Facts of Faith

Close Of The 1260 Years

Having now seen that the 1260 years of papal supremacy began in 538 A. D., it is an easy matter to find their close. Adding the 1260 years to 538 brings us to the year 1798. And if we have given the right application to this prophecy, history must record an event in 1798 that would appear like a death stroke to the Papacy. Turning to history we find just such an event recorded: FAFA 57.2

The official Swedish newspaper, Stockholms Posttidning, for March 29, 1798, has the following news item: FAFA 57.3

“Rome, the 21st of Feb. [1798], Pope Pins VI, has occupied the papal chair for all of twenty-eight years, but the 15th inst. his government in the Papal States was abolished, and five days later, guarded by one hundred French soldiers, he was taken away from his palace and his capital....

“His ... property was sold by the French, and among it were seven hundred head of cattle, one hundred fifty horses, and eight hundred cords of wood.... FAFA 57.4

“Poor Pius! He must have felt very sad as he left Rome to go into captivity. When he departed his tear-filled eyes were turned heavenward.” FAFA 57.5

Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., says of these events: FAFA 57.6

“In the years 1796, 1797, French dominion being established by Bonaparte’s victories in Northern Italy, ... the French armies [urged] their march onward to the Papal Capital.... The aged Pope himself, now left mere nominal master of some few remaining shreds of the Patrimony of Peter, experienced soon after in person the bitterness of the prevailing anti-papal spirit.... FAFA 57.7

“On pretence of an insult to the French Ambassador there, a French corps d’armee under Berthier, having in February, 1798, crossed the Apennines from Ancona, and entered Rome, the tricolour flag was displayed from the Capitol, amidst the shouts of the populace, the Pope’s temporal reign declared at an end, and the Roman Republic proclaimed, in strict alliance fraternization with the French. Then, in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, the ante-hall to which has a fresco painted by Papal order commemorative of the Protestant massacre on St. Bartholomew’s day, (might not the scene have served as a memento of God’s retributive justice?) there, while seated on his throne, and receiving the gratulations of his cardinals on the anniversary of his election to the Popedom, he was arrested by the French military, the ring of his marriage with the Church Catholic torn from his finger, his palace rifled, and himself carried prisoner into France, only to die there in exile shortly after.” — “Horae Apocalypticae,” Rev. E. B. Elliott, A. M., Vol. III, pp. 400, 401. London: 1862. FAFA 58.1

Arthur R. Pennington, M. A., F. R. Hist. Soc., says of this event: FAFA 58.2

“One day the Pope was sitting on his throne in a chapel of the Vatican, surrounded by his cardinals who had assembled for the purpose of offering him their congratulations on his elevation to his high dignity. On a sudden, the shouts of an angry multitude penetrated to the conclave, intermingled with the strokes of axes and hammers on the doors. Very soon a band of soldiers burst into the hall, who tore away from his finger his pontifical ring, and hurried him off, a prisoner, through a hall, the walls of which, were adorned with a fresco, representing the armed satellites of the Papacy, on St. Bartholomew’s day, as bathing their swords in the blood of unoffending women and helpless children. Thus it might seem as if he were to be reminded that the same God who visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation, had made him the victim of His retributive justice for a deed of atrocity which had long been crying aloud to Him for vengeance.” — “Epochs of the Papacy,” pp. 449, 450. London: 1881.

Rev. Joseph Rickaby, an English Jesuit, writes: FAFA 59.1

“When, in 1797, Pope Pius V1 fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave orders that in the event of his death no successor should be elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be discontinued.

“But the Pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; Berthier entered Rome on the 10th February, 1798, and proclaimed a republic. The aged Pontiff refused to violate his oath by recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to prison in France.... ‘No wonder that half Europe thought Napoleon’s veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was dead.” — “The Modern Papacy,” p. 1. London: Catholic Truth Society. FAFA 59.2

Rev. George Trevor, Canon of York, writes of this eventful year: FAFA 59.3

“The object of the French Directory was the destruction of the pontifical government, as the irreconcilable enemy of the republic.... The aged pope was summoned to surrender the temporal government; on his refusal, he was dragged from the altar.... His rings were torn from his fingers, and finally, after declaring the temporal power abolished, the victors carried the pope prisoner into Tuscany, whence he never returned (1798).

“The Papal States, converted into the Roman Republic, were declared to be in perpetual alliance with France, but the French general was the real master of Rome.... The territorial possessions of the clergy and monks were declared national property, and their former owners cast into prison. The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence remained; and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger was stirred in its defence. The Eternal City had no longer prince or pontiff; its bishop was a dying captive in foreign lands; and the decree was already announced that no successor would be allowed in his place.” — “Rome: From the Fall of the Western Empire,” pp. 439, 440. London: 1868. FAFA 59.4

An English secular writer, John Adolphus, says of 1798: FAFA 59.5

“The downfall of the papal government, by whatever means effected, excited perhaps less sympathy than that of any other in Europe: the errors, the oppressions, the tyranny of Rome over the whole Christian world, were remembered with bitterness., many rejoiced, through religious antipathy, in the overthrow of a church which they considered as idolatrous, though attended with the immediate triumph of infidelity; and many saw in these events the accomplishment of prophecies, and the exhibition of signs promised in the most mystical parts of the Holy Scriptures.”—“History of France from 1790-1802,” Vol. II, p. 879. London: 1803. FAFA 60.1

God’s prophetic clock had set the year 1798 as the end of the papal supremacy, and when that hour struck, the mighty ruler on the Tiber, before whose anathemas the kings and emperors of Europe had so long trembled, went “into captivity” (Revelation 13:10), and his government in the Papal States was abolished. Thus the historical events fit exactly into the mold of prophecy, and establish the fact that “we have also a more sure word of prophecy; where unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn.” 2 Peter 1:19. But prophecy foretells that this “deadly wound” would be healed, and that the world once more, for a brief moment, would follow the papal power. (Revelation 13:3) In the following chapter we shall consider the other specifications of this remarkable prophecy. FAFA 60.2