Chapter 13

“For this reason we have thought fit to bring to your notice the present matters of disturbance; though they are manifest and unquestionable, and always firmly held and declared by the whole priesthood according to the doctrine of your Apostolic chair. For we cannot suffer that anything which relates to the state of the Church, however manifest and unquestionable, should be moved, without the knowledge of your Holiness, who are The Head of all the Holy Churches, for in all things, as we have already declared, we are anxious to increase the honor and authority of your Apostolic chair.”

Says Dr. Croly:—

“The emperor’s letter must have been sent before the 25th of March, 533. For, in his letter of that date to Epiphanius he speaks of its having been already despatched, and repeats his decision, that all affairs touching the church shall be referred to the Pope, ‘head of all bishops, and the true and effective corrector of heretics.’

“In the same month of the following year, 534, the Pope returned an answer repeating the language of the emperor, applauding his homage to the See, and adopting the titles of the imperial mandate. He observes that, among the virtues of Justinian, ‘one shines as a star, his reverence for the Apostolic chair, to which he has subjected and united all the churches, it being truly the head of all; and was testified by the rules of the fathers, the laws of the princes, and the declarations of the emperor’s piety.’

“The authenticity of the title receives unanswerable proof from the edicts in the ‘Novellæ’ of the Justinian code.

“The preamble of the 9th states that ‘as the elder Rome was the founder of the laws, so was it not to be questioned that in her was the supremacy of the pontificate.’

“The 131st, on the ecclesiastical titles and privileges, chapter II. states: ‘We therefore decree that the most holy Pope of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood, and that the most blessed archbishop of Constantinople, the new Rome, shall hold the second rank after the holy Apostolic chair of the elder Rome.’

“The supremacy of the Pope had by those mandates and edicts received the fullest sanction that could be given by the authority of the master of the Roman world. However worthless the motives, the act was done, authentic and unquestionable, sanctioned by all the forms of state, and never abrogated,—the act of the first potentate in the world. If the supremacy over the church of God had been for man to give, it might have been given by the unrivalled sovereignty of Justinian.

“From this era the church of Rome dates the earthly acknowledgment of her claim. Its heavenly authority is referred to the remoter source of the apostles.”—_Apoc._, pp. 14-16, 30, 31.

The war against the Vandals was vigorously prosecuted by Belisarius, Justinian’s general, and resulted in their conquest the same year. Thus was the second of the first ten divisions of the empire subjugated: the second horn was plucked up.

Rome was still in possession of an Arian monarch, who was the bitter enemy of the Catholic church. Intelligence of the success of Belisarius in Africa reached the emperor, Dec. 16th, A. D. 533. “Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the Vandals, he proceeded, without delay, _to the full establishment of the Catholic church_.”—_Gibbon_, Harpers’ ed., v. 3, p. 67. Belisarius proceeded to the conquest of Italy, which he effected, and marched on to Rome. Only 4000 soldiers were stationed for its defence; and they could not oppose the wishes of the Romans, who voluntarily submitted. Seized with a momentary enthusiasm, “they furiously exclaimed that the apostolic throne should no longer be profaned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism; that the tombs of the Cæsars should no longer be trampled on by the savages of the north; and without reflecting that Italy must sink into a province of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman emperor as a new era of freedom and prosperity. The deputies of the Pope and clergy, of the senate and people, invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and to enter the city.” Thus was “the city, after sixty years’ servitude delivered from the yoke of the barbarians,” Dec. 10, A. D. 536. And “the Catholics prepared to celebrate, without a rival, the approaching festival of the nativity of Christ.”—_Ib._ p. 80.

In the winter, the Ostrogoths made preparations, and besieged Rome with an army of 150,000 fighting men. Pope Sylverius was suspected of treachery, and on proof that he had communicated with the enemy, he was banished by Belisarius. At the emperor’s command, the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of a new bishop, and elected “deacon Virgilius, who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred pounds of gold.”—_Ib._ p. 85. As he had obtained the papal seat by fraud, it was claimed that he was not the lawful Pope; but in A. D. 538, he was owned as such by the 5th General Council, and the whole Christian world.—See Bowers’ _Hist. Popes_, v. 2, p. 374. In March of this year (538),—after “one year and nine days”—the Ostrogoths raised the siege of Rome, and burned their tents—one-third of their number having perished under its walls. The arms of Justinian triumphed, and the Catholic hierarchy was established. The third horn had been plucked up by the fall of the third of the first ten divisions of Rome.

