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common parent, the sole and supreme Emperor of the West.* The result therefore of the whole is this. If the successors of Augustus are still considered as the sixth head of the beast, even when they no longer possessed the temporal supremacy of Augustus; no reason can be shewn, why the successors of Charlemagne should not still be considered as the last head of the beast, although they now no longer possess the temporal supremacy,† of Charlemagne.

3. With regard to the identity of the ancient Augustan imperial dignity and the modern Carlovingian imperial dignity, it exists but in imagination. The two resemble each other merely in name: in all other respects there is so great a difference between them, that they cannot with any propriety be considered as forming only one head. They differ in these respects.

The reader will find a statement of the extent of the Carlovingian empire, in the Hist. of the Decline and Fall, Vol. ix. p. 180 - 187; which affords the best comment upon the prophetic declaration that the last bead should be the whole beast. Respecting Charlemagne and his empire Mr. Gibbon justly remarks, that “the dignity of his person, the length of his reign, the prosperity of his arms, the vigour of his government, and the reverence of distant nations, distinguish him from the royal croud; and Europe dates a new era from the restoration of the Western empire." The very pagans indeed, as Cardinal Baronius observes, mourned for Charlemagne as the father of the world: "ipsos paganos eum planxisse quasi patrem orbis." Annal. Eccles. A. D. 814.

+ Since this was written, the Carlovingian emperorship of the West has been transferred to France, and the real temporal supremacy of Charlemagne has been revived. June 1,

1806.

The relics of that temporal supremacy, which constituted the Carlovingian line of emperors the last bead of the beast, may be clearly traced in the famous Golden bull enacted under the Emperor Charles iv. in the year 1356. In this bull each of the Electors is required to swear, that to the best of his discernment he will choose "a temporal chief for the Christian people" who may be worthy of that station: and it is afterwards ordered, that none of them shall quit the city of Frankfort, " until they shall have, by a plurality of voices, elected and given to the world, or to the Christian people a temporal chief, namely a king of the Romans, future Emperor." With the same now empty affectation of the Carlovingian supremacy, the Archbishop of Cologne is styled Arch-chancellor of the Holy Empire in Italy; the Archbishop of Triers, Arch-chancellor of the Holy Empire in France and Arles; and the Archbishop of Mentz, Arch-chancellor of the Holy Empire in Germany. The whole of the Golden bull may be seen in Mod. Univ. Hist. Vol. xxx. Bp. Newton indeed does not deny, that the Carlovingian Emperorship is a head of the beast; only he supposes it to be a continuation of the sixth head, instead of its being the distinct double last bead. Such a scheme however appears to me extremely unnatural. When the sixth head was continued from the days of Constantine in the persons of the Constantinopolitan Emperors, and consequently when it was actually in existence at the time of the rise of the Carlovingian Emperorship, it seems very far fetched to say, that it was continued in the line of the Carlovingian Emperors, the very first of whom did not flourish till upwards of three centuries after the downfall of the old western empire under Augustulus.

The Augustan Emperorship was a single head, imme. diately succeeding the five which had fallen, and seated during the latter part of its existence at Constantinople contemporaneously with the last head.* The Carlovingian Emperorship is a double head, consisting of the Patriciate merging into the feudal imperial dignity, whence I have styled it the septimo-octave head-The Augustan Emperorship was composed of a line of real Roman princes, who administered the very Empire that was erected by the valour of the five first heads. The Carlovingian Emperorship was composed of a line of Gothic princes, who had invaded and occupied the territories of the sixth head-The Augustan Emperorship was sometimes hereditary, and sometimes conferred by the military violence of the Pretorian guards. The Carlovingian Emperorship has sometimes indeed been hereditary, but has for the most part been elective, the right of election being vested in a certain number of princes-The Augustan Emperorship was always attached to territorial possessions, insomuch that, if the reigning Emperor had not been Emperor, he would have been no more than a private man. The Carlovingian Emperorship was never attached to territorial possessions, as such; the prince, who enjoyed that dignity, sometimes being of one family and sometimes of another, holding his proper dominions by a quite distinct tenure from his Emperorship, being at once an hereditary sovereign and an elective Emperor, and rarely since the days of Charlemagne possessing a single foot of ground in his imperial capacity. Accordingly the dignity of the Carlovingian Emperorship has been borne alternately by a King of France, a Duke of Franconia, a Duke of Suabia, a Duke of Bavaria, a King of Bohemia, a King of Naples, and a King of Spain ;§ whose heredi

It is worthy of notice, that St. John gives no intimation, that the sixth bead should fall previous to the rise of the septimo-octave head, though he states so particularly that the five first beads had fallen previous to the rise of the sixth head.

