Part 1 — Prophecies of DANIEL (continued 2)

The invocation of the dead, and veneration of their images, being gradually introduced in the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th centuries, the Greek Emperor Philippicus declared against the latter, A.C. 711 or 712. And ^[5] the Emperor Leo Isaurus, to put a stop to it, called a meeting of Counsellors and Bishops in his Palace, A.C. 726; and by their advice put out an Edict against that worship, and wrote to Pope Gregory II. that a general Council might be called. But the Pope thereupon called a Council at Rome, confirmed the worship of Images, excommunicated the Greek Emperor, absolved the people from their allegiance, and forbad them to pay tribute, or otherwise be obedient to him. Then the people of Rome, Campania, Ravenna and Pentapolis, with the cities under them, revolted and laid violent hands upon their magistrates, killing the Exarch Paul at Ravenna, and laying aside Peter Duke of Rome who was become blind: and when Exhileratus Duke of Campania incited the people against the Pope, the Romans invaded Campania, and slew him with his son Hadrian. Then a new Exarch, Eutychius, coming to Naples, sent some secretly to take away the lives of the Pope and the Nobles of Rome: but the plot being discovered, the Romans revolted absolutely from the Greek Emperor, and took an oath to preserve the life of the Pope, to defend his state, and be obedient to his authority in all things. Thus Rome with its Duchy, including part of Tuscany and part of Campania, revolted in the year 726, and became a free state under the government of the Senate of this city. The authority of the Senate in civil affairs was henceforward absolute, the authority of the Pope extending hitherto no farther than to the affairs of the Church only.

At that time ^[6] the Lombards also being zealous for the worship of images, and pretending to favour the cause of the Pope, invaded the cities of the Exarchate: and at length, viz. A.C. 752, took Ravenna, and put an end to the Exarchate. And this was the first of the three kingdoms which fell before the little horn.

In the year 751 ^[7] Pope Zechary deposed Childeric, a slothful and useless King of France, and the last of the race of Merovæus; and absolving his subjects from their oath of allegiance, gave the kingdom to Pipin the major of the Palace; and thereby made a new and potent friend. His successor ^[8] Pope Stephen III, knowing better how to deal with the Greek Emperor than with the Lombards, went the next year to the King of the Lombards, to persuade him to return the Exarchate to the Emperor. But this not succeeding, he went into France, and persuaded Pipin to take the Exarchate and Pentapolis from the Lombards, and give it to St. Peter. Accordingly Pipin A.C. 754 came with an army into Italy, and made Aistulphus King of the Lombards promise the surrender: but the next year Aistulphus, on the contrary, to revenge himself on the Pope, besieged the city of Rome. Whereupon the Pope sent letters to Pipin, wherein he told him that if he came not speedily against the Lombards, pro data sibi potentia, alienandum fore à regno Dei & vita æterna, he should be excommunicated. Pipin therefore, fearing a revolt of his subjects, and being indebted to the Church of Rome, came speedily with an army into Italy, raised the siege, besieged the Lombards in Pavia, and forced them to surrender the Exarchate and region of Pentapolis to the Pope for a perpetual possession. Thus the Pope became Lord of Ravenna, and the Exarchate, some few cities excepted; and the keys were sent to Rome, and laid upon the confession of St. Peter, that is, upon his tomb at the high Altar, in signum veri perpetuique dominii, sed pietate Regis gratuita, as the inscription of a coin of Pipin hath it. This was in the year of Christ 755. And henceforward the Popes being temporal Princes, left off in their Epistles and Bulls to note the years of the Greek Emperors, as they had hitherto done.

After this ^[9] the Lombards invading the Pope's countries, Pope Adrian sent to Charles the great, the son and successor of Pipin, to come to his assistance. Accordingly Charles entered Italy with an army, invaded the Lombards, overthrew their kingdom, became master of their countries, and restored to the Pope, not only what they had taken from him, but also the rest of the Exarchate which they had promised Pipin to surrender to him, but had hitherto detained; and also gave him some cities of the Lombards, and was in return himself made Patricius by the Romans, and had the authority of confirming the elections of the Popes conferred upon him. These things were done in the years 773 and 774. This kingdom of the Lombards was the second kingdom which fell before the little horn. But Rome, which was to be the seat of his kingdom, was not yet his own.

In the year 796, ^[10] Leo III being made Pope, notified his election to Charles the great by his Legates, sending to him for a present, the golden keys of the Confession of Peter, and the Banner of the city of Rome: the first as an acknowledgment of the Pope's holding the cities of the Exarchate and Lombardy by the grant of Charles; the other as a signification that Charles should come and subdue the Senate and people of Rome, as he had done the Exarchate and the kingdom of the Lombards. For the Pope at the same time desired Charles to send some of his Princes to Rome, who might subject the Roman people to him, and bind them by oath in fide & subjectione, in fealty and subjection, as his words are recited by Sigonius. An anonymous Poet, publish'd by Boeclerus at Strasburg, expresseth it thus:

Hence arose a misunderstanding between the Pope and the city: and the Romans about two or three years after, by assistance of some of the Clergy, raised such tumults against him, as gave occasion to a new state of things in all the West. For two of the Clergy accused him of crimes, and the Romans with an armed force, seized him, stript him of his sacerdotal habit, and imprisoned him in a monastery. But by assistance of his friends he made his escape, and fled into Germany to Charles the great, to whom he complained of the Romans for acting against him out of a design to throw off all authority of the Church, and to recover their antient freedom. In his absence his accusers with their forces ravaged the possessions of the Church, and sent the accusations to Charles; who before the end of the year sent the Pope back to Rome with a large retinue. The Nobles and Bishops of France who accompanied him, examined the chief of his accusers at Rome, and sent them into France in custody. This was in the year 799. The next year Charles himself went to Rome, and upon a day appointed presided in a Council of Italian and French Bishops to hear both parties. But when the Pope's adversaries expected to be heard, the Council declared ^[11] that he who was the supreme judge of all men, was above being judged by any other than himself: whereupon he made a solemn declaration of his innocence before all the people, and by doing so was looked upon as acquitted.

Soon after, upon Christmas-day, the people of Rome, who had hitherto elected their Bishop, and reckoned that they and their Senate inherited the rights of the antient Senate and people of Rome, voted Charles their Emperor, and subjected themselves to him in such manner as the old Roman Empire and their Senate were subjected to the old Roman Emperors. The Pope crowned him, and anointed him with holy oil, and worshipped him on his knees after the manner of adoring the old Roman Emperors; as the aforesaid Poet thus relates:

The Emperor, on the other hand, took the following oath to the Pope: In nomine Christi spondeo atque polliceor, Ego Carolus Imperator coram Deo & beato Petro Apostolo, me protectorem ac defensorem fore hujus sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ in omnibus utilitatibus, quatenùs divino fultus fuero adjutorio, prout sciero poteroque. The Emperor was also made Consul of Rome, and his son Pipin crowned King of Italy: and henceforward the Emperor stiled himself: Carolus serenissimus, Augustus, à Deo coronatus, magnus, pacificus, Romæ gubernans imperium, or Imperator Romanorum; and was prayed for in the Churches of Rome. His image was henceforward put upon the coins of Rome: while the enemies of the Pope, to the number of three hundred Romans and two or three of the Clergy, were sentenced to death. The three hundred Romans were beheaded in one day in the Lateran fields: but the Clergymen at the intercession of the Pope were pardoned, and banished into France. And thus the title of Roman Emperor, which had hitherto been in the Greek Emperors, was by this act transferred in the West to the Kings of France.

After these things ^[12] Charles gave the City and Duchy of Rome to the Pope, subordinately to himself as Emperor of the Romans; spent the winter in ordering the affairs of Rome, and those of the Apostolic see, and of all Italy, both civil and ecclesiastical, and in making new laws for them; and returned the next summer into France: leaving the city under its Senate, and both under the Pope and himself. But hearing that his new laws were not observed by the judges in dictating the law, nor by the people in hearing it; and that the great men took servants from free men, and from the Churches and Monasteries, to labour in their vineyards, fields, pastures and houses, and continued to exact cattle and wine of them, and to oppress those that served the Churches: he wrote to his son Pipin to remedy these abuses, to take care of the Church, and see his laws executed.

Now the Senate and people and principality of Rome I take to be the third King the little horn overcame, and even the chief of the three. For this people elected the Pope and the Emperor; and now, by electing the Emperor and making him Consul, was acknowledged to retain the authority of the old Roman Senate and people. This city was the Metropolis of the old Roman Empire, represented in Daniel by the fourth Beast; and by subduing the Senate and people and Duchy, it became the Metropolis of the little horn of that Beast, and completed Peter's Patrimony, which was the kingdom of that horn. Besides, this victory was attended with greater consequences than those over the other two Kings. For it set up the Western Empire, which continues to this day. It set up the Pope above the judicature of the Roman Senate, and above that of a Council of Italian and French Bishops, and even above all human judicature; and gave him the supremacy over the Western Churches and their Councils in a high degree. It gave him a look more stout than his fellows; so that when this new religion began to be established in the minds of men, he grappled not only with Kings, but even with the Western Emperor himself. It is observable also, that the custom of kissing the Pope's feet, an honour superior to that of Kings and Emperors, began about this time. There are some instances of it in the ninth century: Platina tells us, that the feet of Pope Leo IV were kissed, according to antient custom, by all who came to him: and some say that Leo III began this custom, pretending that his hand was infected by the kiss of a woman. The Popes began also about this time to canonize saints, and to grant indulgences and pardons: and some represent that Leo III was the first author of all these things. It is further observable, that Charles the great, between the years 775 and 796, conquered all Germany from the Rhine and Danube northward to the Baltic sea, and eastward to the river Teis; extending his conquests also into Spain as far as the river Ebro: and by these conquests he laid the foundation of the new Empire; and at the same time propagated the Roman Catholic religion into all his conquests, obliging the Saxons and Hunns who were heathens, to receive the Roman faith, and distributing his northern conquests into Bishopricks, granting tithes to the Clergy and Peter-pence to the Pope: by all which the Church of Rome was highly enlarged, enriched, exalted, and established.

