APPENDIX
GENERAL NOTES
REVISIONS ADOPTED BY THE E. G. WHITE TRUSTEES
NOVEMBER 19, 1956, AND DECEMBER 6, 1979
Page 50. Titles.--In a passage which is included in
the Roman Catholic Canon Law, or Corpus Juris Canonici, Pope Innocent
III declares that the Roman pontiff is "the vicegerent upon earth,
not of a mere man, but of very God;" and in a gloss on the passage
it is explained that this is because he is the vicegerent of Christ, who
is "very God and very man." See Decretales Domini Gregorii
Papae IX (Decretals of the Lord Pope Gregory IX), liber 1, de
translatione Episcoporum, (on the transference of Bishops), title 7, ch.
3; Corpus Juris Canonici (2d Leipzig ed., 1881), col. 99; (Paris, 1612),
tom. 2, Decretales, col. 205. The documents which formed the Decretals
were gathered by Gratian, who was teaching at the University of Bologna
about the year 1140. His work was added to and re-edited by Pope Gregory
IX in an edition issued in 1234. Other documents appeared in succeeding
years from time to time including the Extravagantes, added toward the
close of the fifteenth century. All of these, with Gratian's Decretum,
were published as the Corpus Juris Canonici in 1582. Pope Pius X
authorized the codification in Canon law in 1904, and the resulting code
became effective in 1918. For the title "Lord God the Pope"
see a gloss on the Extravagantes of Pope John XXII, title 14, ch. 4,
Declaramus. In an Antwerp edition of the Extravagantes, dated 1584, the
words "Dominum Deum nostrum Papam" ("Our Lord God the
Pope") occur in column 153. In a Paris edition, dated 1612, they
occur in column 140. In several editions published since 1612 the word
"Deum" ("God") has been omitted.
Page 50. Infallibility.--On the doctrine of
infallibility as set forth at the Vatican Council of 1870-71, see Philip
Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2, Dogmatic Decrees of the
Vatican Council, pp. 234-271, where both the Latin and the English texts
are given. For discussion see, for the Roman Catholic view, The Catholic
Encyclopedia, vol. 7, art. "Infallibility," by Patrick J.
Toner, p. 790 ff.; James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers
(Baltimore: John Murphy Company, 110th ed., 1917), chs. 7, 11. For Roman
Catholic opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility, see Johann
Joseph Ignaz von Doellinger (pseudonym "Janus") The Pope and
the Council (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1869); and W.J. Sparrow
Simpson, Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (London: John
Murray, 1909). For the non-Roman view, see George Salmon, Infallibility
of the Church (London: John Murray, rev. ed., 1914).
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Page 52. Image worship.--"The worship of images
. . . was one of those corruptions of Christianity which crept into the
church stealthily and almost without notice or observation. This
corruption did not, like other heresies, develop itself at once, for in
that case it would have met with decided censure and rebuke: but, making
its commencement under a fair disguise, so gradually was one practice
after another introduced in connection with it, that the church had
become deeply steeped in practical idolatry, not only without any
efficient opposition, but almost without any decided remonstrance; and
when at length an endeavor was made to root it out, the evil was found
too deeply fixed to admit of removal. . . . It must be traced to the
idolatrous tendency of the human heart, and its propensity to serve the
creature more than the Creator. . . .
"Images and pictures were first introduced into
churches, not to be worshiped, but either in the place of books to give
instruction to those who could not read, or to excite devotion in the
minds of others. How far they ever answered such a purpose is doubtful;
but, even granting that this was the case for a time, it soon ceased to
be so, and it was found that pictures and images brought into churches
darkened rather than enlightened the minds of the ignorant--degraded
rather than exalted the devotion of the worshiper. So that, however they
might have been intended to direct men's minds to God, they ended in
turning them from Him to the worship of created things."--J.
Mendham, The Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicaea,
Introduction, pages iii-vi.
For a record of the proceedings and decisions of the
Second Council of Nicaea, A.D. 787, called to establish the worship of
images, see Baronius, Ecclesiastical Annals, vol. 9, pp. 391-407
(Antwerp, 1612); J. Mendham, The Seventh General Council, the Second of
Nicaea; Ed. Stillingfleet, Defense of the Discourse Concerning the
Idolatry Practiced in the Church of Rome (London, 1686); A Select
Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, vol. 14, pp. 521-587
(New York, 1900); Charles J. Hefele, A History of the Councils of the
Church, From the Original Documents, b. 18, ch. 1, secs. 332, 333; ch.
2, secs. 345-352 (T. and T. Clark ed., 1896), vol. 5, pp. 260-304, 342-372.
Page 53. The Sunday Law of Constantine.--The law
issued by the emperor Constantine on the seventh of March, A.D. 321,
regarding a day of rest from labor, reads thus:
"All judges and city people and the craftsmen
shall rest upon the venerable Day of the Sun. Country people, however,
may freely attend to the cultivation of the fields, because it
frequently happens that no other days are better adapted for planting
the grain in the furrows or the vines in trenches. So that the advantage
given by heavenly providence may not for the occasion of a short time
perish."--Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church
History (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), div. 2, per. 1, ch.
1, sec.
59, g, pp. 284, 285.
The Latin original is in the Codex Justiniani (Codex
of Justinian), lib. 3,
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title 12, lex. 3. The law is given in Latin and in
English translation in Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church,
vol. 3, 3d period, ch. 7, sec. 75, p. 380, footnote 1; and in James A.
