1917_The_Finished_Mystery_Text

Revelation 17:8.The beast that thou sawest.— The Antichrist.Was.— Exercised actual dominion until1799 A. D.FM265And is not.— Has not had even a vestige oftemporal power since 1870. Since then it hasbeen in oblivion, the "bottomless pit."And shall ascend out of the [bottomless pit],ABYSS.— "Private letters from the Vatican,received by Dr. A. Palmieri of the Library ofCongress, a recognized writer on ecclesiasticalsubjects, announce that Pope Benedict XV isabout to appoint a commission of four cardinalsto renew a movement begun by Pope Leo XIII,and abandoned by Pope Plus X, looking to areunion of Christianty and the cultivation offriendly relations with the Anglican Church. Apublic announcement on the subject from Romeis expected soon. Dr. Palmieri said that the newmovement, as outlined in his advices, will bedirected particularly toward an establishment ofthe reunion of the Russian church and the Papacyand to a thorough re-examination into thevalidity of Anglican or Episcopal ordinations,which was settled in the negative in a papal bull‘Apostolica Sedis,' by Pope Leo X. The interestof the Pope in the problem of Christian unity issaid to have been intensified by the recentprogress of the world congress, initiated by theAmerican Episcopal Church."‘The new Pope,' said Dr. Palmieri, summarizingthe information received from Rome, ‘has takena considerable part in the efforts of neutralnations to establish peace among nations. TheVatican's efforts have been suggested not onlyby a humanitarian spirit, but by a longing forChristian unity and to end the conflict whichlong since has divided Christian churches.Efforts of Leo XIII for carrying out the reunionof Christianity were abruptly stopped by Piux X,who aimed at an inner reform of the Catholicclergy and turned all his energies to the crushingof modernism [Higher Criticism and Evolution].