p. 472 | THOUGHTS ON DANIEL by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 27, 1881

THOUGHTS ON DANIEL.

By Uriah Smith

CHAPTER VII.—THE FOUR BEASTS.

MEANWHILE, Zeno, the emperor of the East, and friend of the pope, was anxious to drive Odoacer out of Italy (Machiavelli, p. 6), a movement which he soon had the satisfaction of seeing accomplished without trouble to himself, in the following manner: Theodoric had come to the throne of the Ostrogothic kingdom in Moesia and Pannonia. He, being on friendly terms with Zeno, wrote him, stating that it was impossible for him to restrain his Goths within the impoverished province of Pannonia, and asking his permission to lead them to some more favorable region which they might conquer and possess. Zeno gave him permission to march against Odoacer, and take possession of Italy. Accordingly, after a three years' war, the Herulian kingdom in Italy was overthrown, Odoacer was treacherously slain, and Theodoric established his Ostrogoths in the Italian peninsula. As already stated, he was an Arian, and the law of Odoacer, subjecting the election of the pope to the approval of the king, was still retained.

The following incident will show how completely the papacy was in subjection to his power. The Catholics in the East, having commenced a persecution against the Arians in 523, Theodoric summoned Pope John into his presence, and thus addressed him: "If the emperor [Justin, the predecessor of Justinian] does not think fit to revoke the edict which he has lately issued against those of my persuasion [that is, the Arians], it is my firm resolution to issue the like edict against those of his [that is, the Catholics]; and to see it everywhere executed with the same rigor. Those who do not profess the faith of Nicaea are heretics to him, and those who do are heretics to me. Whatever can excuse or justify his severity to the former, will excuse and justify mine to the latter."

"But the emperor," continued the king, "has none about him who dare freely and openly speak what they think, or to whom he would hearken, if they did. But the great veneration which he professes for your See, leaves no room to doubt but he would hearken to you. I will therefore have you to repair forthwith to Constantinople, and there to remonstrate, both in my name and your own, against the violent measures in which that court has so rashly engaged. It is in your power to divert the emperor from them; and till you have, nay, till the Catholics [this name Theodoric applies to the Arians] are restored to the free exercise of their religion, and to all the churches from which they have been driven, you must not think of returning to Italy."—Bower's Hist. of Popes, vol. 1, p. 325.

The pope who was thus peremptorily ordered not to set his foot again upon Italian soil until he had carried out the will of the king, certainly could not hope for much advancement toward any kind of supremacy till that power was taken out of the way. Baronius, according to Bower, will have it that the pope sacrificed himself on this occasion, and advised the emperor not by any means to comply with the demand the king had sent him. But Mr. Bower thinks this inconsistent, since he could not, he says, "sacrifice himself without sacrificing, at the same time, the far greater part of the innocent Catholics in the West, who were either subject to King Theodoric, or to other Arian princes, in alliance with him." It is certain that the pope and the other ambassadors were treated with severity on their return, which Bower explains on this wise: "Others arraign them all of high treason; and truly the chief men of Rome were suspected at this very time of carrying on a treasonable correspondence with the court of Constantinople, and machinating the ruin of the Gothic empire in Italy."—Id. p. 326.

The feelings of the papal party toward Theodoric may be accurately estimated, according to a quotation already given, by the vengeance which they took on his memory, when they tore from his massive tomb in Ravenna the porphyry vase in which his Arian subjects had enshrined his ashes. But these feelings are put into language by Baronius, who inveighs "against Theodoric as a cruel barbarian, as a barbarous tyrant, as an impious Arian." But "having exaggerated with all his eloquence, and bewailed the deplorable condition of the Roman Church reduced by that heretic to a state of slavery, he comforts himself in the end, and dries up his tears with the pious thought, that the author of such a calamity died soon after, and was eternally damned!"—Baronius' Annals, A. D. 526, p. 116; Bower, vol. 3. p. 328.

While the Catholics were thus feeling the restraining power of an Arian king in Italy, they were suffering a violent persecution from the Arian Vandals in Africa.—Gibbon, chap. 37, sec. 2. Elliot, in his Horae Apocalypticae, vol. 3, p. 152, note 3, says: "The Vandal kings were not only Arians, but persecutors of the Catholics; in Sardinia and Corsica under the Roman Episcopate, we may presume, as well as in Africa."

Such was the position of affairs when, in 533, Justinian entered upon his Vandal and Gothic wars. Wishing to secure the influence of the pope and the Catholic party, he issued that memorable decree which was to constitute the pope the head of all the churches, and from the carrying out of which in 538, the period of papal supremacy is to be dated. And whoever will read the history of the African campaign, 533-4, and the Italian campaign, 534-8, will notice that the Catholics everywhere hailed as deliverers the army of Belisarius, the general of Justinian.

