Jewish Sabbath." "Circumcisi forsan illi fuerint, qui aliis Insabbatati, non quod circumciderentur, inquit Calvinista [Goldastus] sed quod in Sabbato judaizarent." - Robert Robinson, in "Ecclesiastical Researches," chap. 10, p. 303. (Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, p. 412, ed. 1887.)

     (125) David Benedict, M. A., says:

     "Robinson gives an account of some of the Waldenses of the Alps, who were called Sabbati, Sabbatati, Insabbatati, but more frequently Inzabbatati. 'One says they were so named from the Hebrew word Sabbath, because they kept the Saturday for the Lord's day. Another says they were so called because they rejected all the festivals." - "General History of the Baptist Denomination," Vol. II, p. 413. Boston: 1813.

     Dr. J. L. Mosheim says:

     "Pasaginians...had the utmost aversion to the dominion and discipline of the church of Rome;...and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath." - "Ecclesiastical History" (two-volume edition), Cent. 12, Part 2, Chap. 5, Sec. 14, Vol. I, p. 333. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1871.

     The papal author, Bonacursus, wrote the following against the "Pasagini":

     "Not a few, but many know what are the errors of those who are called Pasagini....First, they teach that we should obey the law of Moses according to the letter - the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal precepts still being in force....Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church." - "D'Achery, Spicilegium I, f. 211-214; Muratory, Antiq. Med. Aevi. 5, f. 152, Hahn, 3, 209. Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, pp. 547, 548. 1912.

     The Roman Catholic Church has always had a special enmity toward the Bible Sabbath and Sabbath-keepers. Mr. Benedict says:

     "It was the settled policy of Rome to obliterate every vestige of opposition to her doctrines and decrees, everything heretical, whether persons or writings, by which the faithful would be liable to be contaminated and led astray. In conformity to this, their fixed determination, all books and records of their opposers were hunted up, and committed to the flames." - "History of the Baptist Denomination," p. 50. 1849.

     (126) Dr. De Sanctis, who for years was a Catholic official at Rome, and at one time Censor of the Inquisition, but who later became a Protestant, reports in his book a conversation of a Waldensian scholar as he pointed to the ruins of the Palatine Hill at Rome:

     "'See,' said the Waldensian, 'a beautiful monument of ecclesiastical antiquity. These rough materials are the ruins of the two great Palatine libraries, one Greek and the other Latin, where the precious manuscripts of our ancestors were collected, and which Pope Gregory I, called the Great, caused to be burned.'" - "Popery, Puseyism, Jesuitism," De Sanctis, p. 53.

     Eternity alone will reveal how many precious manuscripts have been destroyed by Rome in its effort to blot out all traces of apostolic Christianity.

     We have now seen that the ancient apostolic church, scattered by persecution, and often in hiding, went under various names. Being peaceful, virtuous, and industrious citizens, they were tolerated, or even shielded, by princes who understood their value to the country, while the Catholic Church hunted them down like wild beasts. After the Waldenses and Albigenses had lived quietly in France for many years, Pope Innocent III wrote the following instruction to his bishops:

     "Therefore by this present apostolical writing we give you a strict command that, by whatever means you can, you destroy all these heresies and expel from your diocese all who are polluted with them. You shall exercise the rigor of the ecclesiastical power against them and all those who have made themselves suspected by associating with them. They may not appeal from your judgments, and if necessary, you may cause the princes and people to suppress them with the sword." - "A Source Gook for Mediaeval History," Oliver J. Thatcher and E. H. McNeal, p. 210. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.

     (127) Philippus van Limborch, Professor of Divinity at Amsterdam, speaking of the way the liberty of the people was suppressed after 1050, says:

     "In the following ages the affairs of the church were so managed under the government of the Popes, and all persons so strictly curbed by the severity of the laws, that they durst not even so much as whisper against the received opinions of the church. Besides this, so deep was the ignorance that had spread itself over the world, that men, without the least regard to knowledge and learning, received with a blind obedience every thing that the ecclesiastics ordered them, however stupid and superstitious, without any examination; and if any one dared in the least to contradict them, he was sure immediately to be punished; whereby the most absurd opinions came to be established by the violence of the Popes." - "History of the Inquisition," p. 79. London: 1816.

     Ignorance and superstition generated vice of the basest sort, and brought the Christian world into the darkest of the Dark Ages, which made the Reformation of the sixteenth century an absolute necessity. And, as "the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn," so the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries were the darkest in the Christian Era. For a time, however, there were still a few lights shining on the religious horizon, shedding their mild gospel light into the dense darkness. But when these were extinguished, the darkness became well-nigh complete. 1. The Celtic church of Scotland was extinguished in 1069; that of Ireland in 1172; that of the ancient Albigenses in 1229; the Assyrian lamp of the East was extinguished at Malabar, India, by the Inquisition in 1560; and the Waldensian lamp, that had been shining the longest, and had sent its mild rays over Europe for centuries, was extinguished in 1686. The history of these evangelical churches during this dark period is very interesting and has many valuable lessons for our day.

     The Waldenses and Albigenses were quiet and industrious people, and followed the Bible standard of morality, which actually caused their persecution.

     (128) "But their crowning offence was their love and reverence for Scripture, and their burning zeal in making converts. The Inquisitor of Passau informs us that they had translations of the whole Bible in the vulgar tongue, which the Church vainly sought to suppress, and which they studied with incredible assiduity....Many of them had the whole of the New Testament [memorized] by heart....Surely if ever there was a God-fearing people it was these unfortunates under the ban of Church and State....The inquisitors...[declare] that the sign of a Vaudois, deemed worthy of death, was that he followed Christ and sought to obey the commandments of God." - "History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages," H. C. Lea, Vol. I, pp. 86, 87. New York. Harper and Brothers, 1888.

     "In fact, amid the license of the Middle Ages ascetic virtue was apt to be regarded as a sign of heresy." - Id., p. 87.

