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CHURCH HISTORY I
LECTURE 3
ROMAN CATHOLICISM: 6TH – 13TH Centuries
All non-italicized words are from David Cloud’s e-book “Church History” [italics are mine].
In this section, we will give an overview of the condition of the Roman Catholic Church during the height of its power.
This ‘age’ is often called by Baptists as the “Devil’s Millenium”and “The Dark Ages”, but the Papacy refers to it as
“The Golden Age”….I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.
The Power & Prestige of the Papacy
As the first millennium proceeded from the fourth to the tenth centuries, Rome gathered to itself increasing power, and
by the beginning of the second millennium, it controlled practically all of Europe, religiously and politically. The
following is a description of the conditions existing at the turn of the millennium:
“In the tenth century the dominion of the Roman pope had exceedingly obscured, and taken possession of, nearly all the
churches in Europe, so that everything had to be done according to his pleasure, both in spiritual and secular
governments; hence, great darkness prevailed at this time, in which but very few learned, virtuous, and celebrated men
lived. For fear of the great tyranny, one dared scarcely speak the least word of the adulteration of the doctrine, or the
abuses in the false worship, and the increase of the abominable blasphemies; for, as soon as those who knew better, and
feared God, uttered the least word of opposition, the pope instantly thundered, with hail and lightning as it were,
excommunications from the Roman chair, so that every one was terrified, since also the secular lords were bewitched and
controlled by him” (Martyrs Mirror, 5th English edition, p. 248).
Rev 17:3-6 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet
colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and
filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE
MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
Compare the previous passage with this description of the coronation of Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241): “On the day of
his coronation he proceeded to St. Peter’s, accompanied by several prelates, and assumed the pallium according to
custom; and after having said mass he marched to the palace of the Lateran, COVERED WITH GOLD AND JEWELS.
On Monday, having said mass at St. Peter’s, he returned wearing two crowns, mounted on a horse richly caparisoned,
and surrounded by Cardinals CLOTHED IN PURPLE, and a numerous clergy. The streets were spread with tapestry,
INLAID WITH GOLD AND SILVER, the noblest productions of Egypt, and the most brilliant colors of India, and
perfumed with various aromatic odors” (George Waddington, A History of the Church from the Earliest Ages to the
Reformation, 1834, p. 335).
The authority claimed by the pope in those days is symbolized by the papal tiara (meaning crown). It is a white helmetlike crown, ornamented with precious stones and pearls, encircled with three rings, with a small cross at the very top.
Thus, it is a crown of three crowns. The Pope is crowned with these words: “Receive the three-fold crown of the Tiara,
and know that thou art the Father of princes and Kings, the Ruler of the round earth, and here below the viceroy of Jesus
Christ, to whom be Honor and Glory forever, Amen.”
The bull Unam Sanctum by Pope Boniface VIII, 1302
An example of the haughtiness of the popes is the proclamation issued in 1302 by Pope Boniface VIII. It is titled Unam
Sanctum. The pope claimed that no one can be saved who does not submit to the pope as the supreme head of the church
and demanded that kings and all earthly authority be subject to him. Following is an excerpt: “Furthermore, we declare,
we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman
Pontiff.”
The Pontiff has been responsible for a great many wars and overthrowing of kingdoms. Here is but one of many
examples of the Pope’s power and persuasion with kings and their kingdoms:
Pope Innocent III humbled King John of England (1199-1216). The king did things that displeased the pope, so the pope
excommunicated him and issued a decree declaring that he was no longer the king and releasing the people of England
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from obeying him. The pope ordered King Philip of France to organize an army and navy to overthrow John, which he
began to do with great zeal, eager to conquer England for himself. The pope also called for a crusade against John,
promising the participants remission of sins and a share of the spoils of war. In the mean time, King John submitted to
the pope, pledging complete allegiance to him in all things and resigning England and Ireland into the pope’s hands. The
following is a quote from the oath that John signed on May 15, 1213: “I John, by the grace of God King of England and
Lord of Ireland, in order to expiate my sins, from my own free will and the advice of my barons, give to the Church of
Rome, to Pope Innocent and his successors, the kingdom of England and all other prerogatives of my crown. I will
hereafter hold them as the pope's vassal. I will be faithful to God, to the Church of Rome, to the pope my master, and to
his successors legitimately elected.”
Rev 17:1b -2 Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With
whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with
the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:17-18 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until
the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings
of the earth.
