“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Rev. 13:11-12).
The Roman beast
Just fourteen years after Justinian had regained Italy from the Ostrogoth’s, the Lombard’s captured the northern part of the country. They were the last of the Germanic tribes to enter the Roman Empire, and they arrived in 568 A.D. Pope Gregory I, anxious to win favor with the conquerors, bestowed a crown upon their king, but it was an uneasy alliance.
At the time the pope was declared head of all the churches by the Eastern Emperors Justinian and Phocas (Decree of Phocas, A.D. 607), the official ruler of Italy was the Emperor’s representative. He was termed an exarch, and the Exarchate of Ravenna was the name given to that part of Italy which was still ruled from Constantinople. The Lombard ended the Byzantine (Eastern) rule in Italy in 752 A.D., leaving the pope somewhat stranded in southern Italy.
Protectors of the Romans
The conversion to Christianity in 496 of the Frankish king Clovis had been an important development for Christianity. It was the Franks, under Charles Martel, who saved Europe from the Muslim threat. (The Franks were “Germanic tribes that established the Frankish Empire, which, at its height, beginning in the 9th century A.D., extended over what is now France, Germany and Italy” – Webster).
The succeeding Frankish rulers would have a great impact upon western Christianity, chiefly in their alliance with the popes. In 751 their king, Pepin, having actually taken the throne by force, asked for and received the sanction of the pope. On that precedent the popes would later claim the right to set up and remove kingdoms.
Pressed by the Lombard’s and threatened by the Saracens, the pope turned to Pepin, king of the Franks, for help and protection. Pepin became the champion of the papacy, conquered the Lombard’s and caused the Exarchate of Ravenna to be turned over to the pope. Under the protection of the Frankish kings, the papacy was now free to resume and expand its leadership throughout the Western Empire.
Another milestone in church-state relations was passed when Pope Stephen II appealed to Pepin for aid against the Lombards. The pope placed Rome under the protection of Pepin and recognized him and his sons as “Protectors of the Romans.”
The beast of the earth
The successor of Pepin was Charles, or Charlemagne, and his empire would assure the continued supremacy of Christianity and the papacy. On Christmas day, 800 A.D., as Charles was kneeling at Mass in St. Peter’s church in Rome, the pope placed upon his head the imperial crown. Charlemagne was the new emperor, and he was seen as the new Constantine.
“The man who was crowned emperor succeeded in securing for the people of western Europe this invaluable triple blessing of (1) law and order, (2) civilization, and (3) Christianity. That is why he deserves the name Charlemagne (Charles the Great)” (B. K. Kuiper, The Church in History, p. 124.)
Christendom still regards Charlemagne as their great deliverer. He was in fact “the beast of the earth” — rising up from the interior of Europe — and his chief role would be to further the worship of the revived Roman beast.
The new Empire
When Charlemagne died in 814, there were three great empires in the western world. The oldest, and weakest, was the Eastern Roman Empire. The largest was the Muslim Empire. The third, and now the strongest empire, was that of Charlemagne. He “loved to think of his empire as the Kingdom of God upon earth” (Ibid, p. 126). By crowning Charlemagne emperor, the pope had restored the Empire in the West.
The rule of Charlemagne was considered by christendom as the ideal concept of government — the marriage of church and state. It was to be a great empire under a single ruler “chosen by God” (the words of the pope), and a great Church under a single “vicar of Christ” at Rome. It was a revival of the Constantinian ideal — a new, albeit false, millennium.
The spread of Christianity
Christianity during this period was spreading throughout northern and eastern Europe. It was, of course, Catholic or papal Christianity, but there would be a few — from time to time in various places — who would seek out the Truth of the gospel. (Bro. Alan Eyre’s The Protesters and Brethren in Christ give some of the history of such groups.) The providential deposit of the Word, as precious seed, was carried by nominal Christianity to the limits of Europe and beyond.
While the arrangement that prevailed in medieval Europe may have delighted its spiritual and temporal rulers, it was scarcely a blessing for those who chose to follow apostolic principles. The “beast of the earth” — the Empire of Charlemagne and the later Holy Roman Empire — cooperated fully with the papacy in persecuting non-Catholic believers.
