46. Prophecy clearly predicts, in Daniel 2: 40-43, the history of the fourth world power, including the ten kingdoms of Western Europe represented by the iron and clay of the image. Notice the precise words: The fourth "kingdom" was "strong as iron." Iron and clay composed the feet and toes of the "kingdom," not kingdoms. ("It shall be a divided kingdom," A. R. V., Jewish, 1917 ed., Leesen, etc.) This "kingdom" was partly strong and partly broken, because iron would not mix with clay. Three times is this singular noun "kingdom" used. And for over a thousand years every human effort was made to hold together that construction, the Holy Roman Empire, in this divided state. This met with but varied success, for while it sometimes seemed as strong as iron, at other times it was as weak as clay.
47. In the year 476, the pope and the Western Catholic Church became subject to the Arian Heruli, and later to the Ostrogoths. In 538 A. D., the pope and the church were liberated, and reunited to the imperial state as one "little horn." In 1798 A. D., the French general, Berthier, by the authority of the directory of atheistical France, imprisoned the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, and the government of the church, which is an integral part of the "little horn," composed of cardinals and other officials, ceased for a time to exist. It was grievously wounded, according to prophecy. Finally, in 1806, Francis II abdicated the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and it came to its end. Note this: The Frankish king, Charlemagne, established the Holy Roman Empire. The French emperor, Napoleon, destroyed it. This was the end of the perpetuated fourth "kingdom."
48. The pope and the church depended upon the empire for protection, but by the year 1798, and indeed before that date, the victorious armies of France had reduced the Holy Roman Empire to impotence; and when the French army occupied Rome in 1798, and abolished the government of the church and the temporal government of the Papal States, the former Exarchate of Ravenna, establishing instead a Roman republic which was later incorporated into the French empire (1810), and there remained only Austria of the Holy Roman Empire.
In 1800 a new pope was elected, who took the name Pius VII. In 1801 the Catholic Church was again established in France through a concordat with the Vatican, which remained in force until 1905, when church and state were separated in France. After 1798, the union of church and state existed in all the Catholic countries of Europe, such as France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, but they were not united in one empire, and therefore could not be called the "little horn." Spain has recently separated church and state.
49. Our final conclusion concerning the demand of prophecy is that the Roman Catholic Church without the Roman state is not the "little horn," neither is the Roman state without the church the "little horn;" but both united together in one government form the "little horn." So when the church and the Roman state are separated, the "little horn" ceases to exist in this specified sense.
In 1798 the "little horn" received its deadly wound by the sword of France when the head of the church government—one composite unit of the "little horn"— was taken prisoner, and therefore could not function with the civil government of the Holy Roman Empire, which government is the other composite unit of the "little horn."
Let us examine these statements in the light of prophecy. In Revelation 13 a beast with seven heads and ten horns is brought to view, which was to exercise authority forty and two months, the identical time outlined in Daniel 7:24, 25. One of these seven heads—elsewhere denominated the "little horn"—was wounded to death, but the deadly wound was to be healed. The seventeenth chapter of Revelation reveals that five heads had passed into history, one of which was pagan Rome, followed by the "little horn" head, which was wounded to death in 1798 A. D. We are likewise taught that an "image to the beast" will be made in the United States, and that the kingdoms of Europe will give power to the beast for "an hour,"—a short time, which will "heal" the "wound" and cause the whole world to "wonder" after the beast.
This union of nations—Catholic and Protestant—in the Old World is made for the express purpose of enforcing the "mark" of the beast. But it is idle speculation to attempt to predict by what manner that composite union of church and state in Europe will be effected. Let us rest satisfied that it will be done according to the prophetic word of God.
One of the leading steps in the healing of the wound was the uniting of church and state in Italy, in 1929, under the initiative of Mussolini, dictator of the Fascist civil government. Immediately the Church of Rome went into action, preparing to oust dissenters and heretics in contravention to the concordat and treaty drawn up between the Vatican and the civil government of Italy.
