Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians - Way of Life Literature

the absolute papacy” (Philip Schaff, History of the ChristianChurch, I, p. 15). He solidified this unscriptural andblasphemous office, which claims to be the head of allchurches of the world. It was Gregory who established thePapal States upon the dying carcass of the old Roman Empire,replacing secular Rome with ecclesiastical Rome andhastening the “christianization of paganism.”ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181-1226) was the founder ofthe Franciscan Order. Born to the family of a wealthynobleman, Francis allegedly heard a voice when in his 20stelling him to repair a ruined church. Absconding with a loadof colored drapery from his father’s shop, he sold it for goldand tried to give it to the church. Aer that he told his fatherthat he was no longer under his jurisdiction since he haddevoted himself to God. He dedicated himself to “celibacy”and married “Lady Poverty.” His “friars” took vows ofobedience, poverty, and chastity, and traveled two-by-twopreaching and begging. e Catholic Encyclopedia saysFrancis saw a vision of the seraph angels and received “thestigmata” or visible wounds of Jesus in his own body. Manystories are told in Catholic literature of Francis’ strangerelationship with animals. On one occasion he pleaded withthe people of a village to feed a wolf that had ravished theirsheep, calling him “Brother Wolf.” On another he preached tohis “little brethren the birds.” Francis received the blessing ofPope Innocent III, the founder of the brutal Inquisition. eFranciscans and the Dominicans were appointed by one ofInnocent’s successors, Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241), at thehead of the Inquisition, with papal authority to destroy BiblebelievingChristians wherever they were found. ey did agood job of it for half a millennium, developing a massive spynetwork (all citizens from ages 12 to 14 and older throughoutCatholic territories were sworn as spies of the Inquisition andwere required to reveal all offenders), capturing andimprisoning and impoverishing and torturing and burning410