Hessey's Bampton Lectures, Sunday, lecture 3, par.
1, 3d ed., Murray's printing of 1866, p. 58. See
discussion in Schaff, as above referred to; in Albert Henry Newman, A
Manual of Church History (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication
Society, printing of 1933), rev. ed., vol. 1, pp. 305-307; and in Leroy
E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, D.C.: Review
and Herald Publishing Assn., 1950), vol. 1, pp. 376-381.
Page 54. Prophetic dates.--An important principle in
prophetic interpretation in connection with time prophecies is the year-day
principle, under which a day of prophetic time is counted as a calendar
year of historic time. Before the Israelites entered the land of Canaan
they sent twelve spies ahead to investigate. The spies were gone forty
days, and upon their return the Hebrews, frightened at their report,
refused to go up and occupy the Promised Land. The result was a sentence
the Lord passed upon them: "After the number of the days in which
ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye
bear your iniquities, even forty years." Numbers 14:34. A similar
method of computing future time is indicated through the prophet
Ezekiel. Forty years of punishment for iniquities awaited the kingdom of
Judah. The Lord said through the prophet: "Lie again on thy right
side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days:
I have appointed thee each day for a year." Ezekiel 4:6. This year-day
principle has an important application in interpreting the time of the
prophecy of the "two thousand and three hundred evenings and
mornings" (Daniel 8:14, R.V.) and the 1260-day period, variously
indicated as "a time and times and the dividing of time"
(Daniel 7:25), the "forty and two months" (Revelation 11:2;
13:5), and the "thousand two hundred and threescore days"
(Revelation 11:3; 12:6).
Page 56. Forged writings.--Among the documents that
at the present time are generally admitted to be forgeries, the Donation
of Constantine and the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals are of primary
importance. "The 'Donation of Constantine' is the name
traditionally applied, since the later Middle Ages, to a document
purporting to have been addressed by Constantine the Great to Pope
Sylvester I, which is found first in a Parisian manuscript (Codex lat.
2777) of probably the beginning of the ninth century. Since the eleventh
century it has been used as a powerful argument in favor of the papal
claims, and consequently since the twelfth it has been the subject of a
vigorous controversy. At the same time, by rendering it possible to
regard the papacy as a middle term between the original and the medieval
Roman Empire, and thus to form a theoretical basis of continuity for the
reception of the Roman law in the Middle Ages, it has had no small
influence upon secular history."--The New
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Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge,
vol. 3, art. "Donation of constantine," pp. 484, 485.
The historical theory developed in the
"Donation" is fully discussed in Henry E. Cardinal Manning's
The Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, London, 1862. The
arguments of the "Donation" were of a scholastic type, and the
possibility of a forgery was not mentioned until the rise of historical
criticism in the fifteenth century. Nicholas of Cusa was among the first
to conclude that Constantine never made any such donation. Lorenza Valla
in Italy gave a brilliant demonstration of its spuriousness in 1450. See
Christopher B. Coleman's Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of
Constantine (New York, 1927). For a century longer, however, the belief
in the authenticity of the "Donation" and of the False
Decretals was kept alive. For example, Martin Luther at first accepted
the decretals, but he soon said to Eck: "I impugn these decretals;"
and to Spalatin: "He [the pope] does in his decretals corrupt and
crucify Christ, that is, the truth."
It is deemed established that the
"donation" is (1) a forgery, (2) the work of one man or
period, (3) the forger has made use of older documents, (4) the forgery
originated around
752 and 778. As for the Catholics, they abandoned the
defense of the authenticity of the document with Baronius,
Ecclesiastical Annals, in 1592. Consult for the best text, K. Zeumer, in
the Festgabe fur Rudolf von Gneist (Berlin, 1888). Translat- ed in
Coleman's Treatise, referred to above, and in Ernest F. Henderson,
Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages (New York, 1892), p. 319;
Briefwechsel (Weimar ed.), pp. 141, 161. See also The New Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1950), vol. 3, p. 484; F.
Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 2, p. 329; and Johann Joseph
Ignaz von Doellinger, Fables Respecting the Popes of the Middle Ages
(London, 1871).
The "false writings" referred to in the
text include also the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, together with other
forgeries. The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals are certain fictitious letters
ascribed to early popes from Clement (A.D. 100) to Gregory the Great
(A.D. 600), incorporated in a ninth century collection purporting to
have been made by "Isidore Mercator." The name "Pseudo-Isidorian
Decretals" has been in use since the advent of criticism in the
fifteenth century.
Pseudo-Isidore took as the basis of his forgeries a
collection of valid canons called the Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis,
thus lessening the danger of detection, since collections of canons were
commonly made by adding new matter to old. Thus his forgeries were less
apparent when incorporated with genuine material. The falsity of the
Pseudo-Isidorian fabrications is now incontestably admitted, being
proved by internal evidence, investigation of the sources, the methods
used, and the fact that this material was unknown before 852. Historians
agree that 850 or 851 is the most probable date for the completion of
the collection, since the document is first cited in the Admonitio of
the capitulary of Quiercy, in 857.
The author of these forgeries is not known. It is
probable that they
683
emanated from the aggressive new church party which
formed in the ninth century at Rheims, France. It is agreed that Bishop
Hincmar of Rheims used these decretals in his deposition of Rothad of
Soissons, who brought the decretals to Rome in 864 and laid them before
Pope Nicholas I.
