In previous studies we reached the eighth century. This century was the twilight zone in the transfer of papal influence from tne East to the West. During the preceding barbarian invasions in the West, not only the prestige of the senate in Rome had diminished, but also the influence of the pope at Rome had declined. The patriarch of Constantinople had gained greater power in the church than even the bishop of Rome, as shown especially at the Council of Chalcedon, 451 A. D. The power of the pope was never so low as during the reign of Justinian, 527-565 A. D. He, like his uncle and predecessor, Justin, was the real Pontifex Maximus in church and state.
But since the prophecy demands that the "little horn" should exercise supreme authority for 1260 years, and since the field for the execution of that authority was to be Western Europe, we will now deal with the events that led up to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire.
The Franks and the Pope
We will now study briefly the transition of power from the Eastern emperor to the Western emperor, as related to the protection of the Roman Catholic Church. The Lombards, from the very beginning of their invasion of northern Italy in 568, had been a source of anxiety to the pope and the Catholic Church because of their Arian faith.* Slowly but surely they had established themselves in Italy, and the king of the Lombards, Astolphus (or Aistulf), made preparation to besiege Rome.
The pope appealed for help to the Eastern emperor, but, as one historian says, he preferred to fight images in the East rather than to go to Italy and fight the Lombards. Pope Stephen II then appealed to the king of the Franks, and personally appeared before him in France, where he crowned Pippin king and added the title of Patrician of Rome. Pippin crossed the Alps and defeated the Lombards, making Aistulf sue for peace. The terms of peace were to restore Ravenna and other cities to the Roman Republic, and to cease to worry the see of Rome. Aistulf the Frank accepted the terms, but soon broke the agreement and once more besieged Rome.
Pope Stephen wrote to Pippin for help, which was soon forthcoming, and once again the Franks crossed the Alps, defeated the Lombards, imposed their own terms, took the exarchate from them, and gave almost all of it to the pope. The keys of twenty-three cities, including Ravenna, were put on the crypt of St. Peter, where they still remain, according to Hodgkin, in "Invaders of Italy," Volume VII, chapter 8, and the Catholic historian, Mgr. L. Duchesne in "The Beginnings of the Temporal Sovereignty of the Popes" (754-1074 A. D.), pages 1-37. (Hodgkin gives the year 756, A. n., however, instead of 754, the date given by Duchesne for this episode.) The temporal sovereignty of the popes continued, with some fluctuations, especially during the Napoleonic wars, right up to 1870 A. D., when it was taken from them and Italy was united under one king. It was restored again, but with greatly minimized territory, by the Italian government under Mussolini, in 1929. But since the temporal sovereignty of the popes is not a subject of prophecy, we will not further discuss this feature.
After the death of Pippin, his son Charlemagne ascended the throne, and followed in his father's footsteps by further augmenting and consolidating the papal states belonging to the pope. On Christmas Day, 800 A. D., he was crowned emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III, and this coronation was later approved by the envoys of the emperor of the East, 812 A. D. There was now an Eastern and a Western Empire again, each independent of the other, Charlemagne calling the Eastern emperor his brother.'
One of the first things which Charles—or Charlemagne—did after his coronation was to settle the affairs of church and state, enacting a law stipulating that no pope could be elected without the consent of the Frankish emperor. It was thus that the power of veto had passed from the East to the West. He also required an oath of fidelity from the Missi Dominici, an institution which he established for the execution of justice in the courts, and for which many archbishops, abbots, and high church dignitaries were chosen, thus consolidating church and state. Not only were all ecclesiastics required to take the oath of loyalty to the emperor, but all the peasants down to the age of twelve were likewise to take this oath' Charlemagne acted as judge in the city of Rome when Pope Leo III took an oath before him that he was innocent of the crimes laid to his charge.
Not satisfied with being a great legislator and an executive of church laws, he aspired to be the founder of the new Western Roman Empire and took this title: "Carol= Serenissimus Augustus, a Deo coronatus, magnus et paciftcus imperator, Romanum (or Romanorum) guberans imperium, qui et per misericordiam Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum."3 Translated, it reads: "Charles, most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor of the Romans, governing the empire, and who also through the mercy of God is king of the Franks and Lombards." (Translation mine.)
