All right, we're going to begin. And today, as we continue in ancient church history, we are going to look at a movement rather than a specific person. It's hard to pin down our topic for today, the rise of the papacy, and saying this is the one person that did that one thing that resulted in But there's a bigger discussion and a movement. So I'm going to start reading from Daniel chapter 7. Daniel 7, starting at verse 23. Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth, trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom, and another shall rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones, and he shall subdue three kings. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and laws. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and a times and a half a time. But the court shall be seated and they shall take away his dominion to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the most high. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for this opportunity to study some of the history of your church. We pray that you would help us today and that we would glorify you even in our meditations on these things. For Jesus' sake and glory, amen. J.A. Wiley writes a book on the history of the papacy that is worth reading, I'll commend that to you right at the beginning. And that was written in 1852. And he begins that by saying, the papacy next to Christianity is the great fact of the modern world. Of the two, the former unhappily has proved in some respects the more powerful spring in human affairs and has acted the more public part on the stage of the world. fully to trace the rise and development of this system were to write a history of Western Europe. So we see that as we talk about the rise of Christianity and within that, we have to talk about the rise of the papacy. It's probably one of the most important things in the history of the ancient church, whether you're for the papacy or against the papacy. We understand that is something that is of extreme importance. And it is a difficult topic. So I'm going to try to help us to understand it in a little bit of an easier way. And I said that there's not just one thing we can pinpoint and say, here's where the papacy began. You remember, we've talked about that a few times in this class. One of the questions early on was, When did Catholicism start? When did Roman Catholicism start? And it's in the gray scale. You can look at white and you can look at black, but there's all of the gray that is in the center. And when did Catholicism start is in the gray, as well as when the papacy began. Only of Rome could it have been said that it was the city where the two apostles to this day have their seats and where their blood without ceasing witnesses to the glory of God. So we think about Peter and Paul and they ending up in Rome and there's various claims as to how long Peter was in Rome, but we do know that they were martyred within that city. And in their martyrdom, there are graves that were able to be visited and that became something in the history of the church where People look to those graves and they said look this is a witness. This is a testimony to what God has done within The world and it was a witness to the glory of God So it began with this idea that here's a place where Peter and Paul walked and it ended with power and influence above all else within the church of Jesus Christ, or a claim for power above all else. And I want to say, even from a gracious human perspective, we should be able to understand something of that. Say you have a favorite preacher in either the RPCNA or the bigger world, and say that preacher dies. Like you can go to Sanford, and as you're walking in to St. Andrew's Chapel, there on the left is the grave of R.C. Sproul. And that's totally appropriate for that grave to be there. And as people walk by, as the few times I've been there, people take photographs with the stone that says Sproul. And you can see how fame develops into something greater. And this is a gracious understanding of how Rome slowly grew in power and authority because Peter was there, because Paul was there. It was the center of the Roman Empire and it develops over time. But what is their claim today? This is a statement from Vatican II. And this is their statement on who they are as the papacy. This sacred council, Vatican II, Following closely in the footsteps of the first Vatican Council teaches and declare with it that Jesus Christ the eternal shepherd Established his holy church having sent forth the Apostles as he himself Had been sent by the father and he willed that their successors namely the bishops should be shepherds in his church even to the consummation of the world and in order that the Episcopate itself might be one and undivided He placed blessed Peter over the other apostles and instituted him a permanent and visible source and foundation of unity of faith and communion. So the claim of Rome is that Peter was elevated above the other apostles. And in that elevation, he gave the seat of Peter, the authority to make decisions over the whole of Christendom. Here we make a decision, say our presbytery meets and makes