TO KNOW HISTORY IS TO BE CATHOLIC??? -Part 2
[from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs chapter 5 – Papal Persecutions and the Inquisition]
Up to about the 12th Century, most of the persecutions against true believers in Christ came from the pagan world, but now the church in Rome discarded the truths of the Scriptures and the commandments of love and took up the sword against all who opposed the false doctrines and traditions that had increasingly become part of it since the time of Constantine. During that time, the Roman church drifted away from the orthodox beliefs for which so many had been martyred. It began to lay aside holiness, piety, humility, charity, and compassion, and take upon itself pagan superstitions and doctrines that were materially, physically, and socially beneficial to its clergy and gave them total domination in all Church matters. Any who disagreed with them or their doctrines were branded as heretics who must be brought into agreement with the papal church by whatever force necessary, and if the heretics did not repent and swear allegiance to the pope and his prelates, they must be executed. They justified the horrors they committed by wresting Old Testament Scriptures, and by appeal to Augustine, who had interpreted Luke 14:23 as endorsing the use of force against heretics: “Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.’”
For several centuries the papal church raged throughout the world like a hungry beast, slaughtering thousands of true believers in Christ and torturing and mutilating thousands more. It was the “Dark Age” of the Church. The Waldenses in France were the first victims of the fury of the papal persecution.
-end of excerpt-
Detailed accounts of numerous persecutions against true believers by edicts and Inquisitions of the Roman Catholic Church can be found in the lengthy “Book of Martyrs” by John Foxe.