In the forementioned dissertation upon some coins of Charles the great, Ludovicus Pius, Lotharius, and their successors, stamped at Rome, there is a draught of a piece of Mosaic work which Pope Leo III. caused to be made in his Palace near the Church of John Lateran, in memory of his sending the standard or banner of the city of Rome curiously wrought, to Charles the great; and which still remained there at the publishing of the said book. In the Mosaic work there appeared Peter with three keys in his lap, reaching the Pallium to the Pope with his right hand, and the banner of the city to Charles the great with his left. By the Pope was this inscription, SCISSIMUS D.N. LEO PP; by the King this, D.N. CARVLO REGI; and under the feet of Peter this, BEATE PETRE, DONA VITAM LEONI PP, ET BICTORIAM CARVLO REGI DONA. This Monument gives the title of King to Charles, and therefore was erected before he was Emperor. It was erected when Peter was reaching the Pallium to the Pope, and the Pope was sending the banner of the city to Charles, that is, A.C. 796. The words above, Sanctissimus Dominus noster Leo Papa Domino nostro Carolo Regi, relate to the message; and the words below, Beate Petre, dona vitam Leoni Papæ & victoriam Carolo regi dona, are a prayer that in this undertaking God would preserve the life of the Pope, and give victory to the King over the Romans. The three keys in the lap of Peter signify the keys of the three parts of his Patrimony, that of Rome with its Duchy, which the Pope claimed and was conquering, those of Ravenna with the Exarchate, and of the territories taken from the Lombards; both which he had newly conquered. These were the three dominions, whose keys were in the lap of St. Peter, and whose Crowns are now worn by the Pope, and by the conquest of which he became the little horn of the fourth Beast. By Peter's giving the Pallium to the Pope with his right hand, and the banner of the city to the King with his left, and by naming the Pope before the King in the inscription, may be understood that the Pope was then reckoned superior in dignity to the Kings of the earth.

After the death of Charles the great, his son and successor Ludovicus Pius, at the request of the Pope, ^[13] confirmed the donations of his grandfather and father to the see of Rome. And in the confirmation he names first Rome with its Duchy extending into Tuscany and Campania; then the Exarchate of Ravenna, with Pentapolis; and in the third place, the territories taken from the Lombards. These are his three conquests, and he was to hold them of the Emperor for the use of the Church sub integritate, entirely, without the Emperor's medling therewith, or with the jurisdiction or power of the Pope therein, unless called thereto in certain cases. This ratification the Emperor Ludovicus made under an oath: and as the King of the Ostrogoths, for acknowledging that he held his kingdom of Italy of the Greek Emperor, stamped the effigies of the Emperor on one side of his coins and his own on the reverse; so the Pope made the like acknowledgment to the Western Emperor. For the Pope began now to coin money, and the coins of Rome are henceforward found with the heads of the Emperors, Charles, Ludovicus Pius, Lotharius, and their successors, on the one side, and the Pope's inscription on the reverse, for many years.

Notes to Chap. VII.

[1] Chap. vii. 8.

[2] Ver. 20, 21.

[3] Ver. 24.

[4] Ver. 25.

[5] Sigonius de Regno Italiæ, ad Ann. 726.

[6] Sigonius ib. ad Ann. 726, 752.

[7] Sigon. ib. Ann. 750.

[8] Sigon. ib. Ann. 753, 754, 755.

[9] Sigon. ib. Ann. 773.

[10] Sigon. de Regno Ital. ad Ann. 796.

[11] Vide Anastasium.

[12] Sigon. de Regno Ital.

[13] Confirmationem recitat Sigonius, lib. 4. de Regno Italiæ, ad An. 817.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the power of the eleventh horn of Daniel's fourth Beast, to change times and laws.

In the reign of the Greek Emperor Justinian, and again in the reign of Phocas, the Bishop of Rome obtained some dominion over the Greek Churches, but of no long continuance. His standing dominion was only over the nations of the Western Empire, represented by Daniel's fourth Beast. And this jurisdiction was set up by the following Edict of the Emperors Gratian and Valentinian.—^[1] Volumus ut quicunque judicio Damasi, quod ille cum Concilio quinque vel septem habuerit Episcoporum, vel eorum qui Catholici sunt judicio vel Concilio condemnatus fuerit, si juste voluerit Ecclesiam retentare, ut qui ad sacerdotale judicium per contumeliam non ivisset: ut ab illustribus viris Præfectis Prætorio Galliæ atque Italiæ, authoritate adhibitâ, ad Episcopale judicium remittatur, sive à Consularibus vel Vicariis, ut ad Urbem Romam sub prosecutione perveniat. Aut si in longinquioribus partibus alicujus ferocitas talis emerserit, omnis ejus causæ edictio ad Metropolitæ in eadem Provincia Episcopi deduceretur examen. Vel si ipse Metropolitanus est, Romam necessariò, vel ad eos quos Romanus Episcopus judices dederit, sine delatione contendat.——Quod si vel Metropolitani Episcopi vel cujuscunque sacerdotis iniquitas est suspecta, aut gratia; ad Romanum Episcopum, vel ad Concilium quindecim finitimorum Episcoporum accersitum liceat provocare; modo ne post examen habitum, quod definitum fuerit, integretur. This Edict wanting the name of both Valens and Theodosius in the Title, was made in the time between their reigns, that is, in the end of the year 378, or the beginning of 379. It was directed to the Præfecti Prætorio Italiæ & Galliæ, and therefore was general. For the Præfectus Prætorio Italiæ governed Italy, Illyricum occidentale and Africa; and the Præfectus Prætorio Galliæ governed Gallia, Spain, and Britain.

The granting of this jurisdiction to the Pope gave several Bishops occasion to write to him for his resolutions upon doubtful cases, whereupon he answered by decretal Epistles; and henceforward he gave laws to the Western Churches by such Epistles. Himerius Bishop of Tarraco, the head city of a province in Spain, writing to Pope Damasus for his direction about certain Ecclesiastical matters, and the Letter not arriving at Rome till after the death of Damasus, A.C. 384; his successor Siricius answered the same with a legislative authority, telling him of one thing: Cum hoc fieri—missa ad Provincias à venerandæ memoriæ prædecessore meo Liberio generalia decreta, prohibeant. Of another: Noverint se ab omni ecclesiastico honore, quo indignè usi sunt, Apostolicæ Sedis auctoritate, dejectos. Of another: Scituri posthac omnium Provinciarum summi Antistites, quod si ultrò ad sacros ordines quenquam de talibus esse assumendum, & de suo & de aliorum statu, quos contra Canones & interdicta nostra provexerint, congruam ab Apostolica Sede promendam esse sententiam. And the Epistle he concludes thus: Explicuimus, ut arbitror, frater charissime, universa quæ digesta sunt in querelam; & ad singulas causas, de quibus ad Romanam Ecclesiam, utpote ad caput tui corporis, retulisti; sufficientia, quantum opinor, responsa reddidimus. Nunc fraternitatis tuæ animum ad servandos canones, & tenenda decretalia constituta, magis ac magis incitamus: ad hæc quæ ad tua consulta rescripsimus in omnium Coepiscoporum perferri facias notionem; & non solum corum, qui in tua sunt diœcesi constituti, sed etiam ad universos Carthaginenses ac Bœticos, Lusitanos atque ^[2] Gallicos, vel eos qui vicinis tibi collimitant hinc inde Provinciis, hæc quæ a nobis sunt salubri ordinatione disposita, sub literarum tuarum prosecutione mittantur. Et quanquam statuta sedis Apostolicæ vel Canonum venerabilia definita, nulli Sacerdotum Domini ignorare sit liberum: utilius tamen, atque pro antiquitate sacerdotii tui, dilectioni tuæ esse admodùm poterit gloriosum, si ea quæ ad te speciali nomine generaliter scripta sunt, per unanimitatis tuæ sollicitudinem in universorum fratrum nostrorum notitiam perferantur; quatenus & quæ à nobis non inconsultè sed providè sub nimia cautela & deliberatione sunt salubriter constituta, intemerata permaneant, & omnibus in posterum excusationibus aditus, qui jam nulli apud nos patere poterit, obstruatur. Dat. 3 Id. Febr. Arcadio & Bautone viris clarissimis Consulibus, A.C. 385. Pope Liberius in the reign of Jovian or Valentinian I. sent general Decrees to the Provinces, ordering that the Arians should not be rebaptized: and this he did in favour of the Council of Alexandria, that nothing more should be required of them than to renounce their opinions. Pope Damasus is said to have decreed in a Roman Council, that Tithes and Tenths should be paid upon pain of an Anathema; and that Glory be to the Father, &c. should be said or sung at the end of the Psalms. But the first decretal Epistle now extant is this of Siricius to Himerius; by which the Pope made Himerius his Vicar over all Spain for promulging his Decrees, and seeing them observed. The Bishop of Sevill was also the Pope's Vicar sometimes; for Simplicius wrote thus to Zeno Bishop of that place: Talibus idcirco gloriantes indiciis, congruum duximus vicariâ Sedis nostræ te auctoritate fulciri: cujus vigore munitus, Apostolicæ institutionis Decreta, vel sanctorum terminos Patrum, nullatenus transcendi permittas. And Pope Hormisda ^[3] made the Bishop of Sevill his Vicar over Bœtica and Lusitania, and the Bishop of Tarraco his Vicar over all the rest of Spain, as appears by his Epistles to them.

Pope Innocent the first, in his decretal Epistle to Victricius Bishop of Rouen in France, A.C. 404, in pursuance of the Edict of Gratian, made this Decree: Si quæ autem causæ vel contentiones inter Clericos tam superioris ordinis quam etiam inferioris fuerint exortæ; ut secundum Synodum Nicenam congregatis ejusdem Provinciæ Episcopis jurgium terminetur: nec alicui liceat, ^[4] Romanæ Ecclesiæ, cujus in omnibus causis debet reverentia custodiri, relictis his sacerdotibus, qui in eadem Provincia Dei Ecclesiam nutu Divino gubernant, ad alias convolare Provincias. Quod siquis fortè præsumpserit; & ab officio Clericatûs summotus, & injuriarum reus judicetur. Si autem majores causæ in medium fuerint devolutæ, ad Sedem Apostolicam sicut Synodus statuit, & beata consuetudo exigit, post judicium Episcopale referantur. By these Letters it seems to me that Gallia was now subject to the Pope, and had been so for some time, and that the Bishop of Rouen was then his Vicar or one of them: for the Pope directs him to refer the greater causes to the See of Rome, according to custom. But the Bishop of Arles soon after became the Pope's Vicar over all Gallia: for Pope Zosimus, A.C. 417, ordaining that none should have access to him without the credentials of his Vicars, conferred upon Patroclus the Bishop of Arles this authority over all Gallia, by the following Decree.

Zosimus universis Episcopis per Gallias & septem Provincias constitutis.

