 Chapter 7 of The Great Apostasy by James E. Talmadge First among the specific causes of disturbance operating within the Church and contributing to its apostasy, we have named, the corrupting of the simple principles of the Gospel by the admixture of the so-called philosophic systems of the times. The attempted grafting of foreign doctrines on the true vine of the Gospel of Christ was characteristic of the early years of the apostolic period. We read of the sorcerer Simon, who professed belief and entered the Church by baptism, but who was so devoid of the true spirit of the Gospel that he sought to purchase by money the authority and power of the priesthood. This man, the rebuked by Peter and apparently penitent, continued to trouble the Church by inculcating heresies and winning disciples within the fold. His followers were distinguished as a sect or cult down to the fourth century, and writing at that time, Eosibius says of them, these after the manner of their founder insinuating themselves into the Church, like a pestilential and leprosy disease, infected those with the greatest corruption into whom they were able to infuse their secret irremediable and destructive poison. This Simon, known in history as Simon Magus, is referred to by early Christian writers as the founder of heresy, owing to his persistent attempts to combine Christianity with Gnosticism. It is with reference to his proposition to purchase spiritual authority that all traffic in spiritual offices has come to be known as Simon. Through the mouth of the revelator, the Lord reproved certain of the Churches for their adoption or toleration of doctrines and practices alien to the Gospel. Notably is this the case with respect to the Nicolaitans and the followers of the doctrine of Balaam. The perversion of true theology, thus developed within the Church, is traceable to the introduction of both Judaistic and pagan fallacies. Indeed, at the opening of the Christian era, and for centuries thereafter, Judaism was more or less intimately mixed with pagan philosophy and contaminated with heathen ceremonies. There were numerous sects and parties, cults and schools, each advocating rival theories as to the constitution of the soul, the essence of sin, the nature of deity, and a multitude of other mysteries. The Christians were soon embroiled in endless controversies among themselves. Judaistic converts to Christianity sought to modify and adapt the tenets of the new faith so as to harmonize them with their inherited love of Judaism, and the result was destructive to both. Our Lord had indicated the futility of any such attempt to combine new principles with old systems, or to patch up the prejudices of the past with fragments of new doctrine. No man, said he, puteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up, take it from the garment, and the rent is made worse. Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. The Gospel came as a new revelation, marking the fulfillment of the law. It was no mere addendum, nor was it a simple reenactment of past requirements. It embodied a new and an everlasting Covenant. Attempts to patch the Judaistic robe with the new fabric of the Gospel could result in nothing more sightly than a hideous rent. The new wine of the Covenant could not be bottled in the time-eaten leather containers of mosaic libations. Judaism was belittled and Christianity perverted by the incongruous association. Among the early and most pernicious adulterations of Christian doctrine is the introduction of the teachings of the Gnostics. These self-styled philosophers put forth the boastful claim that they were able to lead the human mind to a full comprehension of the Supreme Being, and a knowledge of the true relationship between deity and mortals. They said in effect that a certain being had existed from all eternity manifested as a radiant light diffused throughout space, and this they called the pluroma. The eternal nature, infinitely perfect and infinitely happy, having dwelt from everlasting in a profound solitude, and in a blessed tranquility produced at length from itself two minds of a different sex, which resembled their supreme parent in the most perfect manner. From the prolific union of these two beings, others arose, which were also followed by succeeding generations, so that in process of time a celestial family was formed in the pluroma. This divine progeny, immutable in its nature and above the power of mortality, was called by the philosophers Aeon, a term which signifies in the Greek language an eternal nature. How many in number these aeons were, was a point much controverted among the oriental sages. Then one of the aeons, distinctly called the Demiurge, created this world an arrogantly asserted dominion over the same, denying absolutely the authority of the supreme parent. The Gnostic doctrines declares man to be a union of a body, which being the creation of the Demiurge is essentially evil and a spirit, which being derived from deity is characteristically good. The spirits thus imprisoned in evil bodies will be finally liberated, and then the power of the Demiurge will cease, and the earth will be dissolved into nothingness. Our justification for introducing here this partial summary of Gnosticism is the fact that early efforts were made to accommodate the tenets of this system to the demands of Christianity, and that Christ and the Holy Ghost were declared to belong to the family of aeons provided for in this scheme. This led to the extravagant absurdity of denying that Jesus had a body, even while he lived as a man, and that his appearance as a corporal being was a deception of the senses wrought by his supernatural power. That the doctrines of the Gnostics were unsatisfying even to those who professed to believe therein is evident from the many cults and parties that came into existence as subdivisions of the main sect, and it is interesting to note that in modern times certain free thinkers have prided themselves in assuming a title expressing the full antithesis of the name Gnostics, namely Agnostics. The practical effect of the principles of Gnosticism in the lives of its adherents is strangely diverse. One division of the sect followed a life of austerity embracing rigorous self-denial and bodily torture in the vain belief that the malignant body could thus be subdued, while a spirit would be given added power and increased freedom. Another cult sought to minimize the fundamental difference between right and wrong by denying the element of mortality in human life, and these abandoned themselves to the impulses of the passions and the frailties of the bodily nature without restraint, on the assumption that there was no such relation between body and soul, as would cause injury to the latter through bodily indulgences and excesses. Another sect or school whose doctrines were in a measure amalgamated with those of Christianity was that of the new Platonics. The ancient sects of Platonists or Platonics were allied in some points of doctrine with the Epicureans and were rivals if not opponents of the Stoics. The early Platonics held that unorganized matter has existed from all eternity and that its organizer, God, is similarly eternal. As God is eternal, so also his will or intelligence is without beginning, and this eternal intelligence existed as the will or intent of deity was called the Logos. Such precepts had been taught long before the Christian era, and the philosophy professed by some of the contending sects among the Jews in the time of Christ had been influenced thereby. As the principles of Christianity became generally known, certain leaders in the sect of Platonics found in the new doctrine much to study and admire. By this time, however, Platonism itself had undergone much change, and the more liberal adherents had formed a new organization and distinguished themselves by the Appalachian New Platonics. These professed to find in Jesus Christ the incarnation of the Logos and accepted with avidity the declaration of St. John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. According to the Eclectic or New Platonic philosophy, the Word, referred to by St. John, was the Logos, described by Plato. The Platonic conception of the Godhead, as consisting of the deity and the Logos, was enlarged in accordance with Christian tenants to embrace three members, the Holy Ghost being the third. Hence arose bitter and lasting dissension as to the relative powers of each member of the Trinity, particularly the position and authority of the Logos or Son. The many disputes incident to the admixture of Platonic theory with Christian doctrine continued through the centuries, and in a sense may be said to trouble the minds of men even in this modern age. It is wholly beyond our purpose to classify or describe the hybrid offspring resulting from the unnatural union of pagan philosophy and Christian truth, nor shall we attempt to follow in detail the dissensions and quarrels on theological points and questions of doctrine. Our purpose is achieved when by statement of fact and citation of authority the reality of the apostasy is established. We shall consider therefore only the most important of the dissensions by which the church was troubled. About the middle of the third century, Sebelius, a presbyter or bishop of the church in Africa, strongly advocated the doctrine of Trinity and Unity as characterizing the Godhead. He claimed that the divine nature