a decision, and the bishop in Rome says, oh, that's cute. They think they're allowed to make a decision without me giving the stamp of approval or authority over it. And the belief of Rome, according to their own documents, is that the bishop who sits in Peter's seat has been given authority over the whole earth and all that Jesus Christ would do on this earth. And again, we think, how did Rome get there? How does that happen? And I want to look at that with you some. Now, we know that Rome was an honored church in the Western Empire. That's Peter, by the way. That's Peter in a painting that is a description of Matthew 16. We know that Rome is an honored city in the Western Empire. It's the former capital that split has already happened. Constantinople is now the capital as to where we've been in church history, but it still stands as the cultural capital of the world. And you could think even in our own context, you could say, what is the capital of the United States? And everyone's going to raise their hand and they could say, Washington DC. And then we could name two other cities and we could ask who actually is the one driving the culture of this country. And we could mention New York and we could mention Los Angeles. And those two cities drive the culture with or without Washington, D.C. being involved in that discussion. So you have Constantinople in the ancient world. The capital has moved under Constantine, and yet Rome still stands there as the cultural capital of the ancient world, making decisions and being the movers and shakers of the world. So it is the imperial capital. It was called the Eternal City, and the church in Rome became the largest and wealthiest of the churches in the empire, and for years, It surpassed all of the other churches or Presbyterial seats. It passed all of those other churches in both influence and in orthodoxy and in finances and in mercy and in giving and in number of clergy. It was a force to be reckoned with. If you were a Christian in the ancient world, a part of you wanted to be in Rome because they were able to, in a sense, move mountains as a church. They sent out the most missionaries. They did the best mercy ministry. They had the highest number of clergy. They had great buildings that were provided for them. So in that, of course, there's a rising membership. So by the middle of the third century, the membership in the church in Rome was over 30,000 members. So one city, it's a We would think of it in terms of a presbytery. There's multiple pastors that are there. There's 150 ministers within the city of Rome by the third century. So you can see it's a cultural movement. It brought both size and influence. And then we talked already about Peter and Paul as the founders of the Roman church, and that gave it preeminence. Now we could go into debate as to how much Peter was involved in the founding of the Church of Rome, and we could go into debate as to how much Paul was involved in the Church of Rome. You read the book of Romans, and it sounds like they're there before Paul's there, and they're there before Peter's there. But it becomes part of the lore or part of the conversation saying, do you know Peter came and did this, and Paul came and did this. because we do know that they are both executed there. And then there is Nicaea. We've talked about the Council of Nicaea in 325 and you remember that one of the canons or one of the decisions of Nicaea was that there were primacies given to certain congregations or certain presbyteries. So the ancient cities of of Rome and Antioch and Alexandria and Jerusalem were all given primacy, meaning that their authority or their weight in decisions was a little heavier than others. Jerusalem was given sort of an honorific, like, you know, this is where Jesus was born. This is where the crucifixion happened. Things were really important at one time, but Jerusalem remained small, but it was still given an honorific primacy. But these other cities where apostles had been and where apostles had founded churches and where centers of missions went out, they became primary. And then also, we see that something happens in the year 381 where Constantine, the city, Constantinople, calls a council, and in that calling of a council, because Rome is in the West, and because they're no longer the capital city, Constantinople snubs Rome and doesn't even send them an invitation. And that begins something of a divide and a disagreement between those two cities, where there's an argument as to who actually will be prime, who will be the most important city in the ancient world. And again, if we're interpreting history graciously and through the judgment of charity, we can understand something of that. We can understand something within our own context of, say, Pittsburgh versus Indianapolis. Pittsburgh, the historic seat of the Reformed Presbyterian Church and Indianapolis growing up in the 1960s and 1970s as becoming a force within our own denomination and those two cities vying for power in a sense. And again, I mean that with humility, I mean it graciously, but humanly speaking, we can see how these sorts of things happen. Now, there's