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fictions" ("Contradictions in the Catholic Encyclopedias: A clerical writings. This admission is found in the Catholic Record of Conflictions in Accredited Church Expositions", Major — Encyclopedia: Joseph Wheless [Judge Advocate, USA], American Bar "In most of its manuscript copies there is found at the beginning Association Journal, 1930 [vol. no. unknown)). a spurious correspondence between Pope Damasus I [366-383] Few readers know how freely it is acknowledged that the and St Jerome [c. 347-420]. These letters were considered popular Catholic versions of the history of the popes are composed genuine in the Middle Ages. Duchesne [papal historian, of forgeries and are used today with great profit in Christian 1584-1640] has proved exhaustively and convincingly that the circles. The Vatican flooded the world with false information first series of biographies, from St Peter to Felix III [IV, d. 530], about its popes, the most blatant examples being the famous, or was compiled at the latest under Felix's successor Boniface II infamous, Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) and the Liberian [530-532]. The compilers of the Liber Pontificalis utilized also Catalogue, both notorious for their fictitious accounts of early and some historical writings, a number of apocryphal fragments [e.g., mythical "successors of St Peter" (Catholic Encyclopedia, ix, pp. the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions], the Constitutum Sylvestri, 224-225; also Pecci ed., ii, p. 371). These books provide a the spurious Acts of the alleged 'Synod of the 275 bishops under collection of glowing diatribes describing the pontificates of docile Sylvester’, etc., and the fifth-century Roman Acts of Martyrs. and devout popes, many of whom never existed, and has about it Finally, the compilers distributed arbitrarily along their list of the spurious air of ingenuousness that so often amuses the reader. popes a number of papal decrees taken from unauthentic sources; Book of the Popes is an official papal work, written and kept in they likewise attributed to earlier popes liturgical and disciplinary the Vatican, and its introduction claims to "preserve for posterity regulations of the sixth century. The authors were Roman the holy lives and wonderful doings of the heads of the Church ecclesiastics, and some were attached to the Roman Court ... in the Universal" (Catholic Encyclopedia, ix, p. 224). However, if Liber Pontificalis it is recorded that popes issued decrees that were patient readers care to glance at the synopsis of each pope as given, lost, or mislaid, or perhaps never existed at all. Later popes seized they will see that the Church knows the opportunity to supply a false nothing whatever about the pontiffs of the pontifical letter suitable for the first six or seven centuries, and not one of occasion, attributing it to the pope them is a clearly defined figure of history. whose name was mentioned in the The summations of popes are decorated 4 Liber Pontificalis." with the official halo of sanctity, but the Simply put, there were no (Catholic Encyclopedia, v, pp. leading Cattolicivesigatoratthis kind | CAtistian popes for many “Tso regarding he rauulen Book of of literature, said "there is no evidence centuries; they were the the Popes, see Annales Ecclesiastici, whatever that the papal genealogies are Mithraic fathers of Rome _ op. cit., folio Xi, and De Antiqua based upon earlier sources" (The Legends Ecclesiae Disciplina, op. cit.) of the Saints, Father Delehaye, 1907 English ed., quoted and expanded upon in The falsity of the Book of the The Popes and Their Church, Dr Joseph Popes is thereby shown and the McCabe, C. A. Watts & Co., London, 2nd intentional presentation of its ed. revised, 1924, p. 13). fabricated contents is revealed. Simply put, there were no Christian popes for many centuries; English theologian and deist Anthony Collins (1676-1729), in his they were the Mithraic fathers of Rome, and "the chief of the celebrated Discourse of Free-thinking (1713), discussed at length [Mithraic] fathers, a sort of pope, who always lived at Rome, was the extent of the superficial literature that circulates in Christianity. called Pater Patrum" (Catholic Encyclopedia, x, pp. 402-404). He said (p. 96): "In short, these frauds are very common in all Some even called themselves after the Zoroastrian god, an books which are published by priests or priestly men. For it is excellent example being Pope Hormisdas (514-523), whose name certain they plead the authority of earlier writings that were is Persian for Ahura Mazda. Of him, the Church said "his name themselves fake, forged, mangled or corrupted, with more reasons presents an interesting problem" and added this curious comment: than any to support their articles of faith with sinister ingenuity." "St Hormisdas owes his canonisation to an unofficial tradition" The fervour with which the modern-day work of suppression, (The Popes: A Concise Biographical History, Burns & Oates, misrepresentation, falsification and concealment of the real Publishers to the Holy See, London, 1964, p. 81). His disposition of the popes, whose character no non-Church historian "considerable numbers of recalcitrant bishops" were devotees of respects, makes the guilt of the su rs of the Church as great Ahura Mazda, supporting Mithraic doctrine (ibid.). as that of those who established the system. We need to understand that many ancient popes, who in modern During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Vatican added to its times have been presented as dignified gentlemen isolated from cover-up and employed unnamed Mannerist artists to create pious every taint of mundane interest, never existed. The Church has portraits of popes extending back centuries. After the ruling on the admitted that its papal biographies (Book of the Popes and the need for standardised biblical images by the Council of Trent, Liberian Catalogue) are not candid digests of pious men of Charles Cardinal Borromeo, at one time the manservant to Pope considerable erudition but are untruthful fabrications: "Historical Sixtus V (1585-90), moved a motion during the First Provincial criticism has for a long time dealt with this ancient text in an Council (1565) forbidding the painting of Christian personages exhaustive way ... especially in recent decades" (i.e., late without official approval from the Church. The motion was 1800s-early 1900s) (Catholic Encyclopedia, v, pp. 773-780; also carried, and from that time on artists needed written approval from ix, pp. 224-225, passim) and established it "historically untenable" the Artist Censor to the Holy Office on matters pertaining to the (ibid., passim). creation of Christian iconography. Bishops were appointed to The Church confessed that the Book of the Popes is a phony instruct artists on the standardised presentation of particularly record, retrospectively compiled in the deceptive manner of most Gospel subjects and they were not to proceed without Church Simply put, there were no Christian popes for many centuries; they were the Mithraic fathers of Rome ... 54 * NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com