The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Antichristian Principle Denounced by Churchmen

Great changes are seldom made by a single drastic action. More often, in fact, nearly always, they are brought about by a slight veering away from the original course, caused by decisions which had to be made and for which there were no precedents. But these steps, once taken, generally and quite logically lead on to others. The divergence from the original pattern becomes wider, but is still defensible and apparently justifiable. However, it commonly leads to more decisions in the wrong direction. Thus the deviation gains momentum, and finally a course is taken and an end achieved that is far from the one originally intended. Indeed, it is often diametrically opposite to the one set forth by the founder. This very development came to pass, unfortunately, within the Christian church. One such important milestone in the tragic development is to be seen in the life and reign of Pope Gregory I. PFF1 518.1

“If Leo drew the outline of the mediaeval Papacy, Gregory made it a living power. He issued the first declaration of independence and assumed actual jurisdiction over the whole Western Church.” ¹ PFF1 518.2

We find Gregory denouncing as an antichristian principle the claim of one man—the rival Patriarch of Constantinople—to be Universal Bishop. Nevertheless, his energetic policy was destined to build up the Papacy toward the realization of that very principle. And in time the universal bishops at Rome as Gregory’s successors did not hesitate to call themselves—became temporal princes, and makers and unmakers of kings. The Augustinian ideal of the churchly millennial kingdom came to hold sway—the Civitas Dei, under the headship of the Roman pope, ruling on earth, with secular rulers as the temporal administrators of the one kingdom of God on earth. The protest of Gregory against pride and self-seeking was forgotten. PFF1 518.3

But after several centuries, when corruption and venality became so evident, in the ninth and tenth centuries, as to draw attention to the contrast between the high pretensions and the actual practices of the Papacy, then we again hear echoes of Gregory’s epithets. Solitary voices began to cry out sporadically that Antichrist might appear, in all likelihood, in the very seat of the one who proclaimed himself to be the vicar of Christ on earth. Or, even more specifically, that such claims might constitute the fulfillment of what Paul had prophesied in his second epistle to the Thessalonians. Let us look at Gregory I, and then sketch some of the developments which led to the protest voiced at the Synod of Rheims. PFF1 519.1