of Christ was no distinct nor personal attribute of the man Jesus but merely a portion of the divine energy and emanation from the Father with which the Son was temporarily endowed, and that in like manner the Holy Ghost was a part of the divine Father. These views were as vigorously opposed by some as defended by others, and the disagreement was rife when Constantine so suddenly changed the status of the church and brought to its support the power of the state. Early in the fourth century the dispute assumed a threatening aspect in the bitter contention between Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and Arius, one of the subordinate officers of the same church. Alexander proclaimed that the Son was in all respects the equal of the Father and also of the same substance or essence. Arius insisted that the Son had been created by the Father and therefore could not be co-eternal with his divine parent, that the Son was the agent through whom the will of the Father was executed, and that for this reason also the Son was inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity. In like manner the Holy Ghost was inferior to the other members of the Godhead. Arianism, as the doctrine came to be known, was preached with vigor and announced with energy, and the dissension thus occasioned threatened to rend the church to its foundation. At last the Emperor Constantine was forced to intervene in an effort to establish peace among his contending churchmen. He summoned a council of church dignitaries which assembled in the year 325, and which is known from its place of session as the Council of Nici. This council condemned the doctrine of Arius and pronounced sentence of banishment against its author. What was declared to be the Orthodox doctrine of the Universal or Catholic Church respecting the Godhead was promulgated as follows. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, of the same substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, that are in heaven and that are in earth, who for us men and for our salvation descended and was incarnate, and became man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead. And in the Holy Spirit. But those who say there was a time when He, the Son, was not, and that He was not before, He was begotten, and that He was made out of nothing, or affirm that He is of any other substance or essence, or that the Son of God was created, and mutable or changeable, the Catholic Church doth pronounce accursed. This is the generally accepted version of the Nicene Creed, as originally promulgated. In form it was somewhat modified, though left practically unchanged as to essentials, by the Council held at Constantinople half a century later. What is regarded as a restatement of the Nicene Creed has been attributed to Athanasius, one of the chief opponents of Arianism. Though his right to be considered the author is questioned by many, and emphatically denied by some authorities on ecclesiastical history. Nevertheless, the statement referred to has found a place in literature as the Creed of Athanasius, and whether rightly or wrongly named, it persists as a declaration of belief professed by some Christian sects today. It has a present place in the prescribed ritual of the Church of England. The Creed of Athanasius reads as follows. We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance, for there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is all one. The glory equal, the majesty co-eternal, such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreate the Son uncreate and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father incomprehensible the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal. And also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty, and yet there are not three Almighty's but one Almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet they are not three Gods, but one God. The Council of Nicaea is known in Iglesiastical history as one of the most famous and important gatherings ever assembled as an official body concerned with church administration. Not only was the Aryan dispute disposed of, so far as Iglesiastical decree could dispose of a question vitally affecting the individual conscience, but many other subjects of controversy were similarly quieted for the time. Thus the long-standing dispute as to the time of celebrating Easter was settled by vote, as was also the question agitated by Novitus and his followers, as to the propriety of re-admitting repentant apostates to the church, and the schism caused by Miletius, a bishop of Upper Africa who had refused to recognize the superior authority of the bishop of Alexandria. From the number and diversity of the questions brought before the Nicene Council for adjudication, you may safely conclude that the newly enthroned church was not characterized by unity of purpose nor harmony of action. However, compared with the bitter contentions that follow, the dissensions in the reign of Constantine were but as the beginnings of trouble. The moral effect of the potent spirit of apostasy operating through the first three centuries of the church's existence and nursed by the contributions of heathen philosophy proved, as was inevitable, highly injurious and evil. Some of the most pernicious of these effects it becomes our duty to consider. Perverted View of Life One of the heresies of early origin and rapid growth in the church was the doctrine of antagonism between body and spirit whereby the former was regarded as an incubus and a curse. From what has been said this will be recognized as one of the perversions derived from the alliance of Gnosticism with Christianity. A result of this grafting in of heathen doctrines was an abundant growth of hermit practices by which men sought to weaken, torture, and subdue their bodies that their spirits or souls might gain greater freedom. Many who adopted this unnatural view of human existence retired to the solitude of the desert and there spent their time in practices of stern self-denial and in acts of frenzied self-torture. Others shut themselves up as voluntary prisoners seeking glory in privation and self-imposed penance. It was this unnatural view of life that gave rise to the several orders of recluses, hermits, and monks. Think you not that the Saviour had such practices in mind when warning the disciples of the false claims to sanctity that would characterize the times then soon to follow, he said, Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he, Christ, is in the desert, go not forth, behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. When the church came into the favour of the state under Constantine in the fourth century, there sprang up many orders of recluses who maintained that communion with God was to be sought by mortifying sense, by withdrawing the mind from all external objects, by macerating the body with hunger and labour, and by a holy sort of indolence, which confined all the activity of the soul to a lazy contemplation of things spiritual and external. Mosheem, the author just quoted, continues, The Christian church would never have been disgraced by this cruel and unsocial enthusiasm, nor would any have been subjected to those keen torments of mind and body to which it gave rise, had not many Christians been unwarily caught by the specious appearance and the pompous sound of that maxim of the ancient philosophy, that in order to attiment of true felicity and communion with God it was necessary that the soul should be separated from the body, even here below, and that the body was to be macerated and mortified for this purpose. The fruit of this ill-sewing was the growth of numerous orders of monks and the maintenance of monasteries, celibacy was taught as a virtue and came to be made a requirement of the clergy, as it is in the Roman Catholic Church today. An unmarried clergy deprived of the elevating influences of home life fell into many excesses and the corruption of the priests has been a theme of reproach throughout the centuries. The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him and help meet for him, and again, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. His inspired apostle proclaimed, Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. Nevertheless, an apostate church decrees that its ministers shall be forbidden to follow the law of God. Disregard for Truth As early as the fourth century, certain pernicious doctrines embodying a disregard for truth gained currency in the church. Thus, it was taught that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by that means the interests of the church might be promoted. Needless to say, sins other than those of falsehood and deceit were justified when committed in the supposed interests of church advancement, and crime was condoned under the specious excuse that the end justifies the means. Many of the fables and fictitious stories relating to the lives of Christ and the apostles as also the spurious accounts of supernatural visitations and wonderful miracles in which the literature of the early centuries abound are traceable to this infamous doctrine that lies are acceptable unto God if perpetrated in a cause that man calls good. As one of the effective causes leading to the apostasy of the primitive church, we have specified unauthorized additions to the ceremonies of the church, and the introduction of vital changes in essential ordinances. The ridicule