ment of Italy commenced in the year 800, Charlemagne assumed the imperial dignity, which has ever since been borne by a prince within the limits of the old Roman empire, and which has ever since given him precedence over the ten horns by constituting him in a manner their head.* Here then we behold the rise of the septimooctave head of the beast:† a matter so evident, that a writer, in this respect certainly unprejudiced, was naturally led by circumstances to bestow this very title upon Charlamagne. Pointing out the motives, by which the Popes were induced to espouse the cause of the French monarch in preference to that of the Byzantine emperors, he observes, that "the name of Charlemagne was stained by the polemic acrimony of his scribes: but the conqueror himself conformed, with the temper of a statesman, to the various practice of France and Italy. In his

bore it as an independent prince, while the reign of the Greek Emperors was suspend, ed, and during what Mr. Gibbon styles "the vacancy of the Empire."

From the days of Charlemagne, the Emperor has always claimed, and has always been allowed, precedence over every one of the ten borns: and as such he has invariably been considered as the head of the great European commonwealth. This point however is best decided by a professed writer upon Heraldry. In his chapter upon the prece dency of kings and commonwealths, Sir George Mackenzie has the following observations. "Amongst those who are supreme, kings have the preference from commonwealths ; and, amongst kings, the Emperor is allowed the first place by the famous ceremonial of Rome, as succeeding to the Roman Emperors-And therefore the German and Italian lawyers, who are subject to the Empire, have with much flattery asserted, that the Emperor is the Vicar of God in temporals," (manifestly in contradistinction to the Pope, who claimed and was allowed to be the Vicar of Christ in spirituals)“ and that jurisdictions are derived from him, as from the fountain, calling him dominum et caput totius orbis." (Mackenzie's Observations on Precedency, chap. 1.) This last matter Sir George naturally enough refuses to allow, though he readily concedes a precedency of rank to the Emperor. His whole treatise may be found in Guillim's Display of Heraldry. See also Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. xlii. p. 80-105.

It is not unworthy of notice, that Cardinal Baronius speaks of the coronation of Charlemagne in language, which strongly though undesignedly marks the rise of a new head of the Roman beast. "Quod autem ejusmodi translatio imperii ab Oriente in Occidentem, ubi posthac semper stetit et hactenus perseverat, divino consilio facta fuerit magno reipublicæ Christianæ emolumento, et imperii Orientalis desolatio, et alia eventa, satis superque demonstrârunt. Nec vero id potuisse convenientius fieri quam per Romanum Pontificem totius Christianæ religionis antistitem, et summum Ecclesiæ catholicæ visibile caput, pastoremque universi gregis Christiani; nec decentius quam in Carolum magnum, regem totius Occidentis potentissimum, eumdemque Christianissimum, piissimum, justissimum, fortissimum, doctissimum, de religione Christiana, ecclesia catholica, sede apostolica, statu publico, semper in omnibus optimè meritum ; nec denique opportuniori tempore, quàm cum jacerent absque possessore jura Orientalis Imperii, et periculum immineret ne caderent in schismaticos principes a fide catholica extorres, aut in Christianæ religionis infestissimos hostes Saracenos, nemo prudens et rerum æquus æstimator non affirmabit, nec inficias ire poterit, totum id Dei opus fuisse, ejusque mirabili consilio sapientissimè dispositum." Annal, Eccles. A, D. 800.

four pilgrimages or visits to the Vatican, he embraced the Popes in the communion of friendship and piety; knelt before the tomb, and consequently before the image, of the Apostle; and joined, without scruple in all the prayers and processions of the Roman liturgy. Would prudence or gratitude allow the pontiffs to renounce their benefactor? Had they a right to alienate his gift of the exarchate? Had they a power to abolish his government of Rome? The title of Patrician was below the merit and greatness of Charlemagne ; and it was only by reviving the Western empire, that they could pay their obligations or secure their establishment. By this decisive measure they would finally eradicate the claims of the Greeks from the debasement of a provincial town the majesty of Rome would be restored the Latin Christjans would be united under a supreme head in their ancient metropolis:* and the conquerors of the West would receive their crown from the successors of St. Peter. The Roman church would acquire a zealous and respectable advocate; and, under the shadow of the Carlovingian power, the bishop might exercise, with honour and safety, the government of the city.†

