The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

the French Revolution, as also the revolutionary disturbances in Europe which succeeded
the French Revolution, had terribly shaken Papacy's power and influence. These we have
found depicted in other visions. As we have noted, the seven plagues are stated to be the
seven last plagues in which is "completed the wrath of God." Despite the disastrous effects
that the Reformation and the French Revolution had upon Papacy, it did not reach the
climax of its blasphemous claims until 1870. This is the date of two very remarkable
events, which were only two months apart. The first occurred July 18, and was that of the
Papal decree of infallibility, which is considered quite generally to be the most
blasphemous of all its claims against the "Most High." The second occurred on September
20, of the same year, and was that of the loss of all temporal authority. Concerning these
two events a noted writer has said:
"Pius IX sent out his famous encyclical letter, summoning the Ecumenical Council for 1870.
Six archbishop-princes, 49 cardinals, 11 patriarchs, 680 archbishops and bishops, 28 abbots,
29 generals of orders, 803 spiritual rulers, representing the Church of Rome throughout the
world, obeyed the summons to attend this Vatican council, which solemnly decreed the
dogma that the occupant of the Papal chair is, in all his decisions with regard to faith and
morals, infallible. Arrangements had been made to reflect a glory around the person of the
pope by means of mirrors at noon, when the decree was made [July 18, 1870]; but the sun
shone not that day. A violent storm broke over Rome, the sky was darkened by tempest,
and the voices of the council were lost in the rolling of the thunder!
"On the very day following this culmination of Papal arrogance and self-exaltation, was
declared that terrible Franco-German war, in which the French Empire of Louis Napoleon-
-by the soldiers of which the Pope was maintained on his tottering throne--fell. The
temporal sovereignty of the Papacy fell with it. No sooner had the French troops been
withdrawn from Rome, and the French Empire collapsed, than the Italian government
announced its intention of entering the Roman States, and did so. On September 20, 1870,
Rome was declared the capital of the kingdom of Italy, and became the residence and the
seat of the government of Victor Immanuel. The [London] Times' summary for that year
says: 'The most remarkable circumstance in the annexation of Rome and its territory to the
kingdom of Italy, is the languid indifference with which the transfer has been regarded by
Catholic Christendom. A change which would once have convulsed the world, has failed to
distract attention from the more absorbing spectacle of the Franco-German war. Within the
same year the Papacy has assumed the highest spiritual exaltation to which it could aspire, and lost
the temporal sovereignty it had held for a thousand years.'
"The temporal dominion of Rome Papal has already been consumed. Not a nation in
Europe remains under it, and men marvel that they ever did bow beneath it. The spiritual
power of Papacy, its idolatrous religion remains, and will remain to the end; but the secular
power is a thing of the past."
This fifth plague symbol seems to describe more especially Papacy's reversal of these
decrees, etc. We give a definition of the Papal claim to infallibility, and note at what time
this blasphemous claim became centered in the Papal "throne":