heaped upon the early church by the pagans on account of the simplicity of Christian worship has already received mention. This cause of reproach was nonetheless emphasized by Judaistic critics, to whom ritual and ceremony, formalism, and prescribed rites figured as essentials of religion. Very early in its history, the church manifested a tendency to sublant the pristine simplicity of its worship by elaborate ceremonies patterned after Judaistic ritual and heathen idolatries. As to such innovations, Mosheem writes as follows with reference to conditions existing in the second century. There is no institution so pure and excellent which the corruption and folly of man will not in time alter for the worse, and load with additions foreign to its nature and original design. Such in a particular manner was the fate of Christianity. In this century, many unnecessary rites and ceremonies were added to the Christian worship, the introduction of which was extremely offensive to wise and good men. These changes, while they destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the gospel, were naturally pleasing to the gross multitude, who are more delighted with the pomp and splendor of external institutions than with the native charms of rational and solid piety, and who generally give little attention to any objects but those which strike their outward senses. The author just cited explains that the bishops of that day increased the ceremonies and sought to give them splendor by way of accommodation to the infirmities and prejudices of both Jews and heathen. To more effectually reconcile the gospel requirements with Jewish prejudice, which still clung to the letter of the Mosaic Law, the officers of the church in the first and second centuries took to themselves the ancient titles, thus bishops styled themselves chief priests and deacons, Levites. In like manner, says Mosheem, the comparison of the Christian oblation with the Jewish victim and sacrifice produced a multitude of unnecessary rites, and was the occasion of introducing that erroneous notion of the Eucharist, which represents it as a real sacrifice and not merely as a commemoration of that great offering that was once made upon the cross for the sins of mortals. In the 4th century we find the church still more hopelessly committed to formalism and superstition, the decent respect with which the remains of the early martyrs had been honored degenerated or grew into a superstitious reverence amounting to worship. This practice was allowed in deference to the heathen adoration paid to deified heroes. Pilgrimages to the tombs of martyrs became common as an outward form of religious devotion and the ashes of martyrs as well as dust and earth brought from places said to have been made holy by some uncommon occurrence were sold as sovereign remedies against disease and as a means of protection against the assaults of malignant spirits. The form of public worship was so changed during the 2nd and 3rd centuries as to bear little resemblance to the simplicity and earnestness of that of the early congregations. Public discourses took the place of fervent testimony bearing and the arts of the rhetorician and the controversial debater supplanted the true eloquence of religious conviction. Applause was allowed and expected as evidence of the preacher's popularity. The burning of incense at first abhorred by Christian assemblies because of its pagan origin and heathen significance had become common in the church before the end of the 3rd century. In the 4th century the adoration of images, pictures, and effigies had been given a place in the so-called Christian worship and the practice became general in the century following. An effort to check the abuses arising from this idolatrous practice in the 8th century actually led to civil war. In considering such evidences of pagan ceremonial and superstitious rites taking the place of the simple procedure incident to genuine worship characteristic of the church in the days of its integrity who can question the solemn and awful fact of actual apostasy. But more important yet, more significant still than mere additions to the ritualistic ceremonial are the perversions and changes introduced into the most sacred and essential ordinances of Christ's church. As it is common with ecclesiastical authorities to consider the most essential ordinances of the Gospel originally established by Christ and maintained by his apostles as comprising baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, we shall examine into these alone as examples of the unauthorized alterations now under consideration. In this restriction of our illustrative examples we do not admit that baptism and the sacrament named were the only ordinances characterizing the church. Indeed, there is abundant proof to the contrary. Thus the authoritative imposition of hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost in the case of baptized believers was equally essential with baptism itself and was assuredly regarded as a vital ordinance from the first. Furthermore, ordination in the priesthood whereby men were commissioned by divine authority was indispensable to the maintenance of an organized church. The examples selected, however, will be sufficient for the purposes of our present inquiry. The Ordnance of Baptism Changed First, then, as to baptism. In what did the ordinance originally consist as to the purpose and mode of administration, and what changes did it undergo in the course of progressive apostasy through which the church passed? That baptism is essential to salvation calls for no demonstration here. This has been generally held by the Christian church in both ancient and modern times. The purpose of baptism was, and is, the obtaining of a remission of sins. Compliance with the requirement has been, from the first, the sole means of securing admission to the Church of Christ. In the early church baptism was administered on profession of faith and evidence of repentance and was performed by immersion at the hands of one invested with the requisite authority of priesthood. There was no delay in administering the ordinance after the eligibility of the candidate had been shown. As instances we may cite the promptness with which baptism was administered to the believers on that eventful day of Pentecost. The baptism administered by Philip to the Ethiopian convert immediately following due profession of faith, the undelayed baptism of devout Cornelius and his family, and the speedy baptism of the converted jailer by Paul, his prisoner. In the second century, however, priestly mandate had restricted the baptismal ordinance to the times of the two church festivals, Easter and with Suntide, the first being the anniversary of Christ's resurrection, and the second the time of Pentecostal celebration. A long and tedious course of preparation was required of the candidate before his eligibility was admitted. During this time he was known as a catchaman, or novice in training. According to some authorities a three years course of preparation was required in all but exceptional cases. During the second century the baptismal symbolism of a new birth was emphasized by many additions to the ordinance, thus the newly baptized were treated as infants and were fed milk and honey in token of their immaturity. As baptism was construed to be a ceremony of liberation from the slavery of Satan, certain formulas used in the freeing of slaves were added. Anointing with oil was also made a part of the ceremony. In the third century the simple ordinance of baptism was further encumbered and perverted by the administrations of an exorcist. This official indulged in menacing and formidable shouts and declamation, whereby the demons or evil spirits with which the candidate was supposed to be afflicted were to be driven away. The driving out this demon was now considered as an essential preparation for baptism after the administration of which the candidates returned home adorned with crowns and arrayed in white garments as sacred emblems, the former of their victory over sin and the world, the latter of their inward purity and innocence. It is not difficult to see in this superstitious ceremony the evidence of pagan adulteration of the Christian religion. In the fourth century it became the practice to place salt in the mouth of the newly baptized member as a symbol of purification and the actual baptism was both preceded and followed by an anointing with oil. The form or mode of baptism also underwent a radical change during the first half of the third century, a change whereby its essential symbolism was destroyed. Immersion, typifying death followed by resurrection, was no longer deemed an essential feature, and sprinkling with water was allowed and placed thereof. No less an authority than Cyprian, the learned Bishop of Carthage advocated the propriety of sprinkling in lieu of immersion in cases of physical weakness, and the practice thus started later became general. The first instance of record is that of Novitus, a heretic who requested baptism when he thought death was near. Not only was the form of the baptismal rite radically changed, but the application of the ordinance was perverted. The practice of administering baptism to infants was recognized as orthodox in the third century and was doubtless of earlier origin. In a prolonged disputation as to whether it was safe to postpone the baptism of infants