Part 6 (2/2)
This view is embodied in the celebrated painting ”Death on the Pale Horse,” in which death is represented as going forth with war, pestilence, famine, and wild beasts, to ravage the Roman empire. We are informed by historians that dreadful pestilences and famines did prevail and in some places nearly depopulated the country, and that the remaining inhabitants could not make head against the beasts that multiplied in the land. But the fact that such events occurred is not sufficient proof that this symbol has reference to such. Famines and pestilences may have occurred many times without forming a part of the Apocalyptic vision.
The greatest objection to giving this part of the vision such a literal interpretation is, that it fails to bring out its symbolic character. To what, then, does it refer? We have, as before, a horseman, indicating that the agent is one of the same general character, differing mainly in his features and mission. This horse was of a livid, cadaverous hue, denoting an agent of ghastly, terrible nature. The living rider bore the awful name of ”Death,” or as in the original, ”The Death,” by way of emphasis. Death literally was not the agent--it is not so stated--but the rider was termed The Death, or The Destroyer, because of his terrible mission; and h.e.l.l followed with him.
Applying the laws of symbolic language as heretofore, it is evident that this symbol represents a great persecuting ecclesiastical power. And with this thought before us, we can scarcely fail to recognize it as a true description of _the Papacy_. The great apostasy, described under the preceding seal, prepared the way for the final and complete establishment of the ”man of sin”; but during the period there brought to view the ministers of religion, power-seeking and apostate as they were, were unable to enforce their claims by the power of persecution.
Under the present seal, however, is represented a later stage of their corruption, when a great hierarchal system, sustained and upheld by the arm of civil power, was able to bear tyrannical rule over a great portion of the earth. During this period clerical ambition and usurpation reached its greatest height.
After speaking of the power possessed by the metropolitans, Mosheim says: ”The universal church had now the appearance of one vast republic, formed by a combination of a great number of little states. This occasioned the creation of a new order of ecclesiastics, who were appointed in different parts of the world, as _heads_ of the church, and whose office it was to preserve the consistence and union of that immense body, whose members were so widely dispersed throughout the nations. Such was the nature and office of the Patriarchs.” Church History, Cent. II, part 2.
Thus, the bishops, or metropolitans, of certain of the most important cities were exalted to a still higher position as special _heads_ of the church. They were termed _Exarchs_ at first, after the t.i.tle of the provincial governors, but afterwards received the more ecclesiastical appellation _Patriarchs_. The term Patriarch had been in use for a long time in the church signifying merely a bishop, irrespective of the dignity he possessed, but it was finally limited to this higher cla.s.s of the clergy, in which sense I now employ it. The cities that first enjoyed this chief distinction were Alexandria, Rome, and Antioch. The general council of Nice (A.D. 325) in its sixth canon recognized the superior authority already possessed by these cities. See D'Aubigne's Hist, of Reformation, Vol. I, p. 41. The general council of Constantinople in its third canon placed the bishop of Constantinople in the same rank with the other three Patriarchs; and the general council of Calcedon exalted the See of Jerusalem to a similar dignity, doubtless because of its ancient importance as the birthplace of Christianity.
Thus, Patriarchs were established in the five political capitals of the Roman empire; and they were considered the ”_heads of the church_,”
having spiritual authority over the whole empire. These were the only Patriarchates of importance. Certain ecclesiastics of the Church of Rome even at the present time bear the honorary t.i.tle Patriarch; but, to quote the words of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ”In a strictly technical sense, however, that church recognizes only five Patriarchates, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome.” Art.
Patriarch. In the years 637 to 640 Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch fell into the hands of the Saracen followers of Mohammed, which terminated their importance, and later the Greek schism separated the Patriarch of Constantinople from Rome; and thus the Patriarch of Rome was left in undisputed possession of the field and was soon recognized as universal head of the church. So under the symbol of this dread rider on a pale horse is portrayed the great hierarchal system by which the Papacy was fully developed in the West.
It is fitting that we notice particularly the agents of destruction employed by this rider. He possesses a sword with which to kill--the same instrument wielded by the rider of the red horse--but it is evident that he uses it with more terrific energy, by reason of which he receives the name Death, or The Destroyer. It is possible, also, that in this case a sword, wielded by the hand of an ecclesiastical power, may be used as a symbol of a spiritual cutting off, or excommunication. The sword of excommunication has been the most terrible ever wielded by human hand. When this pale horseman was careering over the world in the zenith of his power, excommunication and interdiction were the terror of individuals and the scourge of nations. At his word the rights of an individual as king, ruler, husband or father, nay, even as a _man_, were forfeited, and he was shunned like one infected with the leprosy. At his command the offices of religion were suspended in a nation, and its dead lay unburied, until its proud ruler humbled himself at the feet of the ecclesiastical tyrant who bore rule over the ”fourth part of the earth.”[4]
[Footnote 4: This tyranny of the Popes is well ill.u.s.trated by the quarrel that took place between Hildebrand (Pope Gregory VII.) and Henry IV. of Germany. Gregory attempted to make certain reforms, but Henry refused to recognize those innovations. Gregory excommunicated the emperor, with the result that he was ”shunned as a man accursed by Heaven.” His authority lost and his kingdom on the point of going to pieces, Henry had but one thing to do--seek the pardon of the Pope. He found the Pontiff at Canoosa, but Gregory refused to admit the penitent to his presence. ”It was winter, and for three successive days the king, clothed in sackcloth, stood with bare feet in the snow of the court-yard of the palace, waiting for permission to kneel at the feet of the Pontiff and to receive forgiveness.” On the fourth day he was granted admittance to the presence of the Pope.
