Temporal Power of the Papacy by John Norton Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 24, 1874

Temporal Power of the Papacy.

By John Norton Loughborough

ITALIAN AND OTHER TESTIMONY.

I promised to call attention to the speech of the Italian, Spivalo, on the occasion of the celebration of “Italian Unity.” As I said before, this speech presents another phase of this subject. I would that I had room to insert the entire speech, but I shall have to content myself with a few of its plain statements. In speaking of the temporal power of the pope, he says, “I am a Catholic, and I shall treat the question as a Catholic. . . . There is nothing in the Catholic religion that banishes a man from the pale of the church because opposed to the temporal power of the popes. . . . In this country such principles as those embodied in the Roman question, in that unnatural and unholy amalgamation of church and State, are unknown anomalies.”

Referring to the celebration in San Francisco, held a month before in honor of the twenty-fifth year of the pontificate of Pius IX., he says: “You are marched out in a solemn procession to perform, as you think, a religious duty; but read the words of your orator, full of venom and bitterness, insult and calumnies; ponder over the resolutions passed, and carefully examine the spirit of the occasion, and answer me frankly, Was it not a rabid political demonstration? . . . The pomp and glory of this world was the sole object and only purpose of that procession.”

The existence of the Roman government in the nineteenth century was an anomaly, the blending of the temporal and spiritual power, producing of necessity intolerance and opposition to the liberal ideas of progress.

“The religious pontiff could not as such give support, aid, or abet in any way, any form of religion but the Catholic; were he only head of his church, Protestant, Jewish, and other chapels and synagogues could be opened in Rome, without his interfering pro or con, but being spiritual and temporal, in an inseparable manner, the king could not allow what would be impossible for the pontiff to even tolerate, or he must separate the two powers, and then he would of consequence fall into what we contend, that the two powers are separate and distinct.”

“The Italians are not opposed to the august head of the Catholic church; but they were, and with reason, bitter enemies of the political ruler of the Roman States, who for a thousand years was the cause of war and discord among the people of Italy, who hired mercenaries and called foreign powers to support the phantom throne which at last has crumbled to pieces.”

“We are told that ‘Rome belongs to the Catholics.’ . . . Any man who would undertake to say to an American citizen that the Catholic clergy are the rulers of the people in temporal matters, and that he owes political allegiance to the court of Rome, would be speaking in open rebellion to the law of the land, which says that all powers emanate from the people, and are vested in those legally chosen by them. “No, gentleman, no free and enlightened citizen of any nationality acknowledges the pope as political superior, nor Rome his capital, nor the Romans his slaves. A costly independence, indeed, obtained at the price of over four thousand Romans, who, to please the rest of Catholicity, should sacrifice their rights and their freedom.

“And here I must say that, as an American citizen, I cannot close my eyes and ears to a new opinion that seems full of danger, and contrary to all our principles, and that is the opinion entertained by many as to the power of the pope over the citizens in non-religious matters. . . . It is high time to look around us when we have in our midst a class ready to ignore order and commit open riot, and seem only obedient to the voice of their ministers, while deaf to the mandates of the law.”

Spivalo gave some very interesting facts, to a few of which only we call attention. He says: “After the fall of the Roman Empire and the transfer of the seat of government to Byzantium (Constantinople), Italy became a prey to the many barbarian invaders, who divided it among themselves to suit their fancies and tastes. The Lombards, after their irruption over the northern portion, settled themselves permanently on the conquered soil and embraced Christianity.

The most beautiful provinces were divided among their leaders, who, among themselves, elected their kings. As children of the church, they respected Rome and the country around, which, while under the temporal power of a Greek exarch, received also that spiritual protection which the pope willingly gave it. The exarch resided at Ravenna, and extended his sway over the marshes of Romagna, Ferrara, Ancona, and Rimini, and in all things represented the emperor.”

“The weakness of the exarch, continually exposed to the powerful attacks of the Lombards, the distance and neglect of the Byzantine Court, the strife between the Greeks and Romans, all tended to lessen the ties between Rome and Byzantium. . . .”

“The many convents, monasteries, and landed estates belonging to the church throughout Europe made the pope one of the richest landed lords; and at that time, when landed property was the prime motive of power, these immense estates began to give the pontiff certain temporalities unknown before to the successors of St. Peter, and to the representatives of Him whose kingdom is not of this world.”

With this state of things, he says: “The imperial authority was but a shadow, and the exarchate a nonentity, and the pontiff, who had now assumed all the paraphernalia and rich pomp of earthly sovereignty, were gradually becoming the real masters.”

He states that in this move of the papacy in obtaining civil power “we have a vassal, although a pope, rising in open rebellion against his liege lord, and taking advantage of his weakness, conspiring to wrench from his grasp his dominion. . . . It was treason. . . . A principle engendered in treason and robbery could not but produce the dark results which have followed it till its fall.”