until the eighth day after birth, in deference to the Jewish custom of performing circumcision on that day, it was gravely decided that such a delay would be dangerous, as jeopardizing the future well-being of the child shouldn't die before attaining the age of eight days, and that baptism ought to be administered as soon after birth as possible. A more infamous doctrine than that of the condemnation of unbaptized infants can scarcely be imagined, and a stronger proof of the heresies that had invaded and corrupted the early church need not be sought. Such a doctrine is foreign to the Gospel and to the Church of Christ, and its adoption as an essential tenet is proof of apostasy. Changes in the Ordinance of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The sacrament of the Lord's Supper has been regarded as an essential ordinance from the time of its establishment in the Church by Jesus Christ, yet in spite of its sanctity, it has undergone radical alteration both as to its symbolism and its accepted purpose. The sacrament as instituted by the Savior and as administered during the days of the Apostolic ministry was as simple as it was sacred and solemn. Accompanied by the true spirit of the Gospel, its simplicity was sanctifying. As interpreted by the spirit of apostasy, its simplicity became a reproach. Hence we find that in the third century long sacramental prayers were prescribed and much pomp was introduced. Vessels of gold and silver were used by such congregations as could afford them, and this with ostentatious displays, non-members and members who were in a penitential state, were excluded from the sacramental service, in imitation of the exclusiveness accompanying heathen mysteries. Sacramentation and dissension arose as to the proper time of administering the sacrament, morning, noon, or evening, and as to the frequency with which the ordinance should be celebrated. At a later date the doctrine of transubstantiation was established as an essential tenet of the Roman Church. This briefly summarized is to the effect that the species, i.e. the bread and wine used in the sacrament, lose their character as mere bread and wine, and become, in fact, the flesh and blood of the crucified Christ. The transmutation is assumed to take place in such a mystical way as to delude the senses, and so, though actual flesh and actual blood, the elements still appear to be bread and wine. This view, so strongly defended and earnestly reverenced by Orthodox members of the Roman Church, is vehemently denounced by others as an absurd tenet, and a monstrous and unnatural doctrine. There has been much discussion as to the origin of this doctrine. The Roman Catholics claiming for it a great antiquity, while their opponents insist that it was an innovation of the eighth or ninth century. According to Milner, it was openly taught in the ninth century, was formally established as a dogma of the Church by the Council of Placentia, A.D. 1095, and was made an essential article of creed, belief in which was required by all, by action of the Roman Ecclesiastical Court about 1160. An official edict of the Pope Innocent III confirmed the dogma as a binding tenet and requirement of the Church in 1215, and it remains practically in force in the Roman Catholic Church today. The doctrine was adopted by the Greek Church in the 17th century. The consecrated emblems, or host, being regarded as the actual flesh and blood of Christ, were adored as of themselves divine. Thus, a very pernicious practice of idolatry was connected with the reception of this doctrine. Men fell down before the consecrated host, and worshiped it as God, and the novelty, absurdity, and impiety of this abomination very much struck the minds of all men who were not dead to a sense of true religion. The elevation of the host, i.e., the presentation of the consecrated emblems before the congregation for adoration, is a feature of the present-day ritual of worship in the Roman Catholic Church. The celebration of the Mass is taught to be an actual, though mystic, sacrifice in which the Son of God is daily offered up anew as a constantly recurring atonement for the present sins of the assembled worshipers. A further perversion of the sacrament occurred in the administration of bread alone, instead of both bread and wine, as originally required. Thus was the plain purpose and assured efficacy of the sacrament hidden beneath the cloud of mystery and ceremonial display. As such, with the solemn simplicity of the ordinance as instituted by our Lord, he took bread and wine, blessed them, and gave to his disciples, and said, this due in remembrance of me. Of the bread he said, this is my body. Of the wine, this is my blood. Yet at that time his body was unpierced, his blood was unshed, the disciples ate bread, not flesh of a living man, and drank wine, not blood. From this they were commanded to do in remembrance of Christ. The perversion of the sacrament is evidence of departure from the spirit of the Gospel of Christ, and when made an essential dogma of a church is proof of the apostate condition of that church. Behold, they have transgressed the laws and changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. CHAPTER IX Internal Causes Continued Among the controlling causes leading to the general apostasy of the church we have specified as third in the series, unauthorized changes in church organization and government. A comparison between the plan of organization on which the primitive church was founded and the ecclesiastical system which took its place will afford valuable evidence as to the true or apostate condition of the modern church. The primitive church was officered by apostles, pastors, high priests, seventies, elders, bishops, priests, teachers, and deacons. We have no evidence that the presiding council of the church, comprising the twelve apostles, was continued beyond the earthly ministry of those who had been ordained to that holy calling during the life of Christ or soon after his ascension. Nor is their record of any ordination of individuals to the apostleship irrespective of membership in the council of twelve apostles. Beyond those whose calling and ministry are chronicled in the New Testament, which as a historical record ends with the first century. Ecclesiastical history other than the holy scriptures informs us, however, that wherever a branch or church was organized, a bishop or an elder, presbyter, was placed in charge. There is no doubt that while the apostles lived, they were recognized and respected as the presiding authorities of the church. They established branches or churches, they selected the bishops, and submitted their nominations to the vote of the members. As already stated, the principle of self-government, or common consent, was respected in apostolic days with a care amounting to sacred duty. We read that the bishops were assisted in their local administration by presbyters and deacons. After the apostles had gone, bishops and other officers were nominated by, or at the instance of, the existing authorities. The affairs of each church or branch were conducted and regulated by the local officers, so that a marked equality existed among the several churches. None exercising or claiming supremacy, except as to the deference, voluntarily paid to those churches that had been organized by the personal ministry of the apostles. Throughout the first and the greater part of the second century the Christian churches were independent on each other, nor were they joined together by association, confederacy, or other bonds by those of charity. Each Christian assembly was a little state governed by its own laws, which were either enacted or at least approved by the society. As with the churches, so with their bishops, there was a recognized equality among them. Late in the second and throughout the third century, however, marked distinctions and recognition of rank arose among the bishops, those of large and wealthy cities, assuming authority and dignity, above that accorded by them to the bishops of the country provinces. The bishops of the largest cities or provinces took to themselves the distinguishing title of metropolitan, and assumed the power of presidency over the bishops of more limited jurisdiction. The second century was marked by the custom of holding synods, or church councils. The practice originated among the churches in Greece, and thence became general. These councils grew rapidly in power, so that in the third century we find them legislating for the churches, and directing by edict and command in matters which formerly had been left to the vote of the people. Needless to say that with such assumptions of authority came arrogance and tyranny in the government of the church. As the form of the church government changed more and more, many minor orders of clergy and church officers arose, thus in the third century we read of sub-deacons, acolytes, austere, readers, exorcists, and copiates. As an instance of the pride of office, it is worthy of note that a sub-deacon was forbidden to sit in the presence of a deacon without the latter's express consent. Rome, so long the mistress of the world, and secular affairs, irrigated to herself a preeminence in church matters, and the Bishop of Rome claimed supremacy. It is doubtless true that the Church of Rome was organized by Peter and Paul. Tradition, founded on air, said that the Apostle Peter was the first Bishop of Rome, and