Placuit Apostolicæ Sedi, ut siquis ex qualibet Galliarum parte sub quolibet ecclesiastico gradu ad nos Romæ venire contendit, vel aliò terrarum ire disponit, non aliter proficiscatur nisi Metropolitani Episcopi Formatas acceperit, quibus sacerdotium suum vel locum ecclesiasticum quem habet, scriptorum ejus adstipulatione perdoceat: quod ex gratia statuimus quia plures episcopi sive presbyteri sive ecclesiastici simulantes, quia nullum documentum Formatarum extat per quod valeant confutari, in nomen venerationis irrepunt, & indebitam reverentiam promerentur. Quisquis igitur, fratres charissimi, prætermissà supradicti Formatâ sive episcopus, sive presbyter, sive diaconus, aut deinceps inferiori gradu sit, ad nos venerit: sciat se omnino suscipi non posse. Quam auctoritatem ubique nos misisse manifestum est, ut cunctis regionibus innotescat id quod statuimus omnimodis esse servandum. Siquis autem hæc salubriter constituta temerare tentaverit sponte suâ, se a nostra noverit communione discretum. Hoc autem privilegium Formatarum sancto Patroclo fratri & coepiscopo nostro, meritorum ejus speciali contemplatione, concessimus. And that the Bishop of Arles was sometimes the Pope's Vicar over all France, is affirmed also by all the Bishops of the Diocess of Arles in their Letter to Pope Leo I. Cui id etiam honoris dignitatisque collatum est, say they, ut non tantum has Provincias potestate propriâ gubernaret; verum etiam omnes Gallias sibi Apostolicæ Sedis vice mandatas, sub omni ecclesiastica regula contineret. And Pope Pelagius I. A.C. 556, in his Epistle to Sapaudus Bishop of Arles: Majorum nostrorum, operante Dei misericordiâ, cupientes inhærere vestigiis & eorum actus divino examine in omnibus imitari: Charitati tuæ per universam Galliam, sanctæ Sedis Apostolicæ, cui divinâ gratiâ præsidemus, vices injungimus.

By the influence of the same imperial Edict, not only Spain and Gallia, but also Illyricum became subject to the Pope. Damasus made Ascholius, or Acholius, Bishop of Thessalonica the Metropolis of Oriental Illyricum, his Vicar for hearing of causes; and in the year 382, Acholius being summoned by Pope Damasus, came to a Council at Rome. Pope Siricius the successor of Damasus, decreed that no Bishop should be ordained in Illyricum without the consent of Anysius the successor of Acholius. And the following Popes gave Rufus the successor of Anysius, a power of calling Provincial Councils: for in the Collections of Holstenius there is an account of a Council of Rome convened under Pope Boniface II. in which were produced Letters of Damasus, Syricius, Innocent I. Boniface I. and Cælestine Bishops of Rome, to Ascholius, Anysius and Rufus, Bishops of Thessalonica: in which Letters they commend to them the hearing of causes in Illyricum, granted by the Lord and the holy Canons to the Apostolic See thro'out that Province. And Pope Siricius saith in his Epistle to Anysius: Etiam dudum, frater charissime, per Candidianum Episcopum, qui nos præcessit ad Dominum, hujusmodi literas dederamus, ut nulla licentia esset, sine consensu tuo in Illyrico Episcopos ordinare præsumere, quæ utrum ad te pervenerint scire non potui. Multa enim gesta sunt per contentionem ab Episcopis in ordinationibus faciendis, quod tua melius caritas novit. And a little after: Ad omnem enim hujusmodi audaciam comprimendam vigilare debet instantia tua, Spiritu in te Sancto fervente: ut vel ipse, si potes, vel quos judicaveris Episcopos idoneos, cum literis dirigas, dato consensu qui possit, in ejus locum qui defunctus vel depositus fuerit, Catholicum Episcopum vitâ & moribus probatum, secundum Nicænæ Synodi statuta vel Ecclesiæ Romanæ, Clericum de Clero meritum ordinare. And Pope Innocent I. saith in his Epistle to Anysius: Cui [Anysio] etiam anteriores tanti ac tales viri prædecessores mei Episcopi, id est, sanctæ memoriæ Damasus, Siricius, atque supra memoratus vir ita detulerunt; ut omnia quæ in omnibus illis partibus gererentur, Sanctitati tuæ, quæ plena justitiæ est, traderent cognoscenda. And in his Epistle to Rufus the successor of Anysius: Ita longis intervallis disterminatis à me ecclesiis discat consulendum; ut prudentiæ gravitatique tuæ committendam curam causasque, siquæ exoriantur, per Achaiæ, Thessaliæ, Epiri veteris, Epiri novæ, & Cretæ, Daciæ mediterraneæ, Daciæ ripensis, Mœsiæ, Dardaniæ, & Prævali ecclesias, Christo Domino annuente, censeam. Verè enim ejus sacratissimis monitis lectissimæ sinceritatis tuæ providentiæ & virtuti hanc injungimus sollicitudinem: non primitùs hæc statuentes, sed Præcessores nostros Apostolicos imitati, qui beatissimis Acholio & Anysio injungi pro meritis ista voluerunt. And Boniface I. in his decretal Epistle to Rufus and the rest of the Bishops in Illyricum: Nullus, ut frequenter dixi, alicujus ordinationem citra ejus [Episcopi Thessalonicensis] conscientiam celebrare præsumat: cui, ut supra dictum est, vice nostrâ cuncta committimus. And Pope Cælestine, in his decretal Epistle to the Bishops thro'out Illyricum, saith: Vicem nostram per vestram Provinciam noveritis [Rufo] esse commissam, ita ut ad eum, fratres carissimi, quicquid de causis agitur, referatur. Sine ejus consilio nullus ordinetur. Nullus usurpet, eodem inconscio, commissam illi Provinciam; colligere nisi cum ejus voluntate Episcopus non præsumat. And in the cause of Perigenes, in the title of his Epistle, he thus enumerates the Provinces under this Bishop: Rufo & cæteris Episcopis per Macedoniam, Achaiam, Thessaliam, Epirum veterem, Epirum novam, Prævalin, & Daciam constitutis. And Pope Xistus in a decretal Epistle to the same Bishops: Illyricanæ omnes Ecclesiæ, ut à decessoribus nostris recepimus, & nos quoque fecimus, ad curam nunc pertinent Thessalonicensis Antistitis, ut suâ sollicitudine, siquæ inter fratres nascantur, ut assolent, actiones distinguat atque definiat; & ad eum, quicquid à singulis sacerdotibus agitur, referatur. Sit Concilium, quotiens causæ fuerint, quotiens ille pro necessitatum emergentium ratione decreverit. And Pope Leo I. in his decretal Epistle to Anastasius Bishop of Thessalonica: Singulis autem Metropolitanis sicut potestas ista committitur, ut in suis Provinciis jus habeant ordinandi; ita eos Metropolitanos à te volumus ordinari; maturo tamen & decocto judicio.

Occidental Illyricum comprehended Pannonia prima and secunda, Savia, Dalmatia, Noricum mediterraneum, and Noricum ripense; and its Metropolis was Sirmium, till Attila destroyed this city. Afterwards Laureacum became the Metropolis of Noricum and both Pannonias, and Salona the Metropolis of Dalmatia. Now ^[5] the Bishops of Laureacum and Salona received the Pallium from the Pope: and Zosimus, in his decretal Epistle to Hesychius Bishop of Salona, directed him to denounce the Apostolic decrees as well to the Bishops of his own, as to those of the neighbouring Provinces. The subjection of these Provinces to the See of Rome seems to have begun in Anemius, who was ordained Bishop of Sirmium by Ambrose Bishop of Millain, and who in the Council of Aquileia under Pope Damasus, A.C. 381, declared his sentence in these words: Caput Illyrici non nisi civitas Sirmiensis: Ego igitur illius civitatis Episcopus sum. Eum qui non confitetur filium Dei æternum, & coeternum patri, qui est sempiternus, anathema dico. The next year Anemius and Ambrose, with Valerian Bishop of Aquileia, Acholias Bishop of Thessalonica, and many others, went to the Council of Rome, which met for overruling the Greek Church by majority of votes, and exalting the authority of the Apostolic See, as was attempted before in the Council of Sardica.

Aquileia was the second city of the Western Empire, and by some called the second Rome. It was the Metropolis of Istria, Forum Julium, and Venetia; and its subjection to the See of Rome is manifest by the decretal Epistle of Leo I. directed to Nicetas Bishop of this city; for the Pope begins his Epistle thus: Regressus ad nos filius meus Adeodatus Diaconus Sedis nostræ, dilectionem tuam poposcisse memorat, ut de his à nobis authoritatem Apostolicæ Sedis acciperes, quæ quidem magnam difficultatem dijudicationis videntur afferre. Then he sets down an answer to the questions proposed by Nicetas, and concludes thus: Hanc autem Epistolam nostram, quam ad consultationem tuæ fraternitatis emisimus, ad omnes fratres & comprovinciales tuos Episcopos facies pervenire, ut in omnium observantia, data profit authoritas. Data 1-2 Kal. Apr. Majorano Aug. Cos. A.C. 458. Gregory the great A.C. 591, ^[6] cited Severus Bishop of Aquileia to appear before him in judgment in a Council at Rome.

