|
Fabricated Documents
Over the centuries, the Roman Catholic church has forged numerous documents, ranging
from letters written by Augustine, the Apostles Creed, the Immaculate Conception,
to the so called "apostolic writings" by Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas (O. C.
Lambert, Catholicism Against Itself, 1956, pgs. 54-68.)
(Lambert lists Augustine's forgeries: De Condition Cordis, Summa, Part III, Fourth
Number, 119, De Penitentia, Summa, Part III, Third Number, 57 and Hypognosticon, Summa,
Part III, Third Number, 77. Please see following article about
forgery of Immaculate Conception.
In the Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. VI, pg. 136, we have following
frank admission:
"Substituting of false documents and tampering with
genuine ones was quite a trade in the Middle Ages."
And then we have the following quote too:
"One is forced to admit that the gradual corruption of Christianity
began very early" (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII, pg. 414.)
One of Rome's most bogus claims has been that of apostolic succession.
Yet amazingly the Catholic church (much later on) was forced to own up and say the
following about the Apostolic Canons, which allegedly deal with how the Apostles
dictated material to St. Clement of Rome:
"A tradition (accepted because unexamined) long prevailed that
these canons were dictated by the Apostles to St. Clement of Rome, who committed them
to writing. Accurate research has dispelled this notion." (Catholic Dictionary,
pgs. 41, 42.)
The following quote, which has long been refuted since the 16th
century as being authentic, still is cited and used by Catholics today, when wishing
to uphold its hierarchical structure:
"A letter from Clement to James forms an epilogue to H. In it Clement
relates how Peter before his death gave his last instructions and set Clement in his
own chair as his successor in the See of Rome...The writer knows a complete system
of ecclesiastical organisation. Peter sets a bishop over each city, with priests and
deacons under him; the office of bishop is well defined" (Catholic Encyclopaedia, IV,
pgs. 14-144.)
The above is inaccurate in many ways. The apostolic
constitution of 270AD affirmed Linus as successor to Peter, not Clement. Yet this
source (written allegedly by Clement himself) was later denned a fake (authored 325AD),
by the Catholic church:
"We must nevertheless abandon any attempt to argue from the Clementine
[20 books by this author], since the oldest parts betray themselves more and more
as a product of the third century - he was guilty of arbitrary inventions and changes"
(Catholic Encyclopaedia, VII, pgs. 327.)
Once again Rome was forced to come clean after Protestant scholars
raised their game and exposed forgeries with Christendom, dating back centuries.
Interestingly, Lambert remarks in page 56, how Thomas Aquinas embarrassingly
quotes "seven times from these forgeries."
An Infallible church, with infallible popes,
churning out forgeries, with their own scholars not knowing the difference between
forgeries and the real thing, how are the poor old laity supposed to make heads
or tails of it!
One may ask: how did Rome get away with lying for so long to the
masses? Well, if Emperor Leo (401-474AD) couldn't read or write, one can easily guess
have rampant ignorance was too the rest of the then Catholic world (Lambert, pg. 63.)
"Writers of the forth century were prone to describe many practises
(i.e., The Lenten Fast of Forty Days) as apostolic institutions which certainly had
no claim to be so regarded" (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. III, pg. 484.)
Rome also forged the infamous The Donation of Constantine,
dated 30 March 315AD.
"The supposed donation of Emperor Constantine, probably forged
in the eight century" (Catholic Encyclopaedia, XIV, pg. 714.)
This forged document records how Constantine not only contracted
leprosy all over his body (which pagan priests failed to cure him), but also received
a vision from St. Peter and was told to contact "pope" Sylvester, hiding on Mount
Soracte, who would cure him. Apparently Sylvester made him well and Constantine restored
Christian Churches worldwide to their former glory. Also part of this forged document
was how Constantine had kindly handed over his own power and sovereignty to the bishop
of Rome.
This elaborate hoax circulated throughout the Catholic Church for
years and helped to build up their so-called apostolic authority throughout
the pagan world, but it was totally false and had no truth whatsoever within it.
It should also be said that when Luther became aware of this, it
convinced him even more to launch the Reformation.
Constantine did, however, convert to Christianity through
the heretical Arian bishop Eusebius, but only on his deathbed, at the 11th hour, in
337AD (Dr. Peter De Rosa, Vicar's of Christ, pgs. 55, 56.)
And in 1944 we discover that a Dr. J.V. Simcox, professor of Canon
Law at St. Edmunds College Ware - the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical seminary for the
Archdiocese of Westminster - finally broke ranks (he had held his post for 23 years),
he decided to publicly complain of other forgeries and deceptions: "God does not need
our lies; and Catholics who fear truth in matters of religion confess that they do
not really believe Catholicism to be from God" (Is the Roman Catholic Church
a Secret Society?, pg. 30.)
|