A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

Bengel, Johann Albrecht, 1687-1752 • SECTION 302

Apocalypse Xiii. 1.

← Gnomon of the New Testament — Volume 5

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signia by his son, at the instigation of Paschal II. ; that the clergy whom he had enriched, did not even supply him, when so deprived, with bread ; and, at last, that burial was for a long time refused to him. No drudge was ever treated by a purveyor worse. This was somethins new and remarkable : so it was right that the time should be distinguished -when the Emperor became inferior and the Pope superior. And it was not only the imperial Majesty, but the whole Majesty of all Christian princes, which Gregory claimed to reduce into subjection to Peter, that is, to himself, and did actually reduce in a great degree ; so that he took away, conferred, and transferred kingdoms, titles, and fiefs, as though he were king of kings, more noble than the noble, dvunsvOuvoc, irresponsible. Whether Gregory repented on his deathbed or not, his successors nevertheless thought that that which he had gained was their booty (Comp., so far, Matt, xxvii. 4) : and, the foundation being once laid, they built upon it the superstructure of their own Monarchy. For the things are well known which the Popes afterwards both dared and actually executed against emperors and princes ; and which were so far from being re- tracted by later Popes, that Gregory VII. was at length gradually enrolled among the gods by Clement VIII., by Paul V., and by Benedict XIII. A senseless thunderbolt of Sixtus Y. (p. 75, etc.) recounts the kings -who held their power on feudal tenure. Tanner openly says : “ I say that the Pontiff is the head of the Roman em- pire itself, and of the universal Christian Church : I add and amplify the saying, that he is the head of the Roman Emperor, and of all princes of the empire, and of each of them.” — Anat. Demonstrat. 5, n. 131. We have the beast, that is, a king: whence also, about those times, for instance, A. 1103, some writings are said to have been given in the reign of the Pope, as Mabillon teaches, de Re diplom. p. 187. He was king, however, not in name, but in reality. Not in name : for antichrist himself shall possess the Roman empire , yet without the name of Roman Emperor , as Bellarmine excellently says, de Rom. Pont. c. 1 5 : but in # reality ; for Blondus says, u The princes of the world now adore and reverence, as perpetual Dictator, not the successor of Caesar, but of the fisherman Peter, and the vicar of the aforesaid Emperor, the Supreme Pontiff.” And Aug. Steuchus : a On the overthrow of the empire, had not God restored the ponti- fical power, it would have come to pass that Rome, raised and re- stored by none, uninhabitable, would afterwards have become a most foul dwelling-place of cattle and flocks. But in the pontificate, al- though there was not the greatness of the ancient empire, it revived

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Public domain historical edition (1859); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.

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