Continued....Gregory II was on the papal throne from 715-735 A.D., and while on the throne he instigated the war of the pictures through which the Eastern Roman Empire was even more weakened than it already was. Mind you, this was not the only time that there were contentious over the worship of pictures, and over the many years the best of the renown teachers of Christianity condemned this abominable practice.
Tertullian made this statement concerning pictures used in worship, "Every picture is according to the law of GOD, an idol, and all worship of them is classified as idolatry." As Tertullian did, so did Eusebius of Caesarea, Clement of Alexandria, Chrysostom of Constantinople, and many other Church fathers, and all of them called it idolatry and an abomination before GOD. Regardless, the R.C. bishops and many monks defended the worship of these pictures, with every means possible, for in it was their source of income with which they could fleece the people out of their money. Gregory II was a great fancier of these pictures and when the Eastern Roman emperor, Leo the Isaurian, wanted to remove them from the churches of Italy, bloody battles were fought over them, with the result that the king of the Lombards, Luitprand, expanded his kingdom beyond its borders without any trouble.
Gregory II, in retaliation, caused unrest by persuading the people to go against the emperor of Isaurian. He wrote him a letter in which he called him ignorant, stupid, crazy, and a godless heretic. The emperor, instead of punishing him for his insubordination according to the law of the land, answered him with restraint. This gave Gregory even more boldness and in a second letter to the emperor he wrote, "Jesus Christ may afflict you with a demon, so that your spirit may be saved." This time, Leo retaliated by removing him from office and taking away the patrimony of Sicily and Calabria and giving it to the bishop of Constantinople. He took away all his income as well. For this rebellion Gregory II was added to the list of saints by the R.C. church.
History seems to repeat itself and we never seem to learn from it as we find in his successor Gregory III. He had the same rebellious spirit, and he too, preached civil disobedience against the emperor. When he insulted the king of the Lombards, he came against Rome. This scared the bishop so much, that he went to the king of the Franks, Martel, and humbled himself before him. Emperor Charles Martel struck a deal with Gregory III. Gregory renounced his allegiance to the emperor Leo and he also handed over Rome to him, and he in turn would deliver him from the hands of Leo. (Did you ever notice that none of these "deputies of Christ" ever went to their MASTER, JESUS, to ask for help?)
After Gregory's and Martel's deaths, the bishop of Rome, Zacharias, got himself in trouble and was seeking the help of the Franks, where Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, was now emperor. Both of them had had an interest in dethroning the weak cowardly king Childerich III Zacharias played his cards in such a way that the question was asked by the Franks: Is it alright to remove a weak and cowardly king from the throne? and the Roman bishop answered: Yes, it is, and the two became friends. However, Zacharias did not taste the fruit of his labor. He undertook the task to excommunicate bishop Virgillius who had said that the earth was round and that the feet of those on the other side are turned toward us.
Bishop Stephen II who reigned from 752-757 A.D., was to reap what his predecessor had sown. He too, got himself in trouble with the Lombards, which caused him to travel to Pepin to find help, and Pepin sent his son out to meet him some 30 kilometers down the road. The story goes that he did not suffer Stephen to get off his horse, but that he walked beside the bishop like a farmhand. The explanation can be found when we hear that Stephen II. anointed Pepin to be king in Paris and the bishop released him from the oath that he had made to his king. Stephen also spoke a ban against anyone that would not recognize Pepin and his successors as legitimate kings of the Franks. The once brave nation of the Franks was already deeply influenced by the Roman superstition, and it came to no surprise that by the audacious behavior of the bishop, it even strengthened his power. Pepin showed his gratitude by giving him land that did not belong to his kingdom, namely the exarchate of Romangna and Ancona.
Stephen II went back to Rome, and when the Franks tarried for too long, he wrote a letter to Pepin that was to be from the Apostle Peter, by which the Apostle affronted Pepin in no uncertain terms to start moving against the Lombards. To the king he said, "If you will not help me, you and your sons will be excluded from heaven, and with you the whole nation.”
