Study: The Number Of
Bible-Believing Christians
Killed By Roman Catholic Popes
“And I saw that the Woman
was drunk with the blood of the saints
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her,
I wondered with great amazement.”
(Revelation 17:6)
Introduction
(Note: Introduction & Epilogue added and written by the Editor of www.TheProphecies.com)
Before we start, it is important to remember that God, the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, never forces Himself on anyone.
Never in the Bible does Jesus Christ try to force anybody to believe in Him or to attend His church. Jesus simply says that He “Stands at the door and knocks.”
We have to open that door. God tells us that He has given each and every man and woman a free will to decide for themselves whether or not to accept His Offer of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.
He clearly outlines the choice, and sincerely warns us of the consequences if we reject His offer. It is a personal decision. God says that He looks at each man and woman’s heart to see if they are sincere in their belief.
Jesus Christ is looking for people to come to Him out of love.
If a man or woman ever decides not to believe in Jesus, that is their choice. It saddens God for He knows what their destiny will be after they die. But, never does He ask others to force a non-believer to return, or try to force them into believing through threats of injury or death.
The following study which documents the efforts of Popes to silence (or eliminate) those people (“Protestants” and Jews) who disagreed with the Roman Church’s (and Pope’s) theology over the years, might come as a surprise to some, especially to those precious Roman Catholic church-goers who are unaware of their church’s well-documented history.
In the Vatican’s archives there are literally “miles” of files documenting individual cases throughout the Inquisitions.
These documents even detail and describe the various torture methods used, how each man, woman, or child responded to the tortures, and then recorded any “confessions” that may have come forth during the process.
Many of the torture chambers used by the Roman Church Inquisitors are now popular tourist attractions in Europe.
As a note, the term “Protestant” was given to those Christian men, women, and children who were arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and violently put to death for their opposition and “protesting” against the Roman Church (and Popes) for adding, teaching, and enforcing unbiblical doctrines and rules that were/are not found in the Bible.
If you do your homework, you will find these “Protestants” who were tortured and killed by the papacy were mostly church-going Catholics (both Luther and Calvin were devout Catholic priests) who simply started reading and studying the Bible on their own, and were then brutally beaten or killed for doing so, because it doesn’t take long to see that many (not all) Roman Catholic dogmas and teachings contradict the Bible, and people (Catholics) all through Europe quickly started leaving the church in droves.
That is why it was illegal (and punishable by death) to even own a Bible (when the Popes still had the power to enforce such things).
The reason for posting the University Study found below is because we are now warning (from a Bible Prophecy perspective) that they, the Roman Church, will (and we think soon) once again gain and wield such lethal power.
The excerpt below helps document exactly where the common estimate of 50,000,000 people killed on the orders of Roman Popes came from. (“Yes!”… that’s 50 million!!!)
Never in the history of all Mankind has one Kingdom, Religion, or Leader ever destroyed as many human beings as the Roman Church and its Popes have over these years.
The prophecy of this “church” (the “Woman” in Revelation 17 which we reviewed earlier) describes her horrific treacheries as follows:
“And I saw that the Woman
was DRUNK with the blood of the saints
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her,
I wondered with great amazement.”
(Revelation 17:6)
The Apostle John wondered “with great amazement” because this “Woman” claims to be a Christian church!!
Please note, the Roman Church has never yet removed those laws which they used to arrest, imprison, torture, and execute millions of innocent men, women, boys, and girls.
It’s all in the history books.
But, it is becoming much more difficult to find as the history books (and web-sites) are steadily being “sanitized.”
We can even now find the Jesuits being presented as pink-cheeked Boy Scouts, while no longer hearing about the 80+ times they have been expelled from many, many different nations (and they have even been expelled by Catholic Popes on a couple of occasions), or of the millions upon millions of Bible-believing Christians, Jews, and native Latin-Americans they have ruthlessly slaughtered over the years.
