Wickliffe declared them
false and apocryphal. For this he was condemned by the sixteenth
_General Council_, held at Constance in 1414, and his bones ordered dug
up and burnt because of his daring impudence. The spurious character of
these false decretals have since been proved beyond the shadow of a
doubt; and since it is impossible to deny it longer, it is admitted even
by Romanists. So, after all, this _infallible_ Council was wrong, the
Papists themselves being the judges.

Pope Benedict IX. was guilty of such flagitious crimes that he became an
object of public abhorrence, and he finally _sold_ the Popedom. One of
his infallible (?) successors in the Papal chair, Pope Victor III.,
pronounced this infallible (?) profligate a person "abandoned to all
manner of vice. A _successor of_ SIMON THE SORCERER, and NOT OF SIMON
THE APOSTLE." I do not question the truth of this assertion, but what
becomes of their boasted uninterrupted apostolical succession? Baronius,
the Popish annalist, confesses that Pope Sergius III. was "the slave of
every vice, and the most wicked of men." Among other horrid acts Platina
relates that he _rescinded the acts_ of Pope Formosus, compelled those
whom he had ordained to be re-ordained, dragged his dead body from the
sepulchre, beheaded him as though he were alive, and then threw him into
the Tiber! This Pope cohabited with an infamous prostitute named Marozia
and by her had a son named John, who afterwards ascended the Papal
throne, through the influence of his licentious mother, under the name
of John XI. So the unlawful amours of Sergius produced this infallible,
necessary link in the _holy_ chain of uninterrupted apostolical
succession! It must be remembered, also, that the Popes have for ages
laid claim themselves to infallibility; and in the last General Council
of that body, held at the Vatican in 1870, it was declared a dogma of
the church. Romanists will tell us that this decree refers only to his
official acts, and not to his personal character; but official acts have
been the main thing under consideration in the case of Sergius,
Honorius, and Benedict. But if such monsters of vice can produce good,
holy, infallible acts, as Papists declare, then Jesus Christ is
mistaken; for he declared positively that "a corrupt tree _bringeth
forth evil fruit_ ... neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit." Mat. 7:17, 18. "God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man
a liar." Rom. 3:4.