To get on the wrong side of the heavenly "doorman" is indeed a serious matter, and the Franks started to move into Northern Italy, and the promised exarchate was won for Stephen. He was now able to take possession of his land, which really belonged to the Lombards, whose citizen he was.
While the Roman bishops were busy taking care of their own ends, Boniface was working in Germany where he acquired the nickname "Calamity Apostle", for he brought great misery upon the German people. He went to Rome and swore allegiance to Gregory II over the fabricated graves of the Apostles, by which he subserviently submitted to the papacy, not to Christianity, with body, soul, and spirit. When he returned from Rome loaded with all kinds of holy bones, he had purposed in his heart to convert all German bishops for the cause of Rome.
Christianity had taken a foothold in Germany, but Boniface saw this as heresy. He saw a heretic in every true believer in CHRIST, and he went systematically to stamp them out and bring them the modern paganism —
Catholicism, which from now on was the new Christian religion. By the year 744 A.D., Boniface had succeeded in turning every German bishop away from the true gospel and true Christianity.
Also, the bishops of the Franks had surrendered to Rome, as a sort of an overseeing body. The majority of the bishops in other kingdoms had not done so. The way was paved however, for the bishop of Rome, because the lies and deceptions of the past did, in time, bring forth a rich harvest.
The custom for emperors and kings to be crowned by the bishop of Rome began with Pepin and was followed by his son Charles the Great. None of them, however, had a mind to give their power to him, or any other bishop, or patriarch. Charles the Great was known to be a sober king who ridiculed the priesthood from time to time because of their greediness, love of money, and their immorality. He made a fatal mistake when he gave them the right to collect a tenth of everything. It was to be a tenth of all fruits of the field and livestock, but they insisted that the tenth of the marriage bed was theirs, too.
One of the women who had believed the priest and did what he demanded, had to contend with her husband, who was not at all amused. He sought revenge. He made a great feast, and invited the priest, as well as the whole village. When everyone was in a good festive mood, the husband made an announcement, speaking of the wrong doings of the priest. He then handed him a pitcher containing a yellow looking liquid, asking him to drink it. Not sure of what it was, the priest hesitated. He was told that since he wanted a tenth of everything he also had to drink a tenth of his wife’s urine, and it was forced down his throat. Since that day he had little interest collecting a tenth of anything.
The successor of Charles the Great made the same mistake, he allowed the bishop of Rome to crown him. Because of it the nations began to believe that the bishop of Rome had the solemn right to give away a crown, while in fact, the pope needed permission to do so.
Pope Eugenius II made up his own draft of the words he would use for himself, which he had to swear to his Head of State, emperors Ludwig and Lothair, and which his successors had to give to their lords. This text can be found in the files of Otto I, and Henry I in the Angel Castle in Rome. This document clearly indicated that the popes of those early days still saw themselves as subjects of their respective emperor or king under which they served. One could become sturt seeing the unlimited shamelessness in the Vatican’s denial of these facts today.
Pope Nicholas I, who reigned from 858 – 867 A.D., was the most adamant in denying this documented fact, for he asserted that when the emperor, or king wanted a synod to be called, they always came to ask the Vatican for a place and time. The exact opposite was true. He was bold enough to proclaim that the subject of an emperor or king, who refused to obey the will of God (e.g. the will of the pope) was no longer bound to their oath to such a ruler. It goes further. The signature of the pope was now always in front of the Head of State and on one occasion he had the emperor Lothair excommunicated for this very offence, and Lothair humbled himself before him asking for absolution.
The archbishops of Trier and Cologne, Germany, however, stood against the pope saying:
“You are a wolf amongst sheep. You act against your fellow bishops like a mad dog. You call yourself a servant of servants yet, you behave like a lord over them."
As if this was not enough they said, “You are like a hornet. Do you really believe you can get away with it?" They continued:
"We don't know you, nor do we heed your words. We are not afraid of your thunder for the cities of which we are citizens, for they are bigger than Babylon, which claims to be forever and boast to be infallible."