Among those who challenged their authenticity were
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), Charles Dumoulin (1500-1566), and George
Cassender (1513- 1564). The irrefutable proof of their falsity was
conveyed by David Blondel, 1628.
An early edition is given in Migne Patrolgia Latina,
CXXX. For the oldest and best manuscript, see P. Hinschius, Decretales
Pseudo-Isidorianiae at capitula Angilramni (Leipzig, 1863). Consult The
New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1950), vol. 9,
pp. 343-345. See also H. H. Milman, Latin Christianity (9 vols.), vol.
3; Johann Joseph Ignaz von Doellinger, The Pope and the Council (1869);
and Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity
(1939), vol. 3; The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, art. "False
Decretals," and Fournier, "Etudes sure les Fausses Decretals,"
in Revue d'Historique Ecclesiastique (Louvain) vol. 7 (1906), and vol. 8
(1907).
Page 57. The Dictate of Hildebrand (Gregory VII).--For
the original Latin version see Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici, ann.
1076, vol. 17, pp. 405, 406 of the Paris printing of 1869; and the
Monumenta Germaniae Historica Selecta, vol. 3, p. 17. For an English
translation see Frederic A. Ogg, Source Book of Medieval History (New
York: American Book Co., 1907), ch. 6, sec. 45, pp. 262-264; and Oliver
J. Thatcher and Edgar H. Mcneal, source Book for Medieval History (New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), sec. 3, item 65, pp. 136-139.
For a discussion of the background of the Dictate,
see James Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, rev. ed., ch. 10; and James W.
Thompson and Edgar N. Johnson, An Introduction to Medieval Europe, 300-1500,
pages 377-380.
Page 59. Purgatory.--Dr. Joseph Faa Di Bruno thus
defines purgatory: "Purgatory is a state of suffering after this
life, in which those souls are for a time detained, who depart this life
after their deadly sins have been remitted as to the stain and guilt,
and as to the everlasting pain that was due to them; but who have on
account of those sins still some debt of temporal punishment to pay; as
also those souls which leave this world guilty only of venial
sins."--Catholic Belief (1884 ed.; imprimatur Archbishop of New
York), page 196.
See also K. R. Hagenbach, Compendium of the History
of Doctrines (T. and T. Clark ed.) vol. 1, pp. 234-237, 405, 408; vol.
2, pp. 135-150, 308, 309; Charles Elliott, Delineation of Roman
Catholicism, b. 2, ch. 12; The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 12, art.
"Purgatory."
Page 59. Indulgences.--For a detailed history of the
doctrine of indulgences see Mandell Creighton, A History of the Papacy
from The Great
684
Schism to the Sack of Rome (London: Longmans, Green
and Co., 1911), vol. 5, pp. 56-64, 71; W. H. Kent,
"Indulgences," The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7, pp. 783-789;
H. C. Lea, A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the
Latin Church (Philadelphia: Lea Brothers and Co., 1896); Thomas M.
Lindsay, A History of the Reformation (New York; Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1917), vol. 1, pp. 216-227; Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of
Church History (Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society,
1953), vol. 2, pp. 53, 54, 62; Leopold Ranke, History of the Reformation
in Germany (2d London ed., 1845), translated by Sarah Austin, vol. 1,
pp. 331, 335-337, 343-346; Preserved Smith, The Age of the Reformation
(New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920), pp. 23-25, 66.
On the practical outworkings of the doctrine of
indulgences during the period of the Reformation see a paper by Dr. H.
C. Lea, entitled, "Indulgences in Spain," published in Papers
of the American Society of Church History, vol. 1, pp. 129-171. Of the
value of this historical sidelight Dr. Lea says in his opening
paragraph: "Unvexed by the controversy which raged between Luther
and Dr. Eck and Silvester Prierias, Spain continued tranquilly to follow
in the old and beaten path, and furnishes us with the incontestable
official documents which enable us to examine the matter in the pure
light of history."
Page 59. The Mass.--For the doctrine of the mass as
set forth at the Council of Trent see The Canons and Decrees of the
Council of Trent in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2, pp.
126-139, where both Latin and English texts are given. See also H. G.
Schroeder, Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (St. Louis,
Missouri: B. Herder, 1941).
For a discussion of the mass see The Catholic
Encyclopedia, vol 5, art. "Eucharist," by Joseph Pohle, page
572 ff.; Nikolaus Gihr, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Dogmatically,
Liturgically, Ascetically Explained, 12th ed. (St. Louis, Missouri: B.
Herder, 1937); Josef Andreas Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, Its
Origins and Development, translated from the German by Francis A.
Brunner (New York: Benziger Bros., 1951). For the non-Catholic view, see
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, b. 4, chs. 17, 18;
and Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Doctrine of the Real Presence (Oxford,
England: John H. Parker, 1855).
Page 65. The Sabbath Among the Waldenses.--There are
writers who have maintained that the Waldenses made a general practice
of observing the seventh-day Sabbath. This concept arose from sources
which in the original Latin describe the Waldenses as keeping the Dies
Dominicalis, or Lord's day (Sunday), but in which through a practice
which dates from the Reformation, the word for "Sunday" has
been translated "Sabbath."
But there is historical evidence of some observance
of the seventh-day Sabbath among the Waldenses. A report of an
inquisition before whom were brought some Waldenses of Moravia in the
middle of the fifteenth century declares that among the Waldenses
"not a few indeed celebrate the
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Sabbath with the Jews."--Johann Joseph Ignaz von
Doellinger, Beitrage zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters (Reports on
the History of the Sects of the Middle Ages), Munich, 1890, 2d pt., p.