The testimony of D'Aubigne (Reformation, p. 1, chap. 1), also throws light upon the undercurrents which gave shape to outward movements in these eventful times. He says: "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, leaned thus one upon the other, and by this alliance accelerated their twofold destiny. Those 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."

But no decree of this nature could be carried into effect until the Arian horns, which stood in its way, were plucked up. The Vandals fell before the victorious arms of Belisarius in 534; and the Goths, retiring, left him in undisputed possession of Rome in 538.—Gibbon's Rome, chap. 41.

Procopius relates that the African war was undertaken by Justinian for the relief of the Christians (Catholics) in that quarter; and that when he expressed his intention in this respect, the prefect of the palace came very near dissuading him from his purpose; but a dream appeared to him, in which he was bidden "not to shrink from the execution of his design; for by assisting the Christians he would overthrow the power of the Vandals."—Evagrius Eccl. Hist., book 4, chap. 16.

Listen again to Mosheim: "It is true that the Greeks who had received the decrees of the council of Nice (that is the Catholics), persecuted and oppressed the Arians wherever their influence and authority could reach; but the Nicenians, in their turn, were not less rigorously treated by their adversaries (the Arians) particularly in Africa and Italy, where they felt, in a very severe manner, the weight of the Arian power, and the bitterness of hostile resentment. The triumphs of Arianism were, however, 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."—Mosheim's Church Hist., cent 6, p 2. chap. 5, sec. 3.

Elliot in his "Horae Apocalypticae," makes two enumerations of the ten kingdoms which arose out of the Roman empire, varying the second list from the first according to the changes which had taken place at the latter period to which the second list applies. His first list differs from that of Machiavelli, adopted by Adventists, only in that he puts the "Alemans" in place of the Huns, and the Bavarians in place of the Lombards, a variation which can be easily accounted for. But out of this list he names the three that were plucked up before the papacy in these words: "I might cite three that were eradicated from before the pope, out of the list first given, viz., the Heruli, under Odoacer, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths." Vol. 3, p. 152, note 1.

Although he prefers the second list, in which he puts the Lombards instead of the Heruli, the foregoing is good testimony that if we make the enumeration of the ten kingdoms while the Heruli were a ruling power, they were one of the horns which were plucked up.

By the historical testimony above cited, we think it clearly established that the three horns plucked up were the powers named; viz., the

Heruli in A. D. 493, the Vandals in 534, and the Ostrogoths in 538.

1. He shall speak great words against the Most High. Has the papacy done this? Look at a few of his self-assumed titles: "His Holiness," "Vicegerent of the Son of God," "Our Lord God, the Pope," "Another God upon earth," "King of the world," "Kings of kings, and Lord of lords." Said Pope Nicholas to the emperor Michael, "The pope, who is called God by Constantine, can never be bound or released by man; for God cannot be judged by man." Is there need of bolder blasphemy than this? Listen to the adulation the popes have received from their followers without rebuke: A Venetian prelate, in the fourth session of the Lateran, addressed the pope as follows: "Thou art our Shepherd, our Physician, in short, a second God upon earth." Another bishop called him "the lion of the tribe of Judah, the promised Saviour." Lord Anthony Pucci, in the fifth Lateran, said to the pope, "The sight of thy divine majesty does not a little terrify me; for I am not ignorant that all power both in heaven and in earth is given unto you; that the prophetic saying is fulfilled in you, 'All the kings of the earth shall worship him, and nations shall serve him.'" See Oswald's "Kingdom Which Shall not Be Destroyed," pp. 97-99. Again, Dr. Clarke, on verse 25, says: "He shall speak as if he were God." So St. Jerome quotes from Symmachus. To none can this apply so well or so fully as to the popes of Rome. They have assumed infallibility, which belongs only to God. They profess to forgive sins, which belongs only to God. They profess to open and shut Heaven, which belongs only to God. They profess to be higher than all the kings of the earth, which belongs only to God. And they go beyond God in pretending to loose whole nations from their oath of allegiance to their kings, when such kings do not please them. And they go against God, when they give indulgences for sin. This is the worst of all blasphemies.

2. And shall wear out the saints of the Most High. Has the papacy done this? For the mere information of any student of church history, no answer need here be given. All know that for long years the papal church has pursued its relentless work against the true followers of God. Chapter after chapter might be given, would our limited space permit. Wars, crusades, massacres, inquisitions and persecutions of all kinds,—these were their weapons of extinction.

