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The memorable year 800 beheld the Carlovingian Patriciate for ever swallowed up and lost in the Gothic imperial dignity.

"On the festival of Christmas, the last year of the eighth century, Charlemagne appeared in the church of St. Peter; and, to gratify the vanity of Rome, he had exchanged the simple dress of his country for the habit of a patrician. After the celebration of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown on his head; and the dome resounded with the acclamations of the people, Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific Emperor of the Romans! The head and body of Charlemagne were consecrated by the royal unction: after the example of the Cesars he was saluted or adored by the Pontiff his coronation oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the church; and the first-fruits were paid in his rich offerings to the shrine of the Apostle. In his familiar conversation, the Emperor protested his ignorance of the intentions of Leo, which he would have disappointed by his absence on that memorable day. But the preparations of the ceremony. must have disclosed the secret; and the journey of Charlemagne reveals his knowledge and expectation : he had acknowledged that the imperial title was the object of his ambition; and a Roman senate had pronounced, that it was the only adequate reward of his merit and services."*

Let us now examine how far these historical facts will enable us to interpret the prophecy.

The head, or form of government, of which we are in quest, is represented by the prophet as possessing a peculiarity of character, which essentially distinguishes it from all its predecessors; it was, in some manner or

Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 173, 174. Let the reader seriously consider the whole of this and the preceding citation, and then decide whether the Pope appears very much like the last independent bead of the Roman beast in the presence of his master Charlemagne.

The coronation oath of Charlemagne was couched, according to Baronius, in the following terms. "In nomine Christi spondeo atque polliceor, ego Carolus Imperator, coram Deo et beato Petro Apostolo, me protectorem ac defensorem fore hujus sanctæ Romanæ ecclesiæ in omnibus utilitatibus, qua tenus divino fultus fuero adjutorio, prout sciero poteroque." Annal. Eccles. A. D. 800.

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another, to be a double head: it was at once to be both the seventh and the eighth head of the beast. That these two heads, or forms of government, are in fact but one, may be plainly collected from the words of St. John. When the seventh king cometh, he must continue a short space and the beast, that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven." In other words, although the beast may in some sort be said to have eight heads, or eight forms of government, yet strictly speaking he has but seven: for his eighth head is in reality the same as one of his seven heads. The question then is, with which of the seven heads must the eighth head be identified! This eighth head certainly cannot be the same as any one of the five first heads; for they were all fallen in the time of St. John. Neither can it be the same as the sixth head; for that was already existing in the days of the prophet, and was now and for many ages after exising at Constantinople. It only remains therefore, as I have already stated, for it to be the same as the seventh head; which, when it came, was to continue but a short space of time. To suppose otherwise indeed is introducing a sort of Hysteronproteron into the symbolical character of the Roman beast: for, if the eighth head be the same as any one of the six first, the beast, instead of being finally slain under his last head, will go into perdition under a head which is prior in point of origin to the seventh that continues only a short space. Hence it appears, that, since the seventh head and the eighth head are are in reality one and the same, we cannot attach any meaning to the short continuance of the seventh head, except this: that some power should be a head of the empire, for a short time only, in one capaci ty; and that afterwards it should still remain a head of the empire, even till the final destruction of its bestial principles, in another capacity: thus constituting at once both the seventh and eighth heads of the beast, or, if I may use the expression, his septimo-octave head.

At the time when the beast revived, his sixth head was seated in the East: consequently we must look for the rise of his last head in the West. Now we learn from the preceding historical statement, that, during the

non-existence of the beast, and subsequent to his revival in the year 606, the following powers only have had any sway in Rome and Italy: the line of the Western' emperors, after the division of the empire, commencing with Honorius and terminating with Augustulus; the three kingdoms of the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and the Lombards; the Exarchate of Ravenna subject to the Eastern emperors; the Popedom; and the Carlovingian empire. No change has taken place in Italy subsequent to the rise of the last of these powers, either of a sufficient magnitude, or of a sufficiently peculiar nature,* to warrant our seeking for the last head of the beast posterior to the year 800, when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Romans: nor do I think, that we have any just grounds to look for it prior to the revival of the beast under his sixth head; nevertheless, since many have fixed the rise of the short-lived seventh head previous to the year 606 when the deadly wound of the beast was healed, I felt myself bound to notice the powers which existed in Italy before that year. Among the powers then here enumerated we must look for the seventh and eighth heads of the beast.

