Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
He shall wear out the saints of the Most High ...  (Daniel 7:25).  Roman Catholicism has been the most vigorous persecutor of Christians since the days of the pagan empire.  As Durant put it, "The Inquisition almost fatally disgraced the church."[21] The so-called "Holy Crusades," the religious wars, intrigues and subversions by which the man of sin built and maintained his empire have splashed with blood the pages of the last thousand years of history.  There are no less than two religious wars in progress at the moment this is written.