Historical Department

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 2, 1867

Historical Department.

Prophecy is History in Advance.

ENDING OF THE 1260 YEARS.

(Continued.)

Their audacity increased rapidly through the weakness of the directory, and they ventured to proclaim popery to be the national religion. Five prelates, sworn and secretly affiliated with the Jesuits, seconded their projects by publishing an encyclical letter, to which thirty-three other prelates adhered, that is, almost all the new Gallican hierarchy. The refractory priests thought that the day of their victory had arrived, and encouraged the Jesuits in their work of desolation. The court of Rome applauded their sanguinary zeal, and the pope, in his intoxication of joy, commanded masses to be chanted for the success of the cause of despotism.

The directory, impressed by the progress of the Jesuits, vigorously arrested them. They required every ecclesiastic, without exception, to take the civic oath, and banished from France all who refused to take it. Nevertheless, a large number of the Jesuits remained; and it was soon perceived, without the power to remedy the evil, that these same priests had conspired to destroy the national liberties, and to insure the triumph of despotism.

In all parts the republican armies were victorious. The country within the Rhine was completely subjugated, and Italy alone remained to be conquered to overthrow the coalition. That service was confided to Napoleon Bonaparte. Brilliant success every where marked his course. The Austrians and Piedmontese were routed by the republican soldiers, who were almost without arms and shoes; and the pope soon trembled for his temporal supremacy.

Pius endeavored to levy troops; and to repair the penury of his treasury, he emitted his notes, a species of paper money, which he forced on the people by constraining the merchants of Rome to receive them in exchange for specie. But the rapid march of the French surprised him in his preparations, and hindered him from executing his warlike projects. Then the crafty pontiff feigned his willingness to be at peace with France, and sent the Spanish ambassador Azara, to Bonaparte, to ask an armistice, and to offer the acquisition of peace by the cession of the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, the payment of a contribution of fifteen millions, and the transfer of the principal works of art of ancient Greece and modern Italy, which decorated the galleries of the Vatican.

The armistice having been granted, Pius VI, who only wished to gain time, with no design to fulfill the conditions stipulated in his name, profited by the delay in expediting his armaments. By his orders, legions of priests were scattered in all the papal territory, who excited the fanatical population against the French by furious predictions. To increase the enthusiasm of his devotees, he opened the treasury of the papacy, and in his bull he promised forty thousand years of indulgences to all those who would aid to repel the republicans. This was the tenor of the brief—“To all our well beloved catholic children, brethren in Jesus Christ! We command you for the love of Christianity, to take arms; and that no person may hesitate to accomplish our pleasure, we apprise you, that by virtue of our sovereign authority, we grant forty thousand years of indulgences to all those who will join our banners, and the celestial beautitude to every man who shall kill but one of our enemies!” Independent of those machinations, the pope took care to send his emissaries to the emperor of Austria to obtain aid.

Bonaparte, informed of these occurrences, signified to the Roman court that he should instantly commence hostilities, if the pope did not abandon his measures and fulfill his engagements with the republic. Pius appeared ready to obey. He collected in a large gallery the paintings destined for the ransom of Rome. He drew out of the castle Angelo all the money that remained of the famous treasury of Sixtus V. He constrained the ecclesiastics to send him from their convents, mass-houses and monasteries, all their ornaments and precious vessels which were not of absolute necessity for their superstitious ritual. He obliged all his subjects to give up their silver plate; and even searched the private domicils for jewels, decorations of gold, and the rings of the women. When he had accumulated in the Roman treasury all the wealth of his people, he informed the French general that he was ready to satisfy the republic.

The commissioners of the directory speedily arrived at Rome, to receive the pledges of the capitulation, and to inform Pius that France demanded that he should retract, disavow, and annul all the bulls, decisions, sentences, censures, condemnations, pastoral instructions; all the briefs, decrees, edicts, mandates, and, in general, all the writings promulgated by the Roman court since the commencement of the revolution.

Those conditions, which really added nothing to the terms of the treaty, and which were only the offspring of humanity, appeared to excite the pope’s wrath to the utmost degree. Pius VI pretended that they were equivalent to a direct denial of his infallibility, and an avowal before Europe that he was only an impostor, and that his religion was only a routine of absurd and odious practices. He requested that he might have the opportunity to consult the conclave of cardinals on the measures which it was proper to adopt. That was only a new trick to gain time and to postpone the execution of the treaty until the arrival of the Austrian troops would enable him to quarrel openly with France.