If some of this may sound a little too uncompromising or urgent, I apologize, but, it’s only because it appears we are dealing with a major Bible prophecy concerning the Roman Church (The “Woman” of Revelation 17) which now seems to be rising very quickly before our eyes, and will one day soon affect the lives of billions of people across the World.
A Command from our Lord, Jesus Christ …
“But I say to you,
Love your enemies,
Bless those who curse you,
Do good to those who hate you, and
Pray for those who spitefully use you
and persecute you”
(Matthew 5:44)
So, all Christians are commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ to love and to pray for our enemies (even the Pope), and not to ever imprison, torture, and slaughter them (or anyone) for having a belief which is any different from what we believe!
A TIMELINE:
The Bloody History of Papal Rome—A Timeline
Author: Darryl Eberhart and Amazing Discoveries™
(https://amazingdiscoveries.org/timeline-of-bloody-history-of-papal-rome-oppression-of-protestants)
“In Daniel we read that one of the characteristics of the Antichrist is that it would wear out the saints of the Most High:
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws (Daniel 7:25).
The Papacy has a long history of “wearing out” the saints of the Most High. Below is a timeline of the generally aggressive history of the Roman Catholic Church, but the most tragic one that concerns the Word of God is the persecution during the Middle Ages of anyone daring to oppose the Church. The Bible predicts that the saints of the Most High would be persecuted for 1260 years.
Historian J. A. Wylie said this:
It is idle in Rome to say, “I gave you the Bible, and therefore you must believe in me before you can believe in it.” The facts…conclusively dispose of this claim. Rome did not give us the Bible—she did all in her power to keep it form us; she retained it under the seal of a dead language; and when others broke that seal, and threw open its pages to all, she stood over the book, and unsheathing her fiery sword, would permit none to read the message of life, save at the peril of eternal anathema” (emphasis in original).i
During these years of oppression in which the masses were kept in ignorance and the priest held sway over every aspect of life, here and there arose individuals willing to shine a light into the darkness. Dave Hunt tells us that because they rejected transubstantiation, “Christians were burned at the stake by Roman Catholics by the hundreds of thousands.”ii
In 1940, French statesman Baron DePonnat stated, “Roman Catholicism was born in blood, has wallowed in blood, and has quenched its thirst in blood, and it is in letters of blood that its true history is written.” Indeed, the history of papal Rome has been one of brutal torture, slaughter, and mass murder.”
A Bloody Past
1096: Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter half the Jews in Worms, Germany.
1098: Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter almost all of the inhabitants of the city of Antioch.
1099: Roman Catholic crusaders massacre 70,000 Muslims and Jews when they capture Jerusalem.
1208 – 1226: The Albigensian Crusades in southern France. Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter approximately 20,000 citizens of Beziers, France, on July 22, 1209. Albigensian Christians and Catholics were slain. By the time the Roman Catholic armies finished their “crusade,” almost the entire population of southern France (mostly Albigensian Christians) has been exterminated. During the six centuries of papal Inquisition that began in the 13th century, up to 50 million people were killed. Read what J. A. Wylie’s The History of Protestantism has to say about the Crusades against the Abigenses
1236: Roman Catholic crusaders slaughter Jews in the Anjou and Poitou regions of western France. The Catholic crusaders trample to death under their horses 3000 Jews who refuse baptism.
1243: Roman Catholic mobs burn alive all the Jews in Berlitz, Germany (near Berlin).
1298: Roman Catholic mobs burn alive all Jews in Rottingen, Germany.
April 26, 1349: Roman Catholic mobs burn to death all Jews in Germersheim, Germany.
1348 – 1349: The Jews are blamed for the bubonic plague. Author Dave Hunt tells us, “Accused of causing the ‘Black Death’ Jews were rounded up [by Roman Catholic mobs] and hanged, burned, and drowned by the thousands in revenge.”