     On the other hand, the licentious lives of the Catholic clergy placed insurmountable barriers for a Waldensian ever to become a Catholic. When in 1204 Pope Innocent III sent his commissioners to crush the peaceful Waldenses and Albigenses in Southern France "with fire and sword," these monks returned to the pope asking for help to reform the lives of the Catholic priests. Lea says:

     "The legates...appealed to him for aid against prelates whom they had failed to coerce, and whose infamy of life gave scandal to the faithful and an irresistible argument to the heretic. Innocent curtly bade them attend to the object of their mission and not allow themselves to be diverted by less important matters." - Id., p. 129.

     Professor Philippus van Limborch writes:

     "It was the entire study and endeavour of the popes, to crush, in its infancy, every doctrine that any way opposed their exorbitant power. In the year 1163, at the synod of Tours, all the bishops and priests in the country of Tholouse, were commanded 'to take care, and to forbid, under the pain of excommunication, every person from presuming to give reception, or the least assistance to the followers of this heresy, which first began in the country of Tholouse, whenever they shall be discovered. Neither were they to have any dealings with them in buying or selling; that by being thus deprived of the common assistances of life, they might be compelled to repent of the evil of their way. Whosoever shall dare to contravene this order, let them be excommunicated, as a partner with them in their guilt. As many of them as can be found, let them be imprisoned by the Catholic princes, and punished with the forfeiture of all their substance."

     (129) "Some of the Waldenses, coming into the neighbouring kingdom of Arragon, king Ildefonsus, in the year 1194, put forth, against them, a very severe and bloody edict, by which 'he banished them from his kingdom, and all his dominions, as enemies of the cross of Christ, prophaners of the Christian religion, and public enemies to himself and kingdom.' He adds: 'If any, from this day forwards, shall presume to receive into their houses, the aforesaid Waldenses and Inzabbatati, or other heretics, of whatsoever profession they be, or to hear, in any place, their abominable preachings, or to give them food, or to do them any kind office whatsoever; let him know, that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God and ours; that he shall forfeit all his goods, without benefit of appeal, and be punished as though guilty of high treason.'" - "History of the Inquisition," pp. 88, 89. London. 1816.

     To destroy completely these heretics Pope Innocent III sent Dominican inquisitors into France, and also crusaders, promising "a plenary remission of all sins, to those who took on them the crusade...against the Albigenses." When Raymond VI, Earl of Tholouse, shielded these innocent people, who were such an asset to his country, he was "deposed by the pope." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, art. "Raymond VI," p. 670.) Being frightened by the savage crusaders Raymond submitted, and the papal legate had him publicly whipped twice till "he was so grievously torn by the stripes" that he had to leave the church by a back door. (Id., pp. 98, 100.) He later appealed to Innocent III. "The pope, however, ceded the estates of Raymond to Simon de Montfort," (1215) (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, art. "Raymond VI," p. 670.) Thousands of God's people were tortured to death by the Inquisition, buried alive, burned to death, or hacked to pieces by the crusaders. While devastating the city of Biterre the soldiers asked the Catholic leaders how they should know who were heretics; Arnold, Abbot of Cisteaux, answered: "Slay them all, for the Lord knows who is His." - Id., pp. 98, 101.

     (130) In 1216 to 1221 Raymond reconquered his land, and after his death (1221) his son became Earl, and "the Inquisition was banished from the country of Tholouse." But Pope Honorius III "proclaimed an holy war, to be called the 'Penance war,' against the heretics," and "to subdue the Earl of Tholouse, he sent letters to King Louis" of France to make war on Raymond, which he did. But treachery, which has always been one of the most successful weapons of the Papacy against God's people, had to be resorted to here: When the Pope's legate saw that he could not take the city of Avignon by force, he "scrupled not to adopt the vilest treachery and to practice the basest hypocrisy. - He offered to suspend hostilities, and to pave the way for peace, if the besieged would admit a few priests, only to inquire concerning the faith of the inhabitants: and those terms being agreed upon and sealed by mutual oaths; the priest entered, but in direct violation of their solemn engagement, brought the French army with them, who thus fraudulently triumphed over the unsuspecting citizens; they plundered the city, killed or bound in chains the inhabitants." - Id., pp. 104-106.

     (This is in perfect harmony with the Catholic teaching and practice, that they need not keep faith with a heretic, as carried out in the case of John Huss. In spite of the safe-conduct form the Emperor Sigismund, he was imprisoned, November 28, 1414, and burned July 6, 1415.)

HUNTED LIKE WILD BEASTS

     (131) The Earl of Tholouse was finally forced to bow to Rome, and God's people were hunted as wild beasts everywhere. Here are some of the laws of Louis IX, King of France, A.D. 1299:

     "Canon 3. - The lords of the different districts shall have the villas, houses, and woods diligently searched, and the hiding-places of the heretics destroyed. Canon 4. - If any one allows a heretic to remain in his territory, he loses his possession forever, and his body is in the hands of the magistrates to receive due punishment. Canon 5. - But also such are liable to the law, whose territory has been made the frequent hiding-place of heretics, not by his knowledge, but by his negligence. Canon 6. - The house in which a heretic is found, shall be torn down, and the place or land be confiscated. Canon 14. - Lay members are not allowed to possess the books of either the Old or the New Testament." - "Hefele's Councils," Vol. V, pp. 981, 982. ("History of the Sabbath," New, p. 558).

     These laws were only echoes of the "Bulls" of the popes. But while the Waldenses on the French side of the Alps were being exterminated, the pope had a more difficult task to destroy them in the Piedmont Alps. From Pope Lucius III (A.D. 1181-1185) to the Reformation in the sixteenth century the persecution of the Waldenses was the subject of many papal "anathemas." Army after army was sent against them, and all manner of trickery was resorted to in order to destroy these honest, plain, Christian people. In 1488 Albert Cataneo, the papal legate came with an army into the midst of Val Louise. The inhabitants fled into a cavern for shelter, and the soldiers started a fire at the mouth of the cavern and smothered the entire population of 3,000, including 400 children. Then Cataneo entered the Piedmont side. Here the Waldenses retreated to Pra del Tor, their "Shiloh of the Valleys." Cataneo ordered his soldiers into the dark, narrow chasm that formed the only path to this citadel. The poor Waldenses were now bottled up, and their enemies were proceeding towards them, sure of their prey, but God heard earnest prayers:

     (132) "A white cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, unobserved by the Piedmontese, but keenly watched by the Vaudois, was seen to gather on the mountain's summit....That cloud grew rapidly bigger and blacker. It began to descend....It fell right into the chasm in which was the Papal army....In a moment the host were in night; they...could neither advance nor retreat. {The Waldenses] tore up huge stones and rocks, and sent them thundering down into the ravine. The papal soldiers were crushed where they stood....Panic impelled them to flee,...they threw each other down in the struggle; some were trodden to death; others were rolled over the precipice, and crushed on the rocks below, or drowned in the torrent, and so perished miserably." - "History of the Waldenses," J. A. Wylie, pp. 48, 49.

