Rome’s Fabricated Documents
Over the centuries the Catholic Church has forged numerous documents, ranging from letters written by Augustine, the Apostles Creed, and the Immaculate Conception, to the so-called “apostolic writings” by Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas (O. C. Lambert, Catholicism Against Itself, 1956, p. 54-68).
(Lambert lists Augustine’s forgeries: De Condition Cordis, Summa, Part III, Fourth Number, 119, De Penitentia, Summa, Part III, Third Number, 57 and Hypognosticon, Summa, Part III, Third Number, 77).
In the Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. VI, p. 136, we have the following frank admission: “Substituting of false documents and tampering with genuine ones was quite a trade in the Middle Ages.”
And then we have the following quote too: “One is forced to admit that the gradual corruption of Christianity began very early” (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII, p. 414).
One of Rome’s most bogus claims has been that of apostolic succession. Yet amazingly the Catholic church (much later on) was forced to own up and say the following about the Apostolic Canons, which allegedly deal with how the Apostles dictated material to St. Clement of Rome: “A tradition (accepted because unexamined) long prevailed that these canons were dictated by the Apostles to St. Clement of Rome, who committed them to writing. Accurate research has dispelled this notion.” (Catholic Dictionary, p. 41-42).
The following quote, which has long been refuted since the 16th century as being “authentic,” is still cited and used by Catholics today, when wishing to uphold its hierarchical structure: “A letter from Clement to James forms an epilogue to H. In it, Clement relates how Peter before his death gave his last instructions and set Clement in his own chair as his successor in the See of Rome…The writer knows a complete system of ecclesiastical organisation. Peter sets a bishop over each city, with priests and deacons under him; the office of bishop is well defined” (Catholic Encyclopaedia, IV, p. 14-144).
The above is inaccurate in many ways. The apostolic constitution of 270 AD taught Linus as the successor to Peter, not Clement. Yet this source (written allegedly by Clement himself) was later deemed a fake (authored 325 AD) by the Catholic church: “We must nevertheless abandon any attempt to argue from Clementine [20 books by this author] since the oldest parts betray themselves more and more as a product of the third century – he was guilty of arbitrary inventions and changes” (Catholic Encyclopaedia, VII, p. 327).
Once again Rome was forced to come clean after some real scholars raised their game and exposed forgeries with Christendom, dating back centuries.
Interestingly, Lambert remarks on page 56, how Thomas Aquinas embarrassingly quotes “seven times from these forgeries.”
An Infallible church, with infallible popes, churning out forgeries, with their scholars not knowing the difference between forgeries and the real thing, how are the poor old laity supposed to make heads or tails of it?
One may ask: how did Rome get away with lying for so long to the masses? Well, if Emperor Leo (401-474 AD) couldn’t read or write, one can easily guess have rampant ignorance was to the rest of the then Catholic world (Lambert, p. 63).
“Writers of the fourth century were prone to describe many practices (i.e., The Lenten Fast of Forty Days) as apostolic institutions which certainly had no claim to be so regarded” (Catholic Encyclopaedia, Vol. III, p. 484).
Rome also forged the infamous The Donation of Constantine, dated 30 March 315 AD.
“The supposed donation of Emperor Constantine, [was] probably forged in the eighth century” (Catholic Encyclopaedia, XIV, p 714).
This forged document records how Constantine not only contracted leprosy all over his body (which pagan priests failed to cure) but also received a vision from Peter and was told to contact “Pope” Sylvester, hiding on Mount Soracte, who would cure him. Sylvester made him well and Constantine restored Christian Churches worldwide to their former glory. Also part of this forged document was how Constantine had kindly handed over his power and sovereignty to the bishop of Rome.
This elaborate hoax circulated throughout the Catholic church for years and helped build up their so-called apostolic authority throughout the pagan world, but it was false and had no truth whatsoever within it.
It should also be said that when Luther became aware of this, it convinced him even more to launch the Reformation.
Constantine did, however, “convert” to Christianity through the Arian bishop Eusebius, but only on his deathbed, at the 11th hour, in 337AD (Dr. Peter De Rosa, Vicar’s of Christ, p. 55-56).
In 1944 we discover how Dr J.V. Simcox, professor of Canon Law at St. Edmunds College Ware – the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical seminary for the Archdiocese of Westminster – finally broke ranks (he had held his post for 23 years), and decided to publicly complain of other forgeries and deceptions: “God does not need our lies and Catholics who fear truth in matters of religion confess that they do not believe Catholicism to be from God” (Is the Roman Catholic Church a Secret Society?, p. 30).