those who successively were acknowledged as bishops of the Metropolis claim to be, in fact, lineal successors of the presiding Apostle. The high but nonetheless false claim is made by the Catholic Church in this day that the present Pope is the last lineal successor, not alone to the bishopric, but to the apostleship. The rightful supremacy of the bishops of Rome, or Roman pontiffs, as they came to be known, was early questioned. And when Constantine, made Byzantium, or Constantinople, the capital of the empire, the bishop of Constantinople claimed equality. The dispute divided the Church, and for 500 years the dissension increased, until in the 9th century, 855 AD, it developed into a great disruption, in consequence of which the bishop of Constantinople, known distinctively as the patriarch, disavowed all further allegiance to the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as the Roman pontiff. This disruption is marked today by the distinction between Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics. The election of pontiff, or bishop of Rome, was long left to the vote of the people in clergy. Later the electoral function was vested in the clergy alone, and in the 11th century the power was lodged in the college of cardinals, where it remains vested today. The Roman pontiffs strove with unremitted zeal to acquire temporal as well as spiritual authority, and their influence had become so great that in the 11th century we find them claiming the right to direct princes, kings, and emperors in the affairs of several nations. It was at this, the early period of their greatest temporal power, that the pontiffs took the title of pope, the word meaning literally papa or father, and applied in the sense of universal parent. The power of the popes was increased during the 12th century, and may be said to have reached its height in the 13th century. Not content with assumed supremacy in all church affairs, the popes carried their insolent pretensions so far as to give themselves out for lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and empires, and supreme rulers over the kings and princes of the earth. They claimed the right to authorize and direct in the internal affairs of nations, and to make lawful the rebellion of subjects against their rulers, if the later failed to keep favor with the papal power. Compare this arrogant and tyrannical church of the world with the church of Christ, unto Pilate our Lord declared, My kingdom is not of this world, and on an earlier occasion, when the people would have proclaimed him king with earthly dominion, he departed from them. Yet the church, the boast of its divine origin as founded by the Christ, who would not be a king, lifts itself above all kings and rulers, and proclaims itself the supreme power in the affairs of nations. In the fourth century the church had promulgated what has been since designated as an infamy, namely that errors in religion when maintained and adhered to after proper admonition were punishable with civil penalties and corporal tortures. The effect of this unjust rule appeared as more and more atrocious with the passage of the years, so that in the 11th century and later we find the church imposing punishment of fine imprisonment, bodily torture, and even death as penalties for infraction of church regulations, and more infamous still providing the mitigation or annulment of such sentences on payment of money. This led to the shocking practice of selling indulgences, or pardons, which custom was afterward carried to the awful extreme of issuing such before the commission of the specific offense, thus literally offering for sale licenses to sin, with assurance of temporal and promise of spiritual immunity. The granting of indulgences as exemptions from temporal penalties was at first confined to the bishops and their agents, and the practice dates as an organized traffic from about the middle of the 12th century. It remained for the popes, however, to go to the blasphemous extreme of assuming to remit the penalties of the hereafter on payment of the sums prescribed. Their pretended justification of the impious assumption was as horrible as the act itself, and constitutes the dreadful doctrine of superrogation. As formulated in the 13th century, this doctrine was that there actually existed an immense treasure of merit composed of the pious deeds and virtuous actions which the saints had performed beyond what was necessary for their own salvation, and which were therefore applicable to the benefit of others, that the guardian and dispenser of this precious treasure was the Roman pontiff, and that of consequence he was empowered to assign to such as he thought proper a portion of this inexhaustible source of merit suitable to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver them from the punishment due to their crimes. The doctrine of superrogation is as unreasonable as it is unscriptural and untrue. Man's individual responsibility for his acts is as surely a fact as is his agency to act for himself. He will be saved through the merits and by the atoning sacrifice of our Redeemer and the Lord, and his claim upon the salvation provided is strictly dependent on his compliance with the principles and ordinances of the Gospel as established by Jesus Christ. Remission of sins and the eventual salvation of the human soul are provided for. But these gifts of God are not to be purchased with money. Compare the awful fallacies of superrogation and the blasphemous practice of assuming to remit the sins of one man in consideration of the merits of another with the declaration of the one and only Savior of mankind. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. His inspired apostle, seeing in prophetic vision the day of awful certainty, solemnly testifies, and I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works, and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. The scriptures proclaim the eternal fact of individual accountability. The church in the days of its degeneracy declares that the merit of one may be bought by another and paid for in worldly coin. Can such a church be in any measure the church of Christ? In illustration of the indulgences as sold in Germany in the 16th century we have the record of the do-ings of John Tetzel, agent of the Pope, who travelled about selling forgiveness of sins. Says Milner, Myconius assures us that he himself heard Tetzel's acclaim with incredible effrontery concerning the unlimited power of the Pope and the efficacy of indulgences. The people believed that the moment any person had paid the money for the indulgence he became certain of his salvation, and that the souls for whom the indulgences were bought were instantly released out of purgatory. John Tetzel boasted that he had saved more souls from hell by his indulgences than St. Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching. He assures the purchasers of them their crimes, however enormous, would be forgiven. Whence it became almost needless for him to bid them dismiss all fears concerning their salvation? For remission of sins being fully obtained, what doubt could there be of salvation? A copy of an indulgence written by the hand of Tetzel, the vendor of Poppish pardons, has been preserved to us as follows. May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee and absolve thee by the merits of his holy passion, and I by his authority, that of his apostles Peter and Paul, and of the most holy Pope granted and committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee first from all ecclesiastical censures in whatever manner they have been incurred, and then from all the sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous so ever they may be, even for such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy sea, and as far as the keys of the holy church extend, I remit to thee all the punishment which thou deservedest in purgatory on their account, and I restore thee to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which thou possessed at baptism, so that when thou dyest the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened, and if thou shall not die at present this grace shall remain in full force when thou art at the point of death, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. By way of excuse or defense it has been claimed for the Roman Catholic Church that a profession of contrition or repentance was required of every applicant for indulgence, and that the pardon was issued on the basis of such penitence, and not primarily for money or its equivalent, but that recipients of indulgences at first voluntarily and later in compliance with established custom made a material offering or donation to the Church. It is reported, moreover, that some of the abuses with which the selling of indulgences had been associated were disapproved by the Council of Trent about the middle of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless the dread fact remains that for four hundred years the Church had claimed for its Pope the power to remit all sins, and that the promise of remission had been sold and bought. The awful sin of blasphemy consists in taking to oneself the divine prerogatives and powers. Here we find the Pope of Rome, the head of the only Church recognized at the time assuming to remit the punishments due in the hereafter for sins committed in mortality. A Pope assuming to sit in judgment as God himself