661. There can be no question that this source indicates the observance
of the seventh-day Sabbath.
Page 65. Waldensian Versions of the Bible.--On recent
discoveries of Waldensian manuscripts see M. Esposito, "Sur
quelques manuscrits de l'ancienne litterature des Vaudois du Piemont,"
in Revue d'Historique Ecclesiastique (Louvain, 1951), p. 130 ff.; F.
Jostes, "Die Waldenserbibeln," in Historisches Jahrbuch, 1894;
D. Lortsch, Histoire de la Bible en France (Paris, 1910), ch. 10.
A classic written by one of the Waldensian
"barbs" is Jean Leger, Histoire Generale des Eglises
Evangeliques des Vallees de Piemont (Leyden, 1669), which was written at
the time of the great persecutions and contains firsthand information
with drawings.
For the literature of Waldensian texts see A.
Destefano, Civilta Medioevale (1944); and Riformatori ed eretici nel
medioeve (Palermo, 1938); J. D. Bounous, The Waldensian Patois of Pramol
(Nashville, 1936); and A. Dondaine, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum
(1946).
For the history of the Waldenses some of the more
recent, reliable works are: E. Comba, History of the Waldenses in Italy
(see later Italian edition published in Torre Pellice, 1934); E. Gebhart,
Mystics and Heretics (Boston, 1927); G. Gonnet, Il Valdismo Medioevale,
Prolegomeni (Torre Pellice, 1935); and Jalla, Histoire des Vaudois et
leurs colonies (Torre Pellice, 1935).
Page 77. Edict Against the Waldenses.--A considerable
portion of the text of the papal bull issued by Innocent VIII in 1487
against the Waldenses (the original of which is in the library of the
University of Cambridge) is given, in an English translation, in John
Dowling's History of Romanism (1871 ed.), b. 6, ch. 5, sec. 62.
Page 85. Wycliffe.--The historian discovers that the
name of Wycliffe has many different forms of spelling. For a full
discussion of these see J. Dahmus, The Prosecution of John Wyclyf (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1952), p. 7.
Page 86. Infallibility.
For the original text of the papal bulls issued
against Wycliffe with English translation see J. Dahmus, The Prosecution
of John Wyclyf (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1952), pp. 35-49; also
John Foxe, Acts and Monuments of the Church (London: Pratt Townsend,
1870), vol. 3, pp. 4-13.
For a summary of these bulls sent to the archbishop
of Canterbury, to King Edward, and to the chancellor of the University
of Oxford, see Merle d'Aubigne, The History of the Reformation in the
Sixteenth Century (London: Blackie and Son, 1885), vol. 4, div. 7, p.
93; August Neander, General
686
History of the Christian Church (Boston: Crocker and
Brester, 1862), vol. 5, pp. 146, 147; George Sargeant, History of the
Christian Church (Dallas: Frederick Publishing House, 1948), p. 323;
Gotthard V. Lechler, John Wycliffe and His English Precursors (London:
The Religious Tract Society, 1878), pp. 162-164; Philip Schaff, History
of the Christian Church (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1915), vol.
5, pt. 2, p. 317.
Page 104. Council of Constance.--A primary source on
the Council of Constance is Richendal Ulrich, Das Concilium so zu
Constanz gehalten ist worden (Augsburg, 1483, Incun.). An interesting,
recent study of this text, based on the "Aulendorf Codex," is
in the Spencer Collection of the New York Public Library, published by
Carl Kup, Ulrich von Richental's Chronicle of the Council of Constance
(New York, 1936). See also H. Finke (ed.), Acta Concilii Constanciensis
(1896), vol. 1; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte (9 vols.), vols. 6, 7; L.
Mirbt, Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums (1934); Milman, Latin
Christianity, vol. 7, pp. 426-524; Pastor, The History of the Popes (34
vols.), vol. 1, p. 197 ff.
More recent publications on the council are K.
Zaehringer, Das Kardinal Kollegium auf dem Konstanzer Konzil (Muenster,
1935); Th. F. Grogau, The Conciliar Theory as It Manifested Itself at
the Council of Constance (Washington, 1949); Fred A. Kremple, Cultural
Aspects of the Council of Constance and Basel (Ann Arbor, 1955); John
Patrick McGowan, d'Ailly and the Council of Constance (Washington:
Catholic University, 1936).
For John Huss see John Hus, Letters, 1904; E. J.
Kitts, Pope John XXIII and Master John Hus (London, 1910); D. S. Schaff,
John Hus (1915); Schwarze, John Hus (1915); and Matthew Spinka, John Hus
and the Czech Reform (1941).
Page 234. Jesuitism.--For a statement concerning the
origin, the principles, and the purposes of the "Society of
Jesus," as outlined by members of this order, see a work entitled
Concerning Jesuits, edited by the Rev. John Gerard, S.J., and published
in London, 1902, by the Catholic Truth Society. In this work it is said,
"The mainspring of the whole organization of the Society is a
spirit of entire obedience: 'Let each one,' writes St. Ignatius,
'persuade himself that those who live under obedience ought to allow
themselves to be moved and directed by divine Providence through their
superiors, just as though they were a dead body, which allows itself to
be carried anywhere and to be treated in any manner whatever, or as an
old man's staff, which serves him who holds it in his hand in whatsoever
way he will.'