The Bishop of Constantinople did not submit willingly to the Primacy of Rome. On the death of Justinian, the supremacy of the Pope was utterly denied; and, in A. D. 588, John, Bishop of Constantinople, himself assumed the coveted title of “Universal Bishop.” The Roman bishop, Gregory the Great, indignant at this usurpation, denounced him as a “usurper, aiming at supremacy over the whole church,” and declared that whoever claims such supremacy “has the pride and character of _Antichrist_.”

Boniface succeeded to the Roman See, and in the following year, A. D. 606, only two years after Gregory’s death, applied to Phocas,—who had ascended the throne of Constantinople by the murder of the Emperor Mauritius,—for the same blasphemous title, with the privilege of continuing it to his successors. His request was granted, the Eastern Bishop was forbidden its use, and the Primate of Rome was again acknowledged as “Universal Bishop,” and the unrivalled “Head of all the churches.” This title has been worn by all the succeeding Popes; “but the highest authority,” says Dr. Croly, “among the civilians and annalists of Rome, spurn the idea that Phocas was the founder of the supremacy of Rome. They ascend to Justinian as the only legitimate source, and rightly date the title from the memorable year 533.”—_Apoc._ p. 117.

In A. D. 730, Emperor Leo issued an edict for the destruction of all images used in religious worship. From that time the Pope scorned his authority, and acted in defiance of the emperor’s will, who found himself unable to compel the Pope to obey the edict.

The Papacy thus defied all human authority; but did not as yet attempt the exercise of political power.

In A. D. 756, Pepin, the usurper of the crown of France, compelled the King of Lombardy to cede the exarchate of Ravenna to the Pope, “to be forever held and possessed by St. Peter and his lawful successors in the See of Rome.” The Pope had now become a temporal prince, and one of the kings of the earth. In A. D. 774, Charlemagne, the successor of Pepin, confirmed the former gift, and in addition, subjugated the Lombards, and annexed a large portion of their kingdom and the Duchy of Rome to the Roman See. In A. D. 817, Louis the Pious, granted “St. Peter’s patrimony” to the Pope and his successors, “in their own right, principality, and dominion, unto the end of the world.” Hence, as a temporal prince, the Pope wears a triple crown.

In A. D. 800, Charlemagne was solemnly crowned and proclaimed emperor by the Pope, having reduced under his sway nearly the whole of Europe. From this time the Popes claimed superiority to all kings and emperors, received homage from them, and exercised all the rights of sovereignty; but they were nominally dependent on the Emperors of the West till A. D. 1278, when the Emperor Rudolph released the people of the Papal States from all allegiance they might still owe to the imperial crown. This act was confirmed by the electors and princes of the empire. The Popes, in the greatness of their power, crowned and uncrowned kings at their pleasure, absolved subjects from all allegiance to their rulers, excommunicated whoever they would, and compelled secular princes to put to death heretics.

In A. D. 1294, Boniface VIII. became Pope. From his accession Hallam dates the decline of the Papacy, which, for “more than two centuries, had been on throne of the earth, and reigned despot of the world.”—_Dowling_. This was 1260 years from the death of Peter,—the earliest time from which they can date. His bull of excommunication against Philip of France, being disregarded by that monarch, who adroitly made the Pope his prisoner, his rage brought on a fever, which caused his death. Only a few succeeding pontiffs claimed, and none attempted to enforce, the prerogatives exercised by the preceding Popes. For seventy years the successors of Boniface resided at Avignon, in France, and paid great deference to the monarch of that country. After this was the Western schism, which divided the church for forty years,—two rival Popes claiming the mitre, and thundering out their anathemas against each other. These events greatly weakened the Papacy. About this time appeared Wickliffe and Huss, and Jerome of Prague; and still later, in 1517, Martin Luther, in opposition to the Papal pretensions, published his Thesis against Indulgences, 1260 years from the time of the arrogance of Pope Stephen.

In A. D. 1572, 1260 years from the removal of Constantine from Rome to Constantinople, occurred the bloody massacre of St. Bartholomew, when in one day 5000 Protestants were murdered in Paris, and in the same proportion in other parts of France. The persecutions of the Papists continued till near the close of the last century; and as late as November, 1781, a woman was burned alive by the Inquisition in Spain.

In 1793, 1260 years from Justinian’s letter to the Pope, the Papal church, with all religion, was entirely suppressed in France. And in 1798, which was the same length of time from the establishment of the papacy, by the conquest of the Ostrogoths,—the plucking up of the last of the three horns in 538, Gen. Berthier entered Rome, compelled the Pope to flee, and terminated the Papal government.

The temporal power was afterwards restored; but in 1848, twelve hundred and sixty years from 588 when John assumed the title of Universal Bishop, the Pope again fled from his throne. Two years subsequently, he was again restored.