further progress as well. When we think of how the papacy developed, we know that there is a division with Stephen and Cyprian and baptism. And we talked about this in North Africa when those who were baptized by those who didn't have communion with the church because they held a heresy. And then they repented, and they were brought back into the church. There was a question, do we baptize those who were baptized by heretics and baptized by those who didn't have communion with the rest of the church? And Cyprian saying, we have to baptize them, we have to re-baptize them, and Stephen who is the bishop in Rome, Stephen says, you know, let's not do that. Let's just accept that as a baptism and bring them into the church and bring them in to communion. And in a sense, the Western Empire rallies around Stephen's decision and that becomes a tick for the Church of Rome. Rome wins this battle. And that became something very important in the ancient world. And then other things that we've talked about, we talked about Easter customs. And you remember in the ancient church, there were basically three different interpretations concerning Easter. There were those that said that every Lord's day was the same and we don't celebrate Easter. And there were those that said Easter should be celebrated at the same time that Passover is celebrated. And then there were others that said, we need to separate ourselves from the Jews, and we need to celebrate Easter at a different time than the Jews do. And they had a formula for when they would do that. And that became part of the ancient church discussion. And some churches would say, we don't celebrate Easter. And some churches were saying, we follow the Jewish custom. And others were saying, well, we think it's wrong to follow the Jewish custom, so we're doing this other thing. And the bishop of Rome steps in, and he makes the decision. He puts his foot down, and he says, this is what we're doing in Rome, and because it's what we're doing in Rome, everyone should basically get on board with that. And the church looked at Rome, and they said, well, they're historic, and they're powerful, and they have the right to make these decisions, and they have the most ministers, and wow, they love missions, and wow, they love mercy ministries. Let's just do what Rome does. and they gave them that decision concerning the celebration of Easter. There were those that in writing talked about apostolic tradition, and they said that apostolic tradition was best preserved within the Church of Rome. You know, you can think about the churches in North Africa or the churches that are in Syria or the churches that are in the way off regions of Greece or in Sicily. And you could look at those churches and you could say, I'm not sure if what they do in worship or the way that they live out their Christian life is exactly how we would see it in the New Testament. But we can look to Rome and we know that Peter was there. And we can look to Rome and we know that Paul was there. And that means that we can trust that the church in Rome is holding on to apostolic tradition when we see these other churches doing things that we may find to be a little funny. And in the writing, as apostolic tradition is defended, which it's important, we should follow what the apostles do. That's a good thing. There were people that were writing, including Irenaeus, who said, look to Rome. Look to Rome. They are the ones that are holding up apostolic tradition. Pilgrimages are on the rise. Rome has the burial place of Peter and Paul, and pilgrimages grew. How many here have been to Rome and maybe seen Peter and Paul's grave? We have a few. So, you know, that's something that even 2,000 years later is still being talked about. Welcome to Rome. Grab your gelato and I'll show you where Peter's buried. This is still part of the city of Rome. And then that authority of the city of Rome over the West grew. And again, that didn't grow in the East. The East was very happy with Constantinople and the West holding on to what Rome was as the eternal city, as the one that people saw as the center of the world. You can look at old maps and there's Rome in the middle and the world looks like a flower growing outside of Rome that's there in the city. And that helped grow that influence. And then eventually, for very practical reasons, Rome was set up as an appellate court or given appellate jurisdiction over other bishops and pastors in dispute. So pastors and bishops in an argument, theological or practical, if they're not able to come to a conclusion and they call a regional presbytery or a regional Synod, as they call them, and decisions couldn't always be made. And what do you do? What do you do when you reach an impasse? What do you do when a presbytery vote is 20 to 20? Well, you need somebody to break the vote. So who breaks the vote? Rome, that was the decision. We send a letter to the church in Rome and we let them make the decision. And you can see again, in a sense, practically why that would be useful. Rome is a large church. It has a great library even in the ancient world. And it became that appellate church for bishops in dispute. Now, years