Kingdom Parables

THE KINGDOM PARABLES
depose him in AD 963. But when King Otto I returned to his country,
Germany, John came back to power and ruled for another year.
In AD 1032 the ruling Pope Benedict VIII made his nephew as Pope
Benedict IX when he was only 12 years old. He obtained the chair by
simony. He was highly immoral and lived in adultery and was involved
in robbery and murder. So the people of Rome drove him out. But he
managed to sell the papacy to Gregory IV. Later Benedict IX killed the
them reigning Pope, Clement II and again became Pope. In AD 1045 he
again sold it to one John Grattan who became Pope Gregory VI. The
history of Papacy thus continues as a worldly power beset with the birds
of the air.
5.8 PHARISEES AND THE HERODIANS
The rise of clergy gave rise to the trend of creating new techniques of
efficiently controlling the masses. All efforts were directed towards
building up a theology which would defend and enlarge ecclesiastical
authority and claims. It took three forms:
1. Primacy and Universality of Roman Pope. Doctrine of Petrine
succession and authority of Pope as the sole custodian and distributor of
divine will and purpose)
2. The supremacy of spiritual authority over temporal authority. (As
God’s representative Popes became King Makers)
3. Transmission of Grace through sacraments. "The priests alone, by the
appointment of Christ, has in his hands the power of the sacramental
impartation of Grace, and thus the redemptive miraculous element of
the church, without which there is no deliverance from original sin or
from purgatory."
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