"The Bishop of Rome may excommunicate emperors and princes, depose them from their states, and assoil their subjects
from their oath of obedience to them” (Corpus Juris Canonici, decreti, pars i, distinct. xcvi. can. x., and Decreti, pars ii.
causa xv. quest. vi. can. iii. iv. v). “The Bishop of Rome may be judged of none but of God only” (Corpus Juris
Canonici, decreti, pars ii. causa iii. quest. vi. can. ix).
The Holy Roman Empire
1. In 800 A.D. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne (Charles the Great) “emperor of the Romans.” The territory
ruled by Charlemagne, which was known as the Holy Roman Empire, was largely that of central Europe, covering
modern Germany, Bohemia, and Italy, but its influence also extended to France, Spain, England, and throughout
much of the rest of Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was composed of many small independent kingdoms that
were ruled over by an emperor. It was an alliance of church and state. Everyone within the empire was forced to be
a Catholic, beginning from their baptism in infancy. All attempts to establish churches separate from Rome were
punished. Charlemagne expanded his territory through force of arms and compelled the Catholic religion upon all
conquered people.
This continuation of the old Roman Empire is interesting in light of the prophecies of Daniel. In Daniel 2, the entire
time of the Gentiles and God’s program for the reestablishment of Israel is given under the figure of a large image
of a man. The head of gold was the Babylonian Empire; the chest and arms of silver was the Medo-Persian Empire;
the thighs of brass was the Greek Empire; and the legs of iron was the Roman Empire. The latter, though, is
described in the vision as continuing until the coming of Jesus Christ to establish His kingdom on earth. The feet
and ten toes of clay mixed with iron describe a restoration of the Roman Empire at the end of the age. In light of
this, it is interesting that the Roman Catholic Church kept the Roman Empire alive throughout the Dark Ages. Even
today, the old Roman Empire lives in a sense in the European Community. The Antichrist will rule over a muchenlarged Roman Empire for a brief time during the Tribulation.
Christianity Was Forced upon People
The Roman Catholic Church expanded at the point of the sword. The gospel went to England during the days of
the apostles or soon thereafter, and there is a continual heritage of Bible faith in Britain in spite of fierce
persecutions which lasted until the 1700s. Tertullian, writing around 200 A.D., said that Christianity was
established in the remote regions of the Roman Empire, including Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca (“places of
the British not approached by the Romans”). “In Alexandria at about the same time, Origen celebrated the fact that
Christianity was by then firmly at the very ends of the world,
The first British historian, Gildas, who wrote in about 564, said that the gospel came to England during the reign of
Tiberius Caesar, the emperor to whom the apostle Paul appealed when he was taken to Rome (Gildas, The Works,
302, cited by Christian).
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In about 169 A.D. King Lucius was converted and baptized and sought to lead his people according to God’s will.
A Christian named Eleutherius in Rome wrote to him as follows: “You have received, through God’s mercy, in the
realm of Britany, the law and faith of Christ; you have with you both the parts of the scripture; out of them, by
God’s grace, with the council of your realm, take ye a law, and by that law, by God’s sufferance, rule your kingdom
of Britain” (Foxe). There is a brass plaque in the church of St. Peter’s, Cornhill, that states that Lucius established a
church in London then.
Before this, England was a pagan land filled with the grossest form of idolatry, including the practice of human
sacrifices. Baptist historian Thomas Crosby concluded that infant baptism was not practiced in England during the
first 300 years: “The true Christian doctrine, and form of worship, as delivered by the Apostles, was maintained in
England, and the Romish government and ceremonies, zealously withstood, till the Saxons entered into Britain,
about the year 448. During which time there is no mention of any baptizing in England, but adult persons only”
(Crosby, II, p. xii).
Under the Emperor Diocletian, in about 300 A.D., the fierce Roman government persecutions reached as far as the
Christians in England. Their books and churches were burned and many were put to death.
The famous Patrick, who preached in Britain in about the early fifth century, was not a Roman Catholic in doctrine
and practice (though he is claimed by Rome as one of her saints!). John Christian summarizes the evidence: It can
be positively stated that he was not a Roman Catholic (Nicholson, St. Patrick, Dublin, 1868) and that he
approximated in many things the doctrines of the Baptists. In regard to the form of baptism, Patrick practiced
immersion upon a profession of faith. During his life, he is said to have immersed one hundred and twenty thousand
people (Todd, Life of Patrick, 449).
The Saxons
The Saxons lived in the area of northern Germany and are first mentioned in history soon after the days of the apostles.
They overcame various other tribes in the area of Germany in the next centuries, and in the 5th and 6th centuries, some
of them invaded Britain, joined by other tribes from Germany, the Angles and the Jutes. By the beginning of the 7th
century, the Anglo-Saxons, as they became known, had conquered most of Britain. The Anglo-Saxon language was the
forerunner to English.