1389: Roman Catholic mobs murder 3000 Jews in Prague when they refuse to be baptized.
1481 – 1483: At the direction of the Roman Catholic inquisitors, authorities burn at the stake at least 2000 people during the first two years of the Spanish Inquisition.
1540 – 1570: Roman Catholic armies butcher at least 900,000 Waldensian Christians of all ages during this 30-year period.
1550 – 1560: Roman Catholic troops slaughter at least 250,000 Dutch Protestants via torture, hanging, and burning during this ten-year period.
1553 – 1558: Roman Catholic Queen Mary I of England (aka “bloody Mary”) attempts to bring England back under the yoke of papal tyranny. During her reign, approximately 200 men and woman are burned to death at the sake. Her victims include bishops, scholars, and other Protestant leaders.
Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Assassinat_de_Coligny_et_massacre_de_la_Saint-Barth%C3%A9lemy.jpg
Public Domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Assassinat_de_Coligny_et_massacre_de_la_Saint-Barth%C3%A9lemy.jpg…
1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. French Roman Catholic soldiers begin killing Protestants in Paris on the night of August 24, 1572. The soldiers kill at least 10,000 Protestants during the first three days. At least 8000 more Protestants are killed as the slaughter spreads to the countryside.
1618 – 1648: The Thirty Years’ War. This bloody, religious war is planned, instigated, and orchestrated by the Roman Catholic Jesuit order and its agents in an attempt to exterminate all the Protestants in Europe. Many countries in central Europe lose up to half their population.
1641 – 1649: Eight years of Jesuit-instigated Roman Catholic butchery of Irish Protestants claims the lives of at least 100,000 Protestants.
1685: French Roman Catholic soldiers slaughter approximately 500,000 French Protestant Huguenots on the orders of Roman Catholic King Louis 14 of France.
THE DETAILS OF THE ROMAN INQUISITIONS:
Number of Protestants Killed By Popes
Excerpted from the University Study:
“Estimates of the Number Killed by the Papacy in the Middle Ages and Later” by David A. Plaisted © 2006
(www.cs.unc.edu/~plaisted/estimates.doc –)
Excerpts from the University Research Study:
“It is often claimed by historic Protestant writers that 50 million or more people have been killed by the Papacy. For example, Buck [Buck, Charles, A Theological Dictionary, containing Definitions of All Religious Terms; Philadelphia, Thomas Cowperthwait & Co., 1838, article “Persecution”, p. 335] writes,
“It has been computed that fifty millions of Protestants have at different times been the victims of the persecutions of the Papists, and put to death for their religious opinions.”
However, most people today have no idea how this figure of 50 million was originally computed. Some persons today are claiming that this figure of 50 million has no basis in fact and is an exaggeration based on anti-Catholic sentiment.
Therefore it is of interest to find out how this figure was originally computed in order to evaluate its reliability. This study reveals some aspects of history that are being neglected today and also gives us an insight into the extent to which the true history of religion is being lost. This study also shows how some of the other figures were computed.
There were many attempts to calculate the number killed by the Papacy. Albert Barnes, in his commentary on Revelation 11:14, states, “Calculations, more or less accurate, have been made of the numbers Popery has slain….”
We give one plausible method of computation for the often quoted figure of 50 million killed by the Papacy in Europe.
As a starting point, John Wesley speaks of “the whole number of victims who have been offered up in Europe since the beginning of the Reformation? Partly by war, partly by the Inquisition, and a thousand other methods of Romish cruelty? No less within forty years, if the computation of an eminent writer be just, than five and forty millions!” John Wesley, “Doctrine of Original Sin”, Part I, section II.8, 1757, Wesley’s Works, edited by Thomas Jackson, vol. 9, pp. 217-19. He also wrote,
“Some have computed, that, from the year 1518 to 1548, fifteen million of Protestants have perished by war and the Inquisition. This may be overcharged, but certainly the number of them in these thirty years, as well as since is almost incredible.
