this school of forgers “...treated all papers, forged or genuine, with a completely impartial dishonesty”. De Rosa is rightfully merciless when dealing with this extraordinary situation, and reveals that during the mid-twelfth century, the Decretum, or Code of Canon Laws, was “..peppered with three centuries of forgeries and the conclusions drawn from them”. One such conclusion was that the pope was superior to, and the “source” of, all laws without qualification; a fact noted by de Rosa as suggesting that he was by definition equal to the Son of God. Here then was the Church we had to have, the institution created by God through Constantine to shed light on a darkened world.
19. Graham, Lloyd, Deceptions & Myths of the Bible, The Citadel Press Book, New York, 1995, p. 454: ...He (Constantine) killed with his own hands two of hid brothers-in-law, had his wife, his son Crispus and two nephews murdered, bled to death his political rivals, threw the unbelieving into a well, and caused uncounted thousands to die on the battle field.
20. Graham, Lloyd, Ibid., p. 454: For nearly 2000 years Christianity has been trying to save us instead of civilizing us and it has ended in a century of savagery, an era in which 250 million Christians died in Christian wars... Such is Christianity, a religion based on a fraud, founded by “fools” and confirmed by an assassin – Constantine the Great.
21. Graham, Lloyd, Ibid., p.: 438: Thus the Catholic Church is founded on Peter whom, four verses later, Jesus openly calls Satan. Thus if the Catholic Church is founded on Peter, it is founded on Satan – a fact we have long expected. Peter’s story is the veriest nonsense – one mortal man endowed with the power over all humanity for all eternity. In things religious, Catholics are indeed credulous but can they be so credulous as to believe that pre-Christian sages like Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates...require this ignorant Jewish fisherman to bind and loose theirs souls? No, and neither are we.
22. Daleiden, Joseph, The Final Superstition: A Critical Evaluation of the Judeo-Christian Legacy, Prometheus Books, New York, 1994, p. 83: It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that many biblical scholars believe the evidence indicates that this reference to Peter, like many other NewTestament passages, was inserted at a later date.
23. Kung, Hans, Christ Sein (1976), p.338-339: The historical Jesus.. counted on the world’s coming to an end in his own lifetime. And for this coming of God’s kingdom he doubtless did not want to found a special community distinct from Israel, with its own creed, its own cult, its own constitution, its own office...All this means that in his own lifetime Jesus never found any church. He had no idea of founding and organizing a large-scale religious operation that would have to be created...
24. Uta Ranke-Heinemann, Ibid., p. 217: The Church has turned Jesus into its propagandist. For this reason we take everything that presupposes or dicusses or promotes the existence of a Church as interpolation by the authors of the Gospels into Jesus’ original sayings. That includes Jesus’ hailing Peter as the rock on which he will build his church (Matt. 16:18), since Jesus never meant to found a church... It’s not Jesus who’s speaking here; it’s the early church, which was interested in having such a leadership position and authority figure because of its growing hierarchical structure. In the inauthentic chapter 21 of John – that is, in a later addition to the actual gospel – the idea of a deputy is already clearly developed. Peter becomes the shepherd of the flock of Christ. He takes over the functions of Jesus,