The Bishops of Aquileia and Millain created one another, and therefore were of equal authority, and alike subject to the See of Rome. Pope Pelagius about the year 557, testified this in the following words: ^[7] Mos antiquus fuit, saith he, ut quia pro longinquitate vel difficultate itineris, ab Apostolico illis onerosum fuerit ordinari, ipsi se invicem Mediolanensis & Aquileiensis ordinare Episcopos debuissent. These words imply that the ordination of these two Bishops belonged to the See of Rome. When Laurentius Bishop of Millain had excommunicated Magnus, one of his Presbyters, and was dead, ^[8] Gregory the great absolved Magnus, and sent the Pallium to the new elected Bishop Constantius; whom the next year ^[9] he reprehended of partiality in judging Fortunatus, and commanded him to send Fortunatus to Rome to be judged there: four years after ^[10] he appointed the Bishops of Millain and Ravenna to hear the cause of one Maximus; and two years after, viz. A.C. 601, when Constantius was dead, and the people of Millain had elected Deusdedit his successor, and the Lombards had elected another, ^[11] Gregory wrote to the Notary, Clergy, and People of Millain, that by the authority of his Letters Deusdedit should be ordained, and that he whom the Lombards had ordained was an unworthy successor of Ambrose: whence I gather, that the Church of Millain had continued in this state of subordination to the See of Rome ever since the days of Ambrose; for Ambrose himself acknowledged the authority of that See. Ecclesia Romana, ^[12] saith he, hanc consuetudinem non habet, cujus typum in omnibus sequimur, & formam. And a little after: In omnibus cupio sequi Ecclesiam Romanam. And in his Commentary upon 1 Tim. iii. Cum totus mundus Dei sit, tamen domus ejus Ecclesia dicitur, cujus hodie rector est Damasus. In his Oration on the death of his brother Satyrus, he relates how his brother coming to a certain city of Sardinia, advocavit Episcopum loci, percontatusque est ex eo utrum cum Episcopis Catholicis hoc est cum Romana Ecclesia conveniret? And in conjunction with the Synod of Aquileia A.C. 381, in a synodical Epistle to the Emperor Gratian, he saith: Totius orbis Romani caput Romanam Ecclesiam, atque illam sacrosanctam Apostolorum fidem, ne turbari sineret, obsecranda fuit clementia vestra; inde enim in omnes venerandæ communionis jura dimanant. The Churches therefore of Aquileia and Millain were subject to the See of Rome from the days of the Emperor Gratian. Auxentius the predecessor of Ambrose was not subject to the see of Rome, and consequently the subjection of the Church of Millain began in Ambrose. This Diocese of Millain contained Liguria with Insubria, the Alpes Cottiæ and Rhætia; and was divided from the Diocese of Aquileia by the river Addua. In the year 844, the Bishop of Millain broke off from the See of Rome, and continued in this separation about 200 years, as is thus related by ^[13] Sigonius: Eodem anno Angilbertus Mediolanensis Archiepiscopus ab Ecclesia Romana parum comperta de causa descivit, tantumque exemplo in posterum valuit, ut non nisi post ducentos annos Ecclesia Mediolanensis ad Romanæ obedientiam auctoritatemque redierit.

The Bishop of Ravenna, the Metropolis of Flaminia and Æmilia, was also subject to the Pope: for Zosimus, A.C. 417, excommunicated some of the Presbyters of that Church, and wrote a commonitory Epistle about them to the Clergy of that Church as a branch of the Roman Church: In sua, saith he, hoc est, in Ecclesia nostra Romana. When those of Ravenna, having elected a new Bishop, gave notice thereof to Pope Sixtus, the Pope set him aside, and ^[14] ordained Peter Chrysologus in his room. Chrysologus in his Epistle to Eutyches, extant in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, wrote thus: Nos pro studio pacis & fidei, extra consensum Romanæ civitatis Episcopi, causas fidei audire non possumus. Pope Leo I. being consulted by Leo Bishop of Ravenna about some questions, answered him by a decretal Epistle A.C. 451. And Pope Gregory the great, ^[15] reprehending John Bishop of Ravenna about the use of the Pallium, tells him of a Precept of one of his Predecessors, Pope John, commanding that all the Privileges formerly granted to the Bishop and Church of Ravenna should be kept: to this John returned a submissive answer; and after his death Pope Gregory ordered a visitation of the Church of Ravenna, confirmed the privileges heretofore granted them, and sent his Pallium, as of antient custom, to their new Bishop Marinian. Yet this Church revolted sometimes from the Church of Rome, but returned again to its obedience.

The rest of Italy, with the Islands adjacent, containing the suburbicarian regions, or ten Provinces under the temporal Vicar of Rome, viz. ¹Campania, ²Tuscia and Umbria, ³Picenum suburbicarium, ⁴Sicily, ⁵Apulia and Calabria, ⁶Brutii and Lucania, ⁷Samnium, ⁸Sardinia, ⁹Corsica, and ¹⁰Valeria, constituted the proper Province of the Bishop of Rome. For the Council of Nice in their fifth Canon ordained that Councils should be held every spring and autumn in every Province; and according to this Canon, the Bishops of this Province met at Rome every half year. In this sense Pope Leo I. applied this Canon to Rome, in a decretal Epistle to the Bishops of Sicily, written Alippio & Ardabure Coss. A.C. 447. Quia saluberrime, saith he, à sanctis patribus constitutum est, binos in annis singulis Episcoporum debere esse conventus, terni semper ex vobis ad diem tertium Kalendarum Octobrium Romam æterno concilio sociandi occurrant. Et indissimulanter à vobis hæc consuetudo servetur, quoniam adjuvante Dei gratiâ, faciliùs poterit provideri, ut in Ecclesiis Christi nulla scandala, nulli nascantur errores; cum coram Apostolo Petro semper in communione tractatum fuerit, ut omnia Canonum Decreta apud omnes Domini sacerdotes inviolata permaneant. The Province of Rome therefore comprehended Sicily, with so much of Italy and the neighbouring Islands as sent Bishops to the annual Councils of Rome; but extended not into the Provinces of Ravenna, Aquileia, Millain, Arles, &c. those Provinces having Councils of their own. The Bishops in every Province of the Roman Empire were convened in Council by the Metropolitan or Bishop of the head city of the Province, and this Bishop presided in that Council: but the Bishop of Rome did not only preside in his own Council of the Bishops of the suburbicarian regions, but also gave Orders to the Metropolitans of all the other Provinces in the Western Empire, as their universal governor; as may be further perceived by the following instances.

Pope Zosimus A.C. 417, cited Proculus Bishop of Marseilles to appear before a Council at Rome for illegitimate Ordinations; and condemned him, as he mentions in several of his Epistles. Pope Boniface I. A.C. 419, upon a complaint of the Clergy of Valentia against Maximus a Bishop, summoned the Bishops of all Gallia and the seven Provinces to convene in a Council against him; and saith in his Epistle, that his Predecessors had done the like. Pope Leo I. called a general Council of all the Provinces of Spain to meet in Gallæcia against the Manichees and Priscillianists, as he says in his decretal Epistle to Turribius a Spanish Bishop. And in one of his decretal Epistles to Nicetas Bishop of Aquileia, he commands him to call a Council of the Bishops of that Province against the Pelagians, which might ratify all the Synodal Decrees which had been already ratified by the See of Rome against this heresy. And in his decretal Epistle to Anastasius Bishop of Thessalonica, he ordained that Bishop should hold two Provincial Councils every year, and refer the harder causes to the See of Rome: and if upon any extraordinary occasion it should be necessary to call a Council, he should not be troublesom to the Bishops under him, but content himself with two Bishops out of every Province, and not detain them above fifteen days. In the same Epistle he describes the form of Church-Government then set up, to consist in a subordination of all the Churches to the See of Rome: De qua forma, saith he, Episcoporum quoque est orta distinctio, & magna dispositione provisum est ne omnes sibi omnia vindicarent, sed essent in singulis Provinciis singuli quorum inter fratres haberetur prima sententia, & rursus quidam in majoribus urbibus constituti sollicitudinem sumerent ampliorem, per quos ad unam Petri Sedem universalis Ecclesiæ cura conflueret, & nihil usque à suo capite dissideret. Qui ergo scit se quibusdam esse præpositum, non moleste ferat aliquem sibi esse præpositum; sed obedientiam quam exigit etiam ipse dependat; et sicut non vult gravis oneris sarcinam ferre, ita non audeat aliis importabile pondus imponere. These words sufficiently shew the monarchical form of government then set up in the Churches of the Western Empire under the Bishop of Rome, by means of the imperial Decree of Gratian, and the appeals and decretal Epistles grounded thereupon.

The same Pope Leo, having in a Council at Rome passed sentence upon Hilary Bishop of Arles, for what he had done by a Provincial Council in Gallia, took occasion from thence to procure the following Edict from the Western Emperor Valentinian III. for the more absolute establishing the authority of his See over all the Churches of the Western Empire.

Impp. Theodosius & Valentinianus AA. Aetio Viro illustri, Comiti & Magistro utriusque militiæ & Patricio.

Certum est & nobis & imperio nostro unicum esse præsidium in supernæ Divinitatis favore, ad quem promerendum præcipue Christiana fides & veneranda nobis religio suffragatur. Cum igitur Sedis Apostolicæ Primatum sancti Petri meritum, qui princeps est Episcopalis coronæ & Romanæ dignitas civitatis, sacræ etiam Synodi firmavit auctoritas: ne quid præter auctoritatem Sedis istius illicitum præsumptio attemperare nitatur: tunc enim demum Ecclesiarum pax ubique servabitur, si Rectorem suum agnoscat Universitas. Hæc cum hactenus inviolabiliter suerint custodita, Hilarius Arelatensis, sicut venerabilis viri Leonis Romani Papæ fideli relatione comperimus, contumaci ausu illicita quædam præsumenda tentavit, & ideo Transalpinas Ecclesias abominabilis tumultus invasit, quod recens maximè testatur exemplum. Hilarius enim qui Episcopus Arelatensis vocatur, Ecclesiæ Romanæ urbis inconsulto Pontifice indebitas sibi ordinationes Episcoporum solâ temeritate usurpans invasit. Nam alios incompetenter removit; indecenter alios, invitis & repugnantibus civibus, ordinavit. Qui quidem, quoniam non facile ab his qui non elegerant, recipiebantur, manum sibi contrahebat armatam, & claustra murorum in hostilem morem vel obsidione cingebat, vel aggressione reserabat, & ad sedem quietis pacem prædicaturus per bella ducebat: His talibus contra Imperii majestatem, & contra reverentiam Apostolicæ Sedis admissis, per ordinem religiosi viri Urbis Papæ cognitione discussis, certa in eum, ex his quos malè ordinaverat, lata sententia est. Erat quidem ipsa sententia per Gallias etiam sine Imperiali Sanctione valitura: quid enim Pontificis auctoritate non liceret? Sed nostram quoque præceptionem hæc ratio provocavit. Nec ulterius vel Hilario, quem adhuc Episcopum nuncupare sola mansueta Præsulis permittit humanitas, nec cuiquam alteri ecclesiasticis rebus arma miscere, aut præceptis Romani Antistitis liceat obviare: ausibus enim talibus fides & reverentia nostri violatur Imperii. Nec hoc solum, quod est maximi criminis, submovemus: verum ne levis saltem inter Ecclesias turba nascatur, vel in aliquo minui religionis disciplina videatur, hoc perenni sanctione discernimus; nequid tam Episcopis Gallicanis quam aliarum Provinciarum contra consuetudinem veterem liceat, sine viri venerabilis Papæ Urbis æternæ auctoritate, tentare. Sed illis omnibusque pro lege sit, quicquid sanxit vel sanxerit Apostolicæ Sedis auctoritas: ita ut quisquis Episcoporum ad judicium Romani Antistitis evocatus venire neglexerit, per Moderatorem ejusdem Provinciæ adesse cogatur, per omnia servatis quæ Divi parentes nostri Romanæ Ecclesiæ detulerunt, Aetî pater carissime Augusti. Unde illustris & præclara magnificentia tua præsentis Edictalis Legis auctoritate faciet quæ sunt superius statuta servari, decem librarum auri multa protinus exigenda ab unoquoque Judice qui passus fuerit præcepta nostra violari. Divinitas te servet per multos annos, parens carissime. Dat. viii. Id. Jun. Romæ, Valentiniano A. vi. Consule, A.C. 445. By this Edict the Emperor Valentinian enjoined an absolute obedience to the will of the Bishop of Rome thro'out all the Churches of his Empire; and declares, that for the Bishops to attempt any thing without the Pope's authority is contrary to antient custom, and that the Bishops summoned to appear before his judicature must be carried thither by the Governor of the Province; and he ascribes these privileges of the See of Rome to the concessions of his dead Ancestors, that is, to the Edict of Gratian and Valentinian II. as above: by which reckoning this dominion of the Church of Rome was now of 66 years standing: and if in all this time it had not been sufficiently established, this new Edict was enough to settle it beyond all question thro'out the Western Empire.

