EMPERORS. Therefore the German and Italian "lawyers, who are subject to the Empire, have with "much flattery asserted, that the Emperor is THE VICAR OF GOD IN TEMPORALS and that jurisdic"tions are derived from him as from the fountain, calling him THE LORD AND HEAD OF THE WHOLE

With this claim, the phraseology of the famous Golden Bull, enacted under the Emperor Charles IV. in the year 1356, will be found perfectly to agree. In that instrument, each of the Electors is required to swear, that, to the best of his discernment, he will choose "A TEMPORAL CHIEF for the

Christian people," who may be worthy of that high station: and it is afterwards ordered, that none of them shall quit the city of Frankfort, "until, by a "plurality of voices, they shall have elected and given to the world or to the Christian people a TEMPORAL CHIEF, namely a king of the Romans, future Emperor t."

66

2. Thus manifestly, by its characteristic marks, is the recently extinct Carlovingian Emperorship determined to be A HEAD of the Roman wild beast: nor is the same position less established from the very necessity of the thing.

Since the Constantinopolitan Emperorship was

* Mackenzie's Observ. on Precedency. chap. i. in Guillim's Display of Heraldry. See also Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xlii. p. 80-105.

+ The whole of the Golden Bull may be seen in Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xxx.

doubtless

doubtless a branch of the sixth Roman head; and since the Papacy was never the temporal or secular head of the Roman Empire, on which account homogeneity (as I have already shewn at large) absolutely forbids us to identify it with any one of the seven Roman temporal heads: it will evidently follow from these premises, that, unless the Carlovingian Emperorship be A ROMAN HEAD, the hieroglyphical wild beast will have been headless from the extinction of the Constantinopolitan Emperorship in the year 1453 down even to the present time. But, in that case, the Roman wild beast will have lain dead during more than three centuries: for symbolical decorum, which is founded upon physical realities, forbids us to ascribe vitality to the hieroglyphical hydra when not a single one of his seven heads is in exist

ence.

Hence the very necessity of the thing requires us to find a temporal head for the wild beast during the period, which has elapsed since the year 1453: and for this head we shall vainly seek, unless we conclude it to be the Carlovingian Emperorship.

II. I have now therefore, both from its characteristic marks as recorded in history and from the very necessity of the case itself, established the important prophetic position, that the Carlovingian Emperorship was A HEAD of the Roman wild beast. Consequently, I must forthwith proceed to inquire, with WHICH of the seven heads this head must be identified. For, since it has been ascertained, that the Carlovingian Emperorship was A HEAD of the

VOL. III.

C

Roman

Roman wild beast; and since the Roman wild beast is declared to have NO MORE than seven heads, though an eighth ultimate form of government is to spring up which will be the same as one of the preceding seven it is abundantly clear, that the Carlovingian Emperorship must be identified with ONE or OTHER of the seven Roman heads. The present question therefore is, with WHICH of them it ought to be identified.

There was a time, when I supposed that it ought to be identified with the LAST Roman head: and, agreeably to this supposition, I contended, that, when the Austrian archduke ceased to be its representative, the vacant dignity was transferred to the French Emperor. But such an opinion has been proved to be erroneous; for, instead of any transfer taking place, the head in reality ceased altogether to exist or (in the language of the apostle) is fallen. This is the naked fact: and it is a fact, which, if I mistake not, will serve as a clue to guide us through the mazes of the present very intricate prophecy. The fact in question then distinctly proves, that the Carlovingian Emperorship must be identified with the SIXTH ROman head: or, in other words, that the Augustan, the Constantinian, and the Carlovingian, Emperorships jointly constitute the SIXTH Roman head; the individual representative prince for the time being always bearing the same official title of Emperor of the Romans, just as the respective official titles of the five first heads were Kings, Consuls, Dictators, Decemoirs, and Consular Tribunes.

Of

Of this position the proof will most satisfactorily appear, if it be thrown into the syllogistic form.

1. The Carlovingian Emperorship cannot be the seventh head.

For the prophetic character of the seventh head is, that, "when he cometh, he must continue a short 'space"

But the Carlovingian Emperorship subsisted ten centuries, which are not a short space.

Therefore the Carlovingian Emperorship cannot be the seventh head.

2. Neither can the Carlovingian Emperorship be that eighth form of Roman government; which is to succeed the short-lived seventh head, and which is to be the same as (or a repetition of) some one of the seven preceding heads: so that the wild beast, in regard to his political constitution, shall have been subject to no more than seven forms of government; though, in regard to chronological succession, he shall have been subject to eight such forms, the eighth form being but a repetition of one of the preceding

seven.

For the prophetic character of that eighth form is, that it should perish or "go into perdition" at the head of a mighty confederacy of vassal kings; and that its final destruction should be violently accomplished in a great battle, which St. John describes a being fought at Armageddon, and which Daniel (in

Rev. xvii. 10.

an

an evidently parallel passage) represents as being fought in Palestine between the two seas *.

But the fall of the Carlovingian Emperorship in the year 1806 was marked by no such predicted characteristics.

Therefore the Carlovingian Emperorship cannot be the eighth form of Roman government.

3. If then the Carlovingian Emperorship can be, neither the seventh Roman head, nor the eighth form of Roman government: since it assuredly cannot be identified with any one of the five earlier heads, which had already fallen in the time of St. John; it can only be identified with the SIXTH head.

But the SIXTH head is declared to have been in existence when the prophecy was delivered †: conscquently the SIXTH head must be the IMPERIAL.

Hence it will ultimately follow (the point to be proved), that the Carlovingian Emperorship was a portion of the SIXTH Or IMPERIAL head: in other words, that the Augustan, the Constantinian, and the Carlovingian, Emperorships, jointly constituted a single SIXTH or IMPERIAL head; the individual prince, who for the time being represented it, always bearing one and the same official title, namely that of Emperor of the Romans.

4. This, as I have already observed, was the opinion of Bp. Newton: and, though I once rejected it,

* Rev. xvii. 11. xvi. 13—16. xix. 11-21. Dan. xi. 45. These coincidences have already been amply established in a former part of the present work.

Rev. xvii. 10.

arguing