The dark ages begin
The ordered rule of Charlemagne did not long survive him. The papacy became increasingly corrupt, there were no strong rulers in christendom, and the people, like Israel of old, languished for want of the knowledge of the Truth.
The power and authority of local bishops and abbots in the Middle Ages was very great. For many years, the church was the chief land-holder in Europe. The general rule of government in medieval times was expressed by Hincmar of Rheims in the mid-ninth century. “This world is chiefly ruled by the sacred authority of bishops and the power of kings…But the episcopal dignity is greater than the royal, for bishops consecrate kings, but kings do not consecrate bishops” (Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages, by R. W. Southern, p. 176).
The Donation of Constantine
Sometime after the eighth century a document appeared which purported to be a letter from the Emperor Constantine to the Roman bishop. It is now known to be a forgery, but for several hundred years the papacy used it to their advantage. It granted preeminence to the Bishops of Rome, to whom was passed the imperial insignia and ownership of the Lateran palace in Rome. It also transferred to the pope the imperial power of Rome, of Italy and all the provinces of the West. As a result of this “donation,” the pope became supreme temporal lord in the Western Empire.
“During the whole medieval period there was in Rome a single spiritual and temporal authority exercising powers which in the end exceeded those that had ever lain within the grasp of a Roman Emperor” (Ibid, p. 25).
The Holy Roman Empire
At the end of the tenth century the pope, John XII, looked to the Germans for support and he got it in the person of Otto I. This ruler had already made an alliance with bishops and abbots to gain power over rivals in his territories. He came to the rescue of the pope and, as a reward, was crowned Emperor in February, 962. The Empire in the West was again restored, and from this lime on it would be known as the Holy Roman Empire. The capital for some years was Aachen; it was later moved to Vienna. The Empire continued to exist until 1806, when Napoleon brought it to an end.
The Encyclopedia Britannica states, “On the revival of the Roman Empire in the West by Charlemagne in A.D. 800, the title ‘Romanorium Imperator Augustus’ (equivalent to Roman Caesar) was taken by him, and by the Frankish and German successors, heads of the Holy Roman Empire, down to the abdication of Francis II in 1806. They could not use the title Emperor, until they had been crowned by the Pope in Rome.”
For some 800 years christendom was ruled by the combined policies of emperor and pope — from the medieval point of view this was the ideal arrangement. But historians have not seen it in this light.
“Of all the misnomers in history, surely this takes first place, i.e., ‘Holy Roman Empire.’ Let anyone study the deeds of the Pope and Emperor and they will not find a more unholy alliance was ever formed. No more merciless tyranny ever afflicted earth than that which, under the name of religion, caused the tears and blood of countless thousands to flow in dire persecution and oppression, under a pretense of authority from Christ” (Apocalypse and Gospels, by F. Bilton, p. 79).
End of the Empire
The “Holy Roman Empire” finally disappeared to make way for history -and for the further fulfillment of Apocalyptic prophecy. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars were responsible for its dissolution, and for the restructuring of Catholic Europe.
“It needed the cataclysm of the French Revolution finally to overthrow the Holy Roman Empire. Throughout the 18th century it lasted, a thing of long-winded protocols and never-ending lawsuits, ‘neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.’ But with Napoleon came its destroyer. Posing as the new Charlemagne, he resolved in 1806 to oust Francis II from his title, and to make the Holy Roman Empire part and parcel of the ‘Napoleonic idea’…and accordingly on i August 6, 1806, Francis resigned the imperial dignity, and so perished the Empire” (“The Holy Roman Empire,” Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 8).
The time of the end
Revelation 17:11-14 speaks of a coalition of ten rulers who will “give their power and strength unto the beast.” “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.” Here is described the latter-day manifestation of the “Holy Roman Empire.”
Bro. Fred Bilton (Apocalypse and Gospels, p. 82), in writing on this subject, includes a quote from Sir Winston Churchill which we believe has some relevance today.
“There can be no hope for a United Europe without Germany, and there is no hope for Germans except within a free and united Europe. France and Britain have the superior power to raise Germany to equal rank and lasting association with them. The three countries, conscious of their future mutual guidance, can make the nucleus upon which all the other civilized democracies of Europe can rally. The grand design of Charlemagne must be readopted to modern conditions” (Winston Churchill, House of Commons, April 3, 1950).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One