Hence all the Bishops of the Province of Arles in their Letter to Pope Leo, A.C. 450, petitioning for a restitution of the privileges of their Metropolitan, say: Per beatum Petrum Apostolorum principem, sacrosancta Ecclesia Romana tenebat supra omnes totius mundi Ecclesias principatum. And Ceratius, Salonius and Veranus, three Bishops of Gallia, say, in their Epistle to the same Pope: Magna præterea & ineffabili quadam nos peculiares tui gratulatione succrescimus, quod illa specialis doctrinæ vestræ pagina ita per omnium Ecclesiarum conventicula celebratur, ut vere consona omnium sententia declaretur; merito illic principatum Sedis Apostolicæ constitutum, unde adhuc Apostolici spiritus oracula reserentur. And Leo himself, in ^[16] his Epistle to the metropolitan Bishops thro'out Illyricum: Quia per omnes Ecclesias cura nostra distenditur, exigente hoc à nobis Domino, qui Apostolicæ dignitatis beatissimo Apostolo Petro primatum, fidei sui remuneratione commisit, universalem Ecclesiam in fundamenti ipsius soliditate constituens.

While this Ecclesiastical Dominion was rising up, the northern barbarous nations invaded the Western Empire, and founded several kingdoms therein, of different religions from the Church of Rome. But these kingdoms by degrees embraced the Roman faith, and at the same time submitted to the Pope's authority. The Franks in Gaul submitted in the end of the fifth Century, the Goths in Spain in the end of the sixth; and the Lombards in Italy were conquered by Charles the great A.C. 774. Between the years 775 and 794, the same Charles extended the Pope's authority over all Germany and Hungary as far as the river Theysse and the Baltic sea; he then set him above all human judicature, and at the same time assisted him in subduing the City and Duchy of Rome. By the conversion of the ten kingdoms to the Roman religion, the Pope only enlarged his spiritual dominion, but did not yet rise up as a horn of the Beast. It was his temporal dominion which made him one of the horns: and this dominion he acquired in the latter half of the eighth century, by subduing three of the former horns as above. And now being arrived at a temporal dominion, and a power above all human judicature, he reigned ^[17] with a look more stout than his fellows, and ^[18] times and laws were henceforward given into his hands, for a time times and half a time, or three times and an half; that is, for 1260 solar years, reckoning a time for a Calendar year of 360 days, and a day for a solar year. After which ^[19] the judgment is to sit, and they shall take away his dominion, not at once, but by degrees, to consume, and to destroy it unto the end. ^[20] And the kingdom and dominion, and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall, by degrees, be given unto the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.

Notes to Chap. VIII.

[1] See the Annals of Baronius, Anno 381. Sect. 6.

[2] Populos Galliciæ.

[3] Hormisd. Epist. 24. 26.

[4] The words, sine auctoritate, seem wanting.

[5] Vide Caroli a S. Paulo Geographiam sacram, p. 72, 73.

[6] Greg. M. lib. 1. Indic. 9. Epist. 16.

[7] Apud Gratianum de Mediolanensi & Aquileiensi Episcopis.

[8] Greg. M. lib. 3. Epist. 26. & lib. 4. Epist. 1.

[9] Greg. lib. 5. Epist. 4.

[10] Greg. lib. 9. Epist. 10 & 67.

[11] Greg. lib. 11. Epist. 3, 4.

[12] Ambros l. 3. de sacramentis, c. 1.

[13] Sigonius de Regno Italiæ, lib. 5.

[14] See Baronius, Anno 433. Sect. 24.

[15] Greg. M. lib. 3. Epist. 56, 57. & lib. 5. Epist. 25, 26, 56.

[16] Epist. 25. apud Holstenium.

[17] Dan. vii. 20.

[18] Ver. 25.

[19] Ver. 26.

[20] Ver. 27.

CHAP. IX.

Of the kingdoms represented in Daniel by the Ram and He-Goat.

The second and third Empires, represented by the Bear and Leopard, are again represented by the Ram and He-Goat; but with this difference, that the Ram represents the kingdoms of the Medes and Persians from the beginning of the four Empires, and the Goat represents the kingdom of the Greeks to the end of them. By this means, under the type of the Ram and He-Goat, the times of all the four Empires are again described: I lifted up mine eyes, saith ^[1] Daniel, and saw, and behold there stood before the river [Ulai] a Ram which had two horns, and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last.—And the Ram having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia: not two persons but two kingdoms, the kingdoms of Media and Persia; and the kingdom of Persia was the higher horn and came up last. The kingdom of Persia rose up, when Cyrus having newly conquered Babylon, revolted from Darius King of the Medes, and beat him at Pasargadæ, and set up the Persians above the Medes. This was the horn which came up last. And the horn which came up first was the kingdom of the Medes, from the time that Cyaxares and Nebuchadnezzar overthrew Nineveh, and shared the Empire of the Assyrians between them. The Empires of Media and Babylon were contemporary, and rose up together by the fall of the Assyrian Empire; and the Prophecy of the four Beasts begins with one of them, and that of the Ram and He-Goat with the other. As the Ram represents the kingdom of Media and Persia from the beginning of the four Empires; so the He-Goat represents the Empire of the Greeks to the end of those Monarchies. In the reign of his great horn, and of the four horns which succeeded it, he represents this Empire during the reign of the Leopard: and in the reign of his little horn, which stood up in the latter time of the kingdom of the four, and after their fall became mighty but not by his own power, he represents it during the reign of the fourth Beast.

The rough Goat, saith Daniel, is the King of Grecia, that is, the kingdom; and the great horn between his eyes is the first King: not the first Monarch, but the first kingdom, that which lasted during the reign of Alexander the great, and his brother Aridæus and two young sons, Alexander and Hercules. ^[2] Now that [horn] being broken off, whereas four [horns] stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation [of the Greeks], but not in his [the first horn's] power. The four horns are therefore four kingdoms; and by consequence, the first great horn which they succeeded is the first great kingdom of the Greeks, that which was founded by Alexander the great, An. Nabonass. 414, and lasted till the death of his son Hercules, An. Nabonass. 441. And the four are those of Cassander, Lysimachus, Antigonus, and Ptolemy, as above.

^[3] And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a King [or new kingdom] of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up: and his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power. This King was the last horn of the Goat, the little horn which came up out of one of the four horns, and waxed exceeding great. The latter time of their kingdom was when the Romans began to conquer them, that is, when they conquered Perseus King of Macedonia, the fundamental kingdom of the Greeks. And at that time the transgressors came to the full: for then the High-priesthood was exposed to sale, the Vessels of the Temple were sold to pay for the purchase; and the High-priest, with some of the Jews, procured a licence from Antiochus Epiphanes to do after the ordinances of the heathen, and set up a school at Jerusalem for teaching those ordinances. Then Antiochus took Jerusalem with an armed force, slew 4000 Jews, took as many prisoners and sold them, spoiled the Temple, interdicted the worship, commanded the Law of Moses to be burnt, and set up the worship of the heathen Gods in all Judea. In the very same year, An. Nabonass. 580, the Romans conquered Macedonia, the chief of the four horns. Hitherto the Goat was mighty by its own power, but henceforward began to be under the Romans. Daniel distinguishes the times, by describing very particularly the actions of the Kings of the north and south, those two of the four horns which bordered upon Judea, until the Romans conquered Macedonia; and thenceforward only touching upon the main revolutions which happened within the compass of the nations represented by the Goat. In this latter period of time the little horn was to stand up and grow mighty, but not by his own power.

The three first of Daniel's Beasts had their dominions taken away, each of them at the rise of the next Beast; but their lives were prolonged, and they are all of them still alive. The third Beast, or Leopard, reigned in his four heads, till the rise of the fourth Beast, or Empire of the Latins; and his life was prolonged under their power. This Leopard reigning in his four heads, signifies the same thing with the He-Goat reigning in his four horns: and therefore the He-Goat reigned in his four horns till the rise of Daniel's fourth Beast, or Empire of the Latins: then its dominion was taken away by the Latins, but its life was prolonged under their power. The Latins are not comprehended among the nations represented by the He-Goat in this Prophecy: their power over the Greeks is only named in it, to distinguish the times in which the He-Goat was mighty by his own power, from the times in which he was mighty but not by his own power. He was mighty by his own power till his dominion was taken away by the Latins; after that, his life was prolonged under their dominion, and this prolonging of his life was in the days of his last horn: for in the days of this horn the Goat became mighty, but not by his own power.

Now because this horn was a horn of the Goat, we are to look for it among the nations which composed the body of the Goat. Among those nations he was to rise up and grow mighty: he grew mighty ^[4] towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the pleasant land; and therefore he was to rise up in the north-west parts of those nations, and extend his dominion towards Egypt, Syria and Judea. In the latter time of the kingdom of the four horns, it was to rise up out of one of them and subdue the rest, but not by its own power. It was to be assisted by a foreign power, a power superior to itself, the power which took away the dominion of the third Beast, the power of the fourth Beast. And such a little horn was the kingdom of Macedonia, from the time that it became subject to the Romans. This kingdom, by the victory of the Romans over Persius King of Macedonia, Anno Nabonass. 580, ceased to be one of the four horns of the Goat, and became a dominion of a new sort: not a horn of the fourth Beast, for Macedonia belonged to the body of the third; but a horn of the third Beast of a new sort, a horn of the Goat which grew mighty but not by his own power, a horn which rose up and grew potent under a foreign power, the power of the Romans.