To these we may add innumerable martyrs, in ancient, middle, and late ages, in Bohemia, Germany, Holland, France, England, Ireland, and many other parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. (from the commentary on the book of Revelation in Wesley’s “Explanatory Notes on the New Testament,” fifth edition, 1788)
Also, Bennet [Bennet, Benjamin, Several discourses against popery, Lawrence and Midwinter, London, 1714, p. 459] writes, “And some that have pretended to make a calculation, affirm, that in the space of 40 years Rome has been the death of 30 millions of people.
Also, Halley’s Bible Handbook, 1965 edition, page 726, referencing many older works on church history states “Historians estimate that, in the Middle Ages and Early Reformation Era, more than 50,000,000 Martyrs perished.”
Furthermore, speaking of Innocent III, Halley writes [p. 776],
“More Blood was Shed under his direction, and that of his immediate successors, than at any other period of Church History, except in the Papacy’s effort to Crush the Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries.”
In his introduction to [Berg, Lectures on Romanism, D. Weidner, Philadelphia, 1840, p. 6], Brownlee writes,
“Rome has been ‘drunk with the blood’ of fifty millions of martyred Culdees, Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemian Brethren, Wicklifites, and Protestants!” This at least gives a listing of those included in one of the computations of fifty million killed.
Voltaire wrote [Traite sur la Tolerance, 1763, Chapter XVII] “… depuis environ quatorze cents ans, la théologie a procuré le massacre de plus de cinquante (50) millions d’hommes.”
This shows that one of these computations of 50 million killed was accepted by Voltaire and approximately covered the period from 350 A.D. to 1750 A.D. In commenting on this figure, a web page maintained by Professor James MacLean of the Department of French and Spanish at Memorial University of Newfoundland says allusion aux Guerres de Religion, aux Croisades, etc.
Thus Prof. MacLean speculates that the 50 million figure is based on wars of religion, crusades, and other events.
These quotations give us important clues about the origin of the figure of 50 million killed by the Papacy in Europe. Another individual recalled to the author that this figure of 50 million consisted mostly of those killed after the beginning of the reformation, suggesting that this 50 million figure contained the 45 million figure.
Because Wesley quoted the figure of 15 million killed by war and the Inquisition, it is reasonable to conclude that this is part of the figure of 45 million, and that this figure of 45 million is part of the often quoted figure of 50 million.
The figure of 30 million killed in 40 years probably refers to a period including the Thirty Years’ War from 1618 to 1648. Thus the figure of 45 million is probably the sum of these two other figures of 15 million killed from 1518 to 1548 and 30 million killed in 40 years including the period from 1618 to 1648.
It is interesting that even in 1714, such computations were being done. In general, in reconstructing the computation, it is helpful to remember that these death tolls tend to decrease with time due to the influence of the Catholic Church, so that death tolls that are considered high today were probably used in the computation. For example, Lockman [A history of the cruel sufferings of the protestants, and others, by Popish persecutions, in various countries: together with a view of the reformations from the Church of Rome.
London: printed. And, Dublin: re-printed by J. Potts, 1763, p. 226] writes “that during the Huguenot wars in France, even when many Protestants were being forcibly converted to Catholicism the “Romish clergy” were claiming that these conversions were entirely voluntary.” Thus the Roman Catholic version of history will tend to reduce the magnitude of past persecutions.
In addition, the specific events covered in the computation of the 50 million figure were probably mentioned by later Protestants, even if the computation itself was not mentioned. Therefore it is best to restrict the computation to massacres listed, for example, by Brownlee and others. The time period for the figure of 45 million has now been reasonably established, but not the place.
For this, Burton [Burton, Robert, Martyrs in flames: or, the history of Popery, Bettesworth and Batley, London, 1729] lists in the table of contents the following persecutions: Piedmont, France, Orange, Bohemia, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Flanders, Scotland, Ireland, and England. This seems to be the most exhaustive list of persecutions of any of the sources examined, indicating the areas in which the principal persecutions took place.