later, Gregory VII, who is Gregory the Great, we'll talk about him later, but he would say this. The Holy Roman Church takes precedence over other churches, not on the ground of any synodical decisions, but because it was given the primacy by the words of our Lord and Redeemer in the gospel when he said, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church. Thus, we have the first mention of the primacy of the Roman Church. So the idea was that although the Synod made the decision, Rome's not who it is because of any decision that men made. Rome is who it is in the mind of Rome because Jesus said to Peter, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. And the rock becomes Peter's congregation in Rome. and that rock is built. So who are some of the players? Who helps the church move in that direction? And I think there's three that are important. There's more that could be talked about, literally books fill libraries on why this happened. So if it's of interest to you, you can look at it more. But I want to give you a few men. And the first is Pope Damasus. And he lived, or he was Pope from, or he lived from 305 to 384. He was born in Rome. His father was a Bishop, and that's something that tells us something about the ancient church didn't require celibacy for their ministers. And he was highly political. So you can Google this, you can find that when, When Damasus was Pope, as a way to appeal to great donors within the city of Rome, the old ancient families, he had little crystal cups made with a symbol that represented him, and they say Demas on them. So that's something archaeologically that has been discovered, that he was essentially set up a gift shop and would give donors things that were beautiful. And that was part of the way that he politicized the bishopric in Rome and aided for his supporters. And he was also the first bishop in Rome to be called Pope. So the word Pope is not necessarily a bad word. It means Papa. So you could see how one who is a minister over a great city and one who has authority and one that people look to for decisions, you could see how someone would say, that's Papa. He's kind of a big deal here. He's in charge of the family, so to speak. And this is how this word, Pope, even came up in the history of the church. So Demas was elected in 366. He was a man of learning and culture. He was a poet. He loved the arts. He erected churches and shrines to Roman martyrs, and he became famous for adorning them with gleaming gold and precious marbles. He moved about comfortably among old noble families of the city, and he set out to create a distinctive Latin Christian culture. So this is the first bishop in Rome who's really very politically motivated and really wanting to bring the old noble families into the church and really make them feel comfortable so that they'll write their checks and drop it into the coffers of the church. So Damasus emphasized apostolic succession. He emphasized the primacy of Peter as we mentioned from Matthew 16, he would say Peter's authority is unique and it's something transferred through successors, making Rome the central seat of Christian authority. So this is something that really lays that foundation for papal authority. Without Matthew 16 and the highly debated on this rock, I will build my church. Without that text, Rome has little to no claim as to how Peter could hold a primacy within the church and those successors of Peter. We also know that Damasus strengthened Rome's authority over other churches. We mentioned Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople having authority, but Damasus said that the Roman bishop held the highest authority and he, again, made that link because of Peter and Paul And he said that that was an endorsement of supremacy. If Peter founded this and didn't found that, that endorses why this one is better than that one. And you can see the logic there. And then also Damasus in his ministry of letters and decrees begins writing that promotes the idea that he has unique authority and making binding decisions on matters of faith. So you can think about a papal bull. If you know what that is, like you can go on Vatican's website and you can look up papal bulls. And those are decrees and decisions that the Pope has made. And he has a giant header with the keys of the kingdom as his header, the papal authority there. And a decision or a decree is made and it's signed by the Pope. And that it's intended to go out to the world and be the final authority on whatever that topic is, whatever that decision was. So Damasus is the one who begins this letter writing and not just giving counsel, not just saying, wisdom may have you go in this direction, but Damasus is saying, this is what you must do. Now that's very different. As a pastor, I call minister friends and I say, here's the situation. Let's talk through that. And minister friends will say, well, you could think of it from this angle and we could go to these Bible verses and we could talk about this, but you could also consider it from this point of view. And that's part of seeking wisdom. I've never called anyone who are among my minister friends