↑ When I say real Roman princes, I only mean princes born in regions that acknowledged the sovereignty of the Augustan Emperors, not princes literally born at Rome or in Italy.

Charlemagne's sovereignty of Italy gradually melted away into the imperial fiefs. § I pretend not accurately to state all the variations of descent in the Carlovingian imperial dignity: I merely observe, in general terms, that it has been attached at different times to all these different families.

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tary territories were entirely independent of their imperial rank-Finally, the Augustan Emperorship consisted of a line of military despots, ruling, like the Turkish monarchs, over a nation of slaves. The Carlovingian Emperorship has ever consituted its possessor the chief of a Gothic feudal confederacy. When this last particular is fully considered, we shall scarcely find any two lines of princes more dissimilar than the Augustan and the Carlovingian Emperors. The principles of feudalism, brought by the northern tribes out of their native forests,* and carried to perfection in France, Germany, and Italy, draw an indelible line of difference between the sixth and the last head of the beast: and we must possess the power of imagination in a very high degree to suppose, that Charlemagne, surrounded by his Gothic military vassals, the Paladins, Dukes, and Counts of his Empire, or that the modern Emperors of the Romans, the feudal superiors of a long train of Electors, Princes, Margraves, and Landgraves, form a continuation of the Augustan Emperors of Rome and Constantinople, merely because they also have borne the title of Emperors.† So far indeed is the sovereign of the Gothic Roman Empire, from constituting jointly with the sovereign of the Constantinopolitan Empire only one sixth head of the beast, as Bp. Newton supposes, that the Greeks very unwillingly allowed even to Charlemagne the title of Emperor, and absolutely refused

* The rudiments of feudalism may be clearly discovered in the account which Tacitus gives of the ancient Germans. In their yet infant state of society, their princes, instead of granting to their counts or feudal vassals manors and estates subject to military service, presented them with horses and lances, and gained their affection by rude though plentiful entertainments. See Tac. de Mor. Ger. C. 15, 14. + The Italian Romances are curious and even valuable, as depicting with considerable accuracy, from the legends of the ancient troubadours, the state of Gothic manners in the Carlovingian age. Whoever has read the poems of Boyardo and Ariosto will find it no easy matter to discover any resemblance between the court of the warlike sovereign of Orlando, Rinaldo, and Ruggiero, and that of the Roman Cesars; and history will teach him, that there is just as little resemblance between their respective principles of government. Mr. Gibbon very truly observes, that "the victorious nations of Germany established a nerv system of manners and govern, ment in the western countries of Europe." Hist. of Decline, Vol. vi. p. 404.

The sceptre of Charlemagne has recently been transferred from Germany to France. Still however is the new empire of the West constructed on those very principles of feudalism, which characterized the original empire of Charlemagne. An assemblage of newly-created kings professedly hold their crowns as vassals of their superior lord Buonapartè, who scruples not to style their dominions federal provinces of his empire. June 1, 1806.

to bestow it upon his successors. They could not bring themselves to consider a barbarian of the North in the light of an Emperor of the Romans; and they were unwilling to concede that dignity to a king of the Franks, which they had never refused to the short-lived genuine line of Western Emperors, the real successors of AugusUnder Charlemagne in short, Rome became subject to a new head:† for a form of government was then instituted, differing radically and essentially from every one of the previous six forms, represented by the six first heads of the beast.