During the Pontificate of Innocent III. Philip Augustus, king of France, put away his wife. Innocent commanded him to take her back and forced submission by means of an interdict. This submission of a brave, firm, and victorious prince shows the tremendous power wielded by the Popes in that period.
The manner, also, in which Innocent III. humbled King John of England affords another ill.u.s.tration of the power of the Popes. John caused the vacant See of Canterbury to be filled, in accordance with the regular manner of election, by one of his favorites. Innocent declared the appointment void, as he desired that the place should be filled by one of his friends. John refused to allow the Pope's archbishop to enter England as Primate. Innocent then excommunicated John, laid all England under an interdict, and incited Philip, king of France, to war, offering him John's kingdom upon the very liberal condition that he go over and take it. The outcome of the matter was that John was compelled to yield to the power of the Pope. He even gave him England as a perpetual fief, and agreed to pay the Papal See the annual sum of one thousand marks.]
The loss of life by spiritual famine was extreme. The Word of G.o.d, which is spirit and life to G.o.d's people (Jno. 6:63), was laid under interdict and the common people deprived of its benefits. At the time the black horse appeared, a little food could be obtained at famine prices; but when the fourth arrived, he was empowered to kill ”with hunger.” Also, one of his agents of destruction was death, or pestilence, a fit symbol of false and blasphemous doctrines breathed forth like a deadly pestilence blasting everything within its reach. Invocation of saints, wors.h.i.+p of images, relics, celibacy, works of supererogation, indulgences, and purgatory--these were the enforced principles of religion, and like a pest they settled down upon the people everywhere.
This rider also brought into operation ”the beasts of the earth” to aid him in his destructive work. To kill with sword or hunger shows that such work of destruction is performed solely by him who has it in his power; but to kill with beasts indicates that _they_ perform the deadly work according _to their own natures_. Nothing is clearer than the fact that wild beasts stand as a symbol of persecuting tyrannical governments; hence we are to understand that this rider was to employ also the arm of civil power to aid him in the deadly work. How strikingly this represents the historical facts of the case! In all truly Roman Catholic countries the civil governments were only a cipher or tool in the hands of the church, and the ecclesiastics were the real rulers of the kingdom. But whenever any dark work of persecution was to be performed, the wild beast was let loose to accomplish the result.
When charged, however, with the b.l.o.o.d.y work, the Catholics always answer, ”Oh, we _never persecute_--don't you see, it is the wild beasts that are covered with gore--our hands are clean,” yet they themselves held the chain that bound the savage monsters. We shall have occasion in a subsequent chapter to trace further the pathway of this dread rider as he reels onward in the career of ages, ”drunken with the blood of the saints.”
This work of destruction performed by the dread rider on the pale horse is considered by many as a literal description of the persecutions of the Papacy. While Catholics usually charge the civil powers with this b.l.o.o.d.y work, it is an undeniable fact of history that the Popes often ordered or sanctioned crusades against the Waldenses, Albigenses, and other peoples (see remarks on verses 9-11, chap. 17:6), in which the sword, starvation, and every other means of cruelty imaginable were brought into use to exterminate the so-called heresy. And in view of the fact explained in the comments on verses 3 and 4 of this chapter, that _killing_ is sometimes to be understood in a literal sense on account of there being nothing to a.n.a.lagously represent such destruction of life, it is not a violation of the laws of symbolic language thus to interpret it. It might be consistent in this case to give it a twofold application; the agreeing facts of history regarding the Papacy strongly suggest it. Thus, the _sword_ could signify a literal destruction of life, as in verse 4, and also, in the present case, an ecclesiastical cutting off by the Papacy, or excommunication; and _hunger_ could signify literal death by starvation, and also, as in verses 5 and 6, a destruction of spiritual life, etc.
Where, let me ask, in the whole compa.s.s of human writings can be found a series of events of such thrilling interest, so great in magnitude, as is contained in these eight verses? Who but the Omnipotent could have conceived such a wonderful development of the power of iniquity and with such master-strokes of power compressed them into so small a scene of symbolic imagery? The impress of divinity is here speaking from every line.
9. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of G.o.d, and for the testimony which they held:
10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11. And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Upon the opening of this seal the scene changes entirely. No more hors.e.m.e.n appear, but instead the souls of the martyrs are seen at the altar crying for vindication of their blood upon the cruel oppressors of earth. The question arises, Are these souls symbols of something else, or are they what they are here stated to be, ”the souls of them that were slain”? Evidently, the latter, appearing under their own name and character, because they can not properly be symbolized. They were disembodied spirits, and where is there anything of a.n.a.lagous character to represent such? Angels can not; for whenever they are employed as symbols, it is to designate distinguished agencies among men. They therefore appear under their own appropriate t.i.tle as ”the _souls_ of them that were slain.”
These souls appeared ”under the altar,” that is, _at the foot of the altar_, being the same as that described in chap. 8:3--”And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” Thus, the heavenly world, as opened up before John, appeared symbolized after the sanctuary of the temple in which stood the golden altar, or altar of incense. Some have supposed that the brazen altar was the one referred to, signifying the living sacrifice these souls made of themselves to G.o.d. But there is no altar mentioned in the symbols except the golden altar. Besides, these were not sacrificial victims; for Christ was made a complete sacrifice for sin, while these only suffered martyrdom because of their faithfulness to the cause of Christ. It is much more reasonable to suppose that their interceding cries went up from the golden altar, where the ”prayers of all saints” ascended with much incense.
Their prayers to G.o.d for the avenging of their blood shows the expectation on their part that the judgments of Heaven would descend upon the cruel and haughty persecutors and oppressors of earth, and their surprise was that the day of retribution had been so long delayed.
The history of the church as developed under the preceding seals gives particular force to this cry of the martyrs. For nearly three centuries the civil power of Pagan Rome had been employed to crush the cause of G.o.d. During ten terrible seasons of persecution they had been crucified, slain with the sword, sawn asunder, devoured by beasts in the arena, and given to the flames. When Constantine, a nominal Christian emperor, ascended the throne and protected religion by law, it was believed that persecutions must cease; but soon the discovery was made that the sword had only changed hands, there having risen an ecclesiastical hierarchy destined to ”glut itself upon the blood of which heathen Rome had only tasted.” The world was now made the arena for the terrible coursings of the pale horseman, and the ”beasts of the earth” were let loose to fall with savage fury upon their helpless victims, until millions lost their lives at the instigation of the apostate Church of Rome. Is it any wonder that the souls of these martyrs should cry unto G.o.d for the vindication of their righteous blood?
It is said that ”white robes were given unto every one of them.” By referring to chap. 3:4; 7:9, 13, 14, it will be seen that ”white garments” and ”white robes” are sometimes used as a symbol to describe a part of the heavenly inheritance. The martyr-spirits, although impatient at the delay of avenging judgment, received a righteous reward. But the period of tribulation to the church was not yet over. The cup of iniquity in the hands of her enemies was not yet full, and they were told to ”rest for a little season, until their fellowservants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” The account given seems to indicate an important epoch, a period in which the martyrs had reason to expect the vindication of their righteous blood, but which, instead, was to be followed by another great period of persecution. Considering the time of the events already described in this series of prophecy, we have no difficulty in fixing the chronology of this event at the dividing-point between the era of Papal supremacy and the age of Protestantism--or at the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Did severe slaughter and persecution follow the Reformation? Witness the reign of Mary Tudor, frequently styled ”b.l.o.o.d.y Mary.” During three years of her reign, 1555 to 1558, two hundred and eighty-eight were _burnt alive_ in England! Think of the inhuman ma.s.sacre of the innocent Waldenses of southern France by the violent bigot Oppede (1545), who slew eight hundred men in one town, and thrust the women into a barn filled with straw and reduced the whole to ashes--only a sample of his barbarity; or of their oppression in southern Italy by Pope Pius IV. (1560), at whose command they were slain by thousands, the throats of eighty-eight men being cut on one occasion by a single executioner! Witness the horrible ma.s.sacre of St.
Bartholomew in Paris (Aug. 21, 1572), when the Queen dowager, the infamous Catherine de Medici, lured immense numbers of the innocent Hugenots into the city under the pretext of witnessing a marriage between the Hugenot Henry, king of Navarre, and the sister of Charles IX., king of France--when the gates were closed and the work of wholesale slaughter began at a given signal and raged for three days, during which time from six to ten thousand were butchered in Paris alone! Think of the rivers of blood in the Netherlands, where the Duke of Alva boasted that in the short s.p.a.ce of six weeks he had put eighteen thousand to death! Witness the dragoonading methods and other inhuman persecutions to ”wear out the saints of the Most High,” that followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) by Louis XIV., king of France, during whose reign three hundred thousand were brutally butchered--while Pope Innocent XI. extolled the king by special letter as follows: ”The Catholic church shall most a.s.suredly record in her sacred annals a _work of such devotion toward her_, and CELEBRATE YOUR NAME WITH NEVER-DYING PRAISES ... for _this most excellent undertaking_”!! My heart sickens with horror in the contemplation of such events. Eternal G.o.d! can thy righteous eye behold such heart-rending scenes of earth, and thy hand of power not be extended to humble to the dust these cruel, haughty oppressors of thy people?
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