that say, Nathan, this is what you must do. I say, well, why must I do that? He said, well, because I'm in Pittsburgh or because I'm in Indianapolis. But Damasus is the one that is first doing that. Here's what you have to do when you think about this issue. So Damasus. The second is Pope Syracuse. Now, Syracuse was Bishop of Rome between 384 and 399. And I'll just tell you one thing about him. He took the initiative to issue these official letters in response to problems elsewhere in the church and send out directives considered binding on the churches. Syracuse began the letter by observing that as a successor of Peter, this grave responsibility was laid on him rather than other bishops. So rather than previous Pope that we mentioned writing letters and just saying here's why you have to do this or here's what you need to do you have Syracuse beginning the letters by saying as the one who is in Peter's seat as the one in authority over all of Christendom in that way here's what you are to do and you can see that slight movement in thinking and and the church receiving that thinking. And then probably the most important is Leo. He's called Leo the Great. He's 398 to 461. He was a defender of the city of Rome. So some of you may know this great story as to why he's called Leo the Great. the 400s, the Attila the Hun is coming over the Alps and he's marching towards Rome. And Rome looks and they see Attila the Hun and his armies of tens of thousands marching towards Rome. And they know because of what Attila the Hun and his army does that they're going to come and they're just going to trash the city. They're going to trample Rome. And so appeals are made to the emperor in Constantinople. Remember, Rome is not the center of the Roman Empire anymore. So appeal is made to Constantinople. Send somebody here to stop Attila the Hun. And Constantinople doesn't answer. They leave Rome to defend itself. And the city's scrambling, and they're looking around, and they're saying, who is going to defend us? Who will be the magistrate that steps up? to defend us against Attila the Hun and all of the magistrate is silent. So Leo steps up as the chief pastor in the city and he, according to the history, meets Attila the Hun outside of Rome and his armies and negotiates with Attila the Hun and Attila the Hun leaves Rome to not be destroyed. Now, what's important about that story is that if Orlando was attacked, it's not my job to be the chief negotiator with whoever has attacked us from outside. I would have a duty as a pastor in the city of Orlando, but my duties would not be to negotiate political decisions on behalf of the city fathers. But the city fathers in Rome gave that over to Leo to do that work. And he did the work, which helped the church and the empire to look to the Bishop of Rome and say, that man is not only a pastor, it's almost like he's a king. It's like he's like a politician who's able to come and to negotiate on behalf of the city. Now he also was an extensive writer. He leaves behind a large body of writing that's in the Vatican library and you can read some of that information, some of that material. So he's writing books. He's very capable with theology. He's very capable as a practical theologian as well. He's not You know, he's not like a man in a dunce cap at all. That's not what we think of Leo. He's called Leo the Great for a reason. And also, he continues with these decretal letters. And he said that the Bishop of Rome should be received not simply as a successor of Peter. So remember our movement. Here's not just wisdom. Here's a decree. Do this. And then there's more movement. not just wisdom, but here's a decree, and do this because I'm in Peter's seat. Leo moves the bar another step, and Leo says, here is the letter, and you should receive this not simply because I am a successor of Peter, but receive this as if Peter himself wrote this letter. He knows the mind of Peter. because he's in the scriptures, and Peter, who was originally the one who sat in Rome, Leo saying, I sit in that position, and I know the mind of Peter. I know what he would do, and begins to move in this direction. So he begins having the claims of absolute authority within the church and history indicates that Papal rule of the whole church was established in these painful stages As I said, it wasn't just given over it's it's conflict and difficulty and struggle and trial and The bishop in Rome is slowly taking authority not just it's not just he woke up one day and said, you know as a pastor I want to be in charge of all these pastors It's something that slowly moved in the history of the church. One said the theoretical foundation for the papal primacy, Christ promised to build his church on Peter, the rock of all ages, and the bishops of Rome are his successors in that authority. So we see that that moves and these claims of church authority, especially from Leo and history showing us that as this is moving, that Leo is really this great figure in this way. But Leo also as successor of Peter is one who has a personality. He is one who was so excited about being in that pastorate, that he was the successor of Peter, that in