Consule, A.C. 445. By this Edict the Emperor Valentinian enjoined an absolute obedience to the will of the Bishop of Rome throughout all the Churches of the Empire; and declares, that for the Bishops to attempt any thing without the Pope’s authority is contrary to ancient custom, and that the Bishops summoned to appear before his judicature must be carried thither by the Governor of the Province; and he ascribes these privileges of the See of Rome to the concessions of his dead Ancestors, that is, to the Edict of Gratian and Valentinian II. as above: by which reckoning this dominion of the Church of Rome was now of 66 years standing: and if in all this time it had not been sufficiently established, this new Edict was enough to settle it beyond all question throuthout the Western Empire.
Hence all the Bishops of the Provinces of Arles in their Letter to Pope Leo, A.C. 450, petitioning for a restitution of the privileges of their Metropolitan, say: Per beatum petrum Apostolorum principem, sacrosancta Ecclesia Romana tenebat supra omnes totius mundi Ecclesias principatum. And Ceratius, Salonius and Veranus, three Bishops of Gallia, say, in their Epistle to the same Pope: Magna praeterea & ineffabili quadam nos peculiares tui gratulatione succrescimus, quod illa specialis doctrinae vestrae pagina ita per omnium Ecclesiarum conventicula celebratur, ut vere consona omnium sententia declaretur; merito illic principatum Sedis Apostolicae constitum, unde adhuc Apostolici spiritus oracula referentur. And Leo himself, in his Epistle to the metropolitan Bishops throughout Illyricum: Quia per omnes Ecclesias cura nostra distenditur, exigente hoc a nobis Domino, qui Apostolicae dignitatis beatissimo Apostolo Petro primatum, fidei sui remuneratione commisit, universalem Ecclesiam in fundamenti ipsius soliditate constituens.
While this Ecclesiastical Dominion was rising up, the northern barbarous nations invaded the Western Empire, and founded several kingdoms therein, of different religions from the Church of Rome. But these kingdoms by degrees embraced the Roman faith, and at the same time submitted to the Pope’s authority. The Franks in Gaul submitted in the end of the fifth Century, the Goths in Spain in the end of the sixth; and the Lombards in Italy were conquered by Charles the great A.C. 774. Between the years 775 and 794, the same Charles extended the Pope’s authority over all Germany and Hungary, as far as the river Theysse and the Baltic sea; he then set him above all human judicature, and at the same time assisted him in subduing the City and Duchy of Rome. By the conversion of the ten kingdoms to the Roman religion, the Pope only enlarged his spiritual dominion, but did not yet rise up as a horn of the Beast. It was his temporal dominion which made him one of the horns: and this dominion he acquired in the latter half of the eighth century, by subduing three of the former horns as above. And now being arrived at a temporal dominion, and a power above all human judicature, he reigned with a look more stout than his fellows, and times and laws were henceforward given into his hands, for a time times and half a time, or three times and an half; that is, for 1260 solar years, reckoning a time for a Calendar year of 360 days, and a day for a solar year. After which the judgment is to sit, and they shall take away his dominion, not at once, but by degrees, to consume, and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall, by degrees, be given unto the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
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