Page 55 - 07 - The Four Beasts

DANIEL AND THE REVELATION-Uriah Smith

~The Response of History to the Voice of Prophecy~

Chapter 7 – The Four Beasts
established a powerful sovereignty before

the very gates of Rome. The Roman bishops,

meanwhile, beset on all sides, exerted

themselves with all the prudence and

pertinacity which have remained their

peculiar attributes, to regain the mastery, at

least in their patriarchal diocese.”

Machiavelli, in his History of Florence, p. 14,

says: “Nearly all the wars which the northern

barbarians carried on in Italy, it may be here

remarked, were occasioned by the pontiffs;

and the hordes with which the country was

inundated, were generally called in by them.”

These extracts give us a general view of the

state of affairs at this time, and show us that

though the hands of the Roman pontiffs might

not be visibly manifest in the movements

upon the political board, they constituted the