"This absolute submission is ennobled by its
motive, and should be, continues the . . . founder, 'prompt, joyous and
persevering; . . . the obedient religious accomplishes joyfully that
which his superiors have confided to him for the general good, assured
that thereby he corresponds truly with the divine will.'"--The
Comtesse R. de Courson, in Concerning Jesuits, page 6.
687
See also L. E. Dupin, A Compendious History of the
Church, cent. 16, ch. 33 (London, 1713, vol. 4, pp. 132-135); Mosheim,
Ecclesiastical History, cent. 16, sec. 3, pt. 1, ch. 1, par. 10
(including notes); The Encyclopedia Britannica (9th ed.), art.
"Jesuits;" C. Paroissen, The Principles of the Jesuits,
Developed in a Collection of Extracts From Their Own Authors (London,
1860--an earlier edition appeared in 1839); W. C. Cartwright, The
Jesuits, Their Constitution and Teaching (London, 1876); E. L. Taunton,
The History of the Jesuits in England, 1580-1773 (London, 1901).
See also H. Boehmer, The Jesuits (translation from
the German, Philadelphia, Castle Press, 1928 ); E. Goethein, Ignatius
Loyola and the Gegen-reformation (Halle, 1895); T. Campbell, The
Jesuits, 1534-1921 (New York, 1922); E. L. Taunton, The History of the
Jesuits in England, 1580-1773 (London, 1901).
Page 235. The Inquisition.--For the Roman Catholic
view see The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 8, art. "Inquisition"
by Joseph Bloetzer, p. 26 ff.: and E. Vacandard, The Inquisition: A
Critical and Historical Study of the Coercive Power of the Church (New
York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1908).
For an Anglo-Catholic view see Hoffman Nickerson, The
Inquisition: A Political and Military Study of Its Establishment. For
the non-Catholic view see Philip Van Limborch, History of the
Inquisition; Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the
Middle Ages, 3 vols.; A History of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols.,
and The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies; and H. S. Turberville,
Medieval Heresy and the Inquisition (London: C. Lockwood and Son, 1920--a
mediating view).
Page 265. Causes of the French Revolution.--On the
far-reaching consequences of the rejection of the Bible and of Bible
religion, by the people of France, see H. von Sybel, History of the
French Revolution, b. 5, ch. 1, pars. 3-7; Henry Thomas Buckle, History
of Civilization in England, chs. 8 , 12, 14 (New York, 1895, vol. 1, pp.
364-366, 369-371, 437, 540, 541, 550); Blackwood's
Magazine, vol. 34, No. 215 (November, 1833), p. 739; J. G. Lorimer, An
Historical Sketch of the Protestant Church in France, ch. 8, pars. 6, 7.
Page 267. Efforts to Suppress and Destroy the Bible.--The
Council of Toulouse, which met about the time of the crusade against the
Albigenses, ruled: "We prohibit laymen possessing copies of the Old
and New Testament. . . . We forbid them most severely to have the above
books in the popular vernacular." "The lords of the districts
shall carefully seek out the heretics in dwellings, hovels, and forests,
and even their underground retreats shall be entirely wiped out."--
Concil. Tolosanum, Pope Gregory IX, Anno. chr. 1229. Canons 14 and 2.
This Council sat at the time of the crusade against the Albigenses.
"This pest [the bible] had taken such an
extension that some people had
688
appointed priests of their own, and even some
evangelists who distorted and destroyed the truth of the gospel and made
new gospels for their own purpose . . . (they know that) the preaching
and explanation of the Bible is absolutely forbidden to the lay
members."-- Acts of Inquisition, Philip van Limborch, History of
the Inquisition, chapter 8.
The Council of Tarragona, 1234, ruled that: "No
one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance
language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the
local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so
that they may be burned lest, be he a cleric or a layman, he be
suspected until he is cleared of all suspicion."--D. Lortsch,
Histoire de la Bible en France, 1910, p. 14.
At the Council of Constance, in 1415, Wycliffe was
posthumously condemned by Arundel, the archbishop of Canterbury, as
"that pestilent wretch of damnable heresy who invented a new
translation of the Scriptures in his mother tongue."
The opposition to the Bible by the Roman Catholic
Church has continued through the centuries and was increased
particularly at the time of the founding of Bible societies. On December
8, 1866, Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical Quanta cura, issued a syllabus
of eighty errors under ten different headings. Under heading IV we find
listed: "Socialism, communism, clandestine societies, Bible
societies. . . . Pests of this sort must be destroyed by all possible
means."
Page 276. The Reign of Terror.--For a reliable, brief
introduction into the history of the French Revolution see L. Gershoy,
The French Revolution (1932); G. Lefebvre, The Coming of the French
Revolution (Princeton, 1947); and H. von Sybel, History of the French
Revolution (1869), 4 vols.
The Moniteur Officiel was the government paper at the
time of the Revolution and is a primary source, containing a factual
account of actions taken by the Assemblies, full texts of the documents,
etc. It has been reprinted. See also A. Aulard, Christianity and the
French Revolution (London, 1927), in which the account is carried
through
1802--an excellent study; W. H. Jervis, The Gallican
Church and the Revolution (London, 1882), a careful work by an Anglican,
but shows preference for Catholicism.
On the relation of church and state in france during
the French Revolution see Henry H. Walsh, The Concordate of 1801: A
Study of Nationalism in Relation to Church and State (New York, 1933);
Charles Ledre, L'Eglise de France sous la Revolution (Paris, 1949).
