e shall be diverse from the
first, and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words
against the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they
shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing
of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his
dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (verses 23-26).

With the explanation that the fourth beast signified the fourth
kingdom, it is impossible to evade the conclusion that the
politico-religious power symbolized by the little horn that came up
among the ten horns refers directly to the papacy. There is no other
object that can fulfil the prophecy. The papacy was just beginning
to make itself strongly felt among the divisions of the Western Roman
Empire, and it is a fact of history that three of the original
ten divisions _in the territory of Italy_ were actually plucked
up successively before the rising papacy as if to give it room for
development.

When the Western Empire was overthrown in A.D. 476, the kingdom of
the Heruli was established in Italy. In 493 this was succeeded by
the Ostrogoths, which continued for sixty years and was afterwards
succeeded by the Lombards. The Lombard Kingdom was overthrown by Pepin
and Charlemagne, who gave a large part of the conquered territory to
the pope, thus favoring the papacy with her _first temporal power_.
This grant completed the symbol of Daniel's vision by constituting the
papacy a temporal as well as an ecclesiastical power.

The description of the great things spoken by the mouth of the little
horn and of the persecution of the true saints of God by this power
corresponds so minutely with the characteristics of the first beast
of Revelation 13 that no further description is here necessary. It is
said that he would also "think to change times and laws." The language
is spoken as if this were a most extraordinary thing to do. Surely it
is no extraordinary thing for a king to alter _secular_ laws in his
own dominion; and so far as heathen kingdoms are concerned, it would
be no sacrilegious act for them to alter their _religious_ laws and
customs. But the little horn was to set himself up against the Most
High and think to change _His_ times and laws--an act of unparalleled
audacity, impiety, and blasphemy. This description the papacy has
consistently and constantly fulfilled. The pope has assumed the power
to make time holy or unholy as he sees fit; to comman