Scott's Church History says: "No computation can reach the numbers who have been put to death, in different ways, on account of their maintaining the profession of the gospel, and opposing the corruptions of the church of Rome. A million of poor Waldenses perished in France; nine hundred thousand orthodox Christians were slain in less than thirty years after the institution of the order of the Jesuits. The Duke of Alva boasted of having put to death in the Netherlands thirty-six thousand by the hand of the common executioner during the space of a few years. The Inquisition destroyed, by various tortures, one hundred and fifty thousand within thirty years. These are a few specimens, and but a few, of those which history has recorded. But the total amount will never be known till the earth shall disclose her blood and no more cover her slain."

Commenting upon the prophecy that the little horn should "wear out the saints of the Most High" Barnes, in his notes on Daniel 7: 25, says: "Can any one doubt that this is true of the papacy? The Inquisition; the persecution of the Waldenses; the ravages of the Duke of Alva; the fires of Smithfield; the tortures at Goa—indeed the whole history of the papacy, may be appealed to in proof that this is applicable to that power. If any thing could have worn out the saints of the Most High, could have cut them off so that evangelical religion would have become extinct, it would have been the persecutions of the papal power. In the year 1208 a crusade was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III. against the Waldenses and the Albigenses, in which a million of men perished. From the beginning of the order of Jesuits, in the year 1540, to 1580, nine hundred thousand were destroyed. One hundred and fifty thousand perished by the Inquisition in thirty years. In the Low Countries fifty thousand persons were hanged, beheaded, burned and buried alive, for the crime of heresy, within the space of thirty-eight years, from the edict of Charles V. against the Protestants to the peace of Cateau-Cambresis in 1559. Eighteen thousand suffered by the hand of the executioner, in the space of five years and a half, during the administration of the Duke of Alva. Indeed the slightest acquaintance with the history of the papacy will convince any one that what is here said of 'making war with the saints' (verse 21), and 'wearing out the saints of the Most High' (verse 25), is strictly applicable to that power, and will accurately describe its history." See Buck's Theological Dictionary, Art., Persecutions; Oswald's Kingdom, etc., pp. 107-133; Dowling's History of Romanism; Foxe's Book of Martyrs; Charlotte Elizabeth's Martyrology; The Wars of the Huguenots; The Great Red Dragon, by Anthony Gavin, formerly one of the Roman Catholic priests of Saragossa, Spain; Histories of the Reformation, etc.

To parry the force of this damaging testimony from all history, papists deny that the church ever persecuted any one; it has been the secular power; the church has only passed decision upon the question of heresy, and then turned the offenders over to the civil power to be dealt with according to the pleasure of the secular court. The impious hypocrisy of this claim is transparent enough to make it an absolute insult to common sense. In those days of persecution what was the secular power? Simply a tool in the hand of the church and under its control, to do its bloody bidding. And when the church delivered its prisoners to the executioners to be destroyed, with fiendish mockery it made use of the following formula: "And we do leave thee to the secular arm, and to the grace of the secular court, but at the same time do most earnestly beseech that court so to moderate its sentence as not to touch thy blood, nor to put thy life in any sort of danger." and then, as intended, the unfortunate victims of popish hate were immediately executed.—Geddes' Tracts on Popery. View of the Court of Inquisition in Portugal, p. 446. Limborch, vol. ii., p. 289.

But the false claims of papists in this respect have been flatly denied and disproved by one of their own standard writers, Cardinal Bellarmine, who was born in Tuscany in 1542, and who, after his death in 1621, came very near being placed in the calendar of saints, on account of his great services in behalf of popery. This man on one occasion, under the spur of controversy, betrayed himself into an admission of the real facts in the case. Luther having said that the church (meaning the true church) never burned heretics, Bellarmine understanding it of the Romish church, made answer: "This argument proves not the sentiment but the ignorance or impudence of Luther; for as almost an infinite number were either burned or otherwise put to death, Luther either did not know it, and was therefore ignorant, or if he knew it, he was convicted of impudence and falsehood; for that heretics were often burned by the church may be proved by adducing a few from many examples."

To show the relation of the secular power to the church, as held by Romanists, we quote the answer of the same writer to the argument that the only weapon committed to the church is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." To this he replied: "As the church has ecclesiastical and secular princes, who are her two arms; so she has two swords, the spiritual and the material; and therefore when her right hand is unable to convert a heretic with the sword of the Spirit, she invokes the aid of the left hand, and coerces heretics with the material sword." In answer to the argument that apostles never invoked the secular arm against heretics, he says: "The apostles did it not, because there was no Christian prince whom they could call on for aid. But afterwards, in Constantine's time, . . . . the Church called in the aid of the secular arm."—Dowling's History of Romanism, pp. 547, 548.

In corroboration of these facts, fifty millions of martyrs—this is the lowest computation made by any historian—will rise up in the resurrection as witnesses against her bloody work.