The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

XII. Paralleling Witness of Coins and Medals

Apart from published writings on prophetic exposition in book, tractate, or broadside form, there is a paralleling line of testimony wrought out by artisans and cast in metal at the behest of pontiffs and potentates. These are the authoritative telltale medals, coins, and medallions of the time. Here, for instance, the essence of papal assumption through the centuries is disclosed in this unusual form. Many notable examples are pre served in the numismatic divisions of the British Museum, Bibliotheque nationale, Vatican Library, and similar institutions. Here the attitude of the Papacy toward heretics, the proud assumption of earthly and heavenly powers and titles, and alleged papal supremacy over the state, are skillfully wrought into enduring metal. (The papal medal commemorating the slaughter of the Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew’s Massacre of 1572, appears on page 480; a large plaque noting the burning of Savonarola, on page 148.) PFF2 557.2

Similar witness is borne by the coins of civil rulers—the world powers of prophecy are in sequence, climaxing with Rome; the several nations into which Rome was divided, including those soon “plucked up”; the transmission of the title Pontifex Maximus from pagan to Christian Roman emperors, and thence to its assumption by papal pontiffs, are matters of metallic record. Moreover, the very symbolism of prophecy appears in these coins and medals, as the ram for Persia, and the he-goat for Greece, with Rome as the woman sitting on the seven mountains (reproduced in Volume I of Prophetic Faith). Later, a modern papal medal of a woman as the church, holding a golden cup in her hand, appears in Volume IV. Some of the medals paralleling the field of Volume II are reproduced on page 556. PFF2 557.3