1. Mr. Mede conceives the seventh head to be the line of Western emperors, and the eighth head to be the Papacy. By this plan he makes the beast, agreeably to the prophecy, to have apparently eight heads, and really only seven; the line of the Western emperors, which continued about 80 years, being in fact a branch of the sixth or imperial head. It appears therefore, that in order to reduce the eight heads to seven, he supposes the sixth and the seventh to constitute jointly one imperial head.†

However plausible such a scheme may be, it will by no means bear the test of examination, even independent of the objections that I have already made to the Papacy

Since this was written, Buonapartè has made himself master of all Italy: but we cannot reasonably suppose, that the last bead of the beast has arisen in him; both because, however great his conquests have been, they have not been greater than those of Charlemagne; and because, if we suppose the last head to have arisen in him, we shall make the beast headless during the whole period that has elapsed between the fall of the sixth head by the subversion of the Constantinopolitan empire, and the present era, May 1, 1806.

† Mede's Works, B. V. C. 12. p. 922.

being considered the last head of the secular beast. It is not enough merely to reduce the eight heads to seven according to an arbitrary system of our own invention: we must attend to the express words of the prophecy, otherwise we in fact do nothing. Now the prophecy declares, that the eighth head should be one of the preceding seven : but Mr. Mede, on the contrary, makes the supposed seventh head to be one of the preceding six; and the supposed eighth head, which the prophet had declared should be one of the preceding seven, he makes to be quite distinct from every one of those seven. According to the prophecy, we are first to pitch upon seven distinct heads, and then discover an eighth head which shall be the same as one of those seven according to Mr. Mede, we are to amalgamate the sixth and the seventh heads, and then discover an eighth which shall not be the same as any of those sevOn these grounds, I think the plan of that eminent expositor perfectly untenable.

en.

2. Mr. Sharpe supposes the seventh head to be the three Gothic kingdoms that succeeded the imperial sixth head in the supreme government of Rome, and the eighth head to be the Papacy.*

This scheme is objectionable in every point of view. Three successive kingdoms cannot reasonably be esteemed one head. And, even if this were no objection, others would immediately arise. The kingly head was the first of the heads of the beast: consequently Mr. Sharpe's scheme, admitting for a moment these three kingdoms to be a head, amalgamates the seventh head with the first, as that of Mr. Mede amalgamated the seventh head with the sixth. Such being the case, every objection, that has been made to Mr. Mede's scheme, applies with equal force to that of Mr. Sharpe. The eighth head, according to both these plans, instead of being one of the seven, is perfectly distinct from them all. So again the three kingdoms, which Mr. Sharpe supposes to constitute the seventh head of the beast; are three of his ten original horns. If then they be three horns of the beast, it is

Appendix to three tracts, p. 28-Inquiry into the description of Babylon,

R. 8, 9.

surely impossible that they should likewise, and that in the self-same capacity, be one of his heads.*

3. Bp. Newton thinks, that the Exarchate of Ravenna is the seventh head, and that the Papacy is the eighth head.t

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This supposition is in some respects even more objectionable than the two preceding ones. In the first place, it does not consist with his Lordship's own sentiments respecting the Roman beast. In a former dissertation he had maintained (erroneously indeed I am persuaded), that the Exarchate was one of the ten horns of the beast : now he represents it, as his seventh head. But the selfsame power cannot, in the self-same capacity, be esteemed at once both a horn and a head of the same beast-In the second place, no modification of language will warrant us in admitting, that, while the independent Roman Emperor of Constantinople is the sixth head, his mere dependent lieutenant, the Exarch of Ravenna, is the seventh head: for this would be to place, upon the very same footing, a sovereign and his viceroy; the fountain of authority and the commissioned governor of a province‡— In the third place, the seventh head, whatever it be, must be the same as the eighth head; the two forming jointly one double septimo-octave head: for, unless this be the case, the beast will really have eight heads, instead of only seven; the very contrary of which is expressly asserted by the prophet, who, in order to shew us how the beast has only seven heads, declares that the eighth is one of the preceding seven. But the Bishop never supposes the Exarch of Ravenna to be the eighth head, for that

It is almost superfluous to observe, that, if the three borns jointly cannot be the seventh head of the beast, no one of them can separately. Forbes supposes, that the kingdom of the Ostrogoths is the seventh head (See Pol. Synop. in loc.), in which opinion Fleming agrees with him. (Apoc. Key, p. 16.) But why should this kingdom be pitched upon in preference to that of the Heruli and that of the Lombards? The objection will equally apply to any scheme that should fix upon either of the other two kingdoms in preference to the two that must necessarily be excluded: and every other objection, that has been made to Mr. Sharpe's scheme, will moreover apply with equal force to all schemes similar to that of Forbes. I have already complaine ed, that I have not been able to discover, what three Gothic kingdoms Mr. Sharpe › alludes to, from the circumstance of his limiting their joint duration to no more than 70 years.

Dissert. on Rev. xvii.

"the Exarchs of Ravenna, the representatives in peace and war of the Emperor of the Romans." Hist. of Decline and Fall, Vol. vii. p. 398.

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