1917_The_Finished_Mystery_Text

on many important details. It is plain, however,that three of the migratory races disappearedfrom history, all within a few years of each other,apparently in order to leave Rome and itsenvirons free for the development of the papacy.The Heruli, a race from Germanic territory,disappeared from Italian territory in A. D. 489;the Vandals, a race from the shores of the Baltic(never in control of Rome except on a brief raid,but a great enemy of the papacy) disappeared inA. D. 534; and the Ostrogoths, an Asiatic race, inA. D. 539. The Western Empire itselfdisappeared in A. D. 476. The matter is treatedby Pastor Russell at greater length in C 76, 77,and all his statements are, of course, correct.And seven crowns upon his heads.— In theEastern Empire, corresponding to the presentTurkey and the Balkans, and in Lombardy,corresponding to the present Austria, we may seethe two horns which remained of the five Easternpowers after the Ostrogoths, Heruli and Vandalsdisappeared. And in the Visigothic Kingdom,corresponding to Spain; Suevia, corresponding toPortugal; the Kingdom of the Franks,corresponding to France and the Netherlands;Saxonia, corresponding to Germany andScandinavia; and Brittania, corresponding toGreat Britain, we may see the five horns whichrepresented theFM185five western powers. The following explainswhy Italy is not included in the list:"The difficulty of Italian history lies in the factthat until modern times the Italians have had nopolitical unity, no independence, no organizedexistence as a nation. Split up into numerous andmutually hostile communities, they never,through the fourteen centuries which haveelapsed since the end of the old Western Empire,shook off the yoke of foreigners completely; theynever until lately learned to merge their local andconflicting interests in the common good ofundivided Italy. Their history is therefore not thehistory of a single people, centralizing andabsorbing its constituent elements by a process