Our English Bible Part 4 The Flight into the Wilderness
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 2 The Pergamos Age Revelation 2:12-17 Revelation 12:6, 14
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 3 The Beast Takes Shape: Matthew 24:15 Revelation 13:1
History of the Christian Church, (1832 ed.) Vol. 1, ch. 2, p. 153... For no sooner do we perceive the teachers in the church, who had hitherto been the foremost in sustaining the opposition of the persecuting powers, and animating their flocks to a patient continuance in bearing the cross no sooner do we see them invested with secular honors, immense wealth, and elevated to dignity, than the first object of their lives seems to have been to maintain their power and pre-eminence, and aspiring at dominion over the bodies and consciences of men. From the days of Constantine, the corruption of the Christian profession proceeded with rapid progress. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 4
Many evils, probably, existed before this period, which prepared the way for the events that were to follow; but when the influence of the secular power became an engine of the clergy, to be exercised in their kingdom, it need not be a matter of surprise that the progress became exceedingly rapid in converting the religion of Christ into a system of spiritual tyranny, idolatry, superstition, and hypocrisy, until it arrived at its full height in the Roman hierarchy, when, what is called THE CHURCH became the sink of iniquity. William Jones (1762-1846) [emphasis is in the original] 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 5
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 6 The Fruit of Speculation 313-325 A.D.
Short Papers on Church History, (1874 ed.) Vol. 1, pp. 369-70 Scarcely had the outward peace of the church been secured by the edict of Milan, when it was distracted by internal dissensions.... the Arian controversy, which had its origin in the East, extended to every part of the world.... as the bitter fruit of the unscriptural union of the church with the State.... 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 7
Questions of doctrine and practice produced an agitation throughout the whole church, and not the church only, but they exercised a powerful political influence on the affairs of the world. This was unavoidable from the new position of the church. The empire being now Christian, at least in principle, such questions were of world-wide interest and importance. Hence the Arian controversy was the first that rent asunder the whole body of Christians, and arrayed in almost every part of the world the hostile parties in implacable opposition. Andrew Miller (1810-1883) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 8
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 9 The Dragon s Seat Revelation 13:2
The History of Protestantism, (1902 ed.) Vol. 1, p. 9 The removal of the seat of empire from Rome to the splendid city on the Bosphorus, Constantinople [330 A.D.], which the emperor had built with becoming magnificence for his residence, also tended to enhance the power of the Papal chair. It removed from the side of the Pope a functionary by whom he was eclipsed, and left him the first person in the old capital of the world.... James Aitken Wylie (1808-1890) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 10
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 11 The Waldenses The Most Ancient of Heretics
General History of the Christian Religion and Church, (1871 ed) Vol. 4, 5 th Pd., 4, p. 605... the Waldenses... asserted the high antiquity of their sect, and maintained that from the time of the secularization of the church that is, as they believed, from the time of Constantine s gift to the Roman bishop Silvester [314-336 A.D.] such an opposition as finally broke forth in them, had been existing all along.... Johann August Wilhelm (August Neander) (1789-1850) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 12
The Israel of the Alps, (1875 ed.) Vol. 2, p. 406... the ancient autonomy of the diocese of Milan, to which the Vaudois valleys at an early period belonged, and which was then so far from submitting to the supremacy of the Holy See,... was completely independent of the Romish church.... The patois [the Romaunt language] of the Vaudois valleys has a radical structure... The origin of this patois was anterior to [before] the growth of Italian and French... The existence of this patois is of itself a proof of the high antiquity of these mountaineers, and of their constant preservation from foreign intermixture and changes. Their popular idiom is a precious monument. Alexis Muston (1810-1888) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 13
An Inquiry into the History of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses, (1838 ed.), bk. 3, ch. 1, pp. 274-75, 279, 281 Reinerius, a writer of the thirteenth century, tells us: that, In the judgment of some inquirers, the Leonists had existed from the time of Pope Sylvester. Pilichdorf, another writer of the thirteenth century, tells us: that, The persons, who claimed to have thus existed from the time of Pope Sylvester, were the Valdenses. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 14
The direct and positive testimony, then, of Reinerius,... assures us: that The Leonists were, as a sect, older, than either the Manicheans or the Arians or the Runcarians or any one of the more than seventy sects of heretics that had once existed. And he assigns this, their undoubted high antiquity, as the first and foremost of the three special reasons why they were so injurious to the Church of Rome. George Stanley Faber (1773-1854) [emphasis in the original] 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 15