Some contemporary studies on the religious
significance of the Revolution are G. Chais de Sourcesol, Le Livre des
Manifestes (Avignon, 1800), in which the author endeavored to ascertain
the causes of the upheaval, and its religious significance, etc.; James
Bicheno, The Signs of the Times (London, 1794); James Winthrop, A
Systematic Arrangement of Several Scripture Prophecies Relating to
Antichrist; With Their Application to the Course of History
689
(Boston, 1795); and Lathrop, The Prophecy of Daniel
Relating to the Time of the End (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1811).
For the church during the Revolution see W. M. Sloan,
The French Revolution and Religious Reform (1901); P. F. La Gorce,
Histoire Religieuse de la Revolution (Paris, 1909).
On relations with the papacy see G. Bourgin, La
France et Rome de 1788-1797 (Paris, 1808), based on secret files in the
Vatican; A. Latreille, L'Eglise Catholique et la Revolution (Paris,
1950), especially interesting on Pius VI and the religious crisis,
1775-1799.
For Protestants during the Revolution, see Pressense
(ed.), The Reign of Terror (Cincinnati, 1869).
Page 280. The Masses and the Privileged Classes.--On
social conditions prevailing in France prior to the period of the
Revolution, see H. von Holst, Lowell Lectures on the French Revolution,
lecture 1; also Taine, Ancien Regime, and A. Young, Travels in France.
Page 283. Retribution.--For further details
concerning the retributive character of the French Revolution see Thos.
H. Gill, The Papal Drama, b. 10; Edmond de Pressense, The Church and the
French Revolution, b. 3, ch. 1.
Page 284. The Atrocities of the Reign of Terror.--See
M. A. Thiers, History of the French Revolution, vol. 3, pp. 42-44, 62-74,
106 (New York, 1890, translated by F. Shoberl); F. A. Mignet, History of
the French Revolution, ch. 9, par. 1 (Bohn, 1894); A. Alison, History of
Europe, 1789-1815, vol. 1, ch. 14 (New York,
1872, vol. 1, pp. 293-312).
Page 287. The Circulation of the Scriptures.--In
1804, according to Mr. William Canton of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, "all the Bibles extant in the world, in manuscript or in
print, counting every version in every land, were computed at not many
more than four millions. . . . The various languages in which those four
millions were written, including such bygone speech as the Moeso-Gothic
of Ulfilas and the Anglo-Saxon of Bede, are set down as numbering about
fifty."-- What Is the Bible Society? rev. ed., 1904, p.
23.
The American Bible Society reported a distribution
from 1816 through 1955 of 481,149,365 Bibles, Testaments, and portions
of Testaments. To this may be added over 600,000,000 Bibles or Scripture
portions distributed by the British and Foreign Bible Society. During
the year 1955 alone the American Bible Society distributed a grand total
of 23,819,733 Bibles, Testaments, and portions of Testaments throughout
the world.
The Scriptures, in whole or in part, have been
printed, as of December, 1955, in 1,092 languages; and new languages are
constantly being added.
690
Page 288. Foreign missions.--The missionary activity
of the early Christian church has not been duplicated until modern
times. It had virtually died out by the year 1000, and was succeeded by
the military campaigns of the Crusades. The Reformation era saw little
foreign mission work, except on the part of the early Jesuits. The
pietistic revival produced some missionaries. The work of the Moravian
Church in the eighteenth century was remarkable, and there were some
missionary societies formed by the British for work in colonized North
America. But the great resurgence of foreign missionary activity begins
around the year 1800, at "the time of the end." Daniel 12:4.
In 1792 was formed the Baptist Missionary Society, which sent Carey to
India. In 1795 the London Missionary Society was organized, and another
society in 1799 which in 1812 became the Church Missionary Society.
Shortly afterward the Wesleyan Missionary Society was founded. In the
United States the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
was formed in 1812, and Adoniram Judson was sent out that year to
Calcutta. He established himself in Burma the next year. In 1814 the
American Baptist Missionary Union was formed. The Presbyterian Board of
Foreign Missions was formed in 1837.
"In A.D. 1800, . . . the overwhelming majority
of Christians were the descendants of those who had been won before A.D.
1500. . . . Now, in the nineteenth century, came a further expansion of
Christianity. Not so many continents or major countries were entered for
the first time as in the preceding three centuries. That would have been
impossible, for on all the larger land masses of the earth except
Australia and among all the more numerous peoples and in all the areas
of high civilization Christianity had been introduced before A.D. 1800.
What now occurred was the acquisition of fresh footholds in regions and
among peoples already touched, an expansion of unprecedented extent from
both the newer bases and the older ones, and the entrance of
Christianity into the large majority of such countries, islands,
peoples, and tribes as had previously not been touched. . . .
"The nineteenth century spread of Christianity
was due primarily to a new burst of religious life emanating from the
Christian impulse. . . . Never in any corresponding length of time had
the Christian impulse given rise to so many new movements. Never had it
had quite so great an effect upon Western European peoples. It was from
this abounding vigor that there issued the missionary enterprise which
during the nineteenth century so augmented the numerical strength and
the influence of Christianity."--Kenneth Scott Latourette, A
History of the Expansion of Christianity, vol. IV, The Great Century
A.D. 1800-A.D. 1914 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), pp. 2-4.
