"Of the decisive character of the Gothic defeat in 538, Thomas Hodgkins makes this remark:
"Some of them [the retreating Goths] must have suspected the melancholy truth that they had dug one grave deeper and wider than all, the grave of the Gothic monarchy in Italy." —"Italy and
Her
Invaders," Vol. IV, p. 235.
Pope Silverius, if not an Arian, was at least suspected of sympathy with the Goths as against Justinian and his supporters. In 537 this pope was deposed by Belisarius. The emperor sustained the action of his general, and the following year, 538, Schaff tells us, "Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora [wife of Justinian], ascended the papal chair under the military protection of Belisarius.""History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, p. 327.
As might be inferred from Dr. Schaff's statement, Vigilius was not a great pope, nor was he able greatly to magnify his office; he was a pliant tool in the hands of Theodora and her imperial husband, and that very fact, and the way in which he was used by the emperor and his consort, greatly strengthened the claim made in behalf of "the holy office," that the pope of Rome was supreme in the sphere of religion, possessing authority to speak for the church universal.
The year 538 has this further claim as marking the beginning of the 1260 years of the prophecy of Daniel 7:25, that it fits in perfectly with the receiving of the deadly wound, or "the stroke of the sword" (Rev. 13:14, A. R. V.), by the Papacy in 1798.
The Protestant Reformation began to cut the ground from under the Papacy. But a stroke of the sword certainly means an act of war, for even today when swords are much less used than formerly, the sword is still the most prominent symbol of war; and certainly the deposing of the pope, the abolition of the papal government, and the decreeing of a republic in the city of Rome by the French in 1798 were acts of war, the consummation of the deadly wound administered to the papal system. From that day, the pope was not king until the signing of the concordat with Italy, February 11, 1929, when Pope Pius XI appeared on the upper balcony of St. Peter's and hundreds of voices from the street below joined in the jubilant cry, "Viva it papa-re! viva it papa-re!" (Long live the Pope King.) Now he is again in very truth a real king." MinistryMagazine8/1931
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.....And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Daniel 7:25/Revelation 13:6
"Some of them [the retreating Goths] must have suspected the melancholy truth that they had dug one grave deeper and wider than all, the grave of the Gothic monarchy in Italy." —"Italy and
Her
 |
| Belisarius |
Pope Silverius, if not an Arian, was at least suspected of sympathy with the Goths as against Justinian and his supporters. In 537 this pope was deposed by Belisarius. The emperor sustained the action of his general, and the following year, 538, Schaff tells us, "Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora [wife of Justinian], ascended the papal chair under the military protection of Belisarius.""History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, p. 327.
As might be inferred from Dr. Schaff's statement, Vigilius was not a great pope, nor was he able greatly to magnify his office; he was a pliant tool in the hands of Theodora and her imperial husband, and that very fact, and the way in which he was used by the emperor and his consort, greatly strengthened the claim made in behalf of "the holy office," that the pope of Rome was supreme in the sphere of religion, possessing authority to speak for the church universal.
The year 538 has this further claim as marking the beginning of the 1260 years of the prophecy of Daniel 7:25, that it fits in perfectly with the receiving of the deadly wound, or "the stroke of the sword" (Rev. 13:14, A. R. V.), by the Papacy in 1798.
The Protestant Reformation began to cut the ground from under the Papacy. But a stroke of the sword certainly means an act of war, for even today when swords are much less used than formerly, the sword is still the most prominent symbol of war; and certainly the deposing of the pope, the abolition of the papal government, and the decreeing of a republic in the city of Rome by the French in 1798 were acts of war, the consummation of the deadly wound administered to the papal system. From that day, the pope was not king until the signing of the concordat with Italy, February 11, 1929, when Pope Pius XI appeared on the upper balcony of St. Peter's and hundreds of voices from the street below joined in the jubilant cry, "Viva it papa-re! viva it papa-re!" (Long live the Pope King.) Now he is again in very truth a real king." MinistryMagazine8/1931
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.....And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Daniel 7:25/Revelation 13:6
