VIAL 5 - JUDGEMENT ON THE SEAT OF THE BEAST

"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the Beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain. And blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds." (REVELATION 16:10-11)

The previous four Vials had been outpoured upon those nations, kingdoms and dynasties, which had for centuries upheld the power of the Papal Beast and had been the persecutors of Protestantism. Under this Fifth Vial, judgement is now poured out on the very Seat or Throne of the Beast, upon the headquarters of the Papacy, Rome itself. The victories achieved by Napoleon in Northern Italy had paved the way for an advance on the City of the Seven Hills. Bonaparte aimed not so much at the destruction of the Papacy, but rather to humble the Pope and bring him into subjection to himself.

THE FALL OF ROME

As the armies of Revolutionary France moved forward to dethrone the Pope, they were incited by a fiery speech from Napoleon, to the effect that the hour of destiny had come and that it was their duty to liberate the people of the Papal States. Pope Pius VI sent emissaries to Napoleon at Milan, offering to surrender Ancona, Bologna and Ferrara, but the French demanded the Papacy disannul all Bulls and Decrees regarding affairs in France since the time of the Revolution. When the Pope again refused, Napoleon took Imola, Romagna and the Duchy of Urbino, routing the Papal armies.

On February 19th, 1797, the Treaty of Tolentino was signed, whereby France retained the captured territories, and the Papacy agreed to pay a heavy indemnity. A Revolutionary spirit was now at work in Rome, and the Pope could no longer appear in public without being hissed and jeered. When a Roman mob staged an uprising, they were crushed by Papal soldiers, who pursued them into the grounds of the French Embassy, shooting and bayoneting to death the French General Duphot. Napoleon resumed hostilities at once and sent his forces under Generals Berthier and Haller against the city.

The Papacy was now indeed in pain and agony, but showing no sign of repentance. In a vain attempt to save the headquarters of Roman Catholicism from the armies of Revolutionary France, a vast idolatrous procession was staged through the streets of Rome, seeking deliverance and help from three special relics which were carried at the head of the parade for the people to venerate. These relics were a portrait of Christ, painted by "supernatural means", a miraculous picture of the Virgin and Child, and the supposed Chains of St. Peter. All this was to be of no avail and French troops entered Rome on 10th February 1798. A Roman Republic was proclaimed on 15th of February and the Papal arms and insignia pulled down. The Tri-colour flag of the Illuminati Revolutionaries flew above the ancient capital building, in the very city, which had celebrated the slaughter of the Huguenots. On the same day, the very anniversary of his pontificate, as Pius was receiving his Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, General Haller, a Swiss Calvinist, with a band of French soldiers broke down the doors with axes and proclaimed the pope's reign to be at an end. The vast wealth of gold, precious stones and art treasures in the Vatican were seized, the French soldiers actually burning the very vestments of the pope and his hierarchy to obtain the gold and jewels with which they were adorned. The Pope's Swiss Guard were dismissed and on February 18th, General Haller tore the very rings from the fingers of the Pope, including that used at all Papal Coronations, the so-called Ring of the Fisherman. As the Vatican was being stripped to the bare walls, the actual Chair of St. Peter, the Throne of the Papal Beast, the seat of his authority, was found, by the French, to bear in Arabic, the inscription from the Moslem Koran, "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." On the night of 20th February, 1798, the Pope was placed under arrest and escorted out of Rome by French soldiers. He was taken first to an Augustinian Convent at Sienna, but this was damaged by an earthquake during his stay and he was taken to Florence. Finally, he was escorted by way of Turin to the French fortress of Valence, where, broken by sorrow and fatigue, he died on 28th July, 1798.

Darkness was now prevailing throughout the Kingdom of the Papal Beast. The new Pope had to watch impotently, whilst Napoleon seized the crown from his hands, and crowned himself Emperor in Notre Dame Cathedral in 1804. Then, in 1809, the Papal States were formally confiscated and Pope Pius VII placed under restraint. It is of interest to note that he remained a prisoner of Napoleon until 1814, when not only did he lift the Bull of Excommunication, but on 23rd January, he agreed to reconstitute the Jesuit Order, suppressed by his forerunner, Pope Clement, a forty year generation earlier. The Jesuits had indeed been avenged on both France and the Papacy through the very Revolutionary forces spawned by Adam Weishaupt. The Pope returned to Rome, but the Papacy would be increasingly under Jesuit influence and control.

CONTINUING JUDGEMENT ON THE SEAT OF THE BEAST

The troubles and tribulations of the Papacy did not end with the downfall of Napoleon, in fact they had only just begun. The French Revolution marked the beginning of the stripping and burning the Harlot Church of Rome and it was to be a lengthy process.

Out of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had grown a new spirit of Italian Nationalism. The desire to create a united Italy, bonded together such diverse groups as the Royal House of Piedmont/Savoy and the secret society known as the Carbonari, which, many claim, had roots in and similarities to the Illuminati. One of the main obstacles to the unification of Italy was the continued existence of the Papal States, the Kingdom of the Beast, running like a band or girdle across the country dividing North from South. The social conditions prevailing in the Pope's Kingdom were deplorable and a true reflection on the poverty and superstition, which his system breeds. Whilst every town and village had an elaborate Roman Catholic Church, often ornately furnished, the peasants lived in miserable hovels, being reduced to starvation in years of bad harvest, and as late as the mid-nineteenth century, may still dressed in goatskins. Their pay was miserably low, few could read or write, and there were large numbers of beggars, known as the Lazzaroni, even in Rome itself. Such a situation was ideal both for those who sought a united Italy and those who sought to perpetuate the ideals of the French Revolution, which were now developing into a form of nascent Communism. The architects of the Papal downfall were to be King Victor Emmanuel, Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi, the last two definitely being in the Revolutionary and conspiratorial line of succession.

