Era of Spiritual Darkness
49
time and for eternity, seemed under his control. For hundreds of years
the doctrines of Rome had been extensively and implicitly received, its
rites reverently performed, its festivals generally observed. Its clergy
were honored and liberally sustained. Never since has the Roman
Church attained to greater dignity, magnificence, or power.
But “the noon of the papacy was the midnight of the world.”—J. A.
Wylie, The History of Protestantism, b. 1, ch. 4. The Holy Scriptures
were almost unknown, not only to the people, but to the priests. Like
the Pharisees of old, the papal leaders hated the light which would
reveal their sins. God’s law, the standard of righteousness, having
been removed, they exercised power without limit, and practiced vice
without restraint. Fraud, avarice, and profligacy prevailed. Men shrank
from no crime by which they could gain wealth or position. The
palaces of popes and prelates were scenes of the vilest debauchery.
Some of the reigning pontiffs were guilty of crimes so revolting that
secular rulers endeavored to depose these dignitaries of the church
as monsters too vile to be tolerated. For centuries Europe had made
no progress in learning, arts, or civilization. A moral and intellectual
paralysis had fallen upon Christendom.
The condition of the world under the Romish power presented a
fearful and striking fulfillment of the words of the prophet Hosea: “My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected
knowledge, I will also reject thee: ... seeing thou hast forgotten the
law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.” “There is no truth, nor
mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying,
and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out,
and blood toucheth blood.”
Hosea 4:6, 1, 2
. Such were the results of
banishing the word of God.
[61]