The Romans, by the legacy of Attalus the last King of Pergamus, An. Nabonass. 615, inherited that kingdom, including all Asia Minor on this side mount Taurus. An. Nabonass. 684 and 685 they conquered Armenia, Syria and Judea; An. Nabonass. 718, they subdued Egypt. And by these conquests the little horn ^[5] waxed exceeding great towards the south, and towards the east, and towards the pleasant land. And it waxed great even to the host of heaven; and cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them, that is, upon the people and great men of the Jews. ^[6] Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the Host, the Messiah, the Prince of the Jews, whom he put to death, An. Nabonass. 780. And by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down, viz. in the wars which the armies of the Eastern nations under the conduct of the Romans made against Judea, when Nero and Vespasian were Emperors, An. Nabonass. 816, 817, 818. ^[7] And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered. This transgression is in the next words called the transgression of desolation; and in Dan. xi. 31. the abomination which maketh desolate; and in Matth. xxiv. 15. the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place. It may relate chiefly to the worship of Jupiter Olympius in his Temple built by the Emperor Hadrian, in the place of the Temple of the Jews, and to the revolt of the Jews under Barchochab occasioned thereby, and to the desolation of Judea which followed thereupon; all the Jews, being thenceforward banished Judea upon pain of death. Then I heard, saith ^[8] Daniel, one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. Daniel's days are years; and these years may perhaps be reckoned either from the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the reign of Vespasian, or from the pollution of the Sanctuary by the worship of Jupiter Olympius, or from the desolation of Judea made in the end of the Jewish war by the banishment of all the Jews out of their own country, or from some other period which time will discover. Henceforward the last horn of the Goat continued mighty under the Romans, till the reign of Constantine the great and his sons: and then by the division of the Roman Empire between the Greek and Latin Emperors, it separated from the Latins, and became the Greek Empire alone, but yet under the dominion of a Roman family; and at present it is mighty under the dominion of the Turks.

This last horn is by some taken for Antiochus Epiphanes, but not very judiciously. A horn of a Beast is never taken for a single person: it always signifies a new kingdom, and the kingdom of Antiochus was an old one. Antiochus reigned over one of the four horns, and the little horn was a fifth under its proper kings. This horn was at first a little one, and waxed exceeding great, but so did not Antiochus. It is described great above all the former horns, and so was not Antiochus. His kingdom on the contrary was weak, and tributary to the Romans, and he did not enlarge it. The horn was a King of fierce countenance, and destroyed wonderfully, and prospered and practised; that is, he prospered in his practises against the holy people: but Antiochus was frighted out of Egypt by a mere message of the Romans, and afterwards routed and baffled by the Jews. The horn was mighty by another's power, Antiochus acted by his own. The horn stood up against the Prince of the Host of heaven, the Prince of Princes; and this is the character not of Antiochus but of Antichrist. The horn cast down the Sanctuary to the ground, and so did not Antiochus; he left it standing. The Sanctuary and Host were trampled under foot 2300 days; and in Daniel's Prophecies days are put for years: but the profanation of the Temple in the reign of Antiochus did not last so many natural days. These were to last till the time of the end, till the last end of the indignation against the Jews; and this indignation is not yet at an end. They were to last till the Sanctuary which had been cast down should be cleansed, and the Sanctuary is not yet cleansed.

This Prophecy of the Ram and He-Goat is repeated in the last Prophecy of Daniel. There the Angel tells Daniel, that ^[9] he stood up to strengthen Darius the Mede, and that there should stand up yet three kings in Persia, [Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius Hystaspis] and the fourth [Xerxes] should be far richer than they all; and by his wealth thro' his riches he should stir up all against the realm of Grecia. This relates to the Ram, whose two horns were the kingdoms of Media and Persia. Then he goes on to describe the horns of the Goat by the ^[10] standing up of a mighty king, which should rule with great dominion, and do according to his will; and by the breaking of his kingdom into four smaller kingdoms, and not descending to his own posterity. Then he describes the actions of two of those kingdoms which bordered on Judea, viz. Egypt and Syria, calling them the Kings of the South and North, that is, in respect of Judea; and he carries on the description till the latter end of the kingdoms of the four, and till the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, when transgressors were come to the full. In the eighth year of Antiochus, the year in which he profaned the Temple and set up the heathen Gods in all Judea, and the Romans conquered the kingdom of Macedon; the prophetic Angel leaves off describing the affairs of the kings of the South and North, and begins to describe those of the Greeks under the dominion of the Romans, in these words: ^[11] And after him Arms [the Romans] shall stand up, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength. As ממלך signifies after the king, Dan. xi. 8; so here ממנו may signify after him: and so מן־האחת may signify after one of them, Dan. viii. 9. Arms are every where in these Prophecies of Daniel put for the military power of a kingdom, and they stand up when they conquer and grow powerful. The Romans conquered Illyricum, Epirus and Macedonia, in the year of Nabonassar 580; and thirty five years after, by the last will and testament of Attalus the last King of Pergamus, they inherited that rich and flourishing kingdom, that is, all Asia on this side mount Taurus: and sixty nine years after, they conquered the kingdom of Syria, and reduced it into a Province: and thirty four years after they did the like to Egypt. By all these steps the Roman arms stood up over the Greeks. And after 95 years more, by making war upon the Jews, they polluted the sanctuary of strength, and took away the daily sacrifice, and, in its room soon after, placed the abomination which made the Land desolate: for this abomination was placed after the days of Christ, Matth. xxiv. 15. In the 16th year of the Emperor Hadrian, A. C. 132, they placed this abomination by building a Temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, where the Temple of God in Jerusalem had stood. Thereupon the Jews under the conduct of Barchochab rose up in arms against the Romans, and in that war had 50 cities demolished, 985 of their best towns destroyed, and 580000 men slain by the sword: and in the end of the war, A.C. 136, they were all banished Judea upon pain or death; and that time the land hath remained desolate of its old inhabitants.

Now that the prophetic Angel passes in this manner from the four kingdoms of the Greeks to the Romans reigning over the Greeks, is confirmed from hence, that in the next place he describes the affairs of the Christians unto the time of the end, in these words: ^[12] And they that understand among the people shall instruct many, yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days. Now when they shall fall they shall be holpen with a little help, viz. in the reign of Constantine the great; but many shall cleave to them with dissimulation. And some of them of understanding there shall fall to try them, and to purge them from the dissemblers; and to make them white even to the time of the end. And a little after, the time of the end is said to be a time, times, and half a time: which is the duration of the reign of the last horn of Daniel's fourth Beast, and of the Woman and her Beast in the Apocalyps.

Notes to Chap. IX.

[1] Chap. viii. 3.

[2] Ver. 22.

[3] Ver. 23.

[4] Chap. viii. 9.

[5] Chap. viii. 9, 10.

[6] Ver. 11.

[7] Ver. 12.

[8] Ver. 13, 14.

[9] Dan. xi. 1, 2.

[10] Ver. 3.

[11] Dan xi. 31.

[12] Chap. xi. 33, &c.

CHAP. X.

Of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks.

The Vision of the Image composed of four Metals was given first to Nebuchadnezzar, and then to Daniel in a dream: and Daniel began then to be celebrated for revealing of secrets, Ezek. xxviii. 3. The Vision of the four Beasts, and of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, was also given to Daniel in a dream. That of the Ram and the He-Goat appeared to him in the day time, when he was by the bank of the river Ulay; and was explained to him by the prophetic Angel Gabriel. It concerns the Prince of the host, and the Prince of Princes: and now in the first year of Darius the Mede over Babylon, the same prophetic Angel appears to Daniel again, and explains to him what is meant by the Son of man, by the Prince of the host, and the Prince of Princes. The Prophecy of the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven relates to the second coming of Christ; that of the Prince of the host relates to his first coming: and this Prophecy of the Messiah, in explaining them, relates to both comings, and assigns the times thereof.

This Prophecy, like all the rest of Daniel's, consists of two parts, an introductory Prophecy and an explanation thereof; the whole I thus translate and interpret.

^[1] 'Seventy weeks are ^[2] cut out upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and ^[3] to make an end of sins, to expiate iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, to consummate the Vision and ^[4] the Prophet, and to anoint the most Holy.

'Know also and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Jerusalem, unto ^[5] the Anointed the Prince, shall be seven weeks.

'Yet threescore and two weeks shall ^[6] it return, and the street be built and the wall; but in troublesome times: and after the threescore and two weeks, the Anointed shall be cut off, and ^[6] it shall not be his; but the people of a Prince to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war, desolations are determined.

'Yet shall he confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in half a week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease: and upon a wing of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that which is determined be poured upon the desolate.'

Seventy weeks are cut out upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, &c. Here, by putting a week for seven years, are reckoned 490 years from the time that the dispersed Jews should be re-incorporated into ^[7] a people and a holy city, until the death and resurrection of Christ; whereby transgression should be finished, and sins ended, iniquity be expiated, and everlasting righteousness brought in, and this Vision be accomplished, and the Prophet consummated, that Prophet whom the Jews expected; and whereby the most Holy should be anointed, he who is therefore in the next words called the Anointed, that is, the Messiah, or the Christ. For by joining the accomplishment of the vision with the expiation of sins, the 490 years are ended with the death of Christ. Now the dispersed Jews became a people and city when they first returned into a polity or body politick; and this was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, when Ezra returned with a body of Jews from captivity, and revived the Jewish worship; and by the King's commission created Magistrates in all the land, to judge and govern the people according to the laws of God and the King, Ezra vii. 25. There were but two returns from captivity, Zerubbabel's and Ezra's; in Zerubbabel's they had only commission to build the Temple, in Ezra's they first became a polity or city by a government of their own. Now the years of this Artaxerxes began about two or three months after the summer solstice, and his seventh year fell in with the third year of the eightieth Olympiad; and the latter part thereof, wherein Ezra went up to Jerusalem, was in the year of the Julian Period 4257. Count the time from thence to the death of Christ, and you will find it just 490 years. If you count in Judaic years commencing in autumn, and date the reckoning from the first autumn after Ezra's coming to Jerusalem, when he put the King's decree in execution; the death of Christ will fall on the year of the Julian Period 4747, Anno Domini 34; and the weeks will be Judaic weeks, ending with sabbatical years; and this I take to be the truth: but if you had rather place the death of Christ in the year before, as is commonly done, you may take the year of Ezra's journey into the reckoning.

