THE prophetic measuring line of 1260 years, assigned to the special supremacy of the Papacy, reaches from date to date in the history. But more than that, it also links together two great world crises of profound significance in the development of the work of God, and of deepest interest to the student of history.
As the Papacy rose to supremacy, its wrath fell upon those who stood for God's truth. The work of this apostasy is thus described:—
"And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue ['make war,' margin] forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle [the sanctuary above, by substituting a priestly service below], and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations." Rev. 13:5-7.
That was the day of the Papacy. And the noontide of the Papacy, as Wylie says, was the world's midnight. It was the rule of absolute authority that asked only to be obeyed. And the spiritual tyranny in the papal system set the mold for the civil and political life of the nations. It was the reign of absolutism and intolerance.
The prophecy assigned 1260 years to this phase of the supremacy of the Papacy. The supremacy was established in that remarkable period of history when, as Finlay says, the change of centuries passed before men's eyes within a few years. The measuring line of the prophecy runs on 1260 years, and, lo, its end touches another great epoch-making crisis of history — Europe in the throes of the French Revolution. Allison says, in the opening words of the Introduction to his "History of Europe," Vol. I, page 1:—
There is no period in the history of the world which can be compared, in point of interest and importance, to that which embraces the progress and termination of the French Revolution. In no former age were events of such magnitude crowded together, or interests so momentous at issue between contending nations. From the flame which was kindled in Europe, the whole world has been involved in conflagration; and a new era has dawned upon both hemispheres from the effects of its extension.
Then we have at the beginning of the prophetic period the notable decree (by the Papacy's chief supporter) in A. D. 533, formally recognizing papal supremacy, and a decisive stroke with the sword at Rome, cleaving the way, in 538.
Exactly 1260 years later we have the notable decree of the French government (which had been the Papacy's chief supporter), abolishing church and religion, in 1793, and a decisive stroke with the sword at Rome, in 1798. The parallel is complete.9
The narrative of events so striking and the comments thereon must be brief. Of the decree of 1793 against all religion,—because, in the minds of the French, the Papacy represented religion,—W. H. Hutton says:—
On Nov. 26, 1793, the convention of which seventeen bishops and some clergy were members, decreed the abolition of all religion.—"The Age of Revolution," page 256.
That revolutionary movement, stripped of the frenzy and the fury of the days of terror, was a revolt against absolutism and tyranny, for which the Papacy had stood. It was the bull of Pope Innocent III that annulled the Great Charter of English liberties which the barons had wrested from King John at Runnymede; and in the papal scheme had originated the doctrine of the divine right of kings, bestowed through the Pope, whose position was that of king of kings.
But a new time was to come,—the time of the prophecy. The full reign of papal principles had been cut short by the great Reformation. By the preaching of the word of God and the gospel of Christ's free grace, the people of Europe were awakened. The apprehension of spiritual liberty worked for general enlightenment and political and civil liberty. The old federation of kingdoms called the Holy Roman Empire began to break up. Politically and religiously, northern Europe had broken with the middle ages, and had set its face resolutely forward. But in the affairs of the civil order much of the medieval remained. Dury says of the time just before the French Revolution:—
Thus the middle ages, destroyed in the political system, in the civil system still existed.—"History of Modern Times," page 498.
The Papacy, as has been shown, stood for the middle ages. And absolutism was still trying to keep the thoughts and aspirations of the new time repressed and confined in the old forms. But the new wine broke the old bottles. The time of the prophecy came, and in the French Revolution was presented the symbol of outraged humanity goaded to madness, rising up and tearing away its fetters; and because the Papacy stood for religion in the eyes of the people, they plunged into stark atheism.
But all history recognizes that, in spite of the indescribably wicked excesses and the suicidal anarchy and the defiance of God, the time of that terrible convulsion was a turning-point in the history of mankind. "Absolute monarchy," as Edmund Burke said at the time, "breathed its last without a struggle." The dawn of the era of constitutionalism and liberty began to spread in blessings over the world. It was not the terrible revolution that did it; that was simply one of the events marking the time of the prophecy. The "sure word" had declared that then the reign of papal supremacy should be broken.
The decree of the convention, in 1793, was followed by the stroke with the sword, at Rome, in 1798. In the Revelation, the prophet was shown this apostate power "wounded to death" (Rev. 13:3); for "he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword" (verse 10).