What Justinian had been to the church and state in the East, Charles the Great was during his reign in the newly founded Holy Roman Empire in the West. Both held undisputed sway in the respective empires.
Popes and Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire
The successor to Charlemagne—his son, Louis the Pious—pursued the same policy toward the church followed by his father in legislating on and executing ecclesiastical ordinances, as will be pointed out in a future article. After the death of Louis the Pious, the empire was divided among his sons, and as time elapsed it grew weaker until 961-962, when Otto I became the restorer of the empire which had almost fallen to pieces,
Otto was crowned by Pope John XII as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Otto took an oath of loyalty to the pope as follows: "I, Otto, king, cause my representative to promise and swear to you, Pope John, in my name, by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by this piece of the life-giving cross and by these relics of the saints, that, if I shall come to Rome with the consent of God, I will exalt the Holy Roman Church and you, her ruler, to the best of my ability. . , . I will never make laws or rules in regard to the things which are under your jurisdiction or the jurisdiction of the Romans without your consent."' Pope John III rebelled against Otto, and consequently the emperor deposed him and caused a layman to be elected pope, who took the name of Leo VIII. At a synod held in Rome in 963, in the church of the Holy Saviour, a decree was drawn up, which is as follows:
Used interchangeably with Charles the Great and Charlemagne.
"Following the example of blessed Pope Adrian, who granted to Karl,* victorious king of the Franks and Lombards, the dignity of the patriciate and the right to ordain the pope and to invest bishops, we, Leo, bishop, servant of the servants of God, with all the clergy and people of Rome, by our apostolic authority bestow upon Lord Otto I, king of the Germans, and upon his successors in the kingdom of Italy forever, the right of choosing the successor of the pope, and of ordaining the pope and the archbishops and bishops, so that they shall receive their investiture and consecration from him, with the exception of those prelates whose investiture and consecration the emperor has conceded to the pope or the archbishops. No one, no matter what his dignity or ecclesiastical rank, shall have the authority to choose the patricius or to ordain the pope or any bishop without the consent of the emperor, and that without bribery; and the emperor shall be by right both king [of Italy] and patricius [of Rome]. But if anyone has been chosen bishop by the clergy and people, he shall not be consecrated unless he has been approved by the aforesaid king and has received his investiture from him." (Brackets theirs.)
This decree granting to the emperor the right of investiture, became the cause of a furious controversy between the popes and emperors during the following century, with which we will briefly deal in the next article. The pope's granting of the investiture to emperors was a kind of reciprocity arrangement, since the kings, dukes, and emperors—a number of them, at least—swore an oath of loyalty to the popes up to the time of Innocent III. A few may be mentioned here. Robert Guiscard, duke of Apulia and Calabria, swore such an oath of loyalty to Pope Nicholas II in 1059. Richard, prince of Capua, likewise swore allegiance to Gregory VII in 1073. Emperor Henry IV swore the same to Gregory VII about 1077, and likewise, Emperor Lothar II to Innocent II, in 1133. King Phillip of Suabia, Emperor Frederick II, and practically all the other temporal rulers promised obedience, in one form or another, to Innocent III, between 1198-1215 A. D. (See Thatcher and McNeal for content of these oaths.)
Before pursuing our studies further we append a summary-of-the leading points in the nine articles to date:
Summary of Points
1. The "little horn" of Daniel refers to the government of the Papacy, which is a union of church and state.
2. The Roman Catholic Church, separated from the state, is not the "little horn," for it can only excommunicate members and cannot inflict civil punishments on any one.
3. The prophecy indicates that the "little horn" came up among the ten horns.
4. Constantine was the creator of this horn, when he joined the Post-Apostolic Catholic Church to the Roman state.
5. The pagan doctrine of religion was that the priests of paganism were the ministers of the state.
6. The head of the pagan state was the emperor, who ruled by divine right; therefore the ministers of religion were subject to the emperor.
7. Including Constantine, seven Christian emperors wore the pagan robe of Pontifex Maximus at their coronation.
8. Gratian changed the title from Pontifex Maximus to Pontifex Religionis in 375 A. D., but he and all the following emperors retained the rights and power that title bestowed.
