A Brief Commentary on the Apocalypse

by Sylvester Bliss

“In the same month of the following year, 534, the Pope returned an answer repeating the language of the emperor, applauding his homage to the See, and adopting the titles of [pg 202] the imperial mandate. He observes that, among the virtues of Justinian, ‘one shines as a star, his reverence for the Apostolic chair, to which he has subjected and united all the churches, it being truly the head of all; and was testified by the rules of the fathers, the laws of the princes, and the declarations of the emperor's piety.’

“The authenticity of the title receives unanswerable proof from the edicts in the ‘Novellæ’ of the Justinian code.

“The preamble of the 9th states that ‘as the elder Rome was the founder of the laws, so was it not to be questioned that in her was the supremacy of the pontificate.’

“The 131st, on the ecclesiastical titles and privileges, chapter II. states: ‘We therefore decree that the most holy Pope of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood, and that the most blessed archbishop of Constantinople, the new Rome, shall hold the second rank after the holy Apostolic chair of the elder Rome.’

“The supremacy of the Pope had by those mandates and edicts received the fullest sanction that could be given by the authority of the master of the Roman world. However worthless the motives, the act was done, authentic and unquestionable, sanctioned by all the forms of state, and never abrogated,—the act of the first potentate in the world. If the supremacy over the church of God had been [pg 203] for man to give, it might have been given by the unrivalled sovereignty of Justinian.

“From this era the church of Rome dates the earthly acknowledgment of her claim. Its heavenly authority is referred to the remoter source of the apostles.”—Apoc., pp. 14-16, 30, 31.

The war against the Vandals was vigorously prosecuted by Belisarius, Justinian's general, and resulted in their conquest the same year. Thus was the second of the first ten divisions of the empire subjugated: the second horn was plucked up.

Rome was still in possession of an Arian monarch, who was the bitter enemy of the Catholic church. Intelligence of the success of Belisarius in Africa reached the emperor, Dec. 16th, A. D. 533. “Impatient to abolish the temporal and spiritual tyranny of the Vandals, he proceeded, without delay, to the full establishment of the Catholic church.”—Gibbon, Harpers' ed., v. 3, p. 67. Belisarius proceeded to the conquest of Italy, which he effected, and marched on to Rome. Only 4000 soldiers were stationed for its defence; and they could not oppose the wishes of the Romans, who voluntarily submitted. Seized with a momentary enthusiasm, “they furiously exclaimed that the apostolic throne should no longer be profaned by the triumph or toleration of Arianism; that the tombs of the Cæsars should no longer be trampled on [pg 204] by the savages of the north; and without reflecting that Italy must sink into a province of Constantinople, they fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman emperor as a new era of freedom and prosperity. The deputies of the Pope and clergy, of the senate and people, invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance, and to enter the city.” Thus was “the city, after sixty years' servitude delivered from the yoke of the barbarians,” Dec. 10, A. D. 536. And “the Catholics prepared to celebrate, without a rival, the approaching festival of the nativity of Christ.”—Ib. p. 80.

In the winter, the Ostrogoths made preparations, and besieged Rome with an army of 150,000 fighting men. Pope Sylverius was suspected of treachery, and on proof that he had communicated with the enemy, he was banished by Belisarius. At the emperor's command, the clergy of Rome proceeded to the choice of a new bishop, and elected “deacon Virgilius, who had purchased the papal throne by a bribe of two hundred pounds of gold.”—Ib. p. 85. As he had obtained the papal seat by fraud, it was claimed that he was not the lawful Pope; but in A. D. 538, he was owned as such by the 5th General Council, and the whole Christian world.—See Bowers' Hist. Popes, v. 2, p. 374. In March of this year (538),—after “one year and nine days”—the Ostrogoths raised the [pg 205] siege of Rome, and burned their tents—one-third of their number having perished under its walls. The arms of Justinian triumphed, and the Catholic hierarchy was established. The third horn had been plucked up by the fall of the third of the first ten divisions of Rome.

The Bishop of Constantinople did not submit willingly to the Primacy of Rome. On the death of Justinian, the supremacy of the Pope was utterly denied; and, in A. D. 588, John, Bishop of Constantinople, himself assumed the coveted title of “Universal Bishop.” The Roman bishop, Gregory the Great, indignant at this usurpation, denounced him as a “usurper, aiming at supremacy over the whole church,” and declared that whoever claims such supremacy “has the pride and character of Antichrist.”