In 1848, subsequently known as the "Year of Revolutions", the French overthrew King Louis Philippe and the ruling House of Orleans. Revolution quickly spread across the continent and a Roman Republic was proclaimed under Mazzini and Pope Pius IX was divested of all his temporal authority and forced to flee from his headquarters. Although subsequently restored, his power and authority had been badly shaken. Fresh hostilities broke out in Italy in 1859, and Napoleon III wrote to the Pope asking him to surrender his Papal States in these words:

"If the Holy Father for the peace of Europe will renounce his claims to these provinces, which for fifty years have cause embarrassment to his government…I do not doubt the immediate return of order."

The Pope refused, and in a short time, the Papal States were invaded by Garibaldi and the revolutionary Colonel Zambiarchi. By 1861, the Papal territory had been reduced to the city of Rome and the surrounding area known as the Patrimony of St. Peter. Bitterly, but in vain, did the Pope lament that his enemies:

"Want to leave me the Vatican and a garden…but in the end the Pope will be in possession of his eternal power…Popes are gardeners in one sense but they have to be soldiers too."

However, the fate of the Beast Kingdom was sealed and in September, 1870, Italian troops seized Rome, and in a subsequent plebiscite, the population voted for union with Italy by 133,681 votes in favour to 1,507 against. The Pope was now "the prisoner of the Vatican" and the Fifth Vial was complete.

NO REPENTANCE

As under the Fourth Vial, we find that the Papal Beast System in spite of these many judgements, like Pharaoh of old, refused to repent. Protestants were still being burned alive as late as 1866 in the papal territories, as at Barletta. In 1864, a Syllabus of Errors was issued by the Papacy, condemning all forms of liberal enlightenment. To compensate for his declining temporal power, the Pope went to new depths of spiritual blasphemy. In 1854, he proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (that she was conceived without sin) and in 1870, he proclaimed the crowning blasphemy, his own Infallibilty and that of his successors.

Whilst it is true that the Papacy came to an end of the 1260 Prophetic Year/Days allocated to it to hold temporal power, between 1789 and 1870, yet it was not finally destroyed. Darkness and pain filled the territories of the Papal Beast during those years, and subsequently during the Spanish Civil War and World War II, but the system of Roman Catholicism is reserved for final and ultimate destruction by Christ at His Second Advent, when He shall destroy it with the brightness of His Coming, as recorded in II THESSALONIANS 2:8 (see our books "Anti - Christ Revealed in History and Prophecy", "The Mark of the Beast" and "The Scarlet Woman of the Apocalypse" ). What we have witnessed since 1870, have been the frequent attempts by the Papacy to recover the power and position, which are forever lost. Even the present sham revival of Roman Catholicism by Ecumenism and Liberation Theology is doomed to failure.

THE DIVINE CONTRAST - PARALLEL EVENTS IN BRITAIN

We could not bring a study, such as this, to a close, without drawing attention to the contrast between events in Continental Europe, the territories of the Papal Beast, and those prevailing in Great Britain, the land of re-gathered Israel, during the years leading up to, and immediately following, the era of the French Revolution. The historian Alison, commenting on the remarkable differences between Protestant Britain and Infidel France, remarks: -

"Religion is the highest revelation. It was the great instrument for moving mankind. Even in the reign of James I, the Puritans were the only party, who were zealously attached to freedom, and in all the commotion which followed, the civil contests between the contending parties were considered as altogether subordinate to their religious differences, not only by the actors on the scene, but the historians who recorded the events…while the Jacobins of Paris founded their influence on the ridicule of every species of devotion, and erected the altar of Reason on the ruins of the Christian faith."

Therein, we have the root of the contrast. The Glorious Revolution which swept William of Orange to power in 1688-1690, flowed from the Protestant faith and conviction of the Revolutionaries, if such they might be called. It freed the British Isles from tyranny and arbitrary power and resulted in freedom and liberty. The French Revolution, on the other hand, flowed from downright infidelity and drenched the land in blood, with the hapless population merely exchanging one form of tyranny for another.

Whilst the noisome sore of atheism, infidelity and Illuminism was breaking forth in France, what was happening in Protestant Britain, which had given refuge to the Huguenots driven out of France? Perhaps the best way to illustrate what took place would be to present the reader with a list of the key events in the spiritual progress of Anglo-Saxondom during this period.

John Wesley

George Whitefield

Whilst the nations of Papal Europe, the Roman Earth of prophecy, were in the furnace of Revolutionary affliction, the people of Great Britain, Israel in the Isles, were rejoicing in Holy Ghost Revival, singing the Song of Moses and the Lamb, and carrying the Everlasting Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Not only were the Anglo-Saxon peoples enjoying wonderful spiritual blessings, but they were also beginning to experience the national blessings promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as they began to emerge from their Seven Times of Punishment (2,520 Years - see our book "The Divine Calculator"). This was the era of Britain's Imperial expansion across the globe and everywhere the Union Jack was planted, there followed the preachers, teachers and missionaries with the Word of Life. What a contrast with the fate of the nations of Papal Europe, on whom the Vials of God's Wrath were being outpoured!