Creasy, in his Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, says concerning the battle of Waterloo, "The great battle which ended the twenty-three years' war of the first French revolution, and which quelled the man whose genius and ambition had so long disturbed and desolated the world, deserves to be regarded by us ... with peculiar gratitude for the repose which it secured for us and for the greater part of the human race."
10. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
Under this vial the symbols differ somewhat. The "beast" is evidently the one of whom the image was made, referred to in verse 2—the Papacy. The seat that the Papacy occupied from the time the dragon resigned in favor of the beast (chap. [13:2]) was his position of temporal power and authority. In the following chapter the Papacy is described as seated upon a ten-horned beast, the ten horns of which symbolized the kingdoms of Europe. In this position it was able to exercise a guiding influence over the European nations. We have already seen what great power the Popes exercised in this direction during the Dark Ages. But the "beast" of [chapter 17] himself, as distinguished from his horns, symbolizes the Holy Roman Empire, which was a revival of the old empire of the Cæsars. This revived "world-empire" was closely allied to the Papacy. When Charlemagne, the Carlovingian king, restored the empire of the West, he was crowned "Emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo III., A.D. 800. "The Popes made the descendants of Charles Martel kings and emperors; the grateful Frankish princes defended the Popes against all their enemies, imperial and barbarian, and dowering them with cities and provinces, laid the basis of their temporal sovereignty, which continued for more than a thousand years." After the decline of the Carlovingian power the imperial authority was again revived by Otto the Great (962), who was crowned Emperor of the Romans by the Pope. Henceforth the empire of the West was termed the Holy Roman Empire. "From this time on it was the rule that the German king who was crowned at Aachen had a right to be crowned ... emperor at Rome." So the general rule was that the Popes upheld the emperors, and the emperors sustained the Popes in their position as the spiritual heads of the church and as temporal rulers over the Papal states, which were granted them originally by the donations of Pepin and Charlemagne.
In [chapter 13] the civil powers of Europe and the ecclesiastical power of Rome are not shown by a double symbol—a woman and a beast—as in [chapter 17], but are there represented by a combination of symbols drawn from the departments of human life and animal life, which shows that a politico-religious system is intended, as heretofore explained; hence the term beast, as there used, signifies either the Papacy or the civil power. Thus the term is used in the present chapter under consideration, and has reference here to the beast as an ecclesiastical power—the Papacy—and his "seat" refers to his temporal authority.
This vial, then, being poured out upon his seat, with the result that his kingdom was filled with darkness—a symbol drawn from nature—points to the downfall of the Pope as a temporal ruler. Thus he would be deprived of his "seat."
We have already seen that each plague prepares the way for a succeeding one. Under the reign of Napoleon the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved (1806). This was the beginning of the end of the Pope's temporal authority; for the two had in a great measure been for ages interdependent upon each other. Pius VII. was made a prisoner and the temporal sovereignty of the Roman See declared to be at an end; while the Pope himself was forced to disown all claim to rank as a temporal ruler. Of course, this was but a temporary overthrow; for when the period of Reaction came, the Pope recovered also temporal authority. But the vast territories of Avignon, Venaissin, Bologna, Ferrara, and the Romagna—representing fully a third of all the Papal dominions—which had been forcibly ceded to France under Napoleon, was never restored to the Roman See. From that time the sun of the Pope's temporal kingdom rapidly approached the horizon; while the inhabitants of his dominions continued to blaspheme God through the atheistical Jacobinism that infested to so great an extent the whole mass of society—symbolized by their "sores"—and the firm supporters of Popery were filled with excessive chagrin and mortification of mind—symbolized by their "pains"—because the power of their leader, who professed temporal sovereignty over the whole earth, was being suddenly destroyed and his kingdom left in darkness. Concerning this matter the People's Cyclopædia, after speaking of the blow the Pope's spiritual supremacy received at the Reformation, says: "But in her relations to the State the Roman church has since passed through a long and critical struggle. The new theories to which the French Revolution gave currency have still further modified these relations." In the second revolution of 1848 the Pope's temporal authority was about to be entirely destroyed by the attempted establishment of the republic of Italy; but at this juncture France, who, notwithstanding her plagues, had not repented of her former deeds, not willing to desert entirely the Papal cause after upholding it faithfully for centuries, interfered, and the Pope was sustained in his position by a French garrison until 1870 (except a short time in 1867), at which time the success of King Victor Emmanuel and his capture of the Eternal City established the free government of United Italy. The temporal sun of the Pope set forever; his kingdom was left in darkness.
12. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
13. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.