It is

head moreover was a form of government; consequently its deadly wound, whatever the precise nature of that wound may be, must be understood figuratively: we shall therefore most unwarrantably depart from the language of symbols, if we suppose that the death of the head means the murder of an individual dictator; to say nothing of the impossibility of shewing how the rise of Popery could heal the literal wounds of Julius Cesar-Lastly, the expression was, is not, and yet is, however commentators may think proper to interpret it, can have no relation to the particular age in which St. John flourished. used by the angel, not in speaking of the Roman beast* as he had already been, then was in the days of the Apostle, and was hereafter about to be; but in speaking of him in his revived state, that state in which he ascended out of the sea, that state which is contradistinguished both from his former pagan existence, and his intermediate Christian non-existence in his bestial character. Now the beast revived and ascended out of the sea at the beginning of the 1260 days, or in the year 606. Consequently in the year 606 the beast began to enter upon his new character; his deadly wound was then healed: he received life afresh: and all the world wondered after him, as they had done previous to his death. He had been: he had ceased to be and now once more wast-Nothing in short, that Mr. Whitaker has said relative to this mysterious phrase, induces me to give up the interpretation of it proposed by Bp Newton and, had his Lordship only considered the death and the revival of the beast always in the same sense; had he only considered his death by the stroke of the sword to be equivalent to his non-existence, and his living

and resemblance of the ancient Roman emperors." Hence, supposing the image of the beast to mean the effigies of the beast, he supposed the Pope to be that image. Yet he never fancied, that this similarity authorized him to say, that the Pope was an Emperor, or that the Papal head was the Imperial head recovered from its deadly wound so that the Emperorship and the Papacy constituted jointly only one bead.

*We may observe moreover that this phrase is not applied to a bead of the beast, as Mr. Whitaker's scheme necessarily supposes, but to the beast bimself. The mere abolition of the Dictatorship did not make the Roman beast himself cease to be, in any sense of which the words are naturally capable.

† St. John seems to have first beheld the beast floundering in the sea with one of his heads wounded to death. Afterwards he beholds him reach the land; and im mediately his deadly wound is healed.

again to be equivalent to his re-existence; I should have had nothing more to do than simply to transcribe his exposition of this part of the prophecy.

Having now fully considered the death and revival of the beast under his sixth head, I shall proceed to state in a regular chronological series some of the most prominent events, which took place during the time that the beast lay dead, and after his revival; in order that we may see, whether history will not lead us to some satisfactory explanation of the rise of his last head.

Immediately after the death of Theodosius in the year 395, the Roman empire began to be invaded by the northern barbarians: and, scarcely had their fury exhausted itself, when Rome was attacked from the south, and its strength completely broken, by the Vandals in the year 455. Thus debilitated, it still nevertheless preserved the name of an empire till the year 476, when These rude Augustulus was deposed by Odoacer. shocks greatly weakened the Roman empire considered as one grand whole, and diminished its glory: still however it continued to subsist in the East. All the events here enumerated, are predicted, as we have seen, under the four first trumpets. To the kingdom of Odoacer in Italy succeeded the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in the year 493. This subsisted till the reign of the Eastern emperor Justinian, when it was subverted by the conquests of Bellisarius and Narses, whose arms delivered Rome and Italy from the yoke of the barbarians, and united them once more to the empire. The events, by which so great a revolution was effected, succeeded each other in the following order. Bellisarius, the celebrated lieutenant of Justinian, began his career of victory by recovering from the Goths the African province in the year 533 and 534. His next exploit was the invasion and conquest of Sicily, in the year 535. Shortly after, in the year 537, he entered Italy and reduced Naples. In 536, he made himself master of Rome, which the Goths vainly attempted to take from him. In 539, he subdued the Gothic kingdom of Italy, and took Vitiges

See Whitaker's Comment. p. 213–216.

....

its sovereign prisoner. Afterwards, during his absence, Rome was again occupied by the Goths; but, in 547, it was once more recovered by him. A third time it was taken by the Goths, in 549; and a third time, in 552, it was regained by the eastern Romans, under the eunuch Narses. The defeat and death of the last Gothic sovereign of Italy speedily followed: but it was not long, ere Narses had to contend with a fresh swarm of northern barbarians. In 553, Italy was invaded by the Franks and Alemans: in 554, they were totally defeated by Narses and the period, which elapsed between the years 554 and 568, was occupied in the final settlement of Italy. That country, thus restored to its origi nal masters,* was henceforth administered as a province of the Eastern empire, by an imperial officer, styled the Exarch of Ravenna: "the remains of the Gothic nation evacuated the country, or mingled with the people: and the Franks abandoned, without a struggle, their Italian conquests."+

All these events took place during the time that the beast lay dead, or, as it is otherwise expressed, was not. Consequently, since he revived under the same sixth head that had been mortally wounded, we shall find it a fruitless labour to look during this period for the rise of any power that answers to the description given of the last head.

