it was in the year '567, that Alboin, king of the Lombards, undertook the subjugation of it. De scending from the same Julian Alps that his predecessor Theodoric had done, he became, in the year 568, without a battle or a siege, master of Italy from the Trentine hills to the gates of Ravenna and Rome. Hence the kingdom of the Lombards, by occupying the very same geographical position as its two eradicated predecessors the kingdom of the Herulo-Turingi and the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, similarly stood before and in the immediate presence of the Papacy : and, accordingly, by such a collocation, it became the third of the three horns which were destined to fall before the eleventh little horn.

The predetermined instrument of subversion was now the kingdom of the Franks. Alarmed at the growing power of the Lombardic king Aistulphus, who in the year 752 had completely subdued the feeble though hitherto subsisting Exarchate of Rayenna, the Pope applied for assistance to Pipin king of France. The call was readily obeyed : and, in the course of two successive expeditions into Italy, Pipin wrested from that prince the whole district of the Exarchate. After this double chastisement, the Lombards languished about twenty years in a state of decrepitude and decay. Charlemagne had now succeeded his father Pipin: and, like him, he assumed the character of the champion of the Church. At the request of the Pope, he formally undertook

his cause; entered Italy at the head of a large army; and, in the year 774, completely eradicated the horn of Lombardy'.

(3.) Three out of the ten primary kingdoms thus fell before and in the immediate presence of the eleventh little horn: but, to this circumstance which was beheld by Daniel, the interpreting angel adds another circumstance; namely, that the three eradicated kingdoms should be subjugated by the little kingdom, or that the little kingdom should acquire a temporal sovereignty carved out of the late dominions of the three eradicated kingdoms.

Let us, then, observe the accuracy, with which this part also of the prediction has been completed. The names of the Carlovingians are consecrated, as the saviours and benefactors of the Roman Church. Her ancient patrimony of farms and houses was transformed by their bounty into

Hist. of Decline, vol. vii. p. 398–401. vol. viii. p. 122—129. vol. ix. p. 144–150. I was not aware, until long after I had been led by history to this appropriation of the three eradicated horns, that I had been anticipated by Dr. Allix.

cornu.

Ex his decem regnis tria avulsa sunt, ut cresceret parvum Herulorum regnum ab Ostrogothis regibus destructum est, non diu postquam Romam et Italiæ maximam partem occupaverant anno scilicet Christi 493. Ostrogothi a Longobardis victi sunt, anno 553. Longobardi demum a Carolo Magno ita sunt debellati, anno 773, ut ille non sibi Romam et Italiam subjecerit, sed ipsam Romam Pontifici quoad utile dominium dono dederit. Allix de duplic. Mess. advent. p. 18, 19.

The concurrence of Dr. Allix much strengthens my conviction of the propriety of this arrangement.

the temporal dominion of cities and provinces : and the donation of the Exarchate was the firstfruits of the conquests of Pipin. Aistulphus, with a sigh, relinquished his prey: the keys and the hostages of the principal cities were delivered to the French ambassador: and, in his master's name, he presented them before the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of the Exarchate might comprise all the provinces of Italy, which had obeyed the Emperor and his vice-gerent : but! its strict and proper limits were included in the territories of Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara , while its inseparable dependency was the Pentapolis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced into the midland country as far as the ridges of the Appennine: This splendid donation was granted in supreme and absolute dominion : and the world beheld, for the first time, a Christian Bishop invested with the prerogatives of a temporal prince; the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the imposition of taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna. In the dissolution of the Lombard kingdom, the inhabitants of the dutchy of Spoleto sought a refuge from the storm, shaved their heads after the Roman fashion, declared themselves the servants and subjects of St. Peter, and completed by this voluntary surrender the present circle of the Ecclesiastical State. That mysterious circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent, by the rerbal or written donation of Char

lemagne ; who, in the first transports of his victory, despoiled himself and the Greek Emperor of the cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the Exarchate. But, in the cooler. moments of absence and reflection, he viewed, with an eye of jealousy and envy, the recent greatness of his ecclesiastical ally. The execution of his own and his father's promises was respectfully eluded: the king of the Franks and Lombards asserted the inalienable rights of the Empire: and the temporal sovereignty of the Pope was ultimately fixed to the well-defined limits of the Patrimony of St. Peter1.

4. Having now fully described the great Roman beast, and having exhibited the character and exploits of his domineering little horn, Daniel proceeds, in the highly figured language of the Hebrew prophetic school, to set forth the judicial punishment and final destruction of these two Powers which had so long harassed and worn out the saints of the Most High.

In a strain awfully borrowed from the solemnities of the literal day of judgment, when the fate both of the good and of the bad will be irrevocably determined, he foretells, that the beast and his little horn shall be judged by the Ancient of days; that, through the sitting of this judgment, the dominion of the little horn shall be taken away by consuming and destroying it unto the end, or unto

'Hist. of Decline, vol. ix. p. 156-159.

that time of the end which synchronises with the expiration of the fated three times and a half; and that, when the end shall arrive and when the Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven, the beast shall be slain and his body shall be given to the burning flame.

The whole of this, lofty as may be the style wherein it is announced, takes place in the present world; nor is the predicted judgment to be viewed under any other aspect than that of a judicial punishment upon earth inflicted through the agency of God's superintending Providence: for, after the destruction of the beast and his little horn, the saints receive a kingdom UNDER the whole heaven and therefore UPON the earth which we now inhabit.

As for the time when this judgment commences, it is no further defined by Daniel than as preceding the expiration of his three times and a half: for, since the judgment is to sit unto the end, and since the end or the time of the end synchronises with the expiration of the latter three times and a half; the judgment itself must plainly commence before the end and therefore before the expiration of the latter three times and a half. Accordingly, the judgment is described as commencing, on the part of the Ancient of days, previous to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven for the purpose of finally destroying the beast and his little horn at the close of the latter three times and a half and of receiving a kingdom upon earth in conjunction with his saints.