The Works of Voltaire, Vol. 29 (1906 ed.), pp. 227, 242...The inhabitants of those countries [Gaul] appear to have always had an inclination to abide by the customs of the primitive church, and to reject the tenets and customs which the church in its more flourishing state judged convenient to adopt.... Those who were called Manichaeans, and those who were afterward named Albigenses, Vaudois, Lollards, and who appeared so often under different names, were remnants of the first Gaulish [Celtic] Christians, who were attached to several ancient customs, which the Church of Rome thought proper to alter afterward;... John Morley (1838-1923) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 16
Truth Triumphant, (2004 ed.), ch. 15, pp. 211-12 A distinction has long been recognized between the northern Italian peninsula and the central part, so that for more than one thousand years the bishoprics in northern Italy were called Italic, while those in central Italy were named Roman. Or, as Frederick Nolan says, in speaking of an early Latin Bible in this territory: The author perceived, without any labor of inquiry, that it (Italic Bible) derived its name from that diocese which has been termed the Italic, as contradistinguished from the Roman. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 17
The city of Milan in the northern part of the Italian peninsula has always been one of the most famous cities of history.... its authority was especially felt in Gaul and in Spain. It was the chief center of the Celts who lived on the Italian side of the Alps. Before it could come under the dominant influence of the Roman bishop, the Gothic armies had completed their conquest of Italy as well as France. These newcomers, who had been converted to Christ more than one hundred years previously, held fast to the usages and customs of the primitive church and did no harm to Milan. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 18
Since the Goths granted religious freedom to their subjects, Milan profited by it. When from all parts of Europe newly chosen bishops came to Rome to be consecrated, none appeared from the Italic dioceses of Milan and Turin.... for many years after 553 there was a widespread schism in northern Italy and adjacent lands between Rome and the bishops of nine provinces under the leadership of the bishop of Milan who renounced fellowship with Rome to become autonomous. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 19
... The people of this region knew the straight truth. They did not believe in the infallibility of the pope and did not consider that being out of communion with him was to be out of fellowship with the church. They held that their own ordination was as efficacious as the pretended apostolic succession of the bishop of Rome. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 20
While the Papacy was bringing much of Europe under her control, the two dioceses of Milan and Turin continued independent. It was unbearable to the Papacy that, in the very land in which was her throne, there should be a Mordecai in the gate. Two powerful forces nullified all her efforts to annex the Milan territory. First, the presence of the Lombard kings, unconquered until about 800, assured religious tolerance there. Moreover, the Lombards, like the Goths before them, rejected so many innovations brought in by Rome that they never admitted the papal bishops of Italy to a seat in their legislative councils. Therefore, they were promptly called Arians, the name given by Rome to her opponents. Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1872-1968) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 21
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 22 Its Early Heroes: Helvidius (c.250-340 A.D.) Jovinian (330-405) Vigilantius of Aquitaine (c.364-408)
Truth Triumphant, (2004 ed.), ch. 6, pp. 68-69 Helvidius, a so-called heresiarch [chief-heretic] of the fourth century, a layman who opposed the growing superstitions of the church... was a pupil of Auxentius, bishop of Milan, and the precursor of Jovinian. Duchesne points out that Auxentius, for twenty years at the head of the diocese of Milan, was from Asia Minor [Cappadocia] and impressed on those regions the Syrian leadership in Christianity. Daring in his scholarship, Helvidius accused Jerome [347-420 A.D.], as Jerome himself admits, of using corrupt Greek manuscripts. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 23
Jovinian (A.D. 330-390).... was so superior in scholarship that the united attempts of such learned advocates of the Papacy as Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose failed to overthrow his scriptural and historical arguments. Of him Albert H. Newman says: That the protest of Jovinianus awakened great interest and received influential support is evident from the excited polemics of Jerome, and from the public proceedings that were instituted against him in Rome and Milan.... The persistence of the influence of Jovinianus is seen in the movement led by Vigilantius. It is not unlikely that followers of Jovinianus took refuge in the Alpine valleys, and there kept alive the evangelical teaching that was to reappear with vigor in the twelfth century. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 24
Ibid, ch. 6, pp. 73-74, 213-14 Vigilantius... The new leader of the churches which had not united with the state spent his fortune in collecting manuscripts, circulating the Scriptures, and employing amanuenses [translators] to write pamphlets, tracts, and books....... those in the regions under consideration [Northern Italy], were determined to follow the Bible only. They were growing in strength, and were coming closer together. Under the impetus of the campaigns of Vigilantius, a new organization was being created, destined to persist through the coming centuries.... 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 25
