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He concludes his chronological notice under the same date, in the following terms: All the Visigoths and Goths, who long before this had occupied hither Spain and Gaul, at this time, according 'to Paulus Diaconus, from the want of assistance, fell into the power of Charles Martel. For King Luitprand sent over to Charles a large force in this war. And thus the kingdom of the Visigoths and Goths, who for about 300 years had ruled in Italy Gaul and Spain, was subverted to the foundation, ' a few excepted, whom the Barcelonians liberated, 'from whence they were called Cattalans."112

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As the measure of assembling this Council for deciding the Iconoclast controversy, which commenced in 725, was undertaken by Gregory on his accession in 732, its acts and decisions cannot with any show of probability be placed earlier or later than the date which has been assigned the great

imagines demolitus esset. Declaravitque in eo imaginum sanc'torum [que] venerationem esse licitam, et hujusmodi statuti 'violatores excommunicationis sententia innodavit, ut habetur in Cano. de consc. distin. 3. ca. Perlatum.'

112 Id. ibid. " Vesegothi et Gotthi omnes qui citeriorem Hispaniam Galliamque longè antè occupaverant, his tem'poribus teste Paul. lib. 6. auxilio carentes in Caroli Marcelli potestatem devenere. Nam et Luitprandus rex huic bello • ipsi Carolo multas copias transmisit. Ac sic Vesegotthæ et Gotthi, qui trecentis quasi annis in Italia Galliaque ac Hispania imperaverant, funditus deleti sunt, præter paucos, quos Bar'chinonenses liberaverant, unde et nunc Gottholani dicti sunt.'

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apostacy by the Evangelist. When, indeed, we consider the slow modes of conveyance for which those barbarous times were remarkable, and the numberless impediments to speed, with which many of the Bishops must have had to contend from age and infirmity; it seems impossible, that in a shorter space than three years, a summons of attendance could have been conveyed to above a thousand, that they could have assembled to nearly that number at Rome, and could have held and closed their deliberations. But this time, when added to the year of Gregory's accession to the pontificate, falls precisely in A. D. 736.

Had the author of the preceding chronological extract been empowered to fabricate a testimony, in confirmation of the Evangelist's prediction of the fall of the beast with seven heads and ten horns,' and of the rise of the beast with two horns like a lamb,' in 666 years from the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem; it is inconceivable that one more strongly corroborative of the truth of the prophecy could, by any ingenuity, have been invented. In that short passage, and under the same date of this ancient chronologist, we find the manifestation of Antichrist as plainly asserted, as the utter subversion of the last of the ten kingdoms, into which the Roman Empire was divided, previous to its dissolution. In the solemn recognition of idolatry as the established religion of the

Romish Church, by a council of her Bishops, under their ecclesiastical head, a public profession was made of that spurious Christianity, to clear a way for which the religion of Christ was virtually abolished. While, in the subversion of the Gothic kingdoms to their foundation, a deadly wound was inflicted on the persecuting power, which had continued in the ten kingdoms into which the Empire was partitioned, and which the Prophet had so circumstantially described under the symbol of the 'beast, one of whose heads was, as it were, wounded 'to death.'

Nor does the parallel end here, for precisely at this time the power and authority of the beast revived, in the state which was instrumental in its destruction. By the victories of Charles Martel the foundation was now laid of the Western Empire, which was successively enjoyed by his son and grandson.113 In a very few years, a formal transfer of the empire, from the Greeks to the Franks, was made to Pipin, the son and successor of Charles Martel, by the Pope, to whom that prince paid homage, leading him to his palace by his horse's bridle.114 And Charlemagne, his successor and son, on acknowledging that the Apostolical See, ⚫ the head of all, was to be judged by none,' was solemnly crowned by the Pope, and declared, in a

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113 Bergom. ibid. ad an. 746. fol. 245.

114 Id. ibid. ad an. 752. fol. 247.

full synod of the Gallican and Italian Clergy, and with the acclamation of the people, Augustus and

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Emperor of the Romans :' his son Pipin having been at the same time anointed King of Italy.115 · And 'thus' continues the chronologist already cited, Charlemagne re-assumed the Roman Empire, ' which was now almost decayed in Italy; and having assumed the imperial dignity, he enacted new laws, which he willed should be observed through the Roman Empire, and commanded, by public edict, that the Decrees of the Pontiff 'should be likewise obeyed.'116 Thus accurately was the prophecy not only fulfilled, but at the predicted time, respecting the beast with ten horns, one of 'whose heads was wounded to death, and whose wound was healed; and the beast with two horns like a lamb, who exerciseth all the power of the first 'beast before him.'117

Nor does the Evangelist appear a less faithful narrator of the political revolutions by which the period that he circumscribes within the 666 years, was convulsed, than of the characters of profaneness and persecution by which it would be dis115 Bergom. ibid. ad an. 796. fol. 249.

116 Id. ibid. Ac sic Carolus oblitteratum jam penè in Italia Romanum Imperium reassumpsit; assumptâque imperii dignitate, Carolus novas leges conscripsit, quas per omnem • Romanum orbem observari voluit, et Pontificis Decreta 'publico edicto item mandavit observari.'

117 Rev. xiii. 1. 3. 11, 12.

tinguished; and of which he defines the exact limits, in effectively placing its commencement in A. D. 70, and its termination in A. D. 736. During that term, in the course of which the Empire passed from the Romans to the Barbarians, it sustained its character, as a persecuting power, with a fatal consistency to the security of the Church. Not long previously to its epoch, the sanguinary work was projected by Nero, when he dispatched his general Flavius Vespasian to execute vengeance on the Jews, and to raze their city and temple to the ground.118 In the first persecution which that relentless tyrant instituted, about the same time, St. Peter and St. Paul were martyred, and multitudes of the Christians perished at the stake.119 During the reigns of his successors, to the times of Constantine, the Church was submitted to the fiery trial, through nine persecutions, in which an immense number sustained the horrors of death in torment.120 Nor did it enjoy more than a temporary respite under that monarch, who was providentially raised up to save it from extermination. Even the prince, to whom it was indebted for its existence, soon lapsed into the errors of the Arians,121 to which

118 Usser. ubi supr. p. 692. a. conf. Lactant. de Mort. Persec. cap. ii.

119 Usser. ib. Simson. Chron. P. VII. p. 43. Lactant. ibid. 120 Dodw. Chronol. Persecut. conf. Lactant. ut supra, passim. 121 S. Hier. Suppl. Chron. Euseb. p. 182. ed Scalig.

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