In July 21, 1773, the "Order of the Jesuits" was abolished and God's
people given relief during the latter parts of the Dark Ages.
Fulfillment of:
Mark 13:20
(See SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.1-13[1])
“The End of the Tribulation of Those Days” The Signs of the Times
12, 31, p. 487.
“WHEN, where, and who, was the last martyr? My neighbor thinks it
was in 1778, but we cannot find it in any book that we have. Christ
said: ‘Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the
sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.’ Now what we
want to get at is, What great event shows the end of the days of
tribulation?” SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.1
S.H.
Your neighbor is mistaken; there have been several martyrs since
1778. In 1780 there was a woman burned by the Inquisition in Spain;
and in the same country, in 1826, a Jew was burned, and a Quaker
schoolmaster hanged by the same power. In Italy, as late as
1850-1855, there was severe persecution, and at Fermo one person
died under torture. This is the latest martyrdom of which we know;
and we think that it is the last one. You will find it mentioned in
Eugene Lawrence’s “Historical Studies,” in the article “Dominic and
the Inquisition,” fifth paragraph from the end. In the same article
you will find mention of the woman burned in 1780; and in the
“Encyclopedia Britannica,” article “Inquisition,” you will find
mention of the deaths of the Jew and the Quaker. SITI August 12,
1886, p. 487.2
It is a mistake to so interpret the scripture referred to as to make
it reach to the last martyr. The scripture says, “after the
tribulation
of those days.” Now occasional and local persecution, with three or
four, or a half-dozen martyrs in a century, could not properly be
called tribulation, much less could it be the tribulation referred
to in the text. “Such as was not since the beginning of the world to
this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Matt 24#21, 29. This could be no
less than universal, a flood poured upon the whole church, and so
great that, except the days had been shortened, there had been none
“elect” surviving. Therefore when this great general persecution
ceased, then if may be said the
tribulation
ended. This brings us to your last question: “What great event shows
the end of the days of the tribulation?” SITI August 12, 1886, p.
487.3
We believe there is an event clearly marked by a date upon which we
may definitely fix as the end of the tribulation upon the church.
The Inquisition was the great arm—the
tribulum
, threshing sledge—of the Papacy in the dreadful tribulation which
it laid upon the church of Christ for ages; and the Order of the
Jesuits was the strength of the Inquisition. On this point we could
present a volume of evidence, but we have space for hardly more than
a word. Here is one testimony:— SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.4
“A Jesuit plotted with Mary of Scotland for the assassination of
Elizabeth. Another strove to blow up James I. and the English
Parliament with gun-powder. The Jesuits were charged with being
constantly on the watch to assassinate William of Orange, and Henry
of Hanover. Anthony Passevin, a Jesuit, is stated by Manrovieff, the
church historian of Russia, to have taught the Polish Catholics to
persecute the Greek Christians, and to have plunged Russia and
Poland in an inexpiable war. Jesuits were constantly gliding over
Europe from court to court, engaged in performing the mandates of
popes and kings; and, if we may trust the records of history, the
fatal vow of obedience was often employed by their superiors to
crush the instincts of humanity and the voice of conscience.”—
Historical Studies, Loyola and the Jesuits
. SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.5
Here is another:— SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.6
“To what country of Europe shall we turn where we are not able to
track the Jesuit by his bloody foot-prints? What page of modern
history shall we open and not read fresh proofs that the papal
doctrine of killing excommunicated kings was not meant to slumber in
forgotten tomes, but to be acted out in the living world? We see
Henry III. falling by the dagger. Henry IV. [both of France]
perishes by the same consecrated weapon. The King of Portugal dies
by their order. The great prince of Orange is despatched by their
agent, shot down at the door of his own dining-room. How many
assassins they sent to England to murder Elizabeth, history attests.
That she escaped their machinations is one of the marvels of
history... In the Gunpowder Plot we see them deliberately planning
to destroy at one blow the nobility and gentry of England. To them
we owe those civil wars which for so many years drenched with blood
the fair provinces of France. They laid the train of that crowning
horror, the St. Bartholomew Massacre. Philip II. and the Jesuits
share between them the guilt of the ‘Invincible Armada,’ which
instead of inflicting the measureless ruin and havoc which its
authors intended, by a most merciful Providence became the means of
exhausting the treasures and overthrowing the prestige of Spain.
What a harvest of plots, tumults, seditions, revelations,
torturings, poisonings, assassinations, regicides, and massacres has
Christendom reaped from the seed sown by the Jesuits.”—
Wylie’s History of Protestantism, book 15, chap. 5, par. 5
. SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.7
And here is one more:— SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.8
“Its [the Order of Jesuits] services to Roman Catholicism have been
incalculable. The Jesuits alone rolled back the tide of Protestant
advance when that half of Europe which had not already shaken off
its allegiance to the Papacy, was threatening to do so, and the
whole horrors of the counter-reformation are theirs singly.”—
Encyclopedia Britannica, art., Jesuits, par. 11
. SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.9
As the Inquisition was the
tribulum
by which the Papacy inflicted such sore tribulation upon the church,
and as the Order of the Jesuits was the strength of the Inquisition,
therefore we believe that
the abolition of the Order of the Jesuits
is the event that marks the end of the tribulation. They had been
expelled from Portugal in 1753, from France in 1761, and from Spain
in 1767; but these decrees could not be permanently successful as
long as the Jesuits retained their Order intact, and had the support
of the Pope. But it was not long before the Pope was forced to turn
against them, and the final crash came. Of this event we give the
following narrative:— SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.10
“At last came the final blow that was to shatter into pieces the
great army of Loyola. For more than two centuries the Jesuits had
been lighting the battles of Rome. To exalt the supremacy of the
Pope, they had died by thousands in English jails and Indian
solitudes, had pierced land and sea to carry the strange story of
the primacy to heathen millions, and to build anew the medieval
church in the heart of Oriental idolatry. And now it was the Pope
and Rome that were to complete their destruction. BY a cruel
ingratitude, the deity on earth whom they had worshiped with a
fidelity unequaled among men, was to hurl his anathemas against his
most faithful disciples. France and Spain elected Pope Clement XIV.
upon his pledge that he would dissolve the Order. He issued his bull
July 21, 1773, directing that, for the welfare of the church and the
good of mankind, the institution of Loyola should be abolished.”—
Historical Studies
,
Id
. SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.11
For these reasons we believe that the abolition of the Order of
Jesuits is the event, and July 21, 1773, is the date, when “the
tribulation of those days” ended. SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.12
J.
NOTE.—The Jesuits were restored in 1814, by Pope Pius VII.; but not
to their persecuting power. In the different countries of Europe
since that time the Order has been expelled and restored several
times, and even by the Papacy once. But Pius IX., after his return
from Gaeta in 1849, gave them its entire confidence till the day of
his death, and in his Vatican decrees is seen the crowning triumph
of Jesuit Ultramontanism. SITI August 12, 1886, p. 487.13
↩︎