The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 53

The European Union in Prophecy
Again and again were their fertile lands laid waste, their dwellings and chapels
swept away, so that where once were flourishing fields and the homes of an innocent,
industrious people, there remained only a desert. As the ravenous beast is rendered
more furious by the taste of blood, so the rage of the papists was kindled to greater
intensity by the sufferings of their victims. Many of these witnesses for a pure faith
were pursued across the mountains and hunted down in the valleys where they were
hidden, shut in by mighty forests and pinnacles of rock. No charge could be brought
against the moral character of this proscribed class. Even their enemies declared them
to be a peaceable, quiet, pious people. Their grand offense was that they would not
worship God according to the will of the pope. For this crime every humiliation, insult,
and torture that men or dev ils could invent was heaped upon them.
When Rome at one time determined to exterminate the hated sect, a bull was
issued by the pope, condemning them as heretics, and delivering them to slaughter.
(See Appendix.) They were not accused as idlers, or dishonest, or disorderly; but it
was declared that they had an appearance of piety and sanctity that seduced "the
sheep of the true fold." Therefore the pope ordered "that malicious and abominable
sect of malignants," if they "refuse to abjure, to be crushed like venomous snakes."--
Wylie, b. 16, ch. 1. Did this haughty potentate expect to meet those words again? Did
he know that they were registered in the books of heaven, to confront him at the
judgment? "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,"
said Jesus, "ye have done it unto Me." Matthew 25:40.
This bull called upon all members of the church to join the crusade against the
heretics. As an incentive to engage in this cruel work, it "absolved from all
ecclesiastical pains and penalties, general and particular; it released all who joined
the crusade from any oaths they might have taken; it legitimatized their title to any
property they might have illegally acquired; and promised remission of all their sins
to such as should kill any heretic. It annulled all contracts made in favor of Vaudois,
ordered their domestics to abandon them, forbade all persons to give them any aid
whatever, and empowered all persons to take possession of their property."--Wylie, b.
16, ch. 1. This document clearly reveals the master spirit behind the scenes. It is the
roar of the dragon, and not the voice of Christ, that is heard therein.
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