     In 1544 the treacherous and heartless Catholic leader, D'Oppede caused the terrible butchery of thousands of Waldenses. At Cabrieres he wrote a note to the people, saying that if they would open the gates of their city he would do them no harm. They, in good faith, opened the gates, and D'Oppede cried out: "Kill them all." Men, women, and children were massacred or burned alive. In 1655 there was another massacre of Waldenses. After the Catholic leaders had made several vain attempts to break into the fastnesses of the mountains where the Waldenses lived, and were defeated, the Marquis of Pianesse wrote the various Waldensian towns to entertain certain regiments of soldiers to show their good faith. These Christian people, who always had such sacred regard for their own word, never seemed to learn that it is a fundamental Catholic doctrine, that Catholics need not, and should not, keep faith with heretics, when the interest of the "Church" is at stake. After they had sheltered the soldiers, and fed them of their scanty store, a signal was given at 4 A.M., April 24, 1655, and the butchery began.

     "Little children, Leger says, were torn from the arms of their mothers, dashed against the rocks, and cast carelessly away. The sick or the aged, both men and women, were either burned in their houses, or hacked in pieces; or mutilated, half murdered, and flayed alive, they were exposed in a dying state to the heat of the sun, or to flames, or to ferocious beasts." - "Israel of the Alps," Dr. Alexis Muston, Vol. I, pp. 349, 350.

     (133) These people suffered tortures too terrible to mention, which only devils in human form could have invented. The towns in the beautiful valleys were left smoldering ruins. A few people save themselves by flight to the mountains.

FURTHER DESTRUCTION

     In 1686 another terrible edict was issued against them, and an army raised to exterminate them. And again it was the same story of treachery. Gabriel of Savoy himself wrote them:

     "'Do not hesitate to lay down your arms: and be assured that if you cast yourselves upon the clemency of his royal highness, he will pardon you, and that neither your persons nor those of your wives or children shall be touched.'" - "Israel of the Alps," Alexis Muston, Vol. I, p. 445.

     The Waldenses accepted the official document in good faith and opened their entrenchments. But the Catholic officials, true to the nature of their church doctrines, rushed in and butchered men, women, and children in cold blood. Unspeakable tortures were inflicted on the innocent people, while a few escaped to the mountains. All the towns of the valleys were smoldering and charred ruins. Rome had at last quenched the ancient lamp. "The school of the prophets in the Pra del Tor is razed. No smoke is seen rising from cottage, and no psalm is heard ascending from dwelling or sanctuary,...and no troop of worshipers, obedient to the summons of the Sabbath bell, climbs the mountain paths." - "History of the Waldenses," Wylie, p. 173.

     As these exiled Waldenses fled from country to country, they were persecuted and harassed, but they sowed the seeds of truth as they went. Let us now consider the experiences of other branches of the apostolic church, that were scattered by persecution and by early missionary endeavors to the outskirts of civilization.

Tradition Will Never Be Truth.

Chapter  11

Influences Toward Apostasy

     (97) MITHRAISM, an outwardly refined sun worship, invaded the Roman Empire in B.C. 67, and made way for itself by gathering under its wing all the gods of Rome, so that "in the middle of the third century [A.D.] Mithraism seemed on the verge of becoming the universal religion." - Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XVIII, art. "Mithras," p. 624, 11th edition, 1911.

     That which made Mithraism so popular was the fact that the Roman Caesars adopted it, and the soldiers planted its banner wherever they went. The higher schools of Greek learning also accepted it, as did also the nobility, or the better classes of society, which gave it great prestige. Its "Mysteries" had a bewitching and fascinating influence on the people. And Sunday, "the venerable day of the sun," was the popular holiday of Mithraism.

     On the other hand, the primitive Christian religion appeared to the learned Greek scholastics and their followers of eminent nobility only as "foolishness" (see 1 Cor. 1:18-23),

1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 

1Co 1:19  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 

1Co 1:20  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 

1Co 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 

1Co 1:22  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 

1Co 1:23  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness

 --and the Romans looked down upon the Christians with disdain and utter contempt. After the Jews had rebelled against the Roman government (Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed by Titus, A.D. 70, and multitudes of the Jews were sold as slaves), hatred and contempt for them had become quite general among the Romans, and everything Jewish was despised. Thus Sunday, in the Roman world, stood for what was eminent and popular, while the Sabbath, kept by the Jews, stood for what was despised and looked down upon. The temptations placed before an aspiring man, therefore, lay all in one direction. Dr. J. L. Mosheim says:

     "The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman mysteries, and the extraordinary sanctity that was attributed to them, were additional circumstances that induced the Christians to give their religion a mystic air, in order to put it upon an equal footing, in point of dignity, with that of the Pagans. For this purpose, they gave the name of mysteries to the institutions of the Gospel, and decorated particularly the holy sacrament with that solemn title. They used in that sacred institution, as also in that of baptism, several of the terms employed in the Heathen mysteries, and proceeded so far, at length, as even to adopt some of the ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries consisted....A great part, therefore, of the service of the Church, in this century, had a certain air of the Heathen mysteries, and resembled them considerably in many particulars." - "History of the Church" (2-vol. Ed.) Vol. I, Cent. 2, part 2, chap. 4, par. 5, p. 67. New York: 1871.