his writing and in his decrees, he writes in the name of the institution and writes in the name of Peter and that identity between Leo as a pastor And the Church of Rome, as the seed of Peter, these identities begin to merge. And that's something that proves to be problematic in the church. Now, there is a practical discussion on how long a minister should stay in certain congregations. Our oldest serving pastor in our presbytery, hold on guys that have been around a while, it's Phil Pokris. And Phil Pokris has been in a small town in Ohio called Bell Center, Ohio for over 40 years as the pastor. So me as a guy in my 40s who has been a minister for less than 20 years and has been including being a student under care and all of that training time that's under a quarter of a century. If anyone mentions Bell Center to me, I automatically think of Phil Pochris. I couldn't even tell you who was there before Phil Pochris. Somebody in the room might be able to, but I have no idea. Literally no idea. And I use that to illustrate that a pastor and an institution can merge identities. And this is what happens under Leo and the Church of Rome. When you thought about Leo, you thought about Rome. And when you thought about Rome, you thought about Leo. And mixing all of that together, we know that we're always thinking about Peter because he is the one quote unquote, who established the church in Rome. So he has this personality that comes out in his speaking and writing, and he wants his hearers to really know something of that relationship. One said that when Leo sent a tome to be received at Chalcedon in 451, he forbid the other bishops to even discuss it by scrutiny. They were to merely humbly receive it as the utterance of Peter. Can you imagine? A minister sends a communication to Presbytery and says, here's something that has to be debated and discussed, but you're not going to debate it and discuss it just to prove it because I'm the one who's the pastor in Rome. And this is the way the church slowly is moving. And eventually, the successor of Rome becomes the one who was called the director of all Christendom. You can think of that name. If you're ever arguing with somebody about a theological matter and they just seem like they're arrogant about their opinion and you don't know what to say because they're a better debater than you, you can say, who do you think you are, the director of all Christendom? This is the title that is eventually given. So 445, the Roman pontiff is to stylize this, director of all Christendom. And the bishops and universal clergy were asked or commanded to obey him as their ruler. And it's believed that the decree was issued from Pope Leo and among other advantages enjoined by the pontiff was ready access to the imperial court who sometimes became a prompter of imperial policy. The suggestions noted down by secretary submitted to the emperor and approved by him were used in the world as a customary form and the full authority of an imperial edict. So what that means is that the emperors begin looking to Rome and saying, this guy is in charge. He's the one that has the final authority. And what happens is that church and state or minister and magistrate begin to merge in the sense that there is now a blending of whose job it is to do what. Now, one of our vows as Reformed Presbyterian ministers or elders or deacons is that we understand that the church and state are separate institutions and each one is in its own place to be working toward the advancement of the kingdom of God. Now, in this time, there was originally this understanding that the emperor, go do emperor things and support the church. And to the pastors, go do pastor things and support the church. But under Leo, that merge begins to grow greater and greater. And no longer do we have magistrate and minister, but we have one that strangely represents both magistrate and minister. One who is able to do both of these things. Valencian III said, as the primacy of the apostolic sea, that's the Vatican. is based on the title of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Episcopal Dignity, on the dignity of the city of Rome, and on the decision of the Holy Synod, no illicit steps may be taken against the sea, again, that's the Vatican, to usurp its authority, for the only way to safeguard peace among the churches everywhere is to acknowledge its leadership universally. So this is the way we call a truce. We want to just say, all right, they're in charge. They're in charge. They will make final decisions. And the Vatican or the papacy ran with that, didn't they? I mean, you see that in the history of the church. And then what happens is Rome begins to control Christianity. There is a forced control over other Christians. It began with conforming liturgies. The Roman church looked around the world and said, who does something a little different than we do in worship? You might have a psalm sung and then communion follows the psalm, but we want communion and then you sing the psalm. And they're going to say, change it, change your liturgies. So there's a great line or a great discussion in Augustine's biography by Brown, where he talks