Key to the 1843 Prophetic Chart
8. The Heruli and Rugii, or Thuringi, A.D.483. "It is certain that the Roman empire was divided into ten kingdoms; and though they might be sometimes more and sometimes fewer, yet they were still known by the name of the ten kingdoms of the western empire." - Scott.
This beast in the lapse of time assumes a new phase. "I considered the horns," says Daniel, and behold there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. In this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things."
Verse 8. This little horn is by all Protestants acknowledged to be a symbol of the Papacy. It was prophesied of this horn that he should subdue three kings. Verse 24. The three kingdoms that were plucked up to make way for the Papacy, were, 1. The Heruli, in 493. 2. The Vandals, in 534, and, 3. The Ostrogoths in 538.
(Gibbon's Decline and Fall.) Into the hands of this power the saints, times, and laws, were to be given for a time, times, and the dividing of time. Verse 25. [1260 years; see Rev.xii (12) 6,14.] The Papacy was established in A.D.538; for although the decree constituting the bishop of Rome the head of all the churches, was issued by Justinian, emperor of the East, five years previous, in A.D.533, yet that decree would forever have remained ineffectual, could not the three powers that stood in the way of the Papacy have been dislodged, and he really established in his position. Hence we must date the reign of the Papacy from the year (538) when Justinian's decree was carried into execution, and the saints, time, and laws, in reality given into the hands of the little horn.
From 538, when the Papacy was set up, 1260 years extend to 1798; and it is a notable fact of history, that on the 10th of February, 1798, Berthier, a general of Buonaparte's, at the head of the Republican army of France, entered Rome and took it. The Papal government was abolished, and the Pope died in exile in 1799.
(See Croley on the Apocalypse, Their's History of the Revolution, and Clarke on Dan.vii (7) 25.) The Papacy has never been restored to its former power. We are by this chain of prophecy brought down to within 66 years of the present time. The prophet does not see this beast gradually changing his wild and ferocious nature to the innocence and gentleness of the lamb, to make way for a temporal millennium; but he looks only a step further and says, "I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." Dan.vii (7),11.
Rome dates in prophecy from B.C.161. Its continuance down to the time of its complete division into ten kingdoms, A.D.483, was six hundred and forty-four years. The Papacy, which arose soon after, maintained its supremacy for 1260 years. With circumscribed powers it remains to-day; and we still behold this little horn watching with cunning and crafty eyes over the interests of the Catholic Church, and opening his mouth in blasphemy against the Most High. Thus has this wonderful power, in its pagan and papal forms, existed for the almost incredible space of two thousand and fifty-five years. It cannot be long before it will be given to the burning flame.