Note (return) — Chapter XVI

In studying these vials the reader should bear in mind constantly the reason why they were sent as judgments upon the nations of Europe—because of their former oppression of God's people. From the days when the Popes received their first temporal authority at the hands of the Carlovingian king, Pepin and Charlemagne, France11 constituted the real backbone of the Papacy, the very center of her power and authority, as all history will show. In the fourteenth century the Papal seat was removed from Rome to Avignon, in France, where it remained for about seventy years. During this period all the Popes were French, and "all their policies were shaped and controlled by the French kings." To write a history of the Papacy during the Dark Ages is to outline the history of France, so closely are their affairs interwoven. Hence it is only natural that she should be symbolized as the "sea" in this part of the Apocalypse, with the other nations as tributaries. Ver. 4-6. That the French Revolution was in its effects a terrible blow to the thrones of despotism throughout Europe is shown by the following quotation from the Encyclopædia Britannica: "We are coming to the verge of the French Revolution, which surpasses all other revolutions the world has seen in its completeness, the largeness of its theatre, the long preparation for it ... its influence on the modern history of Europe." Art. France.