"In spite of the early recognition of the importance of the See of Rome and the consequent prestige of its bishop, there is not even a hint of an ex cathedra notion before the eleventh century.[?] Even in the fourteenth, in the lively debates on the nature of papal pronouncements, no such common notion was being either combatted or upheld" (The Vatican Revolution, MacGregor, 137).
DID YOU KNOW
"Gregory I (590-604) called anyone who would take the title of Universal Bishop an antichrist..." [?](Roman Catholicism, Boettner, 249).
DID YOU KNOW
"Sixtus V (1585-1590) recommended the reading of the Bible, but Pius VII (1800-1823) and various other popes condemned that practice" [?] (Roman Catholicism, Boettner, 250). (It makes you wonder which were "infallible" pronouncements.
DID YOU KNOW
"We should point out there have been several popes who expressly disclaimed the attribute of infallibility (we may even say, the divine attribute of infallibility, for only God is infallible as regards to faith and morals), most conspicuous of whom have been Vigilius, Innocent III, Clement IV, Gregory XI, Hadrian VI, and Paul IV"[?] (Roman Catholicism, Boettner, 252).
DID YOU KNOW that Archbishop Strossmayer (who opposed the decree of infallibility in 1870) said in a speech:
"I have set myself to study with the most serious attention the Old and New Testaments, and I have asked these venerable monuments of truth to make known to me if the holy pontiff, who presides here, is the true successor of St. Peter, vicar of Christ, and the infallible doctor of the church. [?] I find in the apostolic days no question of a pope, successor to St. Peter, the vicar of Jesus Christ, any more than a Mohammed who did not then exist. Now having read the whole New Testament, I declare before God, with my hand raised to that great crucifix, that I have found no trace of the papacy as it exists at this moment" (Roman Catholicism, Boettner, 244-245).
DID YOU KNOW
“In 1825, on the occasion of the jubilee, Pope Leo XII struck a medal, bearing on the one side his own image, and on the other, that of the Church of Rome symbolized as a ‘Woman,’ holding in her left hand a cross, and in her right a CUP, with the legend around her, ‘Sedet super universum,’ ‘The whole world is her seat’ ”[?] (The Two Babylons, Hislop, 217) (Compare with Rev.17:1-5).
DID YOU KNOW that the Pope has a “chair” to be carried in just like the ancient Egyptians as shown in the two pictures above?
DID YOU KNOW
"So absolute is the papal authority that not even the entire church may dare to review or modify the pope's judgment in any way. [?] If the whole of the rest of the church should disagree with the pope, the whole of the rest of the church would be in error" (The Vatican Revolution, MacGregor, 6).
DID YOU KNOW
"All voices are silenced; protests are crushed; dissenters are excommunicated. [?] A total dictatorship -- in spirit and letter - rules every aspect of the Roman Catholic Church" (booklet, Can a True Catholic Be a Loyal American?, 14).
DID YOU KNOW that the noted Roman archaeologist, Professor Marucchi, in a lecture given before his class, said:
"...no shred of evidence of Peter's having been in the Eternal City had ever been unearthed, [?] and of another archaeologist, Di Rossi, who declared that for forty years his greatest ambition had been to unearth in Rome some inscription which would verify the papal claim that the apostle Peter was actually in Rome, but that he was forced to admit that he had given up hope of success in his search. He had the promise of handsome rewards by the church if he succeeded. What he had dug up verified what the New Testament says about the formation of the Christian church in Rome, but remained absolutely silent regarding the claims of the bishops of Rome to be the successors of the apostle Peter" (The Soul of A Priest, Di Rossi, 10).
DID YOU KNOW Peter's
"...work was primarily among the Jews of the dispersion, [Gal.2:7] first in Asia Minor, and later as far east as Babylon - that in fact his work took him in the opposite direction from that which Roman tradition assigns to him"[?] (Roman Catholicism, Boettner, 123).
DID YOU KNOW
"...in 1846 Mary 'appeared' to two shepherd children and gave them a secret message to relay to the pope which contained the words 'papacy' and 'infallible'.[?] The pope himself claimed to have had a 'vision' of the 'Mother of God' and when confronted by cardinals of the difficulty a definition of infallibility would create, Pius IX answered, 'I have the Mother of God on my side, I shall go forward" (How The Pope Became Infallible, Hasler, 111).
DID YOU KNOW
"When Pius IV finally did proceed with the new doctrine of Papal Infallibility, he did so at the insistence of the apparition [of Mary], and based the Infallibility dogma on the foundation he had already laid earlier with the Immaculate Conception proclamation (1854). [?] Thus, the declaration of his infallibility would be a mere formality. 'People want to credit me with infallibility. I don't need it at all. Am I not infallible already? Didn't I establish the dogma of the Virgin's Immaculate Conception all by myself several years ago?' " (Quite Contrary: A Biblical Reconsideration of the Apparitions of Mary", Kauffman)
DID YOU KNOW that Pope Hadrian II (867-872) declared civil marriages valid; but Pius VII (1800- 1823) condemned them as invalid?
DID YOU KNOW that pope Eugene IV (1431-47) condemned Joan of Arc (1412-1431) to be burned alive as a witch, while another pope, Benedict XV, in 1919, declared her a saint?
DID YOU KNOW that Pope Paul V told Galileo that he was being condemned for "teaching contrary to the sacred and divine scripture" when he taught (rightly) that the earth moves around the sun? (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, 334)
DID YOU KNOW
"Rebutting a belief widely shared by Protestants and a growing number of Catholics, Pope John Paul II dismissed the 'widespread idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from God' and exhorted Catholics to confess more often to their priests"[?] (Don A. Schanche, The Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1984).
DID YOU KNOW
"The Papal mitre is entirely different from the mitre of Aaron and the Jewish high priests.[?] That mitre was a turban. The two-horned mitre, which the Pope wears, when he sits on the high altar at Rome and receives the adoration of the Cardinal, is the very mitre worn by Dagon, the fish-god of the Philistines and Babylonians..." (The Two Babylons, Hislop, 215).
DID YOU KNOW "Thus a Papal writer describes a certain Pope or Papal bishop as 'mitra lituoque decorus,' adorned with the mitre and the augur's rod, meaning thereby that he was 'adorned with the mitre and the crosier'...[a practice also borrowed from Babylon as the above illustration demonstrates]" (The Two Babylons, Hislop, 217)