Did Rome curse their own popes and saints?
Did the Roman Catholic Church, claiming to guard the truth, end up cursing its own popes and saints without even realising it?
The Bible warns in Isaiah chapter 5,
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
This is not just ancient history. It is a warning for every generation. There are times when religious leaders have taken what is evil and called it good, when they have taken what is false and called it truth. One of the clearest examples happened five hundred years ago at the Council of Trent.
In the early 1500s, the Protestant Reformation spread through Europe. Men like Martin Luther and John Calvin rose up to call the church back to the Bible. They preached that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. They exposed the deep corruption that had spread through the Roman Church — the sale of indulgences, pieces of paper promising forgiveness for money. Funds from indulgences built grand monuments like St. Peter’s Basilica, while ordinary people were kept in fear, told they could shorten their suffering in purgatory by paying for release.
Indulgence preachers such as Johann Tetzel became famous for their slogans: “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.” Relics were paraded through towns, and people were told that by viewing supposed bones of saints or fragments of the cross, they could earn remission of sin.
In response, Rome launched what it called the Counter-Reformation. At its centre was the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563. Trent was not a correction. It was a hardening. The council formally rejected the biblical gospel. It declared that salvation is achieved by faith plus works, and that anyone who teaches otherwise is anathema — cursed.
It also declared the apocryphal books to be inspired Scripture, cursing anyone who rejected them. The word anathema is not light. In the Bible, it refers to being cut off from Christ — placed outside the community of grace, handed over to destruction.
The Apostle Paul used that same word in Galatians chapter 1:
“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.”
Paul repeats himself for emphasis, showing that to corrupt the gospel is to fall under divine judgment. The Judaizers of his day taught that faith in Christ was not enough, that people must also keep the law of Moses — circumcision, dietary rules, festival observances. Paul made it absolutely clear that to add anything to grace is to destroy grace entirely.
That principle applies to every form of works-based religion. Whether circumcision, penance, indulgences, mass attendance, baptism as a requirement for salvation, or any other human act — any gospel that adds works to faith is a false gospel condemned by God. No effort, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise, can save. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
And here lies the great irony. The very word Paul used to warn against corrupting the gospel — anathema — was the same word Rome used at Trent. But instead of defending the gospel, Rome used it to condemn those who believed it.
The Council of Trent declared that salvation came through participation in sacraments — attending mass, performing penance, and paying indulgences. Grace alone was rejected. The free gift of God was replaced with a system of continual effort and religious transaction. Trent’s anathemas did not merely disagree with Protestants; they officially consigned anyone who held to the true gospel to hell.
But in doing so, Rome actually condemned its own heroes.
Pope Gregory the Great, who lived in the sixth century, is still honoured as one of the greatest popes in history. Yet Gregory taught that salvation is by the grace of God, not by human effort. He wrote,
“Let no one proudly extol his good works, seeing that whoever has any good work, it is given to him from above.”
Gregory understood that even our best deeds come from God’s mercy. He echoed Ephesians 2:8–9:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.”
But at the Council of Trent, Rome declared, “If anyone says that the ungodly is justified by faith alone, let him be anathema.” By that decree, Rome officially cursed Gregory himself. The council’s rulings were declared perpetual — binding for all generations.
The same happened with St. Jerome, the fourth-century scholar who translated the Latin Vulgate. Jerome rejected the apocryphal books such as Maccabees as Scripture, saying they could be read for moral instruction but not to establish doctrine. He wrote plainly, “The Church does not receive the Maccabees among the canonical Scriptures.”
Jerome’s reason was simple: those books were never part of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Jews never recognised them as inspired by God. They were written after the last of the prophets and contained errors, including the idea of praying for the dead.
Yet at Trent, Rome declared Maccabees and other apocryphal writings to be Scripture, using them to defend doctrines like purgatory and indulgences. Without those books, Rome had no biblical support for these practices. Trent’s goal was not to preserve God’s Word but to preserve man-made tradition.
By declaring those anathemas, Rome effectively cursed Jerome too — one of its own saints, its own translator of Scripture. Think about that. A church that claims to be the infallible guardian of truth condemned two of its greatest voices because they agreed with the Bible.
Psalm 119:89 says,
“Forever, O Yahweh, Your word is settled in heaven.”
God’s Word does not change. Human traditions do.
The Council of Trent proved that Rome is not the unchanging voice of God. It is a man-made system that twists the gospel, binds consciences, and rejects Scripture’s authority.
The true gospel is simple. Romans 3 says,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”
We are all sinners. We have all fallen short of God’s glory. No amount of good works, prayers, or rituals can wash away guilt. We cannot save ourselves.
But God, in His mercy, sent His Son. Jesus Christ lived the perfect life we could never live and died on the cross for our sins. His sacrifice fully satisfied the justice of God. Salvation is not something we earn but a free gift received by faith.
Romans 10 declares,
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
There is no purgatory to endure, no price to pay. Christ’s blood is sufficient.
Will you trust the shifting words of men, or will you come to Jesus and trust Him alone?