Vigilantius has been called the Forerunner of the Reformation, one of the earliest of our Protestant forefathers.... the influence of his preaching and leadership among the Waldenses burned its way across the centuries until it united with the heroic reforms of Luther.... From the days of the Gallic reformer on, multiplied churches of northern Italy and southern France bore an entirely different color from that which rested upon legal ecclesiasticism. Thus, Vigilantius, in southern Europe, like his contemporary, Patrick, of Ireland, can be counted as being one of the early bright stars of the Church in the Wilderness. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 26
... The teachings and organizing ability of Vigilantius gave leadership to the evangelical descendants of the apostles in northern Italy, southern France, and northern Spain.... As those who preserved primitive Christianity multiplied on the continent and as they contacted the Celts of the British Isles and the Church of the East, they discovered that they were one in their essential beliefs. Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1872-1968) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 27
02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 28 The Church of Britain: Patrick of Scotland (c.360-c.460(493) A.D.) Columba of Scotland (521-597) Dinooth of Whales (c.530-610) Columbanus of Ireland (543-615) Aidan of Ireland (c.570-651)
The Culdee Church, (1868 ed.), ch. 3, p. 19... Christianity was introduced into Scotland very near to, if not during the lives of the Apostles. Thomas Verner Moore (1818-1871) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 29
Truth Triumphant, (2004 ed.), ch. 7, pp. 79-80 Celtic Christianity embraced more than Irish and British Christianity. There was a Gallic (French) Celtic Christianity and a Galatian [Asian] Celtic Christianity, as well as a British Celtic Christianity. So great were the migrations of peoples in ancient times that not only the Greeks, but also the Assyrians settled in large numbers in the land now called France. Thus for almost a thousand years after Christ there was in southern France a strong Greek and Oriental population. As late as 600, there were people in France who spoke the language of Assyria. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 30
Surely no one could claim that that branch of Celtic Christianity in Asia Minor [Galatians], whose churches arose as the result of the labors of the apostle Paul, received their gospel from the bishop of Rome. On the other hand, it is evident that Gaul received her knowledge of the gospel from missionaries who traveled from Asia Minor. It was the Celtic, or Galatian type of the New Testament church which evangelized Great Britain. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 31
Patrick preached the Bible. He appealed to it as the sole authority for founding the Irish Church.... The training centers he founded, which later grew into colleges and large universities, were all Bible schools. Famous students of these schools Columba, who brought Scotland to Christ, Aidan, who won pagan England to the gospel, and Columbanus with his successors, who brought Christianity to Germany, France, Switzerland, and Italy took the Bible as their only authority, and founded renowned Bible training centers for the Christian believers. One authority, describing the handwritten Bibles produced at these schools, says, In delicacy of handling and minute but faultless execution, the whole range of paleography offers nothing comparable to these early Irish manuscripts. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 32
Illumination 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 33
Ibid, ch. 8, p. 101... Columba became especially skillful in the art of copying and illuminating manuscripts. Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1872-1968) 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 34
Saint Columba of Iona, (1920 ed.), ch. 6, pp. 68, 70-71 We have left to the last one of the most important occupations of the monks of lona, the practice of writing and the transcription of the Scriptures. In this as in everything connected with the spread of Christianity in Scotland, we have to look to Ireland for the history and development of the art. Letters were known in Ireland before St. Patrick s day: he used to instruct his disciples in the art of writing. The characters, and designs used by these early scribes were probably of Byzantine origin and would come to Ireland from Ravenna through Gaul. 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 35
... early Irish manuscripts have features peculiar to Ireland, similar interlacings are found in early Italian [Waldensian] churches, especially in those of Ravenna.... when the first missionaries came to Ireland bringing copies of the Gospels, they naturally brought this art with them. The object of the writing was, of course, to multiply copies of the Scriptures.... the monks would study and learn the Wisdom of the Holy Scripture. For the monasteries then were not like the monasteries of our day: they were rather the universities where men about to found churches and monasteries of their own came to be trained.... the monks also learned Latin and Hebrew and Greek, and could read manuscripts in these languages. Lucy Menzies [emphasis is mine] 02/15/14 Our English Bible - Part 3 36
The End Part 4