Unfortunately, there were only a few who dared to speak up. The spider of Rome had been weaving his web that was full of lies. It was over the whole of Europe, and had trapped emperors, kings, and bishops, together with the citizens of those nations. In spite of their success, progress was still too slow for the popes. This led them to invent more lies and schemes, and thanks to the stupidity of the people, they succeeded over and over. It had come to the point that no one wanted to believe in the legality of their claims, which was a real hindrance to them. It triggered a frantic search for a way out of this dilemma as one can well imagine, and they came up with the assertion by saying, “The first Roman bishop had already the power they now exercise.” To prove the legality of this assertion the Vatican produced what is known today as the Isidorian Decretals. These documents are proven to be largely the product of counterfeiters.
They were assembled under the name of Isidor of Seville, who himself was a honorable bishop who died in 636 A.D. (These decretals were sent out from the bishop of Rome and began to circulate as 60 letters, some of which were genuine, and others counterfeit.) The aim of this fraud was; to throw church discipline into disarray, to raise the Roman bishops to a higher level than all others and lord it over them, to destroy all metropolitans and synod power, to loose the R.C. church from all jurisdiction of any earthly power, and to destroy every influence of the states in matters of church and theology.
To this "clean" looking piece of knavish trickery was added a gift certificate by which emperor Constantine I was supposed to have promised the Apostle Peter the whole of the occidental world and their kingdoms, including Rome as the capital city. How the Vatican got away with such mass deception cannot be easily explained, but we must recognize that many of the bishops had a limited understanding of worldly as well as church history.
No matter how ridiculous all of this may sound to a sober mind today, these Pseudo Isidore Decretals, which have been recognized by the non–Catholic world as frauds, are in fact the foundation of the papacy, e.g. the Vatican. On account of these documents, the popes have exalted themselves above emperors and kings, and even whole nations. This institution insists that the pope is to be worshipped as a demi-god. This made it possible to dispose of lives and nations at will, because through them, the pope became the undisputed lawmaker in spiritual and worldly matters. There are three things that make up the foundation of the Vatican, and they are:
A neat foundation indeed!
This foundation has remained even until today, because its mortar was the stupidity and gullibility of many human beings. The cracks that have developed over the centuries caused by reason and enlightening of individuals have been repaired with the blood of the so-called martyrs who died for their cause.
As pope John VIII took over the holy see in 872 A.D., he showed the mark of a "true" pope, as he declared, (speaking about emperor Karl the Baldheaded), "Since he wants to be crowned, let him come to us and ask to be crowned first." This statement indicates that all future candidates to a throne had to surrender first to the Vatican before the pope would crown them. He revealed to the German bishops what the true aim of the pope was by saying, "What can we do as the church for Jesus, but fight against the arrogance of emperors and kings, quoting Ephesians 6:12. "
Pope Stephen V who reigned from 885-891 A.D. was no longer satisfied with being a mere man, and he made it known to all by saying: "Popes have become like Jesus, being a form of god-man whose mothers have conceived from the Holy Spirit." He made this presumptuous statement to tell the world that he, and other popes, have been given power in heaven and earth, and that they were "god-men".
“Not only popes, but also cardinals, bishops and right down to the priests claim this right, as it is manifested in the statement of one priest who said, ‘By receiving absolution power, Jesus has given us power that makes even hell tremble, and Satan can no longer stand against us, a power given to us that reaches into eternity. It cannot be found on earth because of its limitations. It is a power that breaks all shackles which were wrought for ever, because of sin.’ Yes, this is a gigantic claim, to say the least. To have the power of forgiving sin makes them a quasi-a second god.” (Does this look like the work of the devil who wanted to be God? I'd say it does.)
However, if you believe that this is the peak of the deception, lies, murder, and theft, I got news for you. The power of the Vatican reaches even higher. It is said that when a priest delivers mass, Jesus, who as we all know sits to the right hand of the FATHER, rises up to be at service to help the priest, and as the priest continues to minister, Jesus, with a multitude of angels, comes down to the altar and changes, as the priest speaks the words, the wafer into flesh, and the wine into blood, even when the priest is the most sinful person on earth. This power is more powerful then that of the queen of heaven, Mary.