In fact, as soon as it was known at Rome that Austria had resumed offensive operations, the priests recommenced their predictions. The pope redoubled his activity to secure his pecuniary resources. He changed the money, and obliged the farmers to sell their grain at a low price and for his bills, to supply his troops. He organized a civic guard, raised corps of battery guards in every quarter of Rome, and transformed the city into a warlike arsenal. On all sides were seen only soldiers and vehicles laden with muskets, cannons, tents and the materials of war. His enthusiasm was communicated to the Romans. Contributions flowed into the Roman treasury. Gold, silver, jewels, provisions, and cattle, all the possessions of the people were placed at the pope’s disposal. Many rich citizens raised companies of troops at their own expense. The Constable Colonna equipped a complete regiment of infantry. A species of delirium seemed to fill all their heads.

To produce that result, Pius employed special means. All the convents in the ecclesiastical dominion received orders to “set a going” the madonnas. In the villages, the statues of the Virgin moved their arms, opened their eyes, and lifted up their legs. In the cities, the crucifixes effused blood and oil. At Ancona, Saint Cyriac exhibited multiplied roars of laughter. In Rome, the skulls of Peter and Paul chanted hymns; and what was deemed the most extraordinary and miraculous, in the presence of the pope, the cardinals, and more than eighty thousand persons, at one festival, a madonna walked, shook her head three times, rolled her eyes in their sockets, and uttered groans. That juggling, executed by the automaton, filled the stupid fanatics with wonder and exasperation.

At length, Pius had the satisfaction to see his execrable policy producing the expected results. At one disturbance, bands of monks, sbirri, and deranged persons surrounded the palace of the republican commissioners vociferating their menaces of death, which they would doubtless have executed, had not Azara the Spanish ambassador interfered. Repelled from the house of the embassy, they dispersed about the streets of Rome, assassinating every Frenchman whom they met, and roaring out cries of “Hail Mary! Long live Pius VI!” They then directed their course into the country to accomplish the work of ruffians.

The victories obtained by Bonaparte over the Austrians, forced the pope to terminate those scenes of carnage. Pius, dreading the arrival of the French army at Rome, hastened to inform the general of his friendly designs toward the republic. At the same time he addressed a message to the emperor of Germany, to obtain the assistance of ten thousand soldiers, and informed him that he had taken excellent measures to organize a civil war in France. He also assured the emperor that he was amusing the republican commissioners until the Austrians appeared; and that as soon as their troops were united in one body, he would cast off the pontiff’s tiara for the helmet of Cæsar, unfurl the famous labarum of Constantine, and march at the head of the army to combat the proud Corsican and his banditti.

That letter fell into the hands of Bonaparte. The armistice was instantly terminated. The French army entered the papal territory, and within fifteen days conquered one half of the pope’s dominions. Pius then expected to receive the just punishment of his treachery and crimes; but whether Bonaparte conceived that the papal authority could aid his secret designs, or that he wished to oppose the directory, who had commanded him to occupy Rome, he offered peace to the pope, which was eagerly accepted. Pius sent his nephew, the duke of Braschi, as plenipotentiary, with the Marquess Camille Massini, Cardinal Maltei, and Galoppi, with full powers to arrange a treaty. By that agreement, the pope consented to pay to France thirty-one millions, and to allow the family of the murdered Basseville an annuity. He also surrendered to France, for ever, Avignon, Bologna, Ferrara, and Ravenna, and permitted a French garrison to occupy Ancona. When the affair was concluded, Bonaparte hastened toward the Tyrol, leaving fifteen thousand men under the command of General Victor, to guard the conquered districts, and to execute the treaties.

Pius was anxious to avert the danger which he could ill sustain; for the shocks, his ceaseless inquietude, and his licentious indulgences with the duchess of Braschi, his daughter, seriously affected his health, and almost instantly after the conclusion of the truce of Tolentino, he became so ill, that it was anticipated he would not live.

His two bastards hastened to lay their greedy hands on the treasures amassed in the Vatican for the payment of the ransom of Rome to the French. But as the citizens had drained all their resources to defray the millions exacted by Bonaparte, and as they began to imbibe the ideas of the French concerning Roman priests and kings, they resisted their proposed new spoliation, went to the palace of Braschi, and forced the infamous wretches to fly from the city to escape the popular vengeance. The pope, however, was restored to health, and all things resumed their anterior course; only Pius dared not to augment the taxes to satisfy the demands of the treaty of Tolentino, and commanded the ecclesiastics to replace the sum stolen by his nephews.