tus.*

By way of recapitulation of what has been said, I will

The imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to " the East by the alteration of his style; and, instead of saluting his fathers, the Greek Emperors, he presumed to adopt the more equal and familiar appellation of brother-A treaty of peace and alliance was concluded between the two empires; and the limits of the East and West were defined by the right of present possession. But the Greeks soon forgot this humiliating equality, or remembered it only to hate the Barbarians by whom it was extorted: During the short union of virtue and power, they respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne, with the acclamations of basileus, and Emperor of the Romans. As soon as these qualities were separated in the person of his pious son, the Byzantine letters inscribed, To the king, or, as he styles himself, the Emperor of the Franks and Lombards. When both power and virtue were extinct, they despoiled Louis the second of his hereditary title; and, with the barbarous appellation of Rex or Rega, degraded him among the crowd of Latin princes-The same controversy was revived in the reign of the Othos; and their ambassador describes, in lively colours, the insolence of the Byzantine court. The Greeks affected to despise the poverty and ignorance of the Franks and Saxons; and, in their last decline, they refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman Emperors." Hist. of Decline, Vol. ix. p. 191-195.

+ Many commentators, though they may not quite positively declare as much, seem to be impressed with a sort of idea, that an actual residence at Rome is a necessary characteristic of a bead of the Roman beast. Hence we are sometimes asked, What other power, except the Papacy, can possibly be the last head of the beast, inasmuch as Rome since the days of the Cesars has been the seat of no other power? Mere residence at Rome however has nothing to do with the character of a bead of the beast; though it seems essential to such a character to have enjoyed, at some period or other of its existence, the sovereignty of Rome. When Constantine removed the seat of government, he did not surely on that account cease to be the representative of the sixth bead; any more than the king of Scotland ceased to be the head of Scotland by removing the seat of government to London, or the Emperor of Russia to be the head of Russia by transferring his residence from Moscow to Petersburgh. Indeed those, who are the foremost in urging the residence of the Pope in Rome, as an argument of his being the last bead, scruple not to declare that either the line of the demi-Gesars, the exarchs of Ravenna, or the Gothic sovereigns of Italy, constitute the short-lived sev enth bead; although none of these, except the first, ever resided in Rome, and they only for about eight years, Rome was as much subject to Charlemagne who resided at Paris, as it was to Constantine who resided at Constantinople. The only difference was this; that Charlemagne granted Rome to the Pope to be held as a fief of the empire, under himself the superior lord, agreeably to the usages of feudalism. Indeed the whole behaviour of Charlemagne shews plainly, that he was as much the real sovereign of Rome as Buonapartè is at present. June 1, 1806.

venture to assert, that no power has ever arisen within the limits of the Roman Empire which at all answers to the prophetic character of the septimo-octave head, except the Carlovingian monarchy alone. Three things concur in this character: the last head of the beast was to be at once both the seventh and the eighth head, the seventh continuing only a short time and then being swallowed up in the eighth; it was at its first rise to be the whole beast; and it was to be the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, that is to say, it was to be the revived beast, or the beast while in his papally-idolatrous state.

1. Now the Carlovingian monarchy was the septimooctave head, as being the Patriciate merging into the fewdal Emperorship.

2. It was the whole beast, as comprehending the whole Western empire either by actual sovereignty, or by the homage of acknowledged superiority.

3. And it was the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, as comprehending that whole empire, after it had relapsed into the abominations of papal tyranny and idolatry.

Neither the Papacy, nor any other power, except the Carlovingian Patricio-Imperial government, will be found to answer to this prophetic description; whence I doubt not, but that that government is intended by the last head of the beast.

Mr. Mede and Bp. Newton think, that St. John beheld all the ten horns growing together upon the last head. To this opinion however there appear to be insuperable objections, whether the last head be the Papacy or the Gothic Emperorship. The springing up of horns out of a head necessarily implies, that the head was in existence before the horns: whereas both the Papal Empire (as contradistinguished from the primitive Bishopric of Rome), and the Carlovingian Emperorship, arose after the horns had sprung up; namely, the one in the year 606, and the other in the years 774 and 800.* Hence it is plain, that the ten horns could not have appeared to

* Ep. Newton dates the commencement of the 1260 years considerably later than the year 606: hence, according to his plan, it is still more impossible, that the tem borns should appear to St. John growing upon the last bead, if that last bead be the Papacy.

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