The stream of papal baseness and filthiness is getting wider and stinks more than ever. As we approach the 10th century we are entering the time of the Roman whoremongers when ordinary prostitutes reigned over the R.C. church as they pleased. It would be rather easy to accuse me (the writer Otto von Corvin) of being bias as I endeavor to write about this disgraceful time period, and therefore, I have chosen to let a Vatican personality speak for me. His name is Cardinal Baronius. This cardinal made the following comment:
"During this century we saw the abomination of desolation sit in the temple and sanctuary of the MOST HIGH GOD, and on the throne of Peter were sitting the most godless people, not popes, but beasts. How repulsive was the image of the R.C. church, as lust ridden and shameless whores reigned at Rome, and at will promoted adulterers and fornicators to the throne of Peter."
When we read this it may give the impression that only popes lived a godless life, but history reveals to us that the body was as rotten as the head. King Edgar spoke in his address to the English priesthood saying these words:
"I can find nothing else amongst the clergy but gluttons, immoral lifestyle, and whoredom. Their houses have been changed into brothels, and day and night they are drunk, dance and play."
Later I will show you that king Edgar was indeed speaking the truth, and that his call for repentance was not only meant for England, but for the whole world.
Not the HOLY SPIRIT, but the concubine of the mighty margrave Adalbert of Toscana, Marozia, seated Sergius III on the holy see. He fathered a child with her who later became pope. When Sergius III died in 911 A.D., Marozia, and her sister Theodora, made their lover, Anastasius II, his successor. He was succeeded a short while later by John X who fell in disgrace with Marozia and was thrown into prison and suffocated. Leo VI followed him to the throne, to prison, and to death by suffocation. Many more popes followed them and were consumed by the sisters. Finally, Marozia made the child that pope Sergius had fathered with her, pope John XI.
Murder and mayhem filled Rome in those days, and one of the pope's enemies kidnapped the child pope John XI, and poisoned him. The reason I cannot go in to detail about this particular time slot is because it is impossible to get reliable information about this period, due to the turmoil that existed during this time.
In the year 956 A.D., the nephew of the Marozia, Octavian, was successful to sit on the Holy See, even though he was only 19 years old. His name was pope John XII. He was worse than his colleague, the Greek patriarch Theophylaktus, who was a boy of 16 years old.
This pope sold dioceses and church offices to the highest bidder, for he did spend enormous sums of money on his horses, of which he had 2000. He fed them with raisins, figs and almonds soaked in expensive wine. Oats and hay would have been much more appreciated by them, no doubt. During his reign there was much festivity. Everywhere you could hear lewd songs and much dancing was the order. The papal palace was transformed into a harem, and no woman with integrity would show herself in the streets, for John XII raped every female he could lay hands on, tells us the bishop of Cremona, whose name was Luitprand. The emperor Otto I wanted to put a stop to it, and called a Council, and there the most unbelievable stories came to the surface. The pope was summoned to appear, but he wrote them a letter instead, which read:
"We take note that a new pope is to be elected. If this is your intention, understand that you are all excommunicated in the name of the almighty God, in order to rob you of your power to remove the pope from office, nor will you be able to hold mass."
Upon receiving this letter, Otto I did not waste any time removing this pope from office, and installed a pope who was elected by the Council, which consisted of royalties, and clergies. His name was Leo VIII. Emperor Otto, and his German entourage left, and the women used their power to ensure the return of pope John. He came back and Leo was able to escape, but many of his friend got caught and murdered by mutilation. The “holy father”, however, didn't enjoy life much longer. Pope John had kidnapped a beautiful woman, but got caught by her husband who killed him on the steps of the Roman citadel. Surely an odd deathbed for a "holy father".
I have gone into details about John XII although it wasn't easy to prepare you, the reader, for the popes that were even holier than he. Perhaps I can shorten the stories of all other "holinesses" of this time period by giving you only sketchy outlines of events that took place during this immoral time.