9. The prophecy says that the "little horn" would "think to change times and laws."
10. Constantine issued his first Sunday law in 321 A. D., in partial fulfillment of that prophecy. After that many more religious laws were issued by other emperors.
11. Ten barbarian tribes divided the Western Roman Empire; hence it is in the West, and not in the East, we must look for papal power.
12. In 476, at the overthrow of the Western Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, an integral part of the "little horn," became subject to the Arian king Odovacar.
13. Prophecy declares that the "little horn" would pluck up three horns. The Eastern emperor Zeno commissioned the Ostrogoths to root up the Heruli, 493 A. D.
14. In the year 533, Justinian wrote an edict to Pope John II, and made him the corrector of heretics in the church; but he claimed the prerogative to correct popes because he claimed to rule by divine right. His imprisonment of Vigilius proves this.
15. So long as the pope and the Roman Church were under Arian control in the West, prophecy could not be fulfilled. Hence, the "little horn" "rooted up," or overthrew, the government of the two remaining horns, the Vandals in 534 and the Ostrogoths in 538 A. D.
16. Silverius was the last pope to be installed in the papal chair by the Ostrogothic king Theodatus, in the year 536 A. D.
17. Through the intrigues of Theodora, the empress, and Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, Silverius was falsely accused and sent into exile, and Vigilius illegally chosen as pope, 537 A. D., Justinian being in total ignorance of the whole transaction.
18. Silverius appeared before Justinian, pleading his innocency, and Justinian sent him back to Rome, ordering a new trial for him.
19. Having arrived in Rome, Belisarius sent Silverius into exile on a small island off the coast of Italy, where he died on June 20, 538 A. D.
20. As soon as Justinian heard that Silverius was dead, he sent the patrician Dominicus to congratulate Vigilius on his succession to the papal chair.
21. When the Ostrogoths failed to capture Rome, and instead had to retreat in utter defeat, they surrendered their supremacy over the Western Roman Catholic Church to the Eastern emperor Justinian.
22. The year 538 therefore marks the liberation of the pope and the Western church from the oppression of the Arian kings under whose control they had been for sixty-two years. That year saw the union of the Eastern and Western churches.
23. After the Gothic defeat in 538 A. D., outside of Rome, the Goths retreated to Ravenna, their capital, which was not captured by the Roman forces until late in 539. The Goths rallied their army, chose a new king named Totila, who, with his army of Goths and other tribal soldiers, recaptured Rome twice between the years 540 and 554.
24. Totila granted absolute freedom to the pope and the Catholic Church, even though for a little while he was master over a great part of Italy. The last king of the Goths, Teias, the successor to Totila, suffered a decisive defeat, and was killed in a terrific battle with the Romans, 554 A. D., which year marks the total extinction of the Gothic monarchy in Italy.
25. The year 538 A. D. marks the beginning of the supremacy of the "little horn" of Daniel 7, for never again was the Roman Catholic Church, which is the ecclesiastical part of the "little horn," subject in part or in whole that is, within her legitimate sphere of influence to any foreign power whatsoever for the prophesied 1260 years, or until 1798 A. D. When we deal with the church in the wilderness, we will again consider this question of papal supremacy in articles XII and XIII, and also in the final analysis of the entire series. 'Washington, D. C.
Notes
1 Hodgkin, "Invaders of Italy," Vol. VIII, pp. 190-253 ; Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." chap. 49.
2 Robinson, "Readings in European History," Vol. I, pp. 126-147. Giun & Co., New York.
3 Bryce. "The Holy Roman Empire," appendix note C., p. 452, eighth edition, 1883. Macmillan and Company.
4 Thateher and McNeal, "Source Boot for Medieval History," pp. 114. 115.
5 Id., pp. 118, 110.
* In the exposition of the three horns of Daniel 7, the impression should never be created that the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths were the only tribes among the ten professing the Arian faith. The Lombards and the Burgundians were also Arian. The Franks defeated the Burgundians, who later became Catholics ; and the Lombards likewise became Catholic. It is not the object of the prophecy to show that the three specified were the only Arian powers. They were "plucked up" because of their opposition to and persecution of the Western Catholic Church. Thus they came within the purview of prophecy.
