FINAL WARNING: Setting the Stage for Destruction
was practiced by the Roman Catholic Church, as a means of saving
souls, and demanded rebaptism. Severely persecuted, they eventually
rallied behind Menno Simons (1496-1561) who started the group which
eventually became known as the Mennonites.John Wycliffe, a professor of Divinity at Oxford University, linked the
Pope with the Antichrist. He translated the Bible from Latin to English,
and produced the first English Bible in 1382, paving the way for the
Reformation. He organized a group called the Order of Poor Preachers,
and began distributing his new Bible. They were called ‘Lollards’ (or
‘idle babblers’). Eventually Wycliffe’s writings were banned, and the
Pope ordered him to Rome to undergo trial. He died of a stroke in 1384
before he was able to go. By 1425, the Catholic Church was so upset
with the increase in the number of Lollards, that they ordered
Wycliffe’s bones to be exhumed, and they were burned together with
the 200 books he had written.In May, 1163, at a Council in Toulouse, France, which was attended by
17 Cardinals, 124 Bishops, and hundreds of Priests from the Roman
Catholic Church, the Inquisition (from the Latin verb ‘inquire,’ or ‘to
inquire into’) was forged. As one speaker said: “An accursed heresy
has recently arisen in the neighborhood of Toulouse, and it is the duty
of the bishops to put it down with all the rigor of the ecclesiastical
law.” Anyone who didn’t profess Catholicism was sought out, and
again, Satan attempted to destroy Christianity.In 1198, Pope Innocent III sent two Inquisitors to France with the
following order: “The foxes called Waldenses, Cathari, and Patari, who,
though they have different faces, yet all hang together by their tails,
are sent by Satan to devastate the vineyard of the Lord,” and they were
“to be judged and killed.” In 1200, the Pope instructed a Spanish priest
named Dominique de Guzman (1170-1221) to form an Order to
vanquish all opposing religious groups. In 1215, these Dominican
monks (Order of the Friar Preachers, or Black Friars), known as the
‘Militia of Christ,’ were dispatched to speak out against the
Albigensians (a semi-Christian group prominent in France, which had
Manichaean influence, as did the Cathari), who condemned the
Catholic Church for worshipping images. A missionary, Peter of
Castelnau, was sent to preach against the Albigensians, who killed
him, and in 1208, in response to the murder, the Pope instigated a holy