During the reign of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) in the ninth century, the Saxons in Germany were forced to accept
the Roman Catholic religion. Charlemagne sent armies into the Saxon territory and defeated them. On one occasion, the
armies of Charlemagne murdered 4,500 of the principal Saxon men when they refused to give up their general, Witikind.
Charlemagne then forced the Saxons to be baptized as Catholics and to keep the Catholic rituals upon pain of death. This
type of thing was repeated in many places as the pope extended his territory at the point of a sword. In the tenth century,
Poland was subjugated. About 1000 A.D., Norway and Iceland became Catholic, followed by Greenland, Sweden,
Denmark, and Hungary.
Monasticism
One of the features of Roman Catholicism of the Middle Ages was monasticism.
It began in the third century during the persecutions of the Roman emperors. Many fled to the deserts and other
remote places in Egypt and it was there that the practice of asceticism began. Paul of Alexandria is said to have
been the first Christian hermit. Antony was another of the early hermits. He sold his riches and shut himself up in a
cave for ten years, fasting excessively, going without sleep, and otherwise abusing and depriving himself in an
attempt to overcome inborn sin and evil spirits. The spirit of ascetism grew rapidly. As the churches became
increasingly worldly and ignorant of the truth, the ascetics were considered the great men and women of God.
Many made pilgrimages to visit the hermits, thinking that
they would thus obtain God’s blessing.
The ascetic life was promoted by many of the “church fathers,” including Jerome, Basil, Augustine, and
Chrysostom. At first, the ascetics dwelt alone, but over time, they formed communities. Pachomius of Egypt is said
to have formed the first monastic society. By the time of his death in the middle of the fourth century, there were
many monasteries, 3,000 monks, and 27,000 nuns.
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By the beginning of the fifth century, there were 50,000 monks and many more nuns. The head of the community
was called the abbot, or father, and he was
obeyed in all matters.
The practice of asceticism grew ever more intense and strange. They whipped themselves, deprived themselves of
sleep for long periods, fasted for extremely long periods, partook of the most inedible food, took vows of silence,
stood for days without sitting down, didn’t bathe, kept hoods drawn over their faces, sat on top of pillars for months
at a time. They withdrew from all normal human relationships, taking vows to isolate themselves from their loved
ones for the rest of their lives. They submitted themselves to endless vain rituals. Celibacy was exalted over
marriage. The female ascetics, the nuns, were said to be married to Christ when they took their vow of celibacy.
Eventually all of the monasteries came under the control of the pope in Rome. At first, the monasteries were
overseen by the bishops of each area, but when the pope took all authority unto himself, they came under the
control of Rome. All monasteries had to be authorized by Rome and had to submit to the rules drawn up by Rome.
The Moral Condition of the Roman Catholic Church
“Popes had mistresses of fifteen years of age, were guilty of incest and sexual perversions of every sort, had innumerable
illegitimate children, and were murdered in the very act of adultery [by jealous husbands who found them in bed with
their wives].
The follow are just a few of the countless examples that could be given of the immorality and folly of the popes:
Pope Sergius III (904-911) had two of his predecessors put to death and fathered an illegitimate son.
Pope John XII (955-63) is described by the Catholic Encyclopedia as “a course, immoral man, whose life was such that
the Lateran was spoken of as a brothel.” (The Lateran is a palace that Emperor Constantine donated to the bishop of
Rome.)
John XXIII (1410-15) made his brother’s wife his mistress and had many other immoral relations with women. He
frequently consulted a magician named Abremelin. The Catholic Encyclopedia admits “he was utterly worldlyminded,
ambitious, crafty, unscrupulous, and immoral.” He was convicted by the Council of Constance of some 55 crimes,
including the murder of his predecessor, Pope Alexander V, rape, sodomy, and incest. He was deposed from the papacy
but retained a position as cardinal and later became dean of the Sacred College in Rome.
Pope Sixtus IV (1471-84) erected a house of prostitution in Rome, the inmates of which, according to Dr. Jortin, “paid
his holiness a weekly tax, which amounted sometimes to 20,000 ducats a year.”
Before he assumed the papacy, Pope Pius II (1458-64) wrote pornographic literature for a living. Even the Catholic
Encyclopedia admits that he “freely indulged his passions” and that he had two illegitimate children.
Pope Innocent VIII (1484-92) had at least two illegitimate children that he raised to positions of authority and wealth in
the Catholic Church. He gained the papacy through bribery. He created new ecclesiastical offices and sold them to the
highest bidder.
Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) was a vile man. Before he bribed or otherwise his way to the papacy, he had at least four
illegitimate children, and he made them rich through appointments after he was pope. He made his son, Cesare Borgia, a
cardinal when he was only 18 years old. Cesare was an immoral and violent man who had his brother put to death as well
as his sister Lucrezia’s husband. Alexander held unspeakable orgies in his palace and kept mistresses who were married
women. He died of syphilis.
Pope Julius II (1503-13) was another of the drunken, immoral popes of the Dark Ages. He had immoral relations with
women that produced at least three illegitimate children, and it is said that he had homosexual relations, as well. He
gained the papacy through bribes.
When Luther visited Rome in the late 1400s, he found that it was filled with immorality and blasphemy. The priests were
accustomed to making a mockery of the mass. They boasted to him how that instead of saying “Hoc est meum corpus…”
— the words which proclaim the changing of the bread into Christ — they said, “Panis es, et panis manebis…” — Bread
thou art, and bread thou wilt remain — and then laughed within themselves as the people (who did not understand Latin)
bowed before the uplifted host. “Instead of a city of prayers and alms, of contrite hearts and holy lives, Rome was full of
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mocking hypocrisy, defiant skepticism, jeering impiety, and shameless revelry. ‘If there be a hell,’ said Luther, ‘Rome is
built over it.’”
The Wealth of the Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church of the Dark Ages was incredibly wealthy. Following are some of the sources of this
wealth: The Papal States. From the time of Pope Stephen III in the 8th century, the popes ruled over a large portion
of Italy called the Papal States. These were taken by force of arms by Emperor Pepin (father of Charlemagne) and
given to the pope. He derived great wealth in this manner until 1860, when the kingdom of Italy was formed and
the pope was left only with Rome. (Later he was left only with the Vatican City.)
Tithes. Rome taught that it was the fitting recipient of the tithe, and great riches flowed into its coffers in this
manner from Catholic lands. In 1376, the British Parliament noted that the taxes paid in England to Rome
amounted to five times as much as those levied by the king (Hassell, History of the Church of God, 1886, p. 457).
The Doctrine of Purgatory. One of the greatest sources of Rome’s wealth is the doctrine of purgatory. Rome
teaches her citizens that souls of Christians do not go directly to heaven but go instead to purgatory and are
punished for an undetermined time until their sins were sufficiently expunged. Rome’s good news is that these
souls can be assisted through the masses purchased by their living loved ones. Untold billions of dollars have been
paid to Rome with the hope that a loved one might escape the horrors of purgatory. Indulgences. The indulgences
were promises that the pope would forgive sins of the living or assist the dead in purgatory, and they were sold to
the pitiful and blind people. Massive amounts of money were raised by this means for the papacy beginning in the
12th century. The Roman Catholic Church still teaches the doctrine of indulgences. They were recently affirmed by
Pope John Paul II.
Rome gained massive wealth through the Inquisition and the Crusades. She had the power to confiscate all of the
wealth and possessions of her victims. Anyone could be condemned to the Inquisition and they had no legal
recourse whatsoever.
Key Points:
▫ The 6th – 15th centuries were called the ‘Devil’s Millenium’ and ‘The Dark Ages’ by Baptists; but the Catholics
refer to that period as ‘The Golden Age’.
▫ During this ‘age’, Rome gained enormous power, mostly through the power of the Pontiff.
▫ The bull Unam Sanctum by Pope Boniface VIII, 1302, stated that no one could be saved apart from the Holy
Roman Catholic Church.
▫ The Holy Roman Empire was composed of many small independent kingdoms that were ruled over by an
emperor. It was an alliance of church and state. Everyone within the empire was forced to be a Catholic,
beginning from their baptism in infancy.
▫ The continuation of the old Roman Empire is seen in Daniel chapter 2, and is eerily similar to what the Roman
Catholic Church has been doing over the past 1500 years.
▫ Saint Patrick was undoubtedly a Baptist.
▫ During the reign of Charlemagne (Charles the Great) in the 10th century, much of Europe was conquered for the
Pope.
▫ Monasticism (ascetisism; a life of denying the body any pleasures) developed in the 3rd century and spread over
the world; monks, nuns, abbots, and monestaries grew out of it. The Pope took control over all these ‘societies’.
These societies were looked at by Catholics as the ‘ultimate in Christianity’.
▫ Most of the Popes of this time period were known for gross immorality of the vilest sort.
▫ The Vatican probably has ‘Trillions’ of dollars today; they amassed this enormous wealth through: the taking of
Papal States; through the receiving of tithes, worldwide; through Indulgences; and through the Inquisition and
Crusades.
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