Know also and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to cause to return and to build Jerusalem, unto the Anointed the Prince, shall be seven weeks. The former part of the Prophecy related to the first coming of Christ, being dated to his coming as a Prophet; this being dated to his coming to be Prince or King, seems to relate to his second coming. There, the Prophet was consummate, and the most holy anointed: here, he that was anointed comes to be Prince and to reign. For Daniel's Prophecies reach to the end of the world; and there is scarce a Prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Christ, which doth not in something or other relate to his second coming. If divers of the antients, as ^[8] Irenæus, ^[9] Julius Africanus, Hippolytus the martyr, and Apollinaris Bishop of Laodicea, applied the half week to the times of Antichrist; why may not we, by the same liberty of interpretation, apply the seven weeks to the time when Antichrist shall be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming?

The Israelites in the days of the antient Prophets, when the ten Tribes were led into captivity, expected a double return; and that at the first the Jews should build a new Temple inferior to Solomon's, until the time of that age should be fulfilled; and afterwards they should return from all places of their captivity, and build Jerusalem and the Temple gloriously, Tobit xiv. 4, 5, 6: and to express the glory and excellence of this city, it is figuratively said to be built of precious stones, Tobit xiii. 16, 17, 18. Isa. liv. 11, 12. Rev. xi. and called the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Holy City, the Lamb's Wife, the City of the Great King, the City into which the Kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour. Now while such a return from captivity was the expectation of Israel, even before the times of Daniel, I know not why Daniel should omit it in his Prophecy. This part of the Prophecy being therefore not yet fulfilled, I shall not attempt a particular interpretation of it, but content myself with observing, that as the seventy and the sixty two weeks were Jewish weeks, ending with sabbatical years; so the seven weeks are the compass of a Jubilee, and begin and end with actions proper for a Jubilee, and of the highest nature for which a Jubilee can be kept: and that since the commandment to return and to build Jerusalem, precedes the Messiah the Prince 49 years; it may perhaps come forth not from the Jews themselves, but from some other kingdom friendly to them, and precede their return from captivity, and give occasion to it; and lastly, that this rebuilding of Jerusalem and the waste places of Judah is predicted in Micah vii. 11. Amos ix. 11, 14. Ezek. xxxvi. 33, 35, 36, 38. Isa. liv. 3, 11, 12. lv. 12. lxi. 4. lxv. 18, 21,22. and Tobit xiv. 5. and that the return from captivity and coming of the Messiah and his kingdom are described in Daniel vii. Rev. xix. Acts i. Mat. xxiv. Joel iii. Ezek. xxxvi. xxxvii. Isa. lx. lxii. lxiii. lxv. and lxvi. and many other places of scripture. The manner I know not. Let time be the Interpreter.

Yet threescore and two weeks shall it return, and the street be built and the wall, but in troublesome times: and after the threescore and two weeks the Messiah shall be cut off, and it shall not be his; but the people of a Prince to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, &c. Having foretold both comings of Christ, and dated the last from their returning and building Jerusalem; to prevent the applying that to the building Jerusalem by Nehemiah, he distinguishes this from that, by saying that from this period to the Anointed shall be, not seven weeks, but threescore and two weeks, and this not in prosperous but in troublesome times; and at the end of these Weeks the Messiah shall not be the Prince of the Jews, but be cut off; and Jerusalem not be his, but the city and sanctuary be destroyed. Now Nehemiah came to Jerusalem in the 20th year of this same Artaxerxes, while Ezra still continued there, Nehem. xii. 36, and found the city lying waste, and the houses and wall unbuilt, Nehem. ii. 17. vii. 4, and finished the wall the 25th day of the month Elul, Nehem. vi. 15, in the 28th year of the King, that is, in September in the year of the Julian Period 4278. Count now from this year threescore and two weeks of years, that is 434 years, and the reckoning will end in September in the year of the Julian Period 4712 which is the year in which Christ was born, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, Irenæus, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome, Orosius, Cassiodorus, and other antients; and this was the general opinion, till Dionysius Exiguus invented the vulgar account, in which Christ's birth is placed two years later. If with some you reckon that Christ was born three or four years before the vulgar account, yet his birth will fall in the latter part of the last week, which is enough. How after these weeks Christ was cut off and the city and sanctuary destroyed by the Romans, is well known.

Yet shall he confirm the covenant with many for one week. He kept it, notwithstanding his death, till the rejection of the Jews, and calling of Cornelius and the Gentiles in the seventh year after his passion.

And in half a week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; that is, by the war of the Romans upon the Jews: which war, after some commotions, began in the 13th year of Nero, A.D. 67, in the spring, when Vespasian with an army invaded them; and ended in the second year of Vespasian, A.D. 70, in autumn, Sept. 7, when Titus took the city, having burnt the Temple 27 days before: so that it lasted three years and an half.

And upon a wing of abominations he shall cause desolation, even until the consummation, and that which is determined be poured upon the desolate. The Prophets, in representing kingdoms by Beasts and Birds, put their wings stretcht out over any country for their armies sent out to invade and rule over that country. Hence a wing of abominations is an army of false Gods: for an abomination is often put in scripture for a false God; as where Chemosh is called ^[10] the abomination of Moab, and Molech the abomination of Ammon. The meaning therefore is, that the people of a Prince to come shall destroy the sanctuary, and abolish the daily worship of the true God, and overspread the land with an army of false gods; and by setting up their dominion and worship, cause desolation to the Jews, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. For Christ tells us, that the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel was to be set up in the times of the Roman Empire, Matth. xxiv. 15.

Thus have we in this short Prophecy, a prediction of all the main periods relating to the coming of the Messiah; the time of his birth, that of his death, that of the rejection of the Jews, the duration of the Jewish war whereby he caused the city and sanctuary to be destroyed, and the time of his second coming: and so the interpretation here given is more full and complete and adequate to the design, than if we should restrain it to his first coming only, as Interpreters usually do. We avoid also the doing violence to the language of Daniel, by taking the seven weeks and sixty two weeks for one number. Had that been Daniel's meaning, he would have said sixty and nine weeks, and not seven weeks and sixty two weeks, a way of numbring used by no nation. In our way the years are Jewish Luni-solar years, ^[11] as they ought to be; and the seventy weeks of years are Jewish weeks ending with sabbatical years, which is very remarkable. For they end either with the year of the birth of Christ, two years before the vulgar account, or with the year of his death, or with the seventh year after it: all which are sabbatical years. Others either count by Lunar years, or by weeks not Judaic: and, which is worst, they ground their interpretations on erroneous Chronology, excepting the opinion of Funccius about the seventy weeks, which is the same with ours. For they place Ezra and Nehemiah in the reign of Artaxerxes Mnemon, and the building of the Temple in the reign of Darius Nothus, and date the weeks of Daniel from those two reigns.

The grounds of the Chronology here followed, I will now set down as briefly as I can.

The Peloponnesian war began in spring An. 1 Olymp. 87, as Diodorus, Eusebius, and all other authors agree. It began two months before Pythodorus ceased to be Archon, Thucyd. l. 2. that is, in April, two months before the end of the Olympic year. Now the years of this war are most certainly determined by the 50 years distance of its first year from the transit of Xerxes inclusively, Thucyd. l. 2. or 48 years exclusively, Eratosth. apud Clem. Alex. by the 69 years distance of its end, or 27th year, from the beginning of Alexander's reign in Greece; by the acting of the Olympic games in its 4th and 12th years, Thucyd. l. 5; and by three eclipses of the sun, and one of the moon, mentioned by Thucydides and Xenophon. Now Thucydides, an unquestionable witness, tells us, that the news of the death of Artaxerxes Longimanus was brought to Ephesus, and from thence by some Athenians to Athens, in the 7th year of this Peloponnesian war, when the winter half year was running; and therefore he died An. 4 Olymp. 88, in the end of An. J.P. 4289, suppose a month or two before midwinter; for so long the news would be in coming. Now Artaxerxes Longimanus reigned 40 years, by the consent of Diodorus, Eusebius, Jerome, Sulpitius; or 41, according to Ptol. in can. Clem. Alexand. l. 1. Strom. Chron. Alexandr. Abulpharagius, Nicephorus, including therein the reign of his successors Xerxes and Sogdian, as Abulpharagius informs us. After Artaxerxes reigned his son Xerxes two months, and Sogdian seven months; but their reign is not reckoned apart in summing up the years of the Kings, but is included in the 40 or 41 years reign of Artaxerxes: omit these nine months, and the precise reign of Artaxerxes will be thirty nine years and three months. And therefore since his reign ended in the beginning of winter An. J.P. 4289, it began between midsummer and autumn, An. J.P. 4250.

The same thing I gather also thus. Cambyses began his reign in spring An. J.P. 4185, and reigned eight years, including the five months of Smerdes; and then Darius Hystaspis began in spring An. J.P. 4193, and reigned thirty six years, by the unanimous consent of all Chronologers. The reigns of these two Kings are determined by three eclipses of the moon observed at Babylon, and recorded by Ptolemy; so that it cannot be disputed. One was in the seventh year of Cambyses, An. J.P. 4191, Jul. 16, at 11 at night; another in the 20th year of Darius, An. J.P. 4212, Nov. 19, at 11^h. 45' at night; a third in the 31st year of Darius, An. J.P. 4223, Apr. 25, at 11^h. 30 at night. By these eclipses, and the Prophecies of Haggai and Zechary compared together, it is manifest that his years began after the 24th day of the 11th Jewish month, and before the 25th day of April, and by consequence about March. Xerxes therefore began in spring An. J.P. 4229: for Darius died in the fifth year after the battle at Marathon, as Herodotus, lib. 7, and Plutarch mention; and that battle was in October An. J.P. 4224, ten years before the battle at Salamis. Xerxes therefore began within less than a year after October An. J.P. 4228, suppose in the spring following: for he spent his first five years, and something more, in preparations for his expedition against the Greeks; and this expedition was in the time of the Olympic games, An. 1 Olymp. 75, Calliade Athenis Archonte, 28 years after the Regifuge, and Consulship of the first Consul Junius Brutus, Anno Urbis conditæ 273, Fabio & Furio Coss. The passage of Xerxes's army over the Hellespont began in the end of the fourth year of the 74th Olympiad, that is, in June An. J.P. 4234, and took up one month: and in autumn, three months after, on the full moon, the 16th day of the month Munychion, was the battle at Salamis, and a little after that an eclipse of the sun, which by the calculation fell on Octob. 2. His sixth year therefore began a little before June, suppose in spring An. J.P. 4234, and his first year consequently in spring An. J.P. 4229, as above. Now he reigned almost twenty one years, by the consent of all writers. Add the 7 months of Artabanus, and the sum will be 21 years and about four or five months, which end between midsummer and autumn An. J.P. 4250. At this time therefore began the reign of his successor Artaxerxes, as was to be proved.