In fact, Buck [Buck, Charles, A Theological Dictionary, containing Definitions of All Religious Terms; …, Philadelphia, Thomas Cowperthwait & Co., 1838, article “Persecution”] writes, speaking of the time after the Protestant Reformation,
“The inquisition, which was established in the twelfth century against the Waldenses … was now more effectually set to work. Terrible persecutions were carried on in various parts of Germany, and even in Bohemia, which continued about thirty years, and the blood of the saints was said to flow like rivers of water. The countries of Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary, were in a similar manner deluged with Protestant blood [p. 333].”
This suggests that the principal areas of persecution included Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary. Also, Bennet [Bennet, Benjamin, Several discourses against popery, Lawrence and Midwinter, London, 1714, p. 457] writes
“Germany, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania &c. have in their turns been deluged in blood.”
Thus the time and place of the major persecutions contributing to the 50 million figure have been determined with reasonable confidence.
It remains to estimate numbers killed in each of these persecutions and show that they add up to 50 million.
Although it is not yet possible to give a full accounting, one can assign reasonable totals to these persecutions that do add up to 50 million.
A large portion of the figure of 45 million is covered by the thirty years’ war, the conflict in Bohemia, the civil wars and persecutions in France, and 15 million killed from 1518 to 1548.
Now, the thirty years’ war lasted from 1618 to 1648 and estimates for those killed in this conflict range up to 14 million. The thirty years’ war started when Ferdinand II (1578-1648) tried to suppress Protestantism in the Holy Roman Empire.
As for where Ferdinand II got his motivation, “Emperor Ferdinand II, of the House of Hapsburg, had been educated by the Jesuits; and with their help undertook to suppress Protestantism.” (Halley, p. 792)
“The sons and daughters of the rich and noble they [the Jesuits] sought by every means to bring under their influence, and they were soon the favorite confessors in the imperial court and in many of the royal courts of Europe. …. It was their policy to … instill into their minds [the rich and the noble] an undying hatred of every form of opposition to the Catholic faith. … When they had once molded a ruler to their will and made him the subservient instrument of their policy, they were ever at his side dictating to him the measures to be employed for the eradication of heresy and the complete reformation of his realm according to the Jesuit ideal, and they were ever ready, with full papal authority, to conduct inquisitorial work.” [Newman, pp. 374-375]
Lindsay [A History of the Reformation, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1922, pp. 607-608] writes,
“Many Romanist Princes had no wish to persecute, still less to see their provinces depopulated by banishment. … Toleration of Protestants they [the Jesuits] represented to be the unpardonable sin. They succeeded in many cases in inducing Romanist rulers to withdraw the protection they had hitherto accorded to their Protestant subjects …. The League was the symbol in France of this Counter-Reformation. … they [the Jesuits] were the restless and ruthless organizers of the Holy League.”
Clarke [Clarke, Samuel, A looking-glass for persecutors, London, Printed for W. Miller, 1674, p. 52] writes,
“The emperor Ferdinand the second, was a great Persecutor of the Protestants in Bohemia and Germany, who after his victory over Frederick, Prince Palatine, and the Bohemian States, made it his work to root out the Protestant Religion in those Countries, and turned them into a very shambles of Blood, sparing neither Age, Sex, nor Rank that refused to abjure the Truth. But while he was in his full Career, God brought in against him a contemptible people [the Swedes] under whose swords most of those bloody wretches fell; who were the Bohemian scourges, so that much of Germany, and of the Emperors Country was a very Aceldama, a Field of Blood.”
A high estimate for the Thirty Years’ War is that the population of Germany was reduced from 20 million to 7 million, implying 13 million killed [Cushing B. Hassell, History of the Church of God, Chapter XVII]; actually the population should have increased by about 3 million during this time, so we can estimate 16 million killed.