To this interpretation of the prophecy respecting the septimo-octave head of the beast, it is possible, that three objections may be urged-First, that it does not accord with my own plan of exposition to suppose, that a king of France should be a head of the beast, because France is one of the ten horns: consequently, in making the patricio-imperial dignity of Charlemagne to be the last head,

Though Charlemagne in a great measure united the Latin Christians under est bead, by reigning at the same time in France, part of Spain, Italy, Germany, and Hungary, yet he never made Rome his metropolis; nor can I think with Mr. Gibbon that the Popes ever wished him to do it. Those subtle politicians were too well aware, that the immediate presence of a sovereign prince would grievously impede their schemes of aggrandisement, ever to desire that Rome should behold any other masters than themselves. With the title of Emperor of the Romans they were perfectly satisfied, so long as the Emperor remained at a respectful distance from the seven-billed city.

+ Hist of Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 170, 171. Charlemagne's devotion to the Papacy appears from this passage in his laws. "In memoriam beati Petri apostoli, honoremus sanctam Romanam et apostolicam sedem; ut quæ nobis sacerdotalis mater est dignitatis, esse debeat ecclesiastica magistra rationis. Quare servanda est cum mansuetudine humilitas; ut, licet vix ferendum ab illa sancta sede imponatur jugum, tamen feramus, et pia devotione toleremus." A sentence says Baronius, worthy of being inscribed in letters of gold! Eccles. Annal. A. D. 801.

I make that prince at once both a head and a horn, the very error with which I charge Bp. Newton in the case of the Excharte-Secondly, that, while I am unwilling to allow the Pope to be the last head on the ground of his temporal supremacy never having been acknowledged. by the sovereigns of the Roman empire, I find no difficulty in supposing the Emperor to be this last head, notwithstanding his temporal supremacy, except so far as conceding to him a mere empty precedence, is as little allowed by any of the great powers as that of the Pope himself Thirdly, that the imperial dignity of Charlemagne and his successors even to the present day, is nothing more than a continuation of the sixth head; and therefore that it cannot be esteemed a new and distinct headThese three objections shall be answered in their order.

1. It is undoubtedly true, that I denied the possibility of the Exarchate being typified both by a head and a horn of the same beast: but I denied it on this account, and I see no reason to retract my opinion: in the case of that government, the same power is represented by Bp. Newton, as being, in the self-same capacity, both a head and a horn of the Roman beast, which is a manifest unnecessary repetition whereas Charlemagne was not both a head and a horn, in the same capacity; but, like all his successors, in two entirely different capacities. As king of France, he was a horn of the beast; as emperor of the Romans, he was its last head.* It is evident indeed, that, since the septimo-octave head was to spring up when the empire was in a divided state, there would be, as it were, no room for it among the ten horns, unless it were, although a distinct thing itself, in some manner attached to one of them. Accordingly the Carlovingian imperial dignity, although generally attached to one of the ten horns, is yet so perfectly distinct from them all, that the French successors of Charlemagne continued to

The Pope might undoubtedly have been a born of the beast in his ecclesiastical capacity, and a head in his temporal, if he had ever been, what Bp. Newton styles him, a king of kings as well as a bishop of bishops: but this, as I have already shewn from history, he never was; and yet this is the only way, in which it is possible for him to be the last bead as well as the little horn. Mr. Mede's language is very inaccurate. He represents the little born as being absolutely the same as the last bead-" the Antichristian born with eyes and mouth ; that is, qui, cum revera cornu tantum sit, pro capite tamen sese gerit, cujus est proprium os et oculos habere." Works B. iv. Epis. 24.