is this not a fulfillment of the dread conditions of apostasy foreseen and foretold as antecedent to the second advent of Christ. Read for yourselves. Another abuse perpetrated by the Councils through which assemblies the Supreme Pontiffs exercised their autocratic powers is seen in the restrictions placed on the reading and interpretation of Scripture. The same Council of Trent which had disclaimed authority or blamed for the acts of Church officials regarding the scandalous traffic and indulgences prescribed most rigid regulations for bidding the reading of the Scriptures by the people. Thus a severe and intolerable law was enacted with respect to all interpreters and expositors of the Scripture by which they were forbidden to explain the sense of these divine books in matters of faith and practice in such a manner as to make them speak a different language from that of the Church and the ancient doctors. The same law farther declared that the Church alone i.e. its rulers the Roman Pontiff had the right of determining the true meaning and identification of Scripture to fill up the measure of these tyrannical and iniquitous proceedings. The Church of Rome persisted obstinately in affirming though not always with the same imprudence and plainness of speech that the Holy Scriptures were not composed for the use of the multitude but only for that of their spiritual teachers and of consequence ordered these divine records to be taken from the people in all places where it was allowed to execute its precarious demands. Is it possible that a Church teaching such heresies can be the Church established by Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus commanded all search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me. Surely a pall of darkness had fallen upon the earth. The Church of Christ had long since ceased to exist. In place of priesthood conferred by divine authority a man created with papacy ruled with the iron hand of tyranny and without regard to moral restraint. In a scholarly work Dr. J. W. Draper gives a list of pontiffs who had stood at the head of the Church from the middle of the 8th to the middle of the 11th centuries with biographical notes of each and what a picture is there outlined to win the papal crown no crime was too great and for a period of centuries the immoralities of many of the popes and their events are too shocking for detailed description. It may be claimed that the author last cited and whose words are given below was an avowed opponent of the Roman Catholic Church and that therefore his judgment is prejudiced. In reply let it be said that the attested facts of history support the dread arraignment. In commenting on the facts set forth Dr. Draper says more than a thousand years had elapsed since the birth of our Church was the condition of Rome. Well may the historian shut the annals of those times in disgust. Well may the heart of the Christians sink within him at such a catalogue of hideous crimes. Well may we ask were these the vestigerents of God upon earth these who had truly reached the goal beyond which the last effort of human wickedness cannot pass. Not until several centuries after these events did public opinion come to the true and philosophical total rejection of the divine claims of the papacy. For a time the evils were attributed to the manner of the pontifical election as if that could by any possibility influence the descent of a power which claimed to be supernatural and under the immediate care of God. No one can study the development of the Italian ecclesiastical power without discovering how completely it depended on human agency, too often on human and intrigue, how completely wanting it was of any mark of the divine construction and care, the offspring of man, not of God, and therefore bearing upon it the liniments of human passions, human virtues, and human sins. By increasing changes and unauthorized alterations in organization and government the earthly establishment known as the church, with popes, cardinals, habits, monks, exorcists, acolytes, etc. lost all semblance to the church as established by Christ and maintained by his apostles. The Catholic argument that there has been an uninterrupted succession of authority in the priesthood from the apostle Peter to the present occupant of the papal throne is untenable in the light of history and unreasonable in the light of fact. Authority to speak and act in the name of God power to officiate in the saving ordinances of the Gospel of Christ the high privilege of serving as a duly commissioned ambassador of the court of heaven these are not to be had as the gifts of princes, nor are they to be bought for money, nor can they be won as trophies of the bloody sword. The history of the papacy is the condemnation of the church of Rome. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of The Great Apostasy by James E. Talmage This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Read by Matthias Whitney The Great Apostasy by James E. Talmage Chapter 10 Results of the Apostasy Its Sequel The thoroughly apostate and utterly corrupt condition of the church of Rome as proclaimed by its history down to the end of the 15th century was necessarily accompanied by absence of all spiritual sanctity and power whatever may have been the arrogant assumptions of the church as to authority in spiritual affairs. Revolt against the church both as rebellion against her tyranny and in protest against her heresies were not lacking. The most significant of these anti-church agitations arose in connection with the awakening of intellectual activity which began in the latter part of the 14th century. The period from the 10th century onward to the time of the awakening has come to be known as the Dark Ages. Characterized by stagnation in the progress of the useful arts and sciences as well as of fine arts and letters and by a general condition of illiteracy and ignorance among the masses. Ignorance is a fertile soil for evil growths and the despotic government and doctrinal fallacies of the church during this period of darkness were nourished by the ignorance of the times. With the change known in history as the Revival of Learning came the struggle for freedom from churchly tyranny. One of the early revolts against the temporal and spiritual despotism of the Papal Church was that of the Albigensies in France during the 13th century. The uprising had been crushed by the Papal autocracy with much cruelty and bloodshed. The next notable revolt was that of John Wycliffe in the 14th century. Wycliffe was a professor in Oxford University, England. He boldly assailed the ever-growing and greatly abused power of the monks and denounced the corruption of the church and the prevalence of doctrinal errors. He was particularly emphatic in his opposition to the Papal restrictions in the study of the scriptures and gave to the world an English version of the Holy Bible translated from the Volgate. In spite of persecution and sentence he died a natural death but years afterward the church insisted on revenge and in consequence his bones were exhumed and burned and the ashes scattered to the winds. On the continent of Europe the agitation against the church was carried on by John Hus and the Rome of Prague both of whom reaped martyrdom as the harvest of their righteous zeal. These instances are cited to show that though the church had long been apostate to the core there were men ready to sacrifice their lives and what they deemed to be the cause of truth. Conditions existing at the opening of the 16th century have been concisely summarized by a modern historian as follows. Previous to the opening of the 16th century there had been comparatively few though there had been some like the Albigencies in the south of France the Wyclifites in England and the Hussites in Bohemia who denied the supreme and infallible authority of the Bishop of Rome in all matters touching religion. Speaking in a very general manner it would be correct to say that at the close of the 15th century all the nations of western Europe took the faith of the Latin or Roman Catholic Church and yielded obedience to the Papal Sea. The Reformation The next notable revolt against the Papal Church occurred in the 16th century and assumed such proportions as to be designated the Reformation. The movement began in Germany about 1517 when Martin Luther a monk of the Augustinian order and an instructor at the University of Wittenberg publicly opposed and strongly denounced Tetzel the shameless agent of Papal indulgences. Luther was conscientious in his conviction that the whole system of church penances and indulgences was contrary to scripture, reason, and right. In line with the academic custom of the day to challenge discussion and debate on disputed questions Luther wrote his famous thesis against the practice of granting indulgences and a copy of these he nailed to the door of Wittenberg Church inviting criticism there on from all scholars the news spread and the theses were discussed in all scholastic centers of Europe. Luther then attacked other practices and doctrines of the Roman Church and the Pope Leo X issued a bowl or Papal decree against him demanding an unconditional recantation on pain of excommunication from the Church. Luther publicly burned the Pope's document and thus declared his open revolt. The sentence of excommunication was pronounced. We cannot follow here in detail the doings of this bold