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The Antichrist Most Definitely Is Not a Person! 9

ous question -- “Should a sinful pope still be obeyed?” The Catholic answer is this: “A sinful
pope...remains a member of the (visible) church and is to be treated as a sinful, unjust ruler for
whom we must pray, but from whom we may not withdraw our obedience”(The Catholic Ency-
clopedia, Vol. 4, p. 435).

From 1305 to 1377 the papal palace was at Avignon in France. During this time Petrarch ac-
cused the papal household of “rape, adultery, and all manner of fornication.” In many parishes men
insisted on priests keeping concubines “as a protection for their own families!” (Halley’s Bible
Handbook, p. 778).

Pope John XXIII (1410-1415). During the Council of Constance, three popes, and sometimes
four, were every morning cursing each other and calling their opponents antichrists, demons, adul-
terers, sodomists, enemies of YEHOVAH and man. One of these “popes,” John XXIII, “was ac-
cused by thirty-seven witnesses (mostly bishops and priests) of fornication, adultery, incest,
sodomy, simony, theft, and murder! It was proved by a legion of witnesses that he had seduced and
violated three hundred nuns. His own secretary, Niem, said that he had at Boulogne, kept a harem,
where not less than two hundred girls had been the victims of his lubricity” (Chiniquy, The Priest,
the Woman, and the Confessional, p. 139). Altogether the Council charged him with 54 crimes of
the worst kind.

A Vatican record offers this information about his immoral and depraved reign: “His lord-
ship, Pope John, committed perversity with the wife of his brother, incest with holy nuns, inter-
course with virgins, adultery with the married, and all sorts of sex crimes...wholly given to sleep
and other carnal desires, totally adverse to the life and teaching of Christ...he was publicly called the
Devil incarnate” (Sacrorum Conciliorium, Vol. 27, p. 663). To increase his wealth, Pope John
taxed everything he could lay his hands on -- including prostitution, gambling, and usury. He has
been called “the most depraved criminal who ever sat on the papal throne.”

Pope Leo X (1513-1521). Leo was born in 1475, received his tonsure at age 7, was made abbot at 8
-- and a full-blown cardinal at 13! The Catholic Encyclopedia says that Pope Leo X “gave himself
up unrestrainedly to amusements that were provided in lavish abundance. He was possessed by an
insatiable love of pleasure...He loved to give banquets and expensive entertainments, accompanied
by revelry and carousing” (Vol. 9, pp. 162, 163).

During those days Martin Luther -- while still a priest of the Catholic Church -- traveled to
Rome. As he caught his first glimpse of the seven-hilled city, he fell to the ground and said: “Holy
Rome, I salute thee.” He wasn’t there long, however, before he realized that Rome was anything but
a holy city. Iniquity existed among all classes of the clergy. Priests told indecent jokes and used aw-
ful profanity -- even during Mass! The papal court was served at supper by twelve naked girls
(Durant, The Story of Civilization: The Reformation, p. 344). “No one can imagine what sins and
infamous actions are committed in Rome,” he said, “they must be seen and heard to be believed.
Thus they are in the habit of saying, ‘If there is a hell, Rome is built over it.’”

The Papacy is not ignorant of all this history. Malachi Martin (who is still a member of the
Roman Catholic Church) was a member of the Vatican under Pope John XXIII. In his book, The

The Berean Voice July-August 2002