The reigning pope in 1520 was the Medici, Leo X. Under his reign the papacy reached its greatest height.(a)

Martin Luther writes in 1520 in his “An Appeal to the Ruling Class” this is about the pope and the papacy:

“[The Pope] claims to be the the head of the Christian Church, although he is a barefaced liar letting the Evil One dominate him… You can find there a buying and selling, a bartering and bargaining, a lying and trickery, robbery and stealing, pomp, procuration, knavery, and all sorts of strategems bringing God into contempt, till it would be impossible for the Antichrist to govern more wickedly… This kind of morality flows like a tide into all the world. Such people rightly fear a reformation, or an unfettered council.”

“[T]he pope has built a market-house for the convienience of all this refined traffic, viz.: the house of the datarius in Rome… [If] you bring money to this ecclesiastical market… one can pay and then legally charge interest on loans of any sort. You can get a legal right to goods you have stolen or seized. Have vows anulled; here monks receive liberty to leave their orders; here marriage is for sale to the clergy; here bastards can become ligitimate, and any form of dishonour and shame can achieve dignity; all kinds of iniquity and evil are knighted and ennobled. Here a marriage is permitted which is within the forbidden degrees, or which is otherwise objectionable. O what a jagglery and extortion go on here! Until it would seem that all the laws of the canon were only given to produce gilded nooses, from which a man must free himself if he would become a Christian.”

“For to describe what they have stolen in all counting and are still stealing, and extorting, by indulgences, bulls, letters of confession (1), butter letters (2), and other confessionalia (3) – to describe all this is work for the odd-job man, and is like playing pitch and toss with the devil in hell… If we are right in hanging theives and beheading robbers, why should we leave Avarice of Rome unpunished? Here is the greatest thief and robber that has ever come or is likely to come on earth, and the scandal is perpetuated in the holy name of Christ and St. Peter. Who can go on tolerating it or keeping silence? Almost all he possesses has been got by theft and robbery. Everything recorded in the histories tells the same story. The pope has never bought properties so great that his income from his ecclesiastical offices should amount to ten hundred thousand ducats, apart from the mines of treasure as already described, and his landed estates. Neither is it that which Christ and St. Peter bequeathed to him, nor that which anyone has given or loaned to him; nor has it been acquired by prescription or ancient right. Tell me where he got it?”(b)

As early as 1520 the pope and the papacy’s unChristian doctrine and ungodly deeds were exposed to the common people throughout Germany and all of Europe. Their greatest sins included greed, avarice and wantoness. They used their self-righteous status of piety to sell rites and rights to the Christian liaty. When Martin Luther protested and called for a reform of the Catholic Church, the Catholic leaders waged war on the protestors – Protestants.

As the truth is told throughout Europe of the unChristian deeds of the pope and the papacy, the battlelines are drawn. In 1531 the Catholic cantons wage physical war against Protestant Zurich and the protestant reformer of Switzerland, Zwingli, is killed in battle defending his homeland and fellow Christians.(a)

The Protestant Reformation is spread throughout the rest of Europe and is unstoppable. The pope and the papacy lose considerable ground. To help Catholic Rome regain “lost souls,” a devout Catholic from Spain and self-proclaimed enemy of Luther, Lopez of Loyolla – who changed his name to Ignatius – who founded the Society of Jesus (now also called Jesuits) with a couple of college buddies – starts a Catholic school, whereby the donations given to the pope and the papacy are used to fund it. Young boys as young as eight and nine years old are indoctrinated, even at times against their parents’ consent, into the Catholic religion through “jesuit” teaching. (1540)

In 1566, the “Catechism of the Council of Trent” is dispersed throughout Europe in order to clarify Catholic doctrine.(a)

In 1568 the first Catholic Bible – the bishop’s Bible – is approved by the pope and the papacy and published. For the first time also, the word “wantons” in I Corinthians 6:9 is replaced with “effeminate,” thus taking out the harsh word that convicted the pope and the papacy of their egregious sin and replacing it with a more innocuous word that would later bring confusion and division for God’s true church. (Satan strikes again!)

In Martin Luther’s “The Freedom Of A Christian,” published in November, 1520, he used the word “effeminate” in this manner:

“Far less is it sufficient or Christian to say nothing at all about Christ and to teach instead the laws of men and the decrees of the fathers. Now there are not a few who preach Christ and read about him that they may move men’s affections to sympathy with Christ, to anger against the jews, and such childish and effeminate nonsense.”

Here we see the correct use of the word “effeminate” in Luther’s text. Effeminate is not to mean homosexual nonsense or sissified nonsense but excessive or wantoness nonsense. Thus for the pope to authorize the change of the Bible to replace “wantons” with “effeminate” was egregious sin as it was a deliberate attempt to hide the truth of the Word of God, if not change the meaning.

But change the meaning he did.

Now the Catholic Bible – and Protestant Bibles too – in our present day say “homosexual” where scripture clearly stated wantons.

Where God did wink at this egregous sin in the past – although it perpetuated injustice to some – make no mistake, God is not mocked. The outcry in the “purple pews” is facilitated by a Righteous God who will wink no more: for it is due time that the truth see the light of day and justice be freed from her undeserving chains.

(a)”Faith and Freedom: An Invitation to the Writings of Martin Luther,” edited by John F. Thorton and Susan B. Varenne. Vintage Books. New York. 2002.

(b)”Martin Luther: Sellections From His Writings,” edited by Jon Dillenberger. Anchor Books. New York. 1962

(1)”Allowing choice of confessor and of items to confess.”(b)
(2)”Allowing certain foods on fast days.”(b)
(3)”Letters given, for a fee, to excuse a person from various burdensome duties, etc.”(b)