     (98) Gradually, as the church lowered its standards, many of the Greek scholars accepted Christianity (while they retained their heathen philosophy), and they carried with them into the church more or less of their former viewpoint and teaching. Then, as heathenism assailed the church, and the Roman government persecuted it, these men, such as Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, et al., wrote "apologies" and "treatises" to vindicate Christianity. They, however, sadly mixed heathen sentiments with Christian doctrines, and the church gradually became permeated with the teachings of these men, who now had become the new leaders. Dr. Cummings says:

     "The Fathers who were really most fitted to be the luminaries of the age in which they lived were too busy in preparing their flocks for martrydom to commit anything to writing....The most devoted and pious of the Fathers were busy teaching their flocks; the more vain and ambitious occupied their time in preparing treatises. If all the Fathers who signalized the age had committed their sentiments to writing, we might have had a fair representation of the theology of the church." - "Lectures on Romanism," p. 203; quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, pp. 199, 200.

     In a very short time, the customs of Mithraism became incorporated into Christianity. John Dowling, D. D., says:

     (99) "There is scarcely anything which strikes the mind of the careful student of ancient ecclesiastical history with greater surprise, than the comparatively early period at which many of the corruptions of Christianity, which are embodied in the Romish system, took their rise." - "History of Romanism," Book II, chap. 1, par. 1, p. 65.

     Christianity soon became so much like Mithraism that there was only a step between them. Frantz Cumont (who is probably the best informed man of our age on the subject of Mithraism) says of Christianity and Mithraism:

     "The two opposed creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral sphere, and one could actually pass from one to the other without shock or interruption....The religious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly overcome the whole social organism and prepared all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church." - "Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism," pp. 210, 211. Chicago, Ill.: Open Court Pub. Co., 1911.

     The Introductory Essay by Grant Showerman says:

     "Nor did Christianity stop here. It took from its opponents their own weapons and used them; the better elements of paganism were transferred to the new religion." - Id., pp. xi, xii.

     It would be too long a story to trace the doctrines of Mithraism that were brought into the church. We must confine ourselves to our subject, Sunday-keeping. Mr. Cumont says further:

     "The ecclesiastical authorities purified in some degree the customs which they could not abolish."

     "The pre-eminence assigned to the dies Solis [Sunday] by Mithraism also certainly contributed to the general recognition of Sunday as a holiday [among Christians]." - "Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans," pp. 171, 162, 163. New York: 1912.

     "Sunday, over which the Sun presided, was especially holy....

     "[The worshipers of Mithra] held Sunday sacred, and celebrated the birth of the Sun on the twenty-fifth of December." - "The Mysteries of Mithra," pp. 167, 191. Chicago: Open Court Pub. Co., 1911.

     (100) Professor Gilbert Murray, M.A., D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A., Professor of Greek in Oxford University, says:

     "Now, since Mithras was 'The Sun, the Unconquered,' and the Sun was 'The royal Star,' the religion looked for a King whom it could serve as the representative of Mithras upon earth:...The Roman Emperor seemed to be clearly indicated as the true King. In sharp contrast to Christianity, Mithraism recognized Caesar as the bearer of the divine Grace, and its votaries filled the legions and the civil service....

     "It had so much acceptance that it was able to impose on the Christian world its own Sun-Day in place of the Sabbath, its Sun's birthday, twenty-fifth December, as the birthday of Jesus." - "History of Christianity in the Light of Modern Knowledge," Chap. III; cited in "Religion and Philosophy," pp. 73, 74. New York: 1929.

     Rev. William Frederick likewise states the same historic fact:

     "The Gentiles were an idolatrous people who worshiped the sun, and Sunday was their most sacred day. Now, in order to reach the people in this new field, it seems but natural, as well as necessary, to make Sunday the rest day of the church. At this time it was necessary for the church to wither adopt the Gentiles' day or else have the Gentiles change their day. To change the Gentiles' day would have been an offence and stumbling block to them. The church could naturally reach them better by keeping their day. There was no need in causing an unnecessary offence by dishonoring their day." - "Sunday and the Christian Sabbath," pp. 169, 170; quoted in Signs of the Times, Sept. 6, 1927.

     Thomas H. Morer makes a similar acknowledgement. He says:

     "Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet, and called it Sunday,...the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they might not appear causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel." - "Dialogues on the Lord's Day," p. 23. London: 1701.

     (101) The North British Review gives the following reasons for the Christians' adopting the heathen Sun-day:

     "That very day was the Sunday of their heathen neighbors and respective countrymen, and patriotism gladly united with expediency in making it at once their Lord's day and their Sabbath....That primitive church, in fact, was shut up to the adoption of the Sunday, - until it became established and supreme, when it was too late to make another alteration." - Vol. XVIII, p. 409. Edinburgh: Feb., 1853.

     Thomas Chafie, a clergyman of the English Church, gives the following reasons why the early Christians could not continue to keep the Bible Sabbath among the heathen, nor change the heathen custom from Sunday to Saturday:

     "Christians should not have done well in changing, or in endeavouring to have changed their [the heathen's] standing service-day, from Sunday to any other day of the week; and that for these reasons:

     "1. Because of the contempt, scorn and derision they thereby should be had in among all the Gentiles with whom they lived; and toward whom they ought by St. Paul's rule to live inoffensively, 1 Cor. 10:32, in things indifferent. If the Gentiles thought hardly, and spoke evil of them, for that they ran not into the same excess of riot with them: 1 Pet. 4:4, what would they have said of Christians for such an innovation as would have been made by their change of their standing service-day? If long before this, the Jews were had in such disdain among the Gentiles for their Saturday-Sabbath,...how grievous would be their taunts and reproaches against the poor Christians living with them, and under their power, for their new set Sacred day, had the Christians chosen any other than the Sunday?

     "2. Most Christians then were either Servants or of the poorer sort of People: and the Gentiles (most probably) would not give their servants liberty to cease from working on any other set day constantly, except on their Sunday....

     (102) "5. It would have been but labour in vain for them to have assayed the same, they could never have brought it to pass." - "A Brief Tract on the Fourth Commandment...About the Sabbath-Day," pp. 61, 62. London: St. Paul's Church Yard, 1692.

     Richard Verstegen, after much research, writes of the heathen nations:

     "And it is also respectable, that the most ancient Germans being Pagans, and having appropriated their first Day of the Week to the peculiar adoration of the Sun, whereof that Day doth yet in our English tongue retain the name of Sunday." - "Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities," p. 11. London: 1673.