“Flacius, in his ‘Catalogue of Witnesses,’ represented the twelve hundred and sixty days as having commenced in 606;” and Scott, and several others, reckon them from the same epoch.

4. The image had power to speak. It thus filled the office of the “mouth,” which was given to the ten-horned beast (v. 5), which synchronizes with the view taken of that appendage, p. 172.

5. It should _cause_ the infliction of death on those who should refuse to worship. The worship it would exact, is doubtless of the kind bestowed on the wild beast, 13:4. The Papal hierarchy claimed to be infallible and invincible, and to have power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven; those who refused to recognize its claims, if incorrigible, were punished with death.

The Image was not to put to death, but would _cause_ them to be killed. The symbolization corresponds with the fulfilment in this particular. The ecclesiastical officials punished rebellious subjects, by delivering them over to the civil arm; which punished heretics according to the will of the Papacy. “Lucius III. and Innocent III. by formal decrees required them to be seized, condemned, and delivered by the civil magistrates, to be capitally punished; and enjoined the princes and magistrates to execute on them the sentences denounced by the canon and civil laws.”—_Lord’s Exp. of Apoc._, p. 434. This is substantiated by Bellarmini and other writers. Civil rulers, who refused to enforce the decrees of the councils, were anathematized, excommunicated, and often deprived of their political power. When the Papacy has been reminded of the numbers killed and otherwise punished for alleged heresy, she has replied that the civil power, and not the church, has done this! She, however, has caused the kings of the earth to execute her wishes.

6. The image would cause all to receive the _mark_ of the Beast. A mark is a token of recognition. Slaves, soldiers, and the devotees of various gods, were thus identified on their hands or foreheads, both before and after the time of St. John—slaves by the name of the Emperor on their forehead, and soldiers by his name on their hand. Mr. Elliott proves this by quotations from Valerius, Maximus, Ælian, Ambrose, and others. The devotees of particular gods gained admittance to the secret meetings of the worshippers of their respective deity, by a _mark_ by which they identified each other. At the present day the Hindoos are marked on the forehead by the hieroglyphic of the god they are consecrated to.

The mark of the beast, is its _name_, or the _number_ of its name. The ancients often used numbers to indicate names. “Among the Pagans, the Egyptian mystics spoke of Mercury, or Thouth, under the number 1218, because the Greek letters composing the name Thouth, when estimated according to their numerical value, together made up that number. By others, Jupiter was invoked under the mystical number 717; because the letters of Ἡ ΑΡΧΗ, _the beginning_, or _first origin_, which was a characteristic title of the supreme deity worshipped as Jupiter, made up that number: and Apollo under the number 608, as being that of ηυς, or υης, words expressing certain solar attributes. Again, the pseudo-Christian or semi-pagan Gnostics, from St. John’s time downwards, affixed to their gems and amulets, of which multitudes remain even to the present day, the mystic word σβρασαξ, or αβραξας, under the idea of some magic virtue attaching to its number 365, as being that of the days of the annual solar circle; and equal moreover with that of Μειθρας, or Mithras, the Magian name for the sun, whom they identified also with Christ. Once more, the Christian fathers themselves fell into the same fancies, and doctrine of mysteriousness in certain verbal numbers. For example, both Barnabas and Clement of Alexandria speak of the virtue of the number 318 as being that of ΙΗΤ the common abbreviation for Jesus crucified; and partly ascribe to its magical virtue the victory which Abraham gained with his 318 servants over the Canaanitish kings. Similarly Tertullian refers the victory of Gideon, with his 300 men, to the circumstance of that being the precise number of Τ, the sign of the cross. In the name of Adam, St. Cyprian discerned a mysterious numeral affinity to certain characteristics in the life and history of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Irenæus notes the remarkable number 888 of the name Ιησους, Jesus. And in the pseudo-Sibylline verses, written by Christians about the end, probably, of the second century, and consequently not long after Irenæus, we find enigmas proposed of precisely the same characters as that in the text;—the number being given, and the name required.”—_Elliott’s Horæ Apoc._, vol. iii., pp. 204-6.

The “number of the beast” is indicated in the text by the Greek letters “χξς” which were severally used to represent the numbers 600, 60 and 6, making 666. As the name of the beast is equivalent to this number, the letters in it will represent numbers which amount to six hundred threescore and six.