reformer suffice to say he was not long left to fight single-handed. Among his able supporters was Philip Melanchthon a professor in Wittenberg. Luther was summoned before a council or a diet at Worms in 1521. There he openly declared for individual freedom of conscious. There is inspiration in his words I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the council because it is as clear as the day that they have frequently aired and contradicted each other unless, therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by the clearest reasoning unless I am persuaded by means of the passages I have quoted and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the word of God I cannot and will not retract for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand I can do no other may God help me, amen. The religious controversy spread throughout Europe. At the second Deity of Spires 1529 Edict was issued against the reformers. To this the representatives of seven German principalities and other delegates entered a formal protest in consequence of which action the reformers were henceforth known as Protestants. John Elector of Saxony supported Luther in his opposition to papal authority and undertook the establishment of an independent church. The constitution and plan of which were prepared at his instance by Luther and Melanchthon. Luther died in 1546 but the work of revolution if not in truth reformation continued to grow. The Protestants however soon became divided among themselves and broke into many contending sects. In Switzerland Ulrich Zwingel led in the movement toward reform. He was accused of heresy and when placed on trial he defended himself on the authority of the Bible as against papal edict and was for the time successful. The contest was bitter and in 1531 the Catholics and Protestants of the region engaged in actual battle in the which Zwingel was slain and his body brutally mutilated. John Calvin next appeared as the leader of the Swiss reformers though he was an opponent of many of Zwingel's doctrines. He exerted great influence as a teacher and is known as an extremist in doctrine. He advocated and vehemently defended the tenet of absolute predestination thus denying the free agency of man. In France Sweden Denmark and Holland leaders arose and the Protestants became strong in their opposition to the Roman church though the several divisions were antagonistic to one another on many points of doctrine. One effect of this Protestant uprising was the partial awakening of the Roman church to the need of internal reform and an authoritative restatement of Catholic principles was attempted. This movement was largely accomplished through the famous Council of Trent which body disavowed for the church the extreme claims made for indulgences and denied responsibility for many of the abuses with which the church had been charged but in connection with the attempted reform came a demand for more implicit obedience to the requirements of the church. Near the end of the 15th century in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Court of the Inquisition then known as the Holy Office had been established in Spain. The prime purpose of this secret tribunal was the detection and punishment of heresy. Of this infamous institution as operative in Spain Myers says as the tribunal was styled thus became the instrument of the most incredible cruelty thousands were burned at the stake and tens of thousands more condemned to endure penalties scarcely less terrible. Queen Isabella in giving her consent to the establishment of the tribunal in her dominions was doubtless actuated by the purest religious zeal and sincerely believed that in suppressing heresy she was discharging a simple duty and rendering God good service. In the love of Christ and his maid mother she says I have caused great misery I have depopulated towns and districts provinces and kingdoms now in the 16th century in connection with the attempted reform in the doctrines of Catholicism the terrible Inquisition assumed new vigor and activity and heresy was sternly dealt with consider the following as throwing light on the conditions of that time at this point in connection with the persecutions of the Inquisition we should not fail to recall that in the 16th century a refusal to conform to the established worship was regarded by all by Protestants as well as Catholics as a species of treason against society and was dealt with accordingly thus we find Calvin at Geneva consenting to the burning of Servitus 1553 because he published views that the Calvinists thought heretical and in England we see the Anglican Protestants waging the most cruel, bitter and persistent persecutions not only against the Catholics but also against all Protestants that refused to conform to the established church what shall be said of a church that seeks to propagate its faith by such methods our fire and sword the weapons with which truth fights her battles our torture and death the arguments of the gospel however terrible the persecutions to which the early church was subjected at the hands of heathen enemies the persecutions waged by the apostate church are far more terrible can such a church by any possibility be the church of Christ heaven forbid in the revolts we have noted against the church of Rome notably in the Reformation the zeal of the reformers led to many fallacies in the doctrines they advocated Luther himself proclaimed the doctrine of absolute predestination and of justification by faith alone thus nullifying belief in the God-given rights of free agency and impairing the importance of individual effort Calvin and others were no less extreme less their ministry contributed to the awakening of individual conscience and assisted in bringing about a measure of religious freedom of which the world had long been deprived rise of the church of England at the time of Martin Luther's revolt against the church of Rome Henry VIII reigned in England in common with all other countries of western Europe Britain was profoundly stirred by the Reformation movement the king openly defended the Catholic Church and published a book in opposition to Luther's claims this so pleased the Pope, Leo X that he conferred upon King Henry the distinguishing title Defender of the Faith this took place about 1522 and from that time to the present British sovereigns have proudly born the title within a few years after his accession to this title of distinction we find King Henry among the bitterest enemies of the Roman Church and the change came about in this wise Henry desired a divorce from his wife Queen Catherine to give him freedom to marry Anne Boleyn the Pope hesitated in the matter of granting the divorce and Henry becoming impatient disregarded the Pope's authority and secretly married Anne Boleyn the Pope thereupon excommunicated the king from the church the English Parliament following the king's directions passed the celebrated Act of Supremacy in 1534 this statute declared an absolute termination of all allegiance to papal authority and proclaimed the king as supreme head of the church in Britain thus originated the Church of England without regard for or claim of divine authority and without even a semblance of priestly succession at first there was little innovation in doctrine or ritual in the newly formed church it originated in revolt later a form of creed and a plan of organization were adopted giving the Church of England some distinctive features during the reigns of Edward the 6th Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth persecutions between Catholics and Protestants were extensive and violent several non-conformist sex arose among them the Puritans and the Separatists these were so persecuted that many of them fled to Holland as exiles from among these came the notable colony of the pilgrim fathers who crossed in the Mayflower to the shores of the then recently discovered continent and established themselves in America the thoughtful student cannot fail to see in the progress of the great apostasy and its results the existence of the holy power operating toward eventual good however mysterious its methods the heart-rending persecutions to which the saints were subjected in the early centuries of our era the anguish, the torture, the bloodshed incurred in defense of the testimony of Christ the rise of an apostate church blighting the intellect and leading captive the souls of men all these dread scenes were foreknown to the Lord or believed that such exhibitions of human depravity and blasphemy of heart were in accordance with the divine will certainly God willed to permit full scope to the free agency of man in the exercise of which agency some won the martyr's crown and others filled the measure of their iniquity to overflowing not less marked is the divine permission in the revolts and rebellions in the revolutions and reformations to the darkening influence of the apostate church Wycliffe and Huss Luther and Melanchthon Zwingel and Calvin Henry VIII in his arrogant assumption of priestly authority John Knox in Scotland Roger Williams in America these and a host of others build it better than they knew in that their efforts laid in part the foundation of the structure of religious freedom and conscience and this in preparation for the restoration of the Gospel as had been divinely predicted from the 16th century down to the present time sects professly founded on the tenets