The Exarchate of Ravenna, though engaged in perpetual struggles with the Lombards, lasted about 170 years, in the course of which time, as we have seen, the beast revived, and the papal little horn commenced its tyrannical reign of 1260 prophetic days.

The extinction of the Exarchate of Ravenna by the Lombards, and the ambitious views of their king Aistulphus, were not beheld by the Pope with indifference. Though he had thrown off his allegiance to the Constantinopolitan Emperor, he soon found that he was but ill adapted to cope with the arms of a victorious prince. In

* That part of Italy however, which has since borne the name of Lombardy, was almost immediately wrested from the Eastern Emperors by Alboin and his Lombards. The history of this event has been stated in a preceding chapter.

+ Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. vii. p. 399..

this emergency, he applied for help to Pipin king of France; who speedily poured into Italy at the head of a large army, dispossessed the Lombard, and conferred the Exarchute of Ravenna upon the Pope. Still the Bishop of Rome found himself too weak to be an absolutely independent prince. After the grant of the Exarchate by Pipin, he received from his son and successor Charlemagne the investiture of a considerable part of Lombardy and of the Dukedom of Rome, which he held as fiefs under that monarch, though fiefs of the most honourable nature and in the following reign of Louis the pious, he obtained a grant of those countries to hold them "in his own right, principality, and dominion."†

1

In return for the various benefits which the Romans had received from the Carlovingian princes, "the decrees of the senate and people successively invested Charles Martel and his posterity with the honours of Patrician of Rome." This appellation had formerly been borne by the Exarchs of Ravenna, who were the mere lieutenants of the Eastern Emperor. "The leaders therefore of a powerful nation would have disdained a servile title and subordinate office: but the reign of the Greek emperors was suspended; and, in the vacancy of the Empire, they derived a more glorious commission from the Pope and the Republic. The Roman ambassadors presented these Patricians with the keys of the shrine of St. Peter, as a pledge and symbol of sovereignty; and with a holy banner, which it was their right and duty to unfurl in the defence of the church

* The Popes" were compelled to choose between the rival nations" of the East and the West: "religion was not the sole motive of their choice; and, while they dissembled the failings of their friends, they beheld with reluctance and suspicion, the catholic virtues of their foes. The difference of language and manners had perpetuated the enmity of the two capitals; and they were alienated from each other by the hostile opposition of seventy years. In that schism the Romans had tasted of freedom, and the Popes of sovereignty: their submission would have exposed them to the revenge of a jealous tyrant; and the revolution of Italy had betrayed the impotence, as well as the tyranny of the Byzantine court :" while, by reviving the western empire, "the Roman church would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of Carlovingian power, the Bishop might exercise, with honour and safety, the government of the city." (Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. 169, 170, 171.) According to Mosheim, the Popes held Rome under the Empire as the most honourable species of fief or benefice. Instit. Hist. Eccles. p. 264, 265. cited by Gibbon.

↑ Bp. Newton's Dissert. xiv.

and city. In the time of Charles Martel and of Pipin, the interposition of the Lombard kingdom covered the freedom, while it threatened the safety, of Rome; and the Patriciate represented only the title, the service, the alliance, of these distant protectors. The power and policy of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master. In his first visit to the capital, he was received with all the honours which had formerly been paid to the Exarch, the representative of the Emperor; and these honours obtained some new decorations from the joy and gratitude of Pope Adrian the first-In the portico, Adrian expected him at the head of his clergy: they embraced, as friends and equals: but, in their march to the altar, the king, or Patrician assumed the right hand of the Pope. Nor was the Frank content with these vain and empty demonstrations of respect. In the 26 years that elapsed between the conquest of Lombardy and his imperial coronation, Rome, which had been delivered by the sword, was subject, as his own, to the sceptre, of Charlemagne. The people swore allegiance to his person and family in his name money was coined, and justice was administered: and the election of the Popes was examined and confirmed by his authority. Except an original and self-inherent claim of sovereignty, there was not any prerogative remaining, which the title of Emperor could add to the Patrician of Rome."*

Thus it was that, by the conquest of Lombardy in the year 774, Charlemagne acquired the undisputed sovereignty of Italy. The Patriciate of the Exarchs was a subordinate diguity emanating from the Constantinopolitan Emperors: The Patriciate of Charles Martel and Pipin was a mere title so long as the kingdom of the Lombards subsisted: but the Patriciate of Charlemagne was an independent monarchy, which owned no superior, which exercised real authority, and which differed from the Emperorship that succeeded it in name only,

not in essence.

*Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 153-156.