Pages 327, 329. Prophetic Dates.--According to Jewish
reckoning the fifth month (Ab) of the seventh year of Artaxerxes' reign
was from July 23 to August 21, 457 B.C. After Ezra's arrival in
Jerusalem in the autumn of the year, the decree of the king went into
effect. For the certainty of the date 457 B.C. being the seventh year of
Artaxerxes, see S. H. Horn and L. H. Wood, The
691
Chronology of Ezra 7 (Washington, D. C.: Review and
Herald Publishing Assn., 1953); E. G. Kraeling, The Brooklyn Museum
Aramaic Papyri (New Haven or London, 1953), pp. 191-193; The Seventh-day
Adventist Bible Commentary (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald
Publishing Assn., 1954), vol. 3, pp. 97-110.
Page 335. Fall of the Ottoman Empire.--The impact of
Moslem Turkey upon Europe after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 was
as severe as had been the catastrophic conquests of the Moslem Saracens,
during the century and a half after the death of Mohammed, upon the
Eastern Roman Empire. Throughout the Reformation era, Turkey was a
continual threat at the eastern gates of European Christendom; the
writings of the Reformers are full of condemnation of the Ottoman power.
Christian writers since have been concerned with the role of Turkey in
future world events, and commentators on prophecy have seen Turkish
power and its decline forecast in Scripture.
For the latter chapter, under the "hour, day,
month, year" prophecy, as part of the sixth trumpet, Josiah Litch
worked out an application of the time prophecy, terminating Turkish
independence in August, 1840. Litch's view can be found in full in his
The Probability of the Second Coming of Christ About A.D. 1843
(Published in June, 1838); An Address to the Clergy (published in the
spring of 1840; a second edition, with historical data in support of the
accuracy of former calculations of the prophetic period extending to the
fall of the Ottoman Empire, was published in 1841); and an article in
Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, Aug. 1, 1840. See also
article in Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy, Feb. 1, 1841;
and J. N. Loughborough, The Great Advent Movement (1905 ed.), pp. 129-132.
The book by Uriah Smith, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, rev. ed.
of 1944, discusses the prophetic timing of this prophecy on pages 506-517.
For the earlier history of the Ottoman Empire and the
decline of the Turkish power, see also William Miller, The Ottoman
Empire and Its Successors, 1801-1927 (Cambridge, England: University
Press, 1936); George G. S. L. Eversley, The Turkish Empire from 1288 to
1914 (London : T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 2d ed., 1923); Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall,
Geschichte des Osmannischen Reiches (Pesth: C. A. Hartleben, 2d ed.,
1834-36), 4 vols.; Herbert A. Gibbons, Foundation of the Ottoman Empire,
1300-1403 (Oxford: University Press, 1916); Arnold J. Toynbee and
Kenneth B. Kirkwood, Turkey (London, 1926).
Page 340. Withholding the Bible From the People.--The
reader will recognize that the text of this volume was written prior to
Vatican Council II, with its somewhat altered policies in regard to the
reading of the Scriptures.
Through the centuries, the attitude of the Roman
Catholic Church toward circulation of the Holy Scriptures in vernacular
versions among the laity shows up as negative. See for example G. P.
Fisher, The Reformation, ch. 15,
692
par. 16 (1873 ed., pp. 530-532); J. Cardinal Gibbons,
The Faith of Our Fathers, ch. 8 (49th ed., 1897), Pp. 98-117; John
Dowling, History of Romanism, b. 7, ch. 2, Sec. 14; and b. 9, ch. 3,
secs. 24-27 (1871 ed., pp. 491-496, 621-625); L. F. Bungener, History of
the Council of Trent, pp. 101-110 (2d Edinburgh ed., 1853, translated by
D. D. Scott); G. H. Putnam, Books and Their Makers During the Middle
Ages, vol. 1, pt. 2, ch. 2, pars. 49, 54-56. See also Index of
Prohibited Books (Vatican Polyglot Press, 1930), pp. ix, x; Timothy
Hurley, A Commentary on the Present Index Legislation (New York:
Benziger Brothers, 1908), p. 71; Translation of the Great Encyclical
Letters of Leo XIII (New York: Benziger Brothers, 1903), p. 413.
But in recent years a dramatic and positive change
has occurred in this respect. On the one hand, the church has approved
several versions prepared on the basis of the original languages; on the
other, it has promoted the study of the Holy Scriptures by means of free
distribution and Bible institutes. The church, however, continues to
reserve for herself the exclusive right to interpret the Bible in the
light of her own tradition, thus justifying those doctrines that do not
harmonize with biblical teachings.
Page 373. Ascension Robes.--The story that the
Adventists made robes with which to ascend "to meet the Lord in the
air," was invented by those who wished to reproach the Advent
preaching. It was circulated so industriously that many believed it, but
careful inquiry proved its falsity. For many years a substantial reward
was offered for proof that one such instance ever occurred, but no proof
has been produced. None who loved the appearing of the Saviour were so
ignorant of the teachings of the Scriptures as to suppose that robes
which they could make would be necessary for that occasion. The only
robe which the saints will need to meet the Lord is the righteousness of
Christ. See Isaiah 61:10; Revelation 19:8.
For a thorough refutation of the legend of ascension
robes, see Francis D. Nichol, Midnight Cry (Washington, D.C.: Review and
Herald Publishing Assn., 1944), chs. 25-27, and Appendices H-J. See also
Leroy Edwin Froom, Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, D.C.:
Review and Herald Publishing Assn., 1954), vol. 4, pp. 822-826.