     Speaking of the Saxons, he says:

     "First then unto the day dedicated unto the especial adoration of the Idol of the Sun, they gave the name of Sunday, as much as to say the Sun's-day, or the day of the Sun. This Idol was placed in a Temple, and there adored and sacrificed unto, for that they believed that the Sun in the Firmament did with or in this Idol correspond and co-operate. The manner and form whereof was according to this ensuing Picture." - Id., p. 74. (Capitalization as given in this ancient book.)

     It is hardly fair to accuse the Roman Catholic Church of exchanging God's holy Sabbath for a heathen festival without giving her the opportunity to deny or acknowledge this accusation; so we will now let her state the fact in her own words, frankly. She says:

     "The Church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen....She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday....There is, in truth, something royal, kingly about the sun, making it a fit emblem of Jesus, the Sun of Justice. Hence the Church in these countries would seem to have said, 'Keep that old, pagan name. It shall remain consecrated, sanctified.' And thus the pagan Sunday, dedicated to Balder, became the Christian Sunday, sacred to Jesus." - "Catholic World," March, 1894, p. 809.

     (103) So willing were church leaders to adopt the popular heathen festivals, that even heathen authors reproached them for it. Faustus accused St. Augustine as follows:

     "You celebrate the solemn festivals of the Gentiles, their calends and their solstices; and as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans except that you hold your assemblies apart from them." - Cited in "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe," Dr. J. W. Draper, Vol. I, p. 310. New York: 1876.

     Similar reproaches had been made earlier, for Tertullian answers them, making the following admission:

     "Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed, suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a well-known fact that we pray toward the east, or because we make Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this?...It is you, at all events, who have even admitted the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its day, in preference to the preceding day....You who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us." - "Ad Nationes," Book I, chap. 13; in "Ante-Nicene Fathers," Vol. III, p. 123, ed. By Drs. Roberts and Donaldson. New York: 1896.

     Tertullian had no other excuse for their Sunday-keeping than that they did not do worse than the heathen. Not only did the Church adopt heathen festivals, but Gregory Thaumaturgus allowed their celebration in the degrading manner of the heathen:

     "When Gregory perceived that the ignorant multitude persisted in their idolatry, on account of the pleasures and sensual gratifications which they enjoyed at the pagan festivals, he granted them a permission to indulge themselves in the like pleasures, in celebrating the memory of the holy martyrs, hoping that, in process of time, they would return of their own accord, to a more virtuous and regular course of life." - "Ecclesiastical History," J. L. Mosheim, D.D., Vol. I, Second Century, Part II, chap. 4, par. 2, footnote (Dr. A. Maclaine's 2-vol. Ed., p. 66). New York: 1871.

     (104) Cardinal Newman says:

     "Confiding then in the power of Christianity to resist the infection of evil, and to transmute the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship to an evangelical use,...the rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated class....

     "The same reason, the need of holy days for the multitude, is assigned by Origen, St. Gregory's master, to explain the establishment of the Lord's Day....

     "We are told in various ways by Eusebius, that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own....Incense, lamps, and candles;...holy water; asylums; holy days and seasons,...the ring in marriage, turning to the east, images...are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church." - "Development of Christian Doctrine," pp. 371-373. London: 1878.

     "Real superstitions have sometimes obtained in parts of Christendom from its intercourse with the heathen....As philosophy has at times corrupted her divines, so has paganism corrupted her worshipers." - Id., pp. 377, 378.

     "The church...can convert heathen appointments into spiritual rites and usages....Hence there has been from the first much variety and change, in the Sacramental acts and instruments which she has used." - Id., p. 379.

     Speaking of the immoral pagan feast he says:

     "It certainly is possible that the consciousness of the sanctifying power in Christianity may have acted as a temptation to sins, whether of deceit or of violence; as if the habit or state of grace destroyed the sinfulness of certain acts, or as if the end justified the means." - Id., p. 379.

     The terrible nature of these sensual gratifications of the pagan festivals, in which the leaders of the Church now allowed its members to indulge, a person can hardly imagine till the sickening facts are spread before one's eyes by Livy. (Hist., lib. xxxix, chap. 9-17.) The learned Englishman, George Smith, F.A.S., in his "Sacred Annals," Vol. III, on the "Gentile Nations," pp. 487-489, says that this "most revolting and abandoned villiany" was so general, that when the Roman Senate had to proceed against its worst features, "Rome was almost deserted, so many persons, feeling themselves implicated in the proceedings, sought safety in flight."

     (105) A church that will take in such members, without conversion, and then allow them to continue in the most putrid corruption, must have lost all respect for morality (not to say true Christianity), and cannot be in possession of the divine power of the gospel; which changes the hearts and lives of people. (Romans 1:16; 2 Cor. 5:17.) The Apostle Paul had foretold this "falling away" of the church. (Acts 20:28-30; 2 Thess. 2:1-7.) And it was during this fallen condition that the Church changed its weekly rest day from the Sabbath to the Sunday. Dr. N. Summerbell says:

     "The Roman church had totally apostatized....It reversed the Fourth Commandment by doing away with the Sabbath of God's word, and instituting Sunday as a holiday." - "The Christian Church," p. 415. Cincinnati: 1873.

     Now, long after the Sabbath has been changed, Protestants are at a loss to find authority in the Bible for this change. They have rejected the authority of the Roman church to legislate on Christian faith, and cannot accept tradition, therefore they know not where to turn. Professor George Sverdrup, a leading man in the Lutheran Church, gives expression to this predicament in the following words:

     "For, when there could not be produced one solitary place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord Himself or the apostles had ordered such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was not easy to answer the question: Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has had the right to do it?" - "Samled Skrifter I Udvalg," Andreas Helland, Vol. I, pp. 342, 343. Minneapolis, Minn.: 1909.

