The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

long series of contentions were reduced to silence." Another writer informs us that
"everything was quiet, every heretic [?] exterminated." The Lateran Council that closed its
session in 1514 AD congratulated itself that the Church was no longer to be troubled by
heresies. This was announced by a public proclamation: "There is an end of resistance to
the Papal rule, and religious opposers exist no more. . . . The whole body of Christendom
is now seen to be subjected to its head, i.e., to thee [Leo X]."
"The pillars of Rome's strength were visible and palpable, and she surveyed them with
exultation from her golden palaces. The assembled prelates [of this Lateran Council]
separated with complacency and confidence, and with mutual congratulations on the
peace, unity, and purity of the apostolic [?] Church. The power of Rome was de-facto
paramount in the Church."
"The edifice of an unlimited Papal monarchy had at that time come victoriously out of all
the preceding fights, and established itself on a firm basis. In the last Lateran Council at
Rome, the principle of an unlimited Papal power was established in opposition to the
principle of general councils, and the Waldenses and Hussites had no more any
importance to fight against Papacy."
Another writer, Cunningham, is quoted in "Romanism and the Reformation" as saying:
"At the commencement of the sixteenth century Europe reposed in the deep sleep of
spiritual death. There was none that moved the wing or opened the mouth or peeped."
It was the first and only time in the history of the Church of Christ that its testimony was
silenced. So far as any united, collective testimony is concerned Christ's witnesses were
silenced.
In the statement, lying dead in the street of the great city, the city undoubtedly refers to
symbolical Babylon, Christendom, controlled and dominated by the forces of the Papal
system. The literal streets of a city are its public thoroughfares; anything committed to or
exposed in the street would be brought prominently to the public view. Thus the
persecution and suppression of the two witnesses were given all the publicity that was
possible for those times--they were in the full view and gaze of the public throughout the
great symbolic city, which is spiritually called Sodom (wicked and corrupt and doomed to
destruction--for type see Gen. 19), and Egypt (typical of oppression and of the worldly
state of separation from God), where also our Lord was crucified--it was by depraved
humanity that our Lord was put to death.
"And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies
three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves."--Rev.
11:9.
In view of the foregoing facts regarding the relentless war that was carried on against the
witnesses just prior to the Reformation, resulting in their suppression and death, it seems a
most reasonable conclusion that it was between the dates, May 5, 1514, and October 31,