D & R, pp. 323-325:
“The 1290 Prophetic Days. — We have here a new prophetic period introduced
[compared to the 1260 days], 1290 prophetic days, which according to Bible authority would denote the same number of literal years. From the reading of the text, some have inferred that this period begins with the setting up of the abomination of desolation, or the papal power, in A. D. 538, and consequently extends to 1828. We find nothing in the latter year [1828] to mark its termination, but we do find evidence in the margin that it begins before the setting up of the papal abomination. The margin reads, ‘To set up the abomination.’ With this reading the text would stand thus: “From the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away to set up [or, in order to set up] the abomination that maketh desolate, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.’
“The Year A.D. 508. – We are not told directly to what event these 1290 days reach; but inasmuch as their beginning is marked by a work which takes place to prepare the way for the setting up of the papacy, it would be natural to conclude that their end would be marked by the cessation of papal supremacy. Counting back, then, 1290 years from 1798, we have the year 508. This period is doubtless given to show the date of the taking away of the daily, and it is the only one which does this. The two periods, therefore, the 1290 and the 1260 days, terminate together in 1798, the latter beginning in 538, and former in 508, thirty years previous. In support of the date A.D. 508 the following historical quotations are given:
“Baptism of Clovis.— “As to the writings of Anastasius, . . . .there is one for him to Clovis, king of the Franks, congratulating that prince on his conversion to the Christian religion. For Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, was baptized on Christmas Day, 496, the very day, according to some, on which the pope was ordained.”- Archibald Bower, The History of the Popes, Vol. I, p. 295.
Thomas Hodgkins says:
“The result of this ceremony was to change the political relation of every state in Gaul. Though the Franks were among the roughest and most uncivilized of the tribes that had poured westwards across the Rhine, as Catholics they were now sure of a welcome from the Catholic clergy of every city, and where the clergy led, the ‘Roman provincials,’ or in other words, the Latin-speaking laity, generally followed. Immediately after his baptism, Clovis received a letter of enthusiastic welcome into the true fold, written by Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, the most eminent ecclesiastic of the Burgundian kingdom.”- Ibid, pp. 190, 191.
“Clovis, the First Catholic Prince. – “It is observable that Clovis was, at this time [496], the only Catholic prince in the known world, as the word Catholic was then understood. Anastasius, Emperor of the East, was a professed Eutychian, Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths in Italy; Alaric, king of the Visigoths, master of all Spain, and of a third part of Gaul; the kings of the Burgundians, Suevians and Vandals, in Gaul, Spain, and Africa; were all zealous followers of Arius. As for the other kings of the Franks settled in Gaul, they were still pagans. Clovis was not only the sole Catholic prince at this time in the world; but the first king that ever embraced the Catholic religion; which has procured to the French king the title of the ‘most Christian,’ and that of ‘the eldest son of the Church.’ But were we to compare the conduct and actions of Clovis, the Catholic, with those of the Arian King Theodoric, such a comparison would no ways redound to the honor of the Catholic faith.’- Ibid, Vol. I, p. 296, footnote. See also Henry Hart Milman, History of Latin Christianity, Vol. I, pp 381-388. . . . .
“Clovis’s Conversion a Check on the Arians. – “The event which intensified the fears of these Arian kings, and which left to each one little more than the hope that he might be the last to be devoured, was the conversion to Catholicism of Clovis, the heathen king of the Franks.” –Thomas Hodgkins, Theodoric the Goth, p. 186. . . .
“A. D. 508. – A short time after these events, Clovis received the titles and dignity of Roman patricius and consul from the Greek Emperor Anastasius; who appears to have been prompted to this act more by motives of jealousy and hatred towards Theodoric the Ostrogoth, than by any love he bore for the restless and encroaching Frank. The meaning of these obsolete titles, as applied to those who stood in no direct relation to either division of the Roman Empire, has never been sufficiently explained. . . . The sun of Rome was set, but the twilight of her greatness still rested on the world. The German kings and warriors received with pleasure, and wore with pride, a title which brought them into connection with the imperial city [Rome], of whose universal dominion, of whose skill in armies and arts, the traces lay everywhere around them.” – Walter C. Perry, The Franks, From Their First Appearance in History to the Death of King Pepin, p. 85. . . . .
“Significance of Clovis’ Victories. – The eminence which Clovis had attained in the year 508, and the significance of his victories to the future of Europe and the church [Roman Catholic], were so great that historians cannot forbear commenting on them.
“Nor were his a temporary conquest. The kingdom of the west Goths and the Burgundians had become the kingdom of the Franks. The invaders had at length arrived, who were to remain. It was decided that the Franks, and not the Goths, were to direct the future destinies of the Gaul and Germany, and that the Catholic faith, and not Arianism, was to be the religion of the great realms.”- Richard W. Church, The Beginning of the Middle Ages, pp. 38, 39.
“Clovis was the first to unite all the elements from which the new social order was to be formed, —namely, the barbarians, whom he established in power; the Roman civilization, to which he rendered homage by receiving the insignia of patrician and consul from the Emperor Anastasius; and finally, the Catholic Church, with which he formed that fruitful alliance which was continued by his successors.” –Victor Duruy, The History of the Middle Ages, p. 32.
“Paved the Way for Alliance of Church and State. – “In him [Clovis] met two religions, and two ages of the world. At his birth the Roman world was still a power; his death marks the dawn of the Middle Ages. He stepped into the vacant place of the Eastern Emperor, and paved the way for what Charlemagne perfected—the fusion of Roman and German civilization, the alliance of church and state.” – Julius von Pflugk-Hartung, in A History of Nations, Vol. VII, p. 72. . . .
“Foundations of the Medieval Church. – “The results of their [the Franks] occupation of Gaul were so important, the empire which they founded, their alliance with the church, their legal notions and political institutions were all such decisive influence upon the future that their history deserves separate treatment. . . . It was to them that the political inheritance of the Roman Empire passed; to them came the honor of taking up and carrying on, roughly, to be sure, and far less extensively and effectively, but nevertheless and actually carrying on the political work which Rome had been doing.
They alone represent that unity which Rome had established, and so far as that unity was maintained at all as a definite fact, it is the Franks who maintained it. . . . It is only at the end of the fifth century that their career really begins, and then, as so often in similar cases, it is the genius of one man, a great leader, which creates the nation. . . Clovis. . . appears as one of the great creative spirits who give a new direction to the currents of history. . . A third step of great importance in this process of union was also undertaken by Clovis. One institution, produced in the ancient world before the Germans entered it, had continued with vigorous life and wide influence, indeed, with slowly increasing power, through all the changes in this chaotic period.
It was to be in the future a still greater power and to exert an influence even wider and more permanent than that of the Franks. . . . This was the Roman Church. It was to be the great ecclesiastical power of the future. It was therefore a most essential question whether the Franks, who were to grow on their side into the great political power of the future, should do so in alliance with this other power or in opposition to it. . . .
“This question Clovis settled, not long after the beginning of his career, by his conversion to Catholic Christianity. . . .”-George Burton Adams, Civilization During the Middle Ages, pp. 137-144.
“Thus in A.D