     (106) Walter Farquhar Hook, D.D., Vicar of Leeds, expresses the same thought:

     "The question is, whether God has ordered us to keep holy the first day of the week. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are undoubted ordinances of God; we can quote the chapter and verse in which we read of their being ordained by God. But as to the Lord's Day [Sunday], we are not able to refer to a single passage in all the Scriptures of the New Testament in which the observance of it is enjoined by God. If we refer to tradition, tradition would not be of value to us on the point immediately under consideration. The Romanist regards the tradition of the Church as of authority equal to that of Scripture. But we are not Romanists....But on this point there is not even tradition to support us....There is no tradition that God ordained the first day of the week to be a Sabbath....The change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday was never mentioned, or, as far as I can discover, thought of by the early Christians. The Sabbath, that is to say, the observance of Saturday as a day to be devoted to God's service, to rest of body and repose of mind, was an ordinance of God. This ordinance relating to Saturday could be changed by God and by God only. We, as Protestants, must appeal to the Bible, and the Bible only, to ascertain the fact that God has changed the day - that God has Himself substituted Sunday for Saturday....It is no answer to this to say that the apostles seem to have sanctioned the assembly of Christians for public worship on the Lord's Day, or that St. John in the Apocalypse speaks of the Lord's Day and may possibly allude to the Sunday festival. For this is one of those arguments which prove too much. We ourselves keep Easter Day; this is no proof that we do not keep Christmas Day, or that Easter has been substituted for Christmas. And if we have instances of the first day of the week being kept holy by the apostles, we have more instances of their observing the Jewish Sabbath." - "Lord's Day," p. 94. London: 1856; quoted in "The Literature of the Sabbath Question," Robert Cox, Vol. II, pp. 369, 370.

     (107) Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of the "Baptist Manual," says:

     "There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, however, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week with all its duties, privileges, and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.

     "I wish to say that this Sabbath question, in this aspect of it, is the gravest and most perplexing question connected with Christian institutions which at present claims attention from Christian people; and the only reason that it is not a more disturbing element in Christian thought and in religious discussions, is because the Christian world has settled down content on the conviction that somehow a transference has taken place at the beginning of Christian history....

     "To me it seems unaccountable that Jesus during three years' intercourse with His disciples, often conversing with them upon the Sabbath question, discussing it in some of its various aspects, freeing it from its false glosses, never alluded to any transference of the day; also that during forty days of His resurrection life, no such thing was intimated. Nor, so far as we know, did the Spirit, which was given to bring to their remembrance all things whatsoever that He had said unto them, deal with this question. Nor yet did the inspired apostles, in preaching the gospel, founding churches, counseling and instructing those founded, discuss or approach this subject.

     "Of course, I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian Fathers and other sources. But what a pity that it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun-god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!" - A paper read before a New York Ministers' Conference, held Nov. 13, 1893. From a copy furnished by Dr. Hiscox for the "Source Book," pp. 513, 514. Wash., D.C.: Review and Herald, 1922.

     (108) Bishop Skat Rordam, of Denmark, says:

     "As to when and how it became customary to keep the first day of the week the New Testament gives us no information....

     "The first law about it was given by Constantine the Great, who in the year 321 ordained that all civil and shop work should cease in the cities, but agriculture labor in the country was permitted....Still no one thought of basing this command to rest from labor on the 3rd [4th] commandment before the latter half of the sixth century. From that time on, little by little, it became the established doctrine of the church during its 'Dark Ages,' that the holy church and its teachers, or the bishops with the Roman Pope at their head, as the Vicar of Christ and His apostles on earth, had transferred the Old Testament Sabbath with its glory and sanctity over onto the first day of the week." - "Report of the Second Ecclesiastical Meeting in Copenhagen, Sept. 13-15, 1887," P. Taaning, pp. 40, 41. Copenhagen: 1887.

     Bishop A. Grimelund, of Norway, says:

     "Now, summing up what history teaches regarding the origin of Sunday and the development of the doctrine about Sunday, then this is the sum: It is not the apostles, not the early Christians, not the councils of the ancient church which have imprinted the name and stamp of the Sabbath upon the Sunday, but it is the Church of the Middle Ages and its scholastic teachers." - "Sondagens Historie" (The History of Sunday), p. 37. Christiania: 1886.

     "What do we learn from this historical review?...That it is a doctrine which originated in the papal church that the sanctification of the Sunday in enjoined in the 3rd [4th] commandment, and that the essential and permanent in this commandment is a command from God to keep holy one day in each week." - Id., pp. 47, 48.

CONSTANTINE

     (109) Constantine had been watching, he said, those Caesars who had persecuted the Christians, and found that they usually had a bad end, while his father, who was favorable toward them, had prospered. So, when he and Licinius met at Milan in 313 A.D., they jointly prepared an edict, usually called "The Edict of Milano," which gave equal liberty to Christians and pagans. Had Constantine stopped here, he might have been honored as the originator of religious liberty in the Roman Empire, but he had different aims in view. The Roman Empire had been ruled at times by two, four, or even six Caesars jointly, and in his ambition to become the sole Emperor, Constantine, as a shrewd statesman, soon saw that the Christian church had the vitality to become the strongest factor in the empire. The other Caesars were persecuting the Christians. If he could win them without losing the good will of the pagans, he would win the game. He therefore set himself to the task of blending the two religions into one. As H. G. Heggtveit (Lutheran) says:

     "Constantine labored at this time untiringly to unite the worshipers of the old and the new faith in one religion. All his laws and contrivances are aimed at promoting this amalgamation of religions. He would by all lawful and peaceable means melt together a purified heathenism and a moderated Christianity....His injunction that the 'Day of the Sun' should be a general rest day was characteristic of his standpoint....Of all his blending and melting together of Christianity and heathenism none is more easy to see through than this making of his Sunday law. 'The Christians worshiped their Christ, the heathen their sun-god; according to the opinion of the Emperor, the objects for worship in both religions were essentially the same.'" - "Kirkehistorie" (Church History), pp. 233, 234. Chicago: 1898.

     Constantine's Sunday law of 321 A.D. reads as follows:

     "On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time." - "Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3"; translated in "History of the Christian Church," Philip Schaff, D.D., (7-vol. Ed.) Vol. III, p. 380. New York: 1884.

     (110) Dr. A. Chr. Bang (Lutheran bishop, Norway), says:

     "This Sunday law constituted no real favoritism towards Christianity....It is evident from all his statutory provisions, that the Emperor during the time 313-323 with full consciousness has sought the realization of his religious aim: the amalgamation of heathenism and Christianity." - "Kirken og Romerstaten" ("The Church and the Roman State"), p. 256. Christiania: 1879.