about Augustine's mother, Monica, as someone who travels a lot between Rome and Milan and North Africa. And her asking her pastor, Ambrosi, and her son, Augustine, what she should do when she's in other churches and they don't do the same thing. She's like, I struggle with that, son. What should I do when I'm in Milan and it doesn't look like a North African liturgy? And Augustine's like, mom, it's no big deal. Just do what they do in worship. As long as it's not against the word of God, it's fine if things are a little bit different or if things look a little bit different. And Rome says, we're done with that. we're going to make a universal liturgy that shall be followed. And then that followed in uniformity in prayer. As priests increase, and as priests don't necessarily have all the seminary training that they need, and priests become the ones that administer the sacrament, and ministers that are dealing with people become something different, And priests are the ones that are basically doing what you do in worship. We give them foreign prayers. Just pray this. If you're not able to pray publicly, then just read this. And Rome starts passing them out. Read these. This is uniformity in prayer. And then when decisions are made, there is a required seal on synods and presbyteries and councils to show that Rome has looked it over, everything's legit, this is the way it's going to be. So a Roman seal, the seal of the Vatican being required on all things that relate to decisions made in the church. And then demanding conformity in fast days and times and seasons. You remember they did that pre-Nicaea with Easter. And they do it later. We'll see. We'll talk about Patrick later. But as Rome goes up into Scotland and Ireland, they trash Celtic Christianity and change it tremendously, conforming it, and demand fast days and times and seasons. And then one other briefly is Gregory the Great. He plays heavily in the development of the papacy as well. Gregory, he's gifted. He's a spiritual writer. He's a great administrator. He has compassion for the poor. He's a wise minister. He has tons of energy. He has a heart for humans. He has wisdom. He's loved as a pastor in Rome. But you remember that around the year 600, the world's changed. Rome is sacked. Constantinople is crumbling. Islam begins to grow. All of these old imperial families are dying off. And what happens to the old imperial families when they die off? They give their money and their lands and their estates to the church. And they say, we don't have anyone left. You guys decide what to do with this. And in all of that, the Western Empire falls and these families are dying off. And Gregory steps into this role. that is very much magisterial rather than ministerial. This quote here, so the minister becomes the magistrate. All right, I'll read it. It's not on here. By the sixth century, the Church of Rome had become a major land owner. In Gregory's day, the Church of Rome held land in Gaul, that's France. the Balkans, North Africa, Sardinia, and Central and South Italy, especially in Sicily. And it fell to the Pope to administer those lands. And Gregory's letters are filled with detailed instruction on the price of corn and the sale of cows and horses and wages for workers. And the revenue was used for the upkeep of churches and feeding the poor. And these lands would become the basis for the Pope's political power. The Pope was no longer simply a bishop. He was on his way to becoming a medieval prince. So you see, that's how it moves. And I'm going to leave you with some Bible verses, and I know we're short on time, but I'm going to fly through these. Take a picture if you want. Daniel 7, 8. We read Daniel 7. He leads a nation. He's from the Roman Empire. He speaks pompously. He makes war against the church. Daniel 7, 21 to 25. Daniel 7 25 he changes laws and seasons Matthew 24 15 2nd Thessalonians 2 he's in the church John 17 2 2nd Thessalonians 2 3 he's a deceptive office bearer in the church Matthew 24 24 2nd Thessalonians 2 9 he has signs and wonders and miracles 2nd Thessalonians 2 4 he exalts himself above the church 2nd Thessalonians 2 4 Daniel 11 36 he sits in the place of God and 1 John 2.18, He is one and He is many. 1 John 2.22-23, 2 John 7, He's connected to deceptive heresies. 1 John 4.3, the spirit at that time is already in the early church. Revelation 13, He's a magistrate and church connected. Revelation 17.9, He rules from seven mountains. Revelation 17.18, He reigns over the kings of the earth. Revelation 18.9, the nations live luxuriously off of and with the city over which he reigns. These are all the verses in the scriptures that deal with Antichrist and the rise of Antichrist. And you can follow the history of the papacy and these New Testament verses. And you can see why by the time of the early reformation, even those that are called the forerunners of the reformation, By the 1200s, they're looking to Rome, and they're saying that institution is not what Jesus built. That is Antichrist. That's something that set itself up against what Christ has set. And then here's a QR code. You can listen to a sermon that I've preached on it as well.