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be kings of France when they ceased to be Emperors of the Romans; and the imperial dignity itself was afterwards sometimes borne by one family, and sometimes by another, each however, so long as it enjoyed it, claiming and being allowed precedence. Hence it appears, that I am guilty of no inconsistency in supposing, that Charlemagne, in his two different capacities of king of France and Emperor of the Romans, may be considered as being at once both a horn and a head of the beast.

2. The second objection, that the Emperor can no more be esteemed the last head of the secular beast than the Pope, because his temporal supremacy is no more allowed than that of the Pope, will speedily vanish, if we consider the nature of symbolical prophecy, and the history of the first rise of the Carlovingian empire. Now it is manifest, that in a prophecy symbolically delivered the symbols themselves cannot be represented as perpetually varying with the ever-varying revolutions of nations. The great outlines of facts, whether past, present, or future, must alone be attended to: and the different members of a symbolical beast must unavoidably be exhibited as stationary and permanent, when in reality they are by no means so. St. John himself gives us a clue to the right interpretation of his own prophecy. "Five of the heads," says he, "are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come:" nevertheless the beast still appears with all his seven heads, notwithstanding, when he arose out of the sea of Gothic invasion, five of them were no longer

*The imperial title lately assumed by General Buonaparte, even supposing it to be something different from the regal title, no more affects the present scheme of interpretation, than the division of the Old Roman empire into its eastern and western branches does the universally acknowledged opinion that the sixth bead is the ancient imperial dignity. The present title however of that usurper is manifestly no more than that of king. Whatever he may please to style himself, France is still only one of the ten borns of the beast. But should he at some future period be allowed by Providence to tread in the steps of Charlemagne, to subvert the imperial honours of Germany, and to re-annex to France the title and authority of Emperor of the Romans : in that case he would doubtless become the septimo-octave bead; in that case the imperial dignity would only revert to France, as it was before transferred from France to Germany : it would still be the same last head of the beast. How far such an event is probable, the reader must judge for himself, when more is said hereafter upon the subject of yet unfulfilled prophecies.

Since this was written, the usurper has been permitted to tread in the steps of Charlemagne, and to erect again the empire of the West. His government is now plainly the representative of the Carlovingian head of the beast. June 1, 1806.

in existence, and one of them was as yet future. In a similar manner the sixth head, which at its first rise reigned paramount, like each of its five predecessors, over the whole beast, is still, no less than when it first arose, considered as the sixth head, even when its empire was overrun by the barbarians of the North and the Saracens of the South, when its fairest provinces were rent away from it, and when many independent kingdoms were erected which acknowledged not its supremacy. If then the sixth head be esteemed a head, from its first rise to its final dissolution, when cooped up by the Turks within the narrow limits of a single city; we must evidently adopt the same mode of considering the last head: that is to say, it will matter little, so far as the completion of the prophecy is concerned, whether the temporal supremacy of the present representative of the last head be acknowledged or not, provided only it was once acknowledged. We have merely therefore to inquire, whether this was ever the case with the Carlovingian monarchy; for such acknowledgment seems necessary, in the mind of the prophet, to complete the character of a head of the beast. He is silent respecting the first six heads, because they all arose before the empire was broken, and therefore it was unnecessary to specify that they were severally the whole beast: but he particularly informs us, that the last should likewise be the whole beast, because such a circumstance, however essential to the character of a head, seemed very improbable after the empire had been divided into ten horns.* This however precisely came to pass. Allowing for the space occupied by the yet existing sixth head, the last head at its first rise was commensurate, either by actual sovereignty or acknowledged supremacy, with the whole beast. Charlemagne really possessed what the Popes only ineffectually claimed. The greatest part of the Western empire was immediately subject to him he possessed ample territories without its limits and the petty kings of Britain and Spain, the only provinces not directly under his control, implored the honour and support of his alliance, and styled him their

* "The beast, that was, and is not, even he is the eighth (king or head), and is of the seven."