The priests, menaced in their property, turned against the pope, denounced his tyranny, called on the people to revolt, accused Pius as the author of all the calamities which had fallen on Rome, and even in their harangues, branded the pontiff with the names, “old incestuous fool, sodomite, and robber.” They also made a poor girl named Labrousse enact the part of a prophetess; who publicly declared that the sovereignty of the pope was nearly at an end; that heaven was tired of the reign of those infamous impostors; and that Pius would soon be hurled from his throne.

Amid those circumstances Joseph Bonaparte arrived at Rome, to claim the fulfilment of the treaties of Tolentino, and to demand the release of every Italian who was imprisoned for his political opinions. As soon as that proceeding was known at Rome, the city changed its aspect as if by enchantment. Enthusiasm displaced stupor. Instantly the streets, the public places, and the squares were filled with crowds of citizens, who made the air resound with patriotic acclamations, and menaces of death against Pius VI. Then the multitude, as if actuated by one impulse, rushed to the quarter Trasteverin, and hoisted the tri-colored flag amid the universal and re-iterated shout—“Hail liberty! Long live France!”

Those developments, cries, and threats exasperated the old pope. He was astonished at the Romans—habituated during so many centuries, basely, to bow their heads beneath the yoke. He resolved, therefore, by an act of cruelty, to retain the power which appeared to be flitting from him, and directed his myrmidons to assault the populace. The soldiers of the execrable Pius rushed upon the citizens, massacred women, children, and the aged, shot the fugitives, covered

the streets with corpses, pursued the miserable people who had taken refuge in the palace of the French embassy, and transformed that inviolable asylum into a scene of carnage.

Joseph Bonaparte, General Duphot and the officers of the embassy hastened to arrest the massacre. At the sight of them, the rage of the Bandits seemed to be doubled, and the chief who directed the butchery, cried aloud, “Kill them, kill them, these are the French!” At the same moment, General Duphot was shot dead; and the other officers of the embassy escaped a similar doom by destroying the stair-case of the palace. The other ambassadors, advised of the scene, hastened with their suite to the place only just in time to rescue the representatives of the French republic, and to stop further butchery.

Azara, in the name of the diplomatic corps hurried to the Vatican, and energetically remonstrated with the pope on the atrocity of his conduct. But the infamous Pius pretended to be extremely surprised, and swore by Christ and Peter that he had not given any order to that effect. He even dared to say that he was absolutely ignorant of the occurrences which had transpired in the city, simulating that for many hours he had been employed in his private oratory supplicating God for the republic. Joseph Bonaparte, indignant at such excessive impudence and hypocrisy, announced that he should leave Rome, unless reparation was instantly made for the murder of General Duphot. Fourteen hours having elapsed without any formal communication from the pontiff by an ecclesiastical officer, that the assassins should be prosecuted, the French ambassador departed for Florence.

Moreover it was not in Rome only the pontiff had organized the massacre of the French and their partisans; for at the same time, similar scenes occurred in the principal cities of the papacy and at Venice. At Verona, the priests exhibited a peculiar cold-blooded and cruel ferocity; for not only many thousands of inoffensive men had been butchered by their orders, but those infamous wretches led companies of murderers into the hospitals, and took out four hundred French soldiers, sick or wounded, all of whom were pitilessly poignarded or drowned in the Adige.

The Italians opened their eyes at last to the crimes of Pius, and began to take part with the French republic. At Milan, the indignation which the conduct of the pope excited was displayed in both the private and public assemblies. Every where the cry was heard—“Death to that assassin, the pope! Vengeance for our liberators, the French!” One Italian patriot even delivered a public oration, in which he expressed his wish: “that the Tiber soon might roll its far-famed waters among a free people, and that the blood of the pope might cleanse the land of the crimes, the disgrace, and the bondage of eighteen centuries!”

General Berthier, who was directed to avenge the republic for the outrages of Pius, marched toward Rome at the head of his troops, and passed through the papal dominions with as much security as if he had been traversing a French department. He was received every where with shouts of rejoicing. In vain did the cardinals, the priests, and the deadly cohorts of monks and Jesuits endeavor to quicken the popular fanaticism—in no district was their outcry re-echoed. The wooden saints and silver madonnas shook their arms and legs, rolled their eyes, and chanted their canticles in vain. No resistance to the republican army appeared. Berthier had not arrived near the walls of Rome, when the citizens proclaimed their independence, and planted the tree of liberty before the capitol, and in all the public places.

(Concluded next week.)