The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VI. Papal Exploits Induce Prophetic Application

It was during these epochal centuries of the Middle Ages, when the power of the Papacy was mounting ever higher and higher, its spiritual claims more extravagant, its rule more intolerant, and its audacious assumptions more and more daring, that a new concept of its character began to dawn on an increasing number of clerics in different lands. PFF1 681.2

The papal theory that made the pope alone the representative of God on earth, the overlord of emperors, was claimed through succession from Peter, ³⁵ and supported by arguments from the power of the keys, the forged Donation of Constantine, the coronation of Pepin and of Charlemagne, and from such figures as sun and moon, body and soul. PFF1 681.3

“It was upheld by Nicholas I., Hildebrand., Alexander III., Innocent III., and culminated with Boniface VIII. at the jubilee of 1300 when, seated on the throne of Constantine, girded with the imperial sword, wearing a crown, and waving a sceptre, he shouted to the throng of loyal pilgrims: ‘I am Caesar—I am Emperor.’” ³⁶ PFF1 681.4

It was this unveiling of the Papacy’s real character and obvious aims that caused spiritually-minded monks and abbots, as well as bishops and archbishops, to cry out, one after another, against these unconcealable papal departures from earlier simplicity and purity. It was these that impelled strong men to protest her advancing encroachments upon the rights of men and the prerogatives of God, and eventually to apply increasingly to her those prophetic symbols—such as the Mystery of Iniquity, Man of Sin, Beast, Babylon, Harlot, and Antichrist. It was during this peak of the Papacy that we shall find Bernhard calling the see of Rome the fateful Little Horn of the prophet Daniel, in chapter 7, which is described as overthrowing kings, treading down the whole earth, wearing out the saints, and speaking “great words against the most High.” PFF1 681.5

One after another among the most learned and godly of her sons—with hearts breaking because of her unconcealable departures, and minds horrified by her bold trampling of the right and her relentless drift from God—not only spoke out against it all, but wrote it down in searing words, that all men might read and heed their application of those vivid symbols and epithets to the now clearly corrupted church of Rome. These increasing voices we shall note with considerable fullness in the remaining chapters of this volume and still further in Volume II. PFF1 682.1

Furthermore, this rising tide of protest was found not only within the church—scattered all the way from Britain in the north down to Italy in the south, and from France in the west clear across the expansive face of Europe—but outside, among such dissentients as the Waldenses, who had about the clearest perception of all, as will shortly be seen. And even among the Jews the conviction came to be expressed by one famous Jew, Don Isaac Abravanel, before the Reformation had formulated its clear position, that the Little Horn of Daniel 7 was none other than the “rule of the pope.” ³⁷ Such was the threefold cord of testimony to the prophetic significance of the Papacy. PFF1 682.2

So it was clearly the audacious acts and mounting arrogance of the Papacy herself that drew forth these indicting applications of prophecy to her ambitious career. It can therefore be summarized that it was the cumulative effect of the pontificates of Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII that brought about a new phase of prophetic interpretation, which now centered in the identification of the Antichrist of prophecy under its multiple names, which were all alike applied to one and the same power-the Roman Papacy. PFF1 682.3