No sooner had the church gone into action than the Italian premier, Mussolini, by government decree closed up "Catholic Action" in Italy. Today the state of Italy controls the church in Italy with regard to liberty of conscience. The difference between Italy under Mussolini and Italy under Justinian is this: When the concordat and treaty were made between the Vatican and the Italian government, Mussolini said that every man has a soul of his own, and has a right to choose his own religion; consequently provision was made for a measure of religious freedom in the union of church and state. Mussolini is tolerant with regard to religious freedom, whereas Justinian was intolerant as the head of the imperial state. However, the day is coming when the whole of Europe will unitedly repudiate freedom of conscience, and persecute dissenters as in former days under the dominance of the "little horn."
50. Those who interpret the word "Papacy" to mean the Roman Catholic Church alone, separated from the Roman state, cannot consistently apply this interpretation to the "little horn" of Daniel 7, for that horn was the combination of two governments into one, ecclesiastical and civil.
51. Those who interpret the word "Papacy" to mean the union of the church and the Roman state can consistently apply that interpretation to the "little horn," for that is exactly what the prophecy demands.
Bibliography
Original Sources
"The Ante-Nicene Fathers." 10 vols.
"The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers." 10 vols. Eusebius, "Ecclesiastical History" and "Life of Constantine."
Socrates, "History of the Church."
Sozomen, "History of the Church."
Theodoret and Evagrius, "A History of the Church." Hodgkin's Translation, "The Letters of Cassiodarus." ---
"Code of Justinian," 17 vols.
Ayer, "A Source Book for Ancient Church History." Thatcher and McNeal, "A Source Book for Medieval History."
Henderson, "Historical Documents of the Middle Ages."
Hart, "Ecclesiastical Records of England, Ireland, and Scotland, From Fifth Century Till the Reformation."
Robinson, "Readings in European History," Vol. I. Robinson and Beard, "Readings in Modern European History," Vol. II.
Cheyney, "Readings in English History."
"Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History" (ten pamphlets), Pennsylvania University.
Standard Protestant Church Histories (Based on Original Sources)
Bingham, "Antiquities of the Christian Church." + 2 vols.
Smith and Cheetham, "A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities,"** 2 vols.
Schaff, "History of the Christian Church," + 8 vols.
Gieseler, "Manual of Ecclesiastical History,""+ 4 vols.
Flick, "The Decline of the Medieval Church,"" 2 vols.
Rainy, "The Ancient Catholic Church."
Mosheim, "Ecclesiastical History,"** 3 vols.
Lea, "History of the Inquisition,"** 3 vols. ; "Studies in Church History."**
Bower, "History of the Popes,"** 3 vols. Ranke, "History of the Popes," **+ 3 vols. Muston, "The Israel of the Alps." **+ 2 vols. Milman, "History of Latin Christianity," **; 8 vols.; "The History of Christianity,"** 3 vols. Creighton, "History of the Papacy," "+ 6 vols. Neander, "General History of the Christian Religion and Church," **+ 10 vols.
Hardwick, "A History of the Christian Church" (Middle Ages).*
Standard Catholic Church Histories
(Based on Original Sources)
Duchesne, "The Early History of the Christian Church,"** 3 vols.
Hefele, "A History of the Christian Councils," **+ 5 vols.
Hergenrather, "Catholic Church and Christian State," **+ 2 vols.
Alzog, "Manual of Universal Church History,"** 4 vols.
Gosselin, "Power of the Pope During the Middle Ages,"**+ 2 vols.
Civil Histories Containing Church History Hodgkin, "Italy and Her Invaders,"** 5 vols. Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,"** 2 vols.
Alison, "History of Europe."* 6 vols.
Dyer, "History of Modern Europe,"* 5 vols. Guggenberger (a Catholic historian), "A General History of the Christian Era,"* 3 vols.
* Good.
** Very Good.
+ Contains much source material.