In taking our leave of the image, we also take leave of the terrible beast of chap. 7, in its first form; but we are brought further down on the stream of time in this latter chapter, and have some additional particulars revealed to us, which next claim our attention.
As Daniel was considering this fourth beast, he suddenly presented to his view a new phase. A little horn thrust itself up among the ten, and plucked up three of them by the roots; and it had eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. When the angel explained the ten horns to be ten kings, he also explained this peculiar horn as follows: "And another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time." Verses 24, 25.
Has such a horn arisen? and has such a revolution taken place among the kingdoms of Europe? We answer, Yes; and again cite the reader to the page of history. Protestants all agree in applying this little horn to the Papacy; and, indeed, the specifications are so plain, that there is hardly room for mistake.
In our investigation of this horn, three points claim our consideration: 1. The events of its rise; or the plucking up of three horns. 2. Its character as shown in speaking great words against the Most High, wearing the saints, and thinking to change times and laws. And 3, its continuance, during a time, and times, and the dividing of time.
1. Were three kings overthrown to prepare the way for the Papacy, in a manner to fulfill the prophecy? To ascertain this, let us consider a few items of its rise and progress. Paul said that even in his day the mystery of iniquity was already at work. 2 Thess. 2:7. He knew the depravity of the human heart, the strength of ambition, and the intoxication that attends the possession and exercise of worldly power. And from the office of bishop, which was in his day established, and in Rome where he had preached "the salvation which cometh from God," the Papacy, the Man of sin, the Son of Perdition, at length arose.
The first pastors or bishops of Rome enjoyed a respect proportionate to the rank of the city in which they resided; and for the first few centuries of the Christian era, Rome was the largest, richest, and most powerful city in the world. It was the seat of empire, the mother of nations. "All the inhabitants of the earth belong to her," said Julian, and Claudian declared her to be "the fountain of laws." "If Rome is the queen of cities, why should not her pastor be the king of bishops," was the reasoning they adopted. "Why should not the Roman Church be the mother of all Christendom? Why should not all nations be her children, and her authority their sovereign law? It was easy for the ambitious heart of man to reason thus. Ambitious Rome did so." The bishops of the different parts of the empire felt a pleasure in yielding to the bishop of Rome some portion of that honor which was due to the queen of the world. There was originally no dependence implied in the honor thus paid. "But usurped power increases like an avalanche. Admonitions that at first simply fraternal, soon became absolute commands in the mouth of the Pontiff. The Western bishops favored this encroachment of the Roman pastors, either from jealousy of the Eastern bishops, or because they preferred submitting to the supremacy of a pope, rather than to the dominion of a temporal power."
Thus was everything tending towards placing the bishop of Rome on the supreme throne of Christendom. But in the fourth century, an opposing influence arose, in the promulgation of Arianism. The doctrine of Arius was "that the Son was totally and essentially distinct from the Father; that he was the first and the noblest of those beings whom the Father had created out of nothing, the instrument by whose subordinate operation, the Almighty Father formed the universe, and therefore inferior to the Father both in nature and dignity." This opinion was condemned in the Catholic council of Nice in 325, which decreed that Christ was of one and the same substance with the Father. Hereon Arius was banished among the Illyrians, and his followers compelled to give their assent to the creed composed on that occasion. The Arians therefore became bitter enemies and opposers of the Pope and Catholic Church.
We can thus easily see how the spread of Arianism would check the influence of the Catholics, and how fatal the possession of Rome and Italy by a people of the Arian persuasion would be to the supremacy of a Catholic bishop. We are therefore prepared for the following statements of the historian:—
Odoacer was king of the Heruli, and the first of the Barbarians that reigned over the Romans. He took the throne of Italy in 476. Of his religious belief, Gibbon says: "Like the rest of the Barbarians, he had been instructed in the Arian heresy; but he revered the monastic and episcopal characters, and the silence of the Catholics attests the toleration which they enjoyed." But Odoacer in 493 was dethroned by Theodoric, the king of the Ostrogoths, who in turn took the throne and was acknowledged the king of Italy. He also had been instructed in the Arian doctrine. "The triumphs of Arianism were, however," says Mosheim, "transitory, and its prosperous days were entirely eclipsed when the Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of Italy by the arms of Justinian." The Vandals fell before the victorious arms of Belisarius, Justinian's general, in 534, and the Goths, retiring, left him in possession of Rome in 538. Justinian, five years before (A. D. 533), had issued a decree, declaring the bishop of Rome the head of all the churches, and that by the "decisions and right judgment of his venerable see, heretics are corrected." By these conquests of Belisarius he was enabled to put this decree into effect.
D'Aubigne also testifies: "Princes whom these stormy times often shook upon their thrones, offered their protection if Rome would in its turn support them. They conceded to her the spiritual authority, provided she would make a return in secular power. They were lavish of the souls of men, in the hope that she would aid them against their enemies. The power of the hierarchy which was ascending, and the imperial power which was declining, leant thus one upon the other, and by this alliance accelerated their twofold destiny. Rome could not lose by it. An edict of Theodosius II, and of Valentinian III, proclaimed the Roman bishop 'rector of the whole church.' Justinian published a similar decree."
If the Pope was not hereby entitled the head of all the churches, he never could be.
"The authenticity of the title," says Mr. Croley, "receives unanswerable proof from the edicts of the 'Novellae' 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 2, 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.'"
It is true that the Pope did not become a temporal prince till made so by Pepin, the French monarch, in 755; and he did not reach the height of his power till the tenth and twelfth centuries; but this is not the point in the prophecy: the question is, When did the papacy become possessed of such power, that the saints, and times, and laws, might be said to be given into its hands?
This must have been in A. D. 538, when by the force of arms, Justinian established his decree by which he had constituted the Pope the head of the church and the corrector of heretics. And we conceive that the overthrow of the three kingdoms above enumerated, the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, fulfilled the prediction that he should subdue three kings; for that three kingdoms were overthrown to make way for his supremacy, the Pope has ever since signified by his triple crown.
