God is dead and Satan lives! The year is One, the first year of our Lord! The year is One, God is done!
(Roman Castevet, in July, 1966. From Rosemary’s Baby)
The Romans first started relating to Christians at around the year 66 (LXVI), when Caesar Nero, after the "Great Fire of Rome", began savagely persecuting Christians. Saint Peter, the first Pope of Rome, upon whom the Roman Catholic Church was founded, was crucified in Rome on an inverted crucifix in the year 66. It was to Peter that Jesus said (Mark 8:33): "vade retro me satana" ("get behind me Satan"). The book of Revelations, written in Hebrew or Aramaic, has a title only found in the Aramaic version, which reads: "The Revelation that was upon John the prophet from God, on the Island of Patmos, where he had been exiled by Nero Caesar". And "Nero Caesar" written in Hebrew (Aramaic) letters is equal to 666.
However, gradually the Romans began to adopt Christianity. The Latin Mass of the Roman Catholic Church started to be celebrated in Rome at around 190 AD (before that, it was celebrated in Greek), and continued to be the central Roman Rite until the 1960s. A key period in the Satanic history of the Latin Mass was in the year 1666 (which happens to be the only year written with Roman numerals in which each letter is written just one time – MDCLXVI.... that is, the only date since the year 666 – DCLXVI). That year is recognized as the beginning of the Guibourg Black Masses in Paris, which captured the imagination of Satanism for the next 300 years. Finally, in 1966, the Vatican II Council was concluded, the almost 2000 year-old Traditional Latin Mass was abandoned by the Roman Catholic Church, and the Satanic versions of the Latin Black Mass began to emerge from the ruins of the Roman Rite.
| 4 BC - Jesus is born. | |
| Anno Domini | Anno Satanae |
|---|---|
| I Anno Domini | |
| 1 AD - Christianity begins. | |
| 66 - The Roman Emperor Caesar Nero begins persecuting Christians. | |
| 200 - the Latin Mass starts being used in Rome in about 190 AD. | |
| 1570 - Pope Pius V and the Council of Trent (Concilium Tridentinum) establish the Latin Mass in its fixed form, for all time: the "Tridentine Mass" (Missa Tridentina). This was done to prevent changes from being introduced into the original Latin Mass. | |
| * | * |
| MDCLXVI | 1666 – the Guibourg Masses are conducted in Paris. |
| "There were accounts of the 1896 tumult when he [Adrian Marcato] claimed to have called forth Satan and was attacked by a mob outside the Bramford [...], and of similar happenings in Stockholm in 1898 and Paris in 1899." (Rosemary's Baby) | |
 |
|
| 1897 - Stanislas de Guaita prints the first Satanic pentagram, in La Clef de la Magie Noire, Paris. | |
| 1897 - Stanislaw Przybyszewski's detailed historical outline of the Church of Satan: Entstehung und Kult der Satanskirche is published in Berlin. | |
| Vatican II (1962-1965) | |
| 1958 - 1963 - Pope John XXIII - Initiates Vatican II - to change the Latin Mass into the "New Order of the Mass" and reform the Roman Catholic Church. | |
| 1962 - October 11 - Vatican II begins and lasts for 4 Sessions, until the end of 1965. | |
| 1963 - 1978 - Paul VI - Implements the decisions of Vatican II, altering the Roman Mass. | |
| 1964 - non-Latin languages are introduced into the Roman Mass. | |
| 1965 - Monday, October 4 - Pope Paul VI celebrates Mass at the Yankee Stadium in New York City. | “It was Monday, October 4th, the day of Pope Paul’s visit to the city,…” (Rosemary’s Baby, and the night Rosemary becomes pregnant). |
| 1965 - December 8 - Vatican II ends. | Ira Levin reads books on witchcraft and begins working on Rosemary's Baby. |
| * | * |
| XXX. IV. MDCCCCLXVI. Anno Domini | XXX. IV. I. Anno Satanae |
| 30 April 1966 The Year of the Lord | 30 April 1 The Year of Satan |
 Pope Paul VI |
 Anton LaVey, the "Black Pope" |
| 1966 – January 1: On New Year’s Eve he proposed a toast – “To 1966, The Year One” (Rosemary’s Baby). | |
| 1966 – April 8: Time Magazine “Is God Dead?” issue. | |
| 1966 – April 30, Walpurgis Night: Anton LaVey declares the Year I, Anno Satanae, and founds the Church of Satan. | |
| 1966 – June 25: Rosemary's baby born (6 months after December 25th). | |
| 1966 – August 1, Lammas: “God is dead and Satan lives! The year is One, the first year of our Lord! The year is One, God is done!” (Rosemary’s Baby). | |
| 1966 Herbert Sloane and the Ophite Cultus Sathanas are performing Satanic Masses. | |
| 1966 - The band Coven is formed. | |
| 1967 | II Anno Satanae |
| 1967 Roman Polanski reads through the draft of Rosemary’s Baby before the book is published, and agrees to work on the movie. | |
| 1967 – March 12 - Rosemary’s Baby book published. | |
| 1967 – October - The Novus Ordo Missae is first publicly offered in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican before a Synod of Bishops. | 1967 Coven begins performing a Black Mass as part of their stage show. |
| 1968 | III Anno Satanae |
| 1968 - The traditional form of the Consecration in the Mass is changed. | 1968 – June 12 - Rosemary’s Baby movie (by Roman Polanski) released. |
| 1968 - September, Friday the 13th - Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan record The Satanic Mass, released on an album of the same name later that year. Contains a few Latin phrases, such as Ave Satanas, that the Church of Satan was starting to use. | |
| 1969 | IV Anno Satanae |
| 1969 - The Novus Ordo Missae is approved and introduced by Paul VI, based on the decisions of Vatican II. | 1969 - Coven releases “Witchcraft” album, containing a recording and the full text of the first Black Mass, the Satanic Mass. Contains Latin phrases, and some complete Latin prayers to Satan, such as Gloria Satanas. |
| 1969 - April 8 - The New Roman Missal is published. | 1969 - December - The Satanic Bible is published. |
| 1969 – Satanis: The Devil’s Mass, is filmed at “the Black House”, Church of Satan, in San Francisco. (Movie released in 1970). | |
| 1970 | V Anno Satanae |
| 1970 – June - Wayne West creates a second Black Mass, the Missa Solemnis, for the Church of Satan. Contains a few more Latin prayers. | |
| 1972 | VII Anno Satanae |
| 1972 - A third Black Mass, the Messe Noir, is published in “The Satanic Rituals”. Almost half of the Mass is in Latin. | |
| 1986 | XXI Anno Satanae |
| 1986 – April 30, Walpurgis Night - a fourth Black Mass, completely in Latin, the Missa Niger, is published (originally completed October 31, 1985). | |
| 1972 | XXXII Anno Satanae |
| 1997 - 2000 years after the birth of Jesus - death of Anton LaVey. |