The same thing is also confirmed by Julius Africanus, who informs us out of former writers, that the 20th year of this Artaxerxes was the 115th year from the beginning of the reign of Cyrus in Persia, and fell in with An. 4 Olymp. 83. It began therefore with the Olympic year, soon after the summer Solstice, An. J.P. 4269. Subduct nineteen years, and his first year will begin at the same time of the year An. J.P. 4250, as above.

His 7th year therefore began after midsummer An. J.P. 4256; and the Journey of Ezra to Jerusalem in the spring following fell on the beginning of An. J.P. 4257, as above.

Notes to Chap. X.

[1] Chap. ix. 24, 25, 26, 27.

[2] Cut upon. A phrase in Hebrew, taken from the practise of numbring by cutting notches.

[3] Heb. to seal, i.e. to finish or consummate: a metaphor taken from sealing what is finished. So the Jews compute, ad obsignatum Misna, ad obsignatum Talmud, that is, ad absolutum.

[4] Heb. the Prophet, not the Prophecy.

[5] Heb. the Messiah, that is, in Greek, the Christ; in English, the Anointed. I use the English word, that the relation of this clause to the former may appear.

[6] Jerusalem.

[7] See Isa. xxiii. 13.

[8] Iren. l. 5. Hær. c. 25.

[9] Apud Hieron. in h. l.

[10] 1 Kings xi. 7.

[11] The antient solar years of the eastern nations consisted of 12 months, and every month of 30 days: and hence came the division of a circle into 360 degrees. This year seems to be used by Moses in his history of the Flood, and by John in the Apocalypse, where a time, times and half a time, 42 months and 1260 days, are put equipollent. But in reckoning by many of these years together, an account is to be kept of the odd days which were added to the end of these years. For the Egyptians added five days to the end of this year; and so did the Chaldeans long before the times of Daniel, as appears by the Æra, of Nabonassar: and the Persian Magi used the same year of 365 days, till the Empire of the Arabians. The antient Greeks also used the same solar year of 12 equal months, or 360 days; but every other year added an intercalary month, consisting of 10 and 11 days alternately.

The year of the Jews, even from their coming out of Egypt, was Luni-solar. It was solar, for the harvest always followed the Passover, and the fruits of the land were always gathered before the feast of Tabernacles, Levit. xxiii. But the months were lunar, for the people were commanded by Moses in the beginning of every month to blow with trumpets, and offer burnt offerings with their drink offerings, Num. x. 10. xxviii. 11, 14. and this solemnity was kept on the new moons, Psal. lxxxi. 3,4,5. 1 Chron. xxiii. 31. These months were called by Moses the first, second, third, fourth month, &c. and the first month was also called Abib, the second Zif, the seventh Ethanim, the eighth Bull, Exod. xiii. 4. 1 Kings vi. 37, 38. viii. 2. But in the Babylonian captivity the Jews used the names of the Chaldean months, and by those names understood the months of their own year; so that the Jewish months then lost their old names, and are now called by those of the Chaldeans.

The Jews began their civil year from the autumnal Equinox, and their sacred year from the vernal: and the first day of the first month was on the visible new moon, which was nearest the Equinox.

Whether Daniel used the Chaldaick or Jewish year, is not very material; the difference being but six hours in a year, and 4 months in 480 years. But I take his months to be Jewish: first, because Daniel was a Jew, and the Jews even by the names of the Chaldean months understood the months of their own year: secondly, because this Prophecy is grounded on Jeremiah's concerning the 70 years captivity, and therefore must be understood of the same sort of years with the seventy; and those are Jewish, since that Prophecy was given in Judea before the captivity: and lastly, because Daniel reckons by weeks of years, which is a way of reckoning peculiar to the Jewish years. For as their days ran by sevens, and the last day of every seven was a sabbath; so their years ran by sevens, and the last year of every seven was a sabbatical year, and seven such weeks of years made a Jubilee.

CHAP. XI.

Of the Times of the Birth and Passion of Christ.

The times of the Birth and Passion of Christ, with such like niceties, being not material to religion, were little regarded by the Christians of the first age. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the cardinal periods of the year; as the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, on the 25th of March, which when Julius Cæsar corrected the Calendar was the vernal Equinox; the feast of John Baptist on the 24th of June, which was the summer Solstice; the feast of St. Michael on Sept. 29, which was the autumnal Equinox; and the birth of Christ on the winter Solstice, Decemb. 25, with the feasts of St. Stephen, St. John and the Innocents, as near it as they could place them. And because the Solstice in time removed from the 25th of December to the 24th, the 23d, the 22d, and so on backwards, hence some in the following centuries placed the birth of Christ on Decemb. 23, and at length on Decemb. 20: and for the same reason they seem to have set the feast of St. Thomas on Decemb. 21, and that of St. Matthew on Sept. 21. So also at the entrance of the Sun into all the signs in the Julian Calendar, they placed the days of other Saints; as the conversion of Paul on Jan. 25, when the Sun entred ; St. Matthias on Feb. 25, when he entred ; St. Mark on Apr. 25, when he entred ; Corpus Christi on May 26, when he entred ; St. James on July 25, when he entred ; St. Bartholomew on Aug. 24, when he entred ; Simon and Jude on Octob. 28, when he entred : and if there were any other remarkable days in the Julian Calendar, they placed the Saints upon them, as St. Barnabas on June 11, where Ovid seems to place the feast of Vesta and Fortuna, and the goddess Matuta; and St. Philip and James on the first of May, a day dedicated both to the Bona Dea, or Magna Mater, and to the goddess Flora, and still celebrated with her rites. All which shews that these days were fixed in the first Christian Calendars by Mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in tradition; and that the Christians afterwards took up with what they found in the Calendars.

Neither was there any certain tradition about the years of Christ. For the Christians who first began to enquire into these things, as Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Lactantius, Jerome, St. Austin, Sulpicius Severus, Prosper, and as many as place the death of Christ in the 15th or 16th year of Tiberius, make Christ to have preached but one year, or at most but two. At length Eusebius discovered four successive Passovers in the Gospel of John, and thereupon set on foot an opinion that he preacht three years and an half; and so died in the 19th year of Tiberius. Others afterwards, finding the opinion that he died in the Equinox Mar. 25, more consonant to the times of the Jewish Passover, in the 17th and 20th years, have placed his death in one of those two years. Neither is there any greater certainty in the opinions about the time of his birth. The first Christians placed his baptism near the beginning of the 15th year of Tiberius; and thence reckoning thirty years backwards, placed his birth in the 43d Julian year, the 42d of Augustus and 28th of the Actiac victory. This was the opinion which obtained in the first ages, till Dionysius Exiguus, placing the baptism of Christ in the 16th year of Tiberius, and misinterpreting the text of Luke, iii. 23. as if Jesus was only beginning to be 30 years old when he was baptized, invented the vulgar account, in which his birth is placed two years later than before. As therefore relating to these things there is no tradition worth considering; let us lay aside all and examine what prejudices can be gathered from records of good account.

The fifteenth year of Tiberius began Aug. 28, An. J.P. 4727. So soon as the winter was over, and the weather became warm enough, we may reckon that John began to baptize; and that before next winter his fame went abroad, and all the people came to his baptism, and Jesus among the rest. Whence the first Passover after his baptism mentioned John ii. 13. was in the 16th year of Tiberius. After this feast Jesus came into the land of Judea, and staid there baptizing, whilst John was baptizing in Ænon, John iii. 22, 23. But when he heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee, Mat. iii. 12. being afraid, because the Pharisees had heard that he baptized more disciples than John, John iv. 1. and in his journey he passed thro' Samaria four months before the harvest, John iv. 35. that is, about the time of the winter Solstice. For their harvest was between Easter and Whitsunday, and began about a month after the vernal Equinox. Say not ye, saith he, there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold I say unto you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest; meaning, that the people in the fields were ready for the Gospel, as his next words shew^[1]. John therefore was imprisoned about November, in the 17th year of Tiberius; and Christ thereupon went from Judea to Cana of Galilee in December, and was received there of the Galileans, who had seen all he did at Jerusalem at the Passover: and when a Nobleman of Capernaum heard he was returned into Galilee, and went to him and desired him to come and cure his son, he went not thither yet, but only said, Go thy way, thy son liveth; and the Nobleman returned and found it so, and believed, he and his house, John iv. This is the beginning of his miracles in Galilee; and thus far John is full and distinct in relating the actions of his first year, omitted by the other Evangelists. The rest of his history is from this time related more fully by the other Evangelists than by John; for what they relate he omits.

From this time therefore Jesus taught in the Synagogues of Galilee on the sabbath-days, being glorified of all: and coming to his own city Nazareth, and preaching in their Synagogue, they were offended, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built to cast him headlong; but he passing thro' the midst of them, went his way, and came and dwelt at Capernaum, Luke iv. And by this time we may reckon the second Passover was either past or at hand.

All this time Matthew passeth over in few words, and here begins to relate the preaching and miracles of Christ. When Jesus, saith he, had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt at Capernaum, and from that time began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, Matth. iv. 12. Afterwards he called his disciples Peter, Andrew, James and John; and then went about all Galilee, teaching in the Synagogues,—and healing all manner of sickness:—and his fame went thro'out all Syria; and they brought unto him all sick people,—and there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan, Matth, iv. 18, 25. All this was done before the sermon in the mount: and therefore we may certainly reckon that the second Passover was past before the preaching of that sermon. The multitudes that followed him from Jerusalem and Judea, shew that he had lately been there at the feast. The sermon in the mount was made when great multitudes came to him from all places, and followed him in the open fields; which is an argument of the summer-season: and in this sermon he pointed at the lilies of the field then in the flower before the eyes of his auditors. Consider, saith he, the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet Solomon in all his glory was not arayed like one of these. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven, &c. Matth. vi. 28. So therefore the grass of the field was now in the flower, and by consequence the month of March with the Passover was past.