of Christianity have multiplied a pace they are now to be numbered by hundreds on every side the claim has been heard low here is Christ or low there after their place of origin as the Church of England other sects are designated in honour of their famous promoters as Lutherans, Calvinists Wesleyans others are known from some peculiarity of creed or doctrine as Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists but down to the beginning of the 19th century there was no church even claiming name or title as the Church of Christ the only church existing at that time venturing to assert authority by succession was the Catholic Church which as shown was wholly without priesthood or divine commission if the mother church be without divine authority or spiritual power how can her children derive from her the right to officiate in the things of God who dares affirm the absurdity that man can originate for himself a priesthood and respect granted that men may can and do create among themselves societies, associations sects and churches if they choose so to designate their religious organizations granted that they may formulate laws prescribe rules and construct elaborate plans of organization and government and that all such laws, rules and schemes or administration are binding upon those granted all these powers and rights whence can such human creations derive the authority of the holy priesthood without which there can be no church of Christ if the power and authority be by any possibility of human origin there never has been a church of Christ on earth and the alleged saving ordinances of the gospel have never been other than empty forms our review of the great apostasy as presented in this treatise does not call for any detailed or critical study of the Roman Catholic Church as it exists in modern times nor of any of the numerous Protestant denominations that have come into existence as dissenting children of the so-called mother church the apostasy was complete as far as actual loss of priesthood and cessation of spiritual power in the church are concerned long prior to the 16th century revolt known in history as the Reformation it is instructive to observe however that the weakness of the Protestant sects as to any claim to divine appointment and authority is recognized by those churches themselves the church of England which has shown originated in revolt against the Roman Catholic Church and its Pope is without foundation of claim to divine authority in its priestly orders unless indeed it derisert the absurdity that kings and parliaments can create and take into themselves heavenly authority by enactment of earthly statutes the Roman Catholic Church is at least consistent in its claim that a line of succession in the priesthood has been maintained from the apostolic age to the present though the claim is utterly untenable in the light of a rational interpretation of history but the fact remains that the Catholic Church is the only organization venturing to assert the present possession of the holy priesthood by unbroken descent from the apostles of our Lord the church of England chief among the Protestant sects and all other dissenting churches are by their own admission and by the circumstances of their origin man-made institutions without a semblance of claim to the powers and authority of the holy priesthood as late as 1896 the question of the validity of the priestly orders in the Church of England was officially and openly discussed and considered both in England and at Rome Lord Halifax chairman of the English Church Union conferred with the Vatican authorities to ascertain the possibility of bringing about closer union between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England this involved the question of the recognition of the priestly orders of the Anglican Church by the Pope and Church of Rome the movement was favored in the interests of unity and peace by the English Premier Mr Gladstone the Pope, Leo XIII finally issued a decree refusing to recognize in any degree the authority of the Anglican orders and expressly declaring all claims to priestly authority by the Church of England as absolutely invalid assuredly the Church of Rome could take no other action than this and maintain the consistency of its own claim to exclusive possession of the priesthood by descent assuredly the Church of England would have sought no official recognition of its priestly status by the Church of Rome had it any independent claim to the power and authority of the priesthood the Roman Catholic Church declares that all Protestant denominations are either apostate organizations or institutions of human creation that have never had even a remote connection with the Church that claims succession in the priesthood in short, the apostate mother church aggressively proclaims the perfidy of her offspring the apostasy admitted the fact of the great apostasy is admitted many theologians who profess a belief in Christianity have declared the fact thus we read we must not expect to see the Church of Christ existing in its perfection on the earth it is not to be found thus perfect either in the collected fragments of Christendom or still less in any one of those fragments John Wesley who lived from 1703 to 1791 AD and who ranks as chief among the founders of Methodism comments as follows on the apostasy of the Christian Church as evidence by the early decline of spiritual power and the cessation of the gifts and graces of the Spirit of God within the Church it does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit were common in the Church for more than two or three centuries we seldom hear of them after that fatal period when the Emperor Constantine called himself a Christian and from a vain imagination of promoting the Christian cause thereby heaps riches and power and honor upon Christians in general but in particular upon the Christian clergy from this time they almost totally ceased very few instances of the kind being found the cause of this was not as has been supposed because there was no more occasion for them because all the world was become Christians this is a miserable mistake not a twentieth part of it was then nominally Christians the real cause of it was that the love of many almost all Christians so called was waxed cold the Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens the son of man when he came to examine his Church and gain faith upon the earth this was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in the Christian Church because the Christians were turned to heathens again and only had a dead form left the Church of England makes official declaration of degeneracy and loss of divine authority in these words laity and clergy learned and unlearned and degrees have been drowned in abominable idolatry most detested by God and damnable to man for 800 years and more the book of Humlees in which occurs this declaration by the Church of England dates from about the middle of the sixteenth century according to this official statement therefore the religious world had been utterly apostate for eight centuries prior to the completion of the Church of England the fact of a universal apostasy was widely proclaimed for the Humlees from which the foregoing citation is taken were appointed to be read in churches in lieu of sermons under specified conditions the great apostasy was divinely predicted its accomplishment is attested by both sacred and secular writ to the faithful Latter-day Saint proof of the universal apostasy and of the absolute need of a restoration of priesthood from the heavens will be found in the divine reply to the inquiry of the boy prophet Joseph Smith as to which of all the contending sects was right I was answered that I must join none of them for they were all wrong and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight that those professors were all corrupt that they draw near to me with their lips but their hearts are far from me they teach for doctrines the commandments of men having a form of godliness but they deny the power thereof the sequel the sequel of the great apostasy is the restoration of the gospel marking the inauguration of the dispensation of the fullness of times this epic making event occurred in the early part of the 19th century when the father and the son manifested themselves to man and when the holy priesthood with all its powers and authority was again brought to the earth the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims to the world this glorious restoration at once the consummation of the work of God throughout the ages past and the final preparation for the second advent of Jesus the Christ the church affirms that after the long night of spiritual darkness the light of heaven has again come and that the church of Christ is authoritatively established the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands alone in the declaration that the holy priesthood is operative upon earth not as an inheritance through earthly continuation from the apostolic age but as the endowment of a new dispensation brought to earth by heavenly ministration in this restoration divinely predicted and divinely achieved has been witnessed a realization of the revelators vision and I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying with a loud voice fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of water end of chapter 10 end of the great apostasy by James E. Talmadge