The fourth in the series of lectures on “Religious Legislation,” being delivered at the Bible-rooms, No. 28 College place, was given by Elder Jones to the usual full house last night. The speaker said: I want to call your attention to the making of the Papacy, the root of all the trouble and persecution that has resulted in the making of rebellions from that time to this. Last evening we proved that governments have no right to legislate upon matters of religion. In looking into history we find the last effort paganism attempted to blot out Christianity was in the time of Diocletian. In the time of Constantine, Christianity had become world-wide and its followers so numerous that this emperor, seeing in it the only organization in the world whereby to control the people, and to bring order out of chaos, his successors, way back to Augustus, having but a precarious hold upon his throne, put himself at the head of the church, at the request of the Christian bishops, and then and there began the union of church and state andDIO April 3, 1889, page 4.1

THE FOUNDATION OF THE PAPACY

Constantine was simply a paganised political Christian, having assumed authority over the church merely as a political more to strengthen his hold upon the people and secure himself upon the throne. The bishops of the church at ... they represented Constantine that the church was a united body, and if he would place himself at the head of the church, with its power and the army at his back, he would be invincible. Constantine therefore, in A. D. 319, accepted the offer of the bishops, and the church then, for the first time, was enabled to bring the power of the civil government to enforce its decrees. Dr. Schaff says distinctly that Constantine was only a pagan, and “adopted Christianity only as a superstition, and placed it beside his pagan superstition,” and the result was of course a mixture of the two, and that was the religion of that day, and that was the papacy.DIO April 3, 1889, page 4.2

The lecturer then read from several authorities to show the condition of the church at that time, showing they were divided into over ninety different denominations, and as each one tried to convince the Emperor it was the strongest, violent meetings and brawlings constantly occurred, and the bishops of each church flattered Constantine with many titles and specious prophecies, so that finally, he, to flatter them in return, declared that the Catholic Church was the head of the world, but this led at once to the calling of council after council to decide which one wasDIO April 3, 1889, page 4.3

THE TRUE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Creed after creed being introduced, and being either accepted or rejected, made unity impossible, as either way would result in banishment and often death of bishops, and appeals for other councils for reconsideration, and the brawlings and contentions were so severe often that soldiers, always stationed about the council chamber, were called in to quell the disturbances. Many interesting facts were also presented from the writings of Eusebius and others to show the methods of exaltation the bishops used to raise Constantine into a god, each side trading their influence for what could be gained, showing a fearful state of iniquity that finally resulted in the papacy. He then went on to show that the authors, Eusebius especially, knew Constantine, whom they compared to Christ, was a murderer twenty times over, and a perpetual perjurer. Murdering his own wife, son, and nephew after becoming nominally a Christian, and perjuring himself hourly as policy and humor dictated, yet this is the man who took Sunday from its pagan origin and placed it in the Christian calendar as a day of religious worship for Christians, in opposition to the Sabbath of the Bible, the seventh day a Saturday. The lecturer then read from Neander to show that the object of the bishops in their union with Constantine was to organize a theocracy, or God government upon the earth, in imitation of the theocracy ofDIO April 3, 1889, page 4.4

THE ISRAEL OF GOD

actually claiming that Constantine was chosen by God for his position exactly as Moses had been, and even went so far as to compare the drowning of the other emperor of Rome, Maxentius—for there were two at the time—as a parallel to the drowning of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. Constantine, to follow out the simile, they suppose to cross in safety and to establish a theocracy. In this way did they create the foundation of the Papal power that ruled the world for twelve hundred and sixty years.DIO April 3, 1889, page 4.5

April 2, 1889

April 4, 1889