Ploetz [Epitome of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern History, 1884, p. 312] writes of the “Terrible ravages committed by the bands of Wallenstein” in Germany in 1632 in Saxony. Also, in 1648, Ploetz [p. 315] writes,
“Terrible condition of Germany. Irreparable losses of men and wealth. Reduction of population; increase of poverty; retrogradation in all ranks.”
The war extended to other areas of Europe, and there was also a tremendous population loss there, so it would not be unreasonable to estimate 18 million killed altogether. In fact, one edition of Halley’s Bible Handbook states that estimates for this war reach as high as 20 million:
“The Thirty Years War had started as a Religious War; it ended as a Political War; it resulted in the deaths of 10,000,000 to 20,000,000. Jesuit educated Ferdinand II started it with the purpose of crushing Protestantism.
Halley, Henry H., Pocket Bible Handbook, Chicago, 13th edition, 1939, p. 418.
Pierre Miquel [Les guerres de religion, Paris : Fayard, c1980, p. 396] writes,
“Estimates for the number killed in the Huguenot wars in France range as high as 4 million, and probably almost all of these were killed by Catholics.”
In support of this figure, Albert Barnes in his commentary on Revelation 11:14 writes,
“In France several million were destroyed in the innumerable massacres that took place in that kingdom.”
If four million persons were killed in France in only forty years, the total killed in France could be considerably higher including those killed afterwards.
Concerning the persecutions in France, Southwell [Southwell, Henry, The new book of martyrs; or complete Christian martyrology. Containing an authentic and genuine historical account of the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ, in all parts of the world, … Imprint London : printed for J. Cooke, [1765?]] writes,
“Thus did popish malice pursue the reformed in most parts of France, and persecute them under various names, but the denomination about this time, viz. the sixteenth century, most obnoxious to the Roman Catholics were hugonots, protestants, Lutherans, and Calvinists; and as these words were then synonymous in their meaning, and implied renouncing the errors of the church of Rome, so all who were apprehended under the imputation of belonging to either, were equally martyred. Yet the reformed flourished under persecution….” [p. 93]
“The king [of France] publically declared he would exterminate the protestants from France….” “The general cry was ‘Turn papists, or die.’” [p. 108]
“Those who were not put to death suffered imprisonment, had their houses pulled down, their lands laid waste, their property stolen, and their wives and daughters, after being ravished, sent into convents…. If any fled from these cruelties, they were pursued through the woods, hunted and shot like wild beasts….At the head of the dragoons, in all the provinces of France, marched the bishops, priests, friars, &c. the clergy being ordered to keep up the cruel spirit of the military. An order was published for demolishing all protestant churches….” [pp. 108-109]
Adding 15 million for the period 1518 to 1548 and 18 million for the thirty years’ war and 3 million for Bohemia and 4 million for France gives 40 million, nearly agreeing with Wesley’s estimate.
The remaining 5 million persons can be accounted for by the persecutions in Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, and elsewhere. Some of these estimates may be on the high side, but many smaller conflicts and persecutions have been left out, such as the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the killing of probably millions of witches.
Another example is the persecution of the Waldensians; Halley’s Bible handbook, 1965 estimates 900,000 Protestants killed from 1540 to 1570 in the persecution of the Waldenses. At least this method of computation gives us a good idea where the figure of 45 million comes from and takes the mystery out of its origin.
Also, Wesley in his diary of January 16, 1760 quotes Sir John Davis in his “Historical Relations Concerning Ireland” as stating that “from 1600 to 1641, the general massacre, with the ensuing war, again thinned their numbers; not so few as a million of men, women, and children, being destroyed in four years’ time.”
The rebellion in 1641 killed more than 150,000 Protestants in Ireland, by the priests’ own computations, and many others died later.
This shows how quickly religious wars consume lives. Similar numbers were killed in a short time in France, Bohemia, and especially Germany.