     That Constantine by his Sunday law intended only to enforce the popular heathen festival is acknowledged by Professor Hutton Webster, Ph.D. (University of Nebraska), who says:

     "This legislation by Constantine probably bore no relation to Christianity; it appears, on the contrary, that the emperor, in his capacity as Pontifex Maximus, was only adding the day of the sun, the worship of which was then firmly established in the Roman Empire, to the other ferial days of the sacred calendar." - "Rest Days," p. 122. New York: 1916.

     A. H. Lewis, D. D., who spent years of study and research on this subject, declares, that "the pagan religion of Rome had many holidays, on which partial or complete cessation of business and labor were demanded," and that Constantine by his Sunday law was "merely adding one more festival to the festi of the empire." - "A Critical History of Sunday Legislation from 321 to 1888 A.D.", pp. 8, 12. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888.

     This is clearly seen when we carefully examine all the circumstances presented by Dr. Lewis:

     1. Constantine's Sunday edict was given March 7, 321. The very next day he issued an edict commanding purely heathen superstition. We quote:

     (111) "The August Emperor Constantine to Maximus:

     "If any part of the palace or other public works shall be struck by lightning, let the soothsayers, following old usages, inquire into the meaning of the portent, and let their written words, very carefully collected, be reported to our knowledge." - Id., p. 19.

     2. The Caesars for over a century had been worshipers of the sun-god, whose weekly holiday was Sunday. Dr. Lewis says: "The sun-worship cult had grown steadily in the Roman Empire for a long time." - Id., p. 20. He then quotes the following from Schaff in regard to Elagabalus, a Roman Caesar of a century before Constantine's time:

     "The abandoned youth, El-Gabal or Heliogabalus (218-222), who polluted the throne by the blackest vices and follies, tolerated all religions in the hope of at last merging them in his favorite Syrian worship of the sun with its abominable excesses. He himself was a priest of the god of the sun, and thence took his name." - Id., pp. 20, 21.

     Dean H. H. Milman says:

     "It was openly asserted that the worship of the sun, under the name of Elagabalus, was to supersede all other worship. If we may believe the biographies in the Augustan history, a more ambitious scheme of a universal religion had dawned upon the mind of the emperor. The Jewish, the Samaritan, even the Christian, were to be fused and recast into one great system, of which the Sun was to be the central object of adoration." - "History of Christianity," Vol. II, Book 2, chap. 8, par. 22, p. 178, 179. New York: 1881.

     Dr. Lewis further says that Aurelian, who reigned from 270-276 A.D., embellished the temple of the Sun with "above fifteen thousand pounds of gold." - "History of Sunday Legislation," p. 23. Diocletian, who reigned from 284 to 305, "appealed in the face of the army to the all-seeing deity of the sun." - Id., p. 24.

     (112) "Such were the influences which preceded Constantine and surrounded when he came into power. The following extract shows still plainer the character of Constantine and his attitude toward the sun-worship cults, when the first 'Sunday edict' was issued:

     "'But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology....The sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine.'" - Id., pp. 26, 27.

     "These facts combine to show that Sunday legislation was purely pagan in its origin." - Id., p. 31.

     "In this law he only sought to give additional honor to the 'venerable day' of his patron deity, the sun-god." - Id., p. 32.

     "His attitude toward Christianity was that of a shrewd politician rather than a devout adherent." - Id., p. 6.

     Dr. Lewis quotes from Dr. Schaff a very fitting conclusion to his remarks regarding Constantine:

     "'And down to the end of his life he retained the title and dignity of pontifex maximus, or high-priest of the heathen hierarchy. His coins bore on the one side the letters of the name of Christ, on the other the figure of the sun-god, and the inscription 'Sol invictus.'" - Id., p. 10.

     That the Christians at this time were still keeping the Sabbath can be seen from the following statement of Hugo Grotius, quoted by Robert Cox, F. S. A. Scot.

     "He refers to Eusebius for proof that Constantine, besides issuing his well-known edict that labor should be suspended on Sunday, enacted that the people should not be brought before the law courts on the seventh day of the week, which also, he adds, was long observed by the primitive Christians as a day for religious meetings....And this, says he, 'refutes those who think that the Lord's day was substituted for the Sabbath - a thing nowhere mentioned either by Christ or His apostles.'" - "Opera Omnia Theologica," Hugo Grotius (died 1645), (London: 1679); quoted in "Literature of the Sabbath Question," Cox, Vol. I, p. 233. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1865.

     (113) Pope Sylvester co-operated with Constantine to bring paganism into the Christian church (especially Sunday-keeping). This caused the true Christians to have repugnance for him. The Waldenses believed he was the Antichrist. Dr. Peter Allix quotes the following from a prominent Roman Catholic author regarding the Waldenses:

     "'They say that the blessed Pope Sylvester was the Antichrist, of whom mention is made in the Epistles of St. Paul, as being the son of perdition, who extols himself above every thing that is called God; for, from that time, they say, the Church perished...'

     "He lays it down also as one of their opinions, 'That the Law of Moses is to be kept according to the letter, and that the keeping of the Sabbath...and other legal observances, ought to take place.'" - "Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont," p. 169. Oxford: 1821. Page 154 in the edition of 1690.

     Having obtained a glimpse of the opposition of God's people to this falling away, let us now return to our subject, to get a view of the novel means Constantine employed to make converts in accordance with his amalgamation scheme. Edward Gibbon says:

     "The hopes of wealth and honors, the example of an emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among the venal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace....As the lower ranks of society are governed by imitation, the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was soon followed by dependent multitudes. The salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy rate, if it be true that, in one year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome...and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised by the emperor to every convert.""- "Decline and Fall," chap. 20, par. 18.

     Constantine gave the following instruction to the bishops at the Council of Nicaea, which shows his constant policy:

     (114) "'In all ways unbelievers must be saved. It was not every one who would be converted by learning and reasoning. Some join us from desire of maintenance; some for preferment; some for presents: nothing is so rare as a real lover of truth. We must be like physicians, and accommodate our medicines to the diseases, our teaching to the different minds of all.'" - "Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church," Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Lecture 5, p. 271. New York: 1875.