After the division of the Roman empire, the western kingdom adopted for itself the name of the Latin kingdom; and its subdivisions were called the Latin kingdoms. The church connected with those kingdoms was also emphatically called the Latin church. Says Dr. More: “They Latinize everything. Mass, prayers, hymns, litanies, canons, decretals, bulls, are conceived in Latin. The Papal councils speak in Latin. Women pray in Latin. The Scriptures are read in no other language under the Papacy than Latin. In short, all things are Latin.” The Council of Trent declared the Latin Vulgate to be the only authentic version of the Scriptures; and their doctors have preferred it to the Hebrew and Greek text, written by prophets and apostles.

This Latin kingdom is the only one that ever corresponded to the characteristics of the beast. And its name—_Latinos_ in the Greek, and _Romiith_ in the Hebrew—is equivalent to the required number.

“The Greek and Hebrew letters composing the words רומיית, _Romiith_—רמענוש, _Romanus_—λατεινος, _Latinos_, each of them making in numerals exactly 666, plainly point out not only his name, and the number of his name, but also the _mark_ of his _name_; as for example:

in ר ו מ י י ת _Romiith_; so likewise 400 10 10 40 6 200 = 666 ר מ ע נ ו ש _Romanus_; and also 300 6 50 70 40 200 = 666 the Greek λ α τ ε ι ν ο ς _Latinos_, 30 1 300 5 10 50 70 200 = 666.

in each of which the exact mark is contained.

“It therefore evidently appears, that each name is both a mark and a number; a mark, when viewed as made up of so many letters, therefore called the mark of his name; a number, when viewed as made up of so many numerals, then called the number of his name. But when considered merely as a name, derived from _Romiith_, a Roman, or _Romulus_, the founder of Rome, a name common among men, it may then be properly called the _mark, or number of a man_.”—_Fleming’s Rise and Fall of Papacy._

To receive the mark of the beast, would be an acknowledgment of subjection to it. The connection of the beast and its image was so intimate, that submission to the one, was virtual submission to the other. To submit to the rites of the church modelled after the wild beast, to profess its faith, and to honor its authority, would be a reception of its mark. And all persons were compelled to do this, and give evidence of submission to its authority on the peril of their lives.

7. Those who should refuse the mark of the beast, were to be prohibited from buying and selling. The Lateran Council under Pope Alexander II., passed an act forbidding any to harbor heretics in their houses or to trade with them. The Synod of Tours passed a law that no one should assist them, “no, not so much as to exercise commerce with them in _selling_ or _buying_.”(5)—_Elliott._ In 1179, the third Lateran Council sentenced certain heretics, “their defenders and harborers, to an anathema, and forbid, under an anathema, that any should presume to keep them in their house, or on their lands, sustain them, or transact any business with them.”—_Lord._ “It was just the same fearful penalty of interdict from buying and selling, traffic and intercourse, that had been inculcated long before by the Pagan Dragon’s representative Diocletian, against the early Christians.”—_Elliott._

So exact a correspondence between the wild beast and the Western kingdoms, the two-horned beast and the Eastern empire, and the image to the wild beast and the Roman Hierarchy, makes the symbolization of this chapter very intelligible. These three agencies will severally continue till the end of the world. The latter will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ’s coming (2 Thess. 2:8), and the two former will then be taken and “cast alive into the lake of fire,” 19:20.

The vision would have been defective without a representation of the end of those who refuse to worship the beast, or its image, or to receive their mark, and who, although warred against and overcome by the beast, should maintain their integrity to Christ. Accordingly the revelator has a view of:

The Redeemed on Mount Zion.

“And I looked, and behold a lamb stood on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder: and the voice which I heard was like that of harpers playing with their harps: and they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living beings, and the elders: and no one could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth. These are they, who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wherever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, the first fruit to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth no lie was found for they are faultless.”—Rev. 14:1-5.

The Lamb is shown by the connection to be Christ,—here called by one of his metaphorical names.

The Mount Zion, doubtless, symbolizes the place where, in the regeneration, the Lord will reign with his saints—_i.e._ in the new earth. “The Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion,” Micah 4:7.—“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth,” 5:9,10.—“And I saw a new heavens and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.... And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall, be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God,” 21:1-3.

The names of Mount Zion, and Jerusalem, were both used to denote the city which the Lord chose above all the goodly places of earth to put his name there. It is proper to designate the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, by all the names which were applied to the old. The king is to be set upon the holy hill of Zion—“Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces,” Psa. 48:12, 13. “When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in glory,” _Ib._ 102:16. “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell; for I have desired it,” _Ib._ 132:13, 14. “For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; and joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.... Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.” Isa. 51:3-11. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.... How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, ‘Thy God reigneth!’ Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.” _Ib._ 52:1-9. “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” _Ib._ 59:20.