Thus it is reasonable to conclude that in the countries of Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania, at least four million persons were killed at about the time of the thirty years’ war.
With the million persons killed in Ireland and the 40 million figure computed above, this yields 45 million killed since the Reformation.
Almost all of these would be Protestants, because Protestants do not generally massacre Catholics but Catholics in the past have often massacred Protestants.
In a similar way, with the religious conflicts raging in Europe from 1518 to 1548, it is reasonable to assume that 15 million persons were killed then.
Now, to obtain 50 million, one has to include those killed before the Protestant Reformation. For this, estimates for the Hundred Years’ War from 1337-1453 range up to 10 million killed, and this war could have been furthered by the Papacy, as nearly all other European wars were.
(See Philip Pregill, Landscapes in History, 2d Ed. estimating the population loss in France at 6.3 million and Frederic J. Baumgartner, France in the Sixteenth Century estimating the population loss in France at 10 million, taken from a web page by Matthew White. Both sources deny that the Black Death caused most of these deaths.)
In fact, the reconquest of Spain from the Mohammedans took several centuries, so it is reasonable to estimate the number killed in this war at well over 10 million. W. C. Brownlee estimates the slaughter of Saracens in Spain at 3 million, but other estimates are higher. Joseph Berg writes [Lectures on Romanism, D. Weidner, Philadelphia, 1840, p. 260],
“The stupid quarrels that have originated from disputes relative to ceremonies the most puerile have deluged Europe with blood….
“Disputes arose in connection with this ceremony [the investiture of prelates], which cost sixty-three battles, and the lives of many millions of men. Fra. Paolo says it cost eighty battles in Germany alone.
This question excited great troubles, particularly in Germany and England…. The Dictionnaire des Sciences states that it occasioned sixty battles under Henry IV., and sixty-eight under Henry V, his successor, in which two millions of men were slain.”
One can also list the Catholic crusade against the Albigenses in Southern France (from 1209-1229) with one to two million killed.
Newman [A Manual of Church History by Albert Henry Newman, The American Baptist Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1902, p. 461] speaks of many crusades against heretics in Europe:
“There were many crusades against heretics in Europe, as against the Albigenses (1208-1249) and against the Hussites (1420-1431). These were accompanied by the indiscriminate massacre of the helpless populations in the regions invaded.” Also, Brownlee in one place speaks of “millions of Albigenses and Waldenses” killed by Rome.
Computations for the total number of Waldenses killed can easily range into many millions, as shown elsewhere. These could make up the balance of the 50 million killed in Europe. But the persecutions only increased their numbers, by scattering them in many lands.
Likewise in Germany there was an infinite number of them killed.”
Concerning persecutions in Bohemia before the Reformation, Southwell [Southwell, Henry, The new book of martyrs; or complete Christian martyrology. Containing an authentic and genuine historical account of the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ, in all parts of the world, … Imprint London : printed for J. Cooke, [1765?]] writes,
“In the year 1460, the king of Bohemia published a very severe edict against all protestants; commanding the Bohemian nobility and magistrates, not only to seize them wherever they could find them on their estates, and within their districts, but to pursue them to their retreats, to hunt them in their recesses, and to do everything they possibly could toward their extirpation.” [p. 184]
“In the year 1510, an edict was prepared for ordering an immediate and general massacre of all the protestants that could be found in Bohemia….” [p. 185]
Concerning the Cathari, who were similar to the Waldenses, near the end of the twelfth century “The Dominican Rainerius gave 4,000,000 as a safe estimate of their number and declared this was according to a census made by the Cathari themselves” [Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 8 volumes (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s, 1910; reprint, 1978), Volume V, Chapter X].
Of course nearly all of the Cathari were killed.
They were said to be very zealous for their faith, and few would have recanted. In addition, if the Cathari conducted a census, they must have been a cohesive group.