     The bishops were only too willing to follow the emperor's instruction, and the result was disastrous to the church. J. A. W. Neander in the following paragraph gives us some of the results of this policy:

     "Such were those who, without any real interest whatever in the concerns of religion, living half in Paganism and half in an outward show of Christianity, composed the crowds that thronged the churches on the festivals of the Christians, and the theaters on the festivals of the pagans." - "History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. II, Sec. 3, Part 1, Div. 1, par. 1, p. 223. Boston: 1855.

     No wonder Rev. H. H. Milman exclaims:

     "Is this Paganism approximating to Christianity, or Christianity degenerating into Paganism?" - "History of Christianity," pp. 341, 342. He answers this question later by saying: "With a large portion of mankind, it must be admitted that the religion itself was Paganism under another form." - Id., p. 412.

     Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, and an admirer of Constantine, co-operated with him in bringing "the venerable day of the sun" into the Christian church. Speaking of Pope Sylvester, Constantine, and himself, he says:

     "All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has a precedence and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath. For on that day, in making the world, God said, 'Let there be light, and there was light.'" - "Commentary on the Psalms"; quoted in Literature on the Sabbath Question," Robert Cox, Vol. I, p. 361.

     (115) Eusebius evidently used the strongest argument he knew as proof for Sunday-keeping; but advocates of this new holiday had probably not yet conceived the idea that Christ's resurrection would be an argument in favor of Sunday-keeping, so he used creation instead.

OLD AND NEW CHURCH MEMBERS

     The church at this time consisted of two widely different kinds of church members: 1. The old class, with their devoted leaders, had accepted Christianity in the primitive way, by genuine conversion and separation from the world, suffering for Christ and His unpopular truth. This class lived mostly in the country and in out-of-the-way places. 2. The new converts lived mainly in the large cities, and had come in through a mass movement, following the crowd in what was most popular, attracted by the hopes of temporal gain or honor, or they had been forced in by the secular arm. These were devoid of any personal Christian experience, but constituting the majority, they elected bishops of their own kind.

     The elections of bishops were attended with secret corruption and bloody violence, which was only too natural for that kind of "Christians." Edward Gibbon says of these elections:

     "While one of the candidates boasted the honors of his family, a second allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table, and a third, more guilty than his rivals, offered to share the plunder of the church among the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopes." - "Decline and Fall," chap. XX, par. 22.

     Rev. H. H. Milman says:

     "Even within the Church itself, the distribution of the superior dignities became an object of fatal ambition and strife. The streets of Alexandria and of Constantinople were deluged with blood by the partisans of rival bishops." - "History of Christianity," Book 3, chap. 5, par. 2, p. 410. New York: 1881.

     Schaff declares that "many are elected on account of their badness, to prevent the mischief they would otherwise do." - "History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, Sec. 49, par. 2, note 5, p. 240. Even the sanctity of the church was not respected by the fighting parties. Milman, speaking of the installation of a bishop at Constantinople, says:

     (116) "In the morning, Philip [the prefect of the East] appeared in his car, with Macedonius by his side in the pontifical attire; he drove directly to the church, but the soldiers were obliged to hew their way through the dense and resisting crowd to the altar. Macedonius passed over the murdered bodies (three thousand are said to have fallen) to the throne of Christian prelate." - "History of Christianity," Vol. XI, p. 426. New York: 1870. Socrates ("Ecclesiastical History," Bk. II, chap. 17, p. 96) gives the number slain as 3150.

     Can we wonder at the lack of spiritual insight and sound judgment of such bishops when they met at their councils to formulate the creed of Christendom? They decreed in favor of image worship, purgatory, prayers for the dead, veneration of relics, and many other heathen customs, persecuting all who would not fall in line with their mongrel customs. At the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, they anathematized Sabbath-keepers in the following way:

     "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be Anathema from Christ." - Canon XXIX, "Index Canonum," John Fulton, D. D., LL. D., p. 259.

     That the Christians were then keeping the Sabbath we see from Canon XVI of the same council, in which they decreed:

     "The Gospels are to be read on the Sabbath Day, with the other Scriptures." - Id., p. 255.

     Dr. Heylyn also declares that the Christians were keeping the Sabbath at that time:

     "Nor was this only the particular will of those two and thirty Prelates, there assembled; it was the practice generally of the Easterne Churches: and of some churches of the west....For in the Church of Millaine [Milan];...it seemes the Saturday was held in a farre esteeme....Not that the Easterne Churches, or any of the rest which observed that day, were inclined to Iudaisme [Judaism]; but that they came together on the Sabbath day, to worship Iesus [Jesus] Christ the Lord of the Sabbath." - "History of the Sabbath" (original spelling retained), Part 2, par. 5, pp. 73, 74. London: 1636.

     (117) The true Christians paid very little attention to the anathema of the bishops, for they continued to keep the true Sabbath, as the following quotations show:

     "From the apostles' time until the council of Laodicea, which was about the year 364, the holy observation of the Jews' Sabbath continued, as may be proved out of many authors; yea, notwithstanding the decree of the council against it." - "Sunday a Sabbath," John Ley, p. 163. London: 1640.

     That the Sabbath was kept, "notwithstanding the decree of the council against it," is also seen from the fact that Pope Gregory I )A.D. 590-604) wrote against "Roman citizens [who] forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day." - "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," Second Series, Vol. XIII, p. 13, epist. 1.

     As late as 791 A.D. Christians kept the Sabbath in Italy. Canon 13 of the council at Friaul states:

     "Further, when speaking of that Sabbath which the Jews observe, the last day of the week, and which also our peasants observe, He said only Sabbath, and never added unto it, 'delight,' or 'my.'" - Mansi, 13, 851; Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," J. N. Andrews, p. 539. 1912.

     Bishop Hefele summarizes the canon in the following words:

     "The celebration of Sunday begins with Saturday evening. It is enjoined to keep Sunday and other church festivals. The peasants kept Saturday in many cases." - "Conciliengesch.," 3, 720, sec. 404; Quoted in "History of the Sabbath," Andrews, pp. 539, 540. 1912.