He gives many interesting facts concerning Italy’s struggle for her liberty, claiming that, in the act of Victor Immanuel’s taking Rome as the capital of united Italy, he is only taking what belongs to the Italians. My space will allow no further quotations from Spivalo, but I will proceed to consider facts from other sources concerning the rise and overthrow of the papacy, as predicted by Daniel in chapter 7, and by John in Revelation 13.

In Daniel we read of the little horn, that “saints, times, and laws” were “given into his hand until a time, times, and the dividing of time.” In Revelation the same work is spoken of in these terms: “Power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.” This period of symbolic time (1260 days, Rev. 12), on the rule of a day for a year (Ezek. 4:5, 6), is 1260 years; not that the pope was to be recognized among the nations of the earth for 1260 years as a temporal king, even Catholic writers themselves, you see, as quoted above, call that dominion about one thousand years. These prophecies above take cognizance of that dominion, and the taking of it away at the expiration of the 1260 years. But the event to which they seem to call our attention for the commencement of that period is the giving of the saints, times, and laws, into the hands of the blasphemous usurper.

The events of A. D. 538 seem to clearly mark the commencement of this work and period. I will first quote from Gavazzi’s New York lectures, delivered in 1853. He says, “The celebrated letter of Justinian to the pope in the year 538, not only recognized all previous privileges, but enlarged them, and entitled the pope and his church to many immunities and rights, which afterward gave origin to the pretensions displayed in the canon law.” That is the real point. We have already quoted from the canon law on the power of the pope. If this decree of Justinian gave rise to these claims, then

this decree is the point for the date of the 1260 days.

This decree was not effective till 538; for in 533 Rome was controlled by those opposed to the decree. From 536 to 538, Silverius was pope, and he opened Rome to Belisarius, the Greek general. Vigilius was pope from 538 to 555, and in the first year of his reign the Ostrogoths left Rome, and Justinian’s decree took effect. It was Vigilius that began at that time to assume authority over the church, in matters which belonged really to the emperor to control.

Concerning the course of Vigilius, I will quote from a Catholic history of the popes, De Cormenin. “He says, Theodore Asidas, bishop of Cesarea, appeared before Justinian to plead against the arrogance of Vigilius. Theodore says of Vigilius: “Under pretext of reserving them for the judgment of a council, he dares, on his own authority, to reverse the edicts of the emperor, and to impose his belief even on Constantinople. The whole world knows your great piety; your edicts have been received by all the churches! And now, what will people think, when they see a stranger reverse, by a single word, acts so solemn in your own presence, in contempt of four patriarchs and a great number of bishops, who have come together at your bidding to cause the edicts to be executed? What has become of your authority, great prince, if you cannot command your subjects until they have received the permission of Vigilius? What would the empress, that virtuous princess, whose recent loss we mourn, say, if she saw Justinian so far abase his royal dignity as publicly to be contradicted by a proud priest?”

The Emperor Justinian had denounced the three chapters of Theodorus of Mopsuesta. “The edicts of the emperor were received by all the bishops in the east, and Vigilius alone, ruled by the Roman clergy, opposed the propagation of his principles in the west.”

Justinian called a council in Constantinople to consider the matter of the three chapters. Vigilius struck against the emperor and excluded persons from the council that favored Justinian’s views of the subject. “The Pontiff then protested against the violence which had been used toward him, and refused to make any determination without the consent of the Latin bishops. On his side, the emperor preserved no restraint toward the holy father. . . . Said Vigilius, Recollect that Peter, whose place I occupy, has lost none of his liberty. I thought I was coming to the court of a Christian emperor, and I find myself in that of a Diocletian, the most cruel of tyrants. . . . Seventy prelates then assembled, when the pope declared the council dissolved, before they had arrived at any decision.”

Here are daring feats, surely, and although the emperor did not submit to all Vigilius’ usurpation, yet, as he had got possession of Rome through the help of Belisarius, his successor soon carried out to its fullest extent the powers he had usurped. Even Vigilius himself obtained laws from the emperor enforcing some of his religious tenets: “He obtained also from Justinian a decree in favor of Italy, in which the prince confirmed all the donations made to the Romans by Athalaric, Almasontus, and Theodatus, and revoked those of Totila. He also declared that the marriage of ecclesiastics with virgins consecrated to God, were null in the eyes of the law.”

As we thus ascertain by facts the clear date for the commencement of the 1260 years, we will inquire at once about their termination. Adding the 1260 years of the papal usurpation to 538 A. D., the point of the commencement, we have 1798 as the period of the termination of this work. 1798 is the time of Pius VI., who, in the month of February of that very year, was taken a captive to France, where he died in captivity in 1799.||

De Cormenin says of Pius VI. in his captivity: “He addressed a brief to all Christian bishops, to announce that the time was near in which the papacy would sally forth, radiant from the dungeons in which it had been crucified in his person.” In Rev. 13, John says of this power, “I saw one of its heads wounded to death.” Above is the acknowledgment, that, at the end of the forty-two months, it was crucified in its head—the pope.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.