Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

Lesson 80

THE REFORMATION (Part 2)

The truthless Hierarchy could not use Bible truth to fight against the reformationists. She resorted to the crea-

tion of a "sword of the Church" to spearhead a counter revolution. In 1539 the pope specially commissioned the soldier-minded Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, to set up a new religious order of ruthless fighters to undertake the stamping out of Lutheranism and all Protestants. Here was the foundation of the devilish "Society of Jesus", commonly known as the Jesuits. This was a secret society organized according to the "mysteries" of Babylon to serve as a military organization in the hands of the pope. The initiates in this new religious order were highly trained in every art of war, cunning, deception, intrigue, and cruelty. Thus was launched a most wicked method of underground warfare, which has been waged tenaciously for over four hundred years against every form of opposition to the Hierarchy.

A further step in the counter revolution was the calling of the Council of Trent by the Roman emperor and the pope. This council met at the city of Trent, in Austria, in 1545. At this council the Roman Hierarchy sought to strengthen her doctrinal teachings to make them impervious to further Protestant attacks. The Nicene Creed was reconfirmed, the Jesuit organization was duly recognized and set into operation, thirty-three new canons were formulated against heretics (thus becoming part of the canon law of the Church), and many doctrines of the Church were rewritten as articles of Catholic faith.

But all this to no avail! Hard on the heels of Germany's break with Rome, England shook from her neck the Papal yoke! From the days of Wycliffe 150 years prior to the Reformation many in England were dissatisfied. The common people had heard the Bible read to them, and there was a growing thirst for the truths of Christianity. When the explosion of the Reformation occurred in Germany, England was ready to join in. The leaders of the English reformation were Latimer, Cranmer, and Ridley. The year following the German bolt a general convocation was called of all the religious leaders in England (1531). During the next six years other convocations met and made various

declarations, which gradually led up to the open break with Rome. These ecclesiastical declarations were sent to Parliament for final approval. The Convocation at Canterbury made this historic declaration: "The bishop of Rome hath no greater jurisdiction conferred on him by God over this country than any other foreign bishop." In 1537 Parliament terminated for ever the pope's jurisdiction in England.

From that time forward the Church of England has been a separate religious organization and the state church of England. As the days progressed more liberal doctrines were adopted at the various convocations, thus making the Church of England a Protestant organization. Finally, in 1648, the Church of England and the Church of Scotland (which had previously withdrawn from Rome) were united under the Westminster Confession. The Westminster Confession readopted the Nicene Creed and set forth uniform articles of faith. It is interesting to note that the Lutheran State Church also adopted the Nicene Creed, thus showing that all these Protestant organizations continued the fundamental fusion doctrines originally inculcated A.D. 325. Though Germany and England slipped the Papal yoke from their necks, they did not break the bonds of fusion religion that enmeshed them, and flow forth into the glorious freedom of true worship that only Bible truth can bring.

One of the most eminent reformers was John Calvin, born in France in the year 1509. He became a great expositor of the Scriptures and has few rivals in his many writings exposing the errors of the Roman Church. Those Protestant organizations which follow Calvin's teachings are said to have adopted "Calvinism". Many Protestant organizations in France and Switzerland, and the Church of Scotland, are based on his teachings, even as are the Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed sects of today.

In the seventeenth century the struggle between the growing Protestant organizations and the Church of Rome continued unabated. Many of the northern European states

had by this time become Protestant states wholly separate from all control and supervision of the Church of Rome and of the "Holy" Roman Empire. By 1618 the Protestant states had become so powerful as to challenge the supremacy of the "Holy" Roman Empire. In 1618 a religious war that was to rage thirty years broke out in Europe, with the Protestant states of Europe fighting against France and the remnants of the Roman Empire. In 1648 the Thirty Years' War was brought to a close with the peace treaty of Westphalia. The Protestant powers gained the ascendancy over the Catholic states. From that time forward the history of Europe greatly changed in favor of the northern states and ushered in an era of three hundred years of enlightened and liberal development. The Roman Hierarchy has ever chafed under this Treaty of Westphalia and has sought time and again to overthrow this blow to its European supremacy. One of the ambitions of Hitler as the Hierarchy's tool was to wipe out for ever the Treaty of Westphalia.

In the Catholic countries oppression of the common people by the political and religious rulers continued, and came to a climax in the eighteenth century. The great French Revolution broke out in 1789, which spread throughout Europe. A reaction against church rule set in. An anti-religious wave swept France. Atheism began to get a foothold and grow. Napoleon became emperor of France and set out to gain domination of Europe. In 1799 he conquered Rome and took the pope prisoner. This ended the thousand-year political rule of the pope as a temporal ruler; and in 1806, due to Napoleon's formation of the Confederation of the Rhine, the emperor of Austria abdicated the throne of the "Holy Roman Empire" and declared the Empire dissolved.

The nineteenth century, and numerous religious sects and divisions rise throughout "Christendom". The major Protestant systems had by now become thoroughly organized and set, resisting any further changes and develop-

ment. They, too, set about to hinder further enlightenment and growth in knowledge of the truth of the Holy Scriptures. In 1878 God began to restore the original truths, using a small group of Jehovah's witnesses in America. Charles T. Russell and others formed the Watch Tower Bible &Tract Society to begin a world-wide educational campaign which was to result in the full restoration of original Christianity and to free multitudes from the bondage of religion or demonism. The good work continues, despite virulent opposition by the fusion religionists of Papal Rome and of her now non-protesting offspring called "Protestantism".