There must have been many other “heretics” that had similar beliefs but were not part of the Cathari; it would be reasonable to estimate at least 8 million when these were included.
This would imply that the number of those killed by the Papacy before the Reformation was 8 million or more, especially when one considers the hundreds of years that elapsed since the Papacy was established.
The population of Europe from 1100 to 1500 averaged about 65 million people. If one percent of the population was sometimes burnt as witches per year, one can assume that on the average half a percent of the population was slain each year as heretics altogether.
This would amount to an average of about 300,000 persons killed per year for 400 years, or 120 million persons total killed during these four hundred years.
These figures do not even consider those killed in the New World and non-Christians killed in Europe and Asia …”
<End of Excerpt>
“Little children, it is the last hour,
and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming,
so now many antichrists have come.
Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
They went out from us (the early Christian Church),
But they were not of us.”
(1 John 2:18-19)
EPILOGUE
(Note: Epilogue added and written by the Editor of www.TheProphecies.com)
Please Remember . . .
The Kingdom of Heaven is available to every man, woman, boy, and girl in this world, no matter who they are, where they live, or what they have done. It is freely offered to any and all who will receive it.
Jesus died rejected and alone on the Cross. The Bible, God’s Word, tells us that it was not the nails which were driven through His hands and feet that kept Jesus on the Cross, it was His love for you. He willingly and lovingly took the penalty and punishment for all of your sins. Each and every one of them, regardless how big or how small. Your debt, paid in full, by Him. Through God’s grace, you simply need to accept it and believe it. It is free to everybody. It is available to everybody. But, God has given each of us the free will to make our own choice. We must choose to accept it. We must choose to believe it.
If you sincerely believe Jesus (Yeshua) lovingly suffered and died on the Cross for all of your sins, and was buried and Resurrected on the third day and then ask Him to come into your life as Lord while honestly trying to turn away from all those things God says are wrong, you will go to Heaven.
With open arms and with tears of joy He will receive all who will come to Him in faith and in love … it’s God’s Promise!!!
“For God so loved the World
that He gave His only begotten Son (as a gift),
that whoever believes in Him
should not perish (in Hell)
but have everlasting life (in Heaven).
For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him
might be saved (into Heaven).
He who believes in Him is not condemned (to Hell);
but he who does not believe
is condemned already.“
(John 3:16-18)
Millions have been burned alive for simply believing what God says in the Bible …
“For by GRACE you have been saved
through FAITH,
and that not of yourselves;
It is the GIFT of God,
NOT of works,
lest anyone should boast.”
(Ephesians 2:8-9)
The Bible clearly says eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven is a free GIFT from God and all we have to do is receive that gift through love and faith in the One who lovingly paid for all of our sins on the Cross.
God tells us in the Bible we are saved into Heaven by our faith alone.
No additional works or rules ever added by Man (or a church) is needed, lest any man or woman should boast in how “good” they were or how they “earned” it by being better than others or following some church’s empty rules that were never given by God.
Just read your Bible!!!
Sincerely admit to God that you have sinned against His laws and rules, repent (turn away) from those sinful activities, and then place your sincere faith (and love) in Jesus Christ who loved you enough to suffer and die for all of your sins so He can one day welcome you with open arms and with tears of joy into His Kingdom of Heaven.
Don’t ever let any man (or woman) convince you that you have to earn your way into Heaven or that you’re not good enough. It’s a gift. Just lovingly receive it in faith, and then God will put a joy into your heart that will carry you through the terrible trials and suffering found in this life where Satan will try to rob you of your faith, while God is lovingly testing your faith.
Simply tell Jesus you love Him and you believe He suffered and died for all of your sins and that He was raised from the dead on the third day (exactly as the Scriptures had foretold), and that you’ll sincerely try to turn away from all your sins.
Then, my friend, just let Him lead your way … and finally … “Welcome Home!!!”
Grace and Shalom