You do realize the source for some of these claims is a highly discredited, horribly ridiculous book called “Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop, a Reformed Scottish minister, who pieced together bits of various ancient mythology willy nilly and tried to tie it to catholicism.
Several “Christian” websites of extreme Protestant opinion quote freely from it, including www.biblebelievers.com and www.chick.com
And I quote, from Wikipedia (on the article Two Babylons by Hislop):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Babylons
It was later expanded in 1858 and finally published as a book in 1919. Its central theme is its allegation that the Roman Catholic Church is a veiled continuation of the pagan religion of Babylon, the veiled paganism being the product of a millenia old conspiracy.[1] It is has been recognized by scholars as discredited and has been called a “tribute to historical inaccuracy and know-nothing religious bigotry” with “shoddy scholarship, blatant dishonesty” and a “nonsensical thesis”. [2] [3]
Although scholarship has shown the picture presented by Hislop to be absurd and based on an exceedingly poor understanding of historical Babylon and its religion, his book remains popular among some fundamentalist Christians.[4]
Here is a ink to the Christian Research Institute and it’s examination of this book, which is widely quoted and considered authotitative in Protestant circles.
http://www.equip.org/site/c.muI1LaMNJrE/b.2713769/k.B1E9/DC187.htm
It’s quite possible that Hislop was a bigger liar than even Foxe.
Yeah, lotta that goin' around . . . ;-)
Thanks for the info -- I'd never heard of him.