It is interesting how that passage from 1 Timothy was actually fulfilled by the Albigensians, who forbade marriage and the eating of meat.
Some Protestant groups actually cite the Albigensians as "true Christians"who were preserving the Gospel in the "hidden parallel church"!
That is interesting indeed. Yeah, I've read several accounts of the "hidden parallel church" from Carroll's Trail of Blood
to Broadbent's The Pilgrim Church
. There are in fact several on the Baptist board who buy into this, believing there have always been "baptist" churches throughout history maintaining the true faith while being persecuted by the corrupt state church ("whore of Babylon") headquartered in Rome. No, they weren't always called "Baptists". Through the years the wicked Roman institution has given them such names as "Novatians", "Donatists", "Montanists", "Paulicians", "Bogomils", "Cathari", "Albigensians", "Waldensians", and "Anabaptists" (among many others, the records of whom have been destroyed by Rome). However, the truth was betrayed when Cardinal Hosius said (? in the 16th century) WTTE that had the church not persecuted the "baptists" for the past 1200 years, then they'd be more numerous than the reformers!
The embarrassing thing is I more or less believed this uncritically for a time.