An English Jesuit writer, Rev. Joseph Rickaby, tells the story of the fulfilment of this prophecy. Of course he would not admit the application of the prophecy for a moment; but nevertheless he supplies the record of facts:—
When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave orders that in the event of his death no successor should be elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be discontinued.
But the Pope recovered; the peace was soon broken; Berthier entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and proclaimed a republic. The aged pontiff refused to violate his oath by recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to prison into France. Broken with fatigue and sorrows, he died on the nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress of Valence, aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half Europe thought Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was dead.—"The Modern Papacy," page 1 (Catholic Truth Society, London).
The prophecy was fulfilled. The "deadly wound" was given. And the blow with the sword was struck at Rome in 1798, just 1260 years from the year 538, when the sword of empire turned the scale in the campaign that won the city of Rome for the Papacy, and placed in the papal chair the first of that new order of popes, no longer to be listed in the martyrologies, but as "men of the state, and then rulers of the state."
Napoleon had given orders that the Papacy should be discontinued in the event of the Pope's death. And in those days Napoleon was pretty generally having his way. But in the vision in which the prophet saw the deadly wound given, he was shown a further turn of events:—
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. . . . And they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" Rev. 13:3, 4.
"No wonder that half Europe thought Napoleon's veto would be obeyed," says the Jesuit writer, "and that with the Pope the Papacy was dead;" and he adds:—
Yet since then, the Papacy has been lifted to a pinnacle of spiritual power unreached, it may be, since earliest Christian history: we have seen England, which went mad over Garibaldi, enthusiastic over the unimargued splendors of Leo's jubilee, and, with all Europe, awestruck, as she watched him die. And to whom of modern rulers does our press apply the noblest of Christian epithets, if not to the pontiff, and to him alone, now reigning?—Ib.
And so the deadly wound is being healed. The "sure word of prophecy" has been fulfilled to the letter.
Many who lived in the days of the French Revolution and just after, were profoundly convinced that the world had been passing through a crisis in which prophecy was fulfilled. Dr. Adam Clarke, the famous Methodist commentator, who lived in those times, in 1825 (or earlier) wrote on Dan. 7:25, 26:—
The end [of the Papacy] is probably not very distant; it has already been grievously shaken by the French. In 1798 the French republican army under General Berthier took possession of the city of Rome, and entirely superseded the whole papal power. This was a deadly wound, though at present it appears to be healed.—"Commentary."
The attention of all the world was called to the events that marked the ending of the 1260 years. What a remarkable measuring line of prophecy! Truly it does more than connect date with date. It links together two great crises of human history in which the prophetic word of the living God was being fulfilled.
One end of that thread of years touches a time when the figure of Justinian, like a colossus, as Bury described it, bestrode the point where ancient and medieval history met; when "the changes of centuries," as Finlay said, "passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation." And out of these events came the special exaltation of the Papacy.
The other end of the measuring line touches a time when another colossal figure—that of Napoleon—strode through history, when again two eras met; and again "the changes of centuries passed in rapid succession before the eyes of one generation." And at that time the wound was given the Papacy. Commenting on the "era of Napoleon" and the time of the French Revolution, Allison says:—
Within the space of twenty years, events were in that era accumulated which would have filled the whole annals of a powerful state in any former age.—"History of Europe," Vol. I, Introduction, page 2.
And with the completion of the great prophetic period of the 1260 years, the world was hastening on into the "time of the end," and toward the last scenes in the great controversy between truth and error.
Fierce as the prophetic scriptures show the closing conflict to be, the same scriptures give assurance that the victory will be on the side of truth. At times in the long reign of apostasy through the dark ages, it must have seemed to true hearts in the midst of the conflict that evil would hold the world in darkness. Witnesses to the true light were hurried from the dungeon to the stake. They could only hold for God and right, and fall with faces to the front. But even these fell victorious over apostasy:—
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Rev. 12:11.
The words of their Captain rang in their ears above the shouting and the tumult: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." He watched over his own through the long night of papal supremacy; and when the time of the prophecy came, his overruling power wrought his purposes out of those days of convulsion and change. He keeps watch over his children to-day.
As we face the closing conflict, with many an hour of darkness yet to come, when the enemy will apparently triumph, we have the Lord's assurance: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
"Careless seems the great Avenger; history's pages but record
One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne,—
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."