Page 374. The Chronology of Prophecy.--Dr. George
Bush, professor of Hebrew and Oriental Literature in the New York City
University, in a letter addressed to William Miller and published in the
Advent Herald and Signs of the Times Reporter, Boston, March 6 and 13,
1844, made some important admissions relative to his calculation of the
prophetic times. Dr. Bush wrote:
"Neither is it to be objected, as I conceive, to
yourself or your friends, that you have devoted much time and attention
to the study of the chronology of prophecy, and have labored much to
determine the commencing and closing dates of its great periods. If
these periods are actually given by the Holy Ghost in the prophetic
books, it was doubtless with the design that they should be studied, and
probably, in the end, fully understood; and no man is to be charged with
presumptuous folly who reverently makes the attempt to do this. . . . In
taking a day as the prophetical term for a year, I believe you are
sustained by the soundest exegesis, as well as fortified by the high
names of
693
Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, Bishop Newton, Kirby, Scott,
Keith, and a host of others who have long since come to substantially
your conclusions on this head. They all agree that the leading periods
mentioned by Daniel and John, do actually expire about this age of the
world, and it would be a strange logic that would convict you of heresy
for holding in effect the same views which stand forth so prominent in
the notices of these eminent divines." "Your results in this
field of inquiry do not strike me so far out of the way as to affect any
of the great interests of truth or duty." "Your error, as I
apprehend, lies in another direction than your chronology."
"You have entirely mistaken the nature of the events which are to
occur when those periods have expired. This is the head and front of
your expository offending." See also Leroy Edwin Froom, Prophetic
Faith of Our Fathers (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing
Assn., 1950), vol. 1, chs. 1, 2.
Page 435. A Threefold Message.--Revelation 14:6, 7
foretells the proclamation of the first angel's message. Then the
prophet continues: "There followed another angel, saying, Babylon
is fallen, is fallen. . . . And the third angel followed them." The
word here rendered "followed" means "to go along
with," "to follow one," "go with him." See
Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott, Greek English Lexicon (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1940), vol. 1, p. 52. It also means "to
accompany." See George Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the
New Testament (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1950), page 17. It is the
same word that is used in mark 5:24, "Jesus went with him; and much
people followed Him, and thronged Him." It is also used of the
redeemed one hundred and forty-four thousand, Revelation 14:4, where it
is said, "These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He
goeth." In both these places it is evident that the idea intended
to be conveyed is that of "going together," "in company
with." So in 1 Corinthians 10:4, where we read of the children of
Israel that "they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed
them," the word "followed" is translated from the same
Greek word, and the margin has it, "went with them." From this
we learn that the idea in Revelation 14:8, 9 is not simply that the
second and third angels followed the first in point of time, but that
they went with him. The three messages are but one threefold message.
They are three only in the order of their rise. But having risen, they
go on together and are inseparable.
Page 447. Supremacy of the Bishops of Rome.--For the
leading circumstances in the assumption of supremacy by the bishops of
Rome, see Robert Francis Cardinal Bellarmine, Power of the Popes in
Temporal Affairs (there is an English translation in the Library of
Congress, Washington, D. C.); Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, The
Temporal Power of the Vicar of Jesus Christ (London: Burns and Lambert,
2d ed., 1862); and James Cardinal Gibbons, Faith of Our Fathers
(Baltimore: John Murphy Co., 110th ed., 1917), chs. 5, 9, 10, 12. For
Protestant authors see Trevor Gervase Jalland, The Church and the Papacy
(London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1944, a Bampton
694
Lecture); and Richard Frederick Littledale, Petrine
Claims (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1899). For
sources of the early centuries of the Petrine theory, see James T.
Shotwell and Louise Ropes Loomis, The See of Peter (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1927). For the false "Donation of
Constantine" see Christopher B. Coleman, The Treatise of Lorenzo
Valla on the Donation of Constantine (New York, 1914), which gives the
full Latin text and translation, and a complete criticism of the
document and its thesis.
Page 565. Withholding the Bible from the People.--See
note for page 340.
Page 578. The Ethiopian Church and the Sabbath.--Until
rather recent years the Coptic Church of Ethiopia observed the seventh-day
Sabbath. The Ethiopians also kept Sunday, the first day of the week,
throughout their history as a Christian people. These days were marked
by special services in the churches. The observance of the seventh-day
Sabbath has, however, virtually ceased in modern Ethiopia. For
eyewitness accounts of religious days in Ethiopia, see Pero Gomes de
Teixeira, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520
(translated in English in London: British Museum, 1938), p. 79; Father
Francisco Alverez, Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia
During the Years 1520-1527, in the records of the Hakluyt Society
(London, 1881), vol. 64, pp. 22-49; Michael Russell, Nubia and Abyssinia
(Quoting Father Lobo, Catholic missionary in Ethiopia in 1622) (New
York: Harper & Brothers, 1837), pp. 226-229; S. Giacomo Baratti,
Late Travels Into the Remote Countries of Abyssinia (London: Benjamin
Billingsley, 1670), pp. 134-137; Job Ludolphus, A New History for
Ethiopia (London: S. Smith, 1682), pp. 234-357; Samuel Gobat, Journal of
Three Years' Residence in Abyssinia (New York: ed. of 1850), pp. 55-58,
83-98. For other works touching upon the question, see Peter Heylyn,
History of the Sabbath, 2d ed., 1636, vol. 2, pp. 198-200; Arthur P.
Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church (New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1882), lecture 1, par. 1; C. F. Rey, Romance of
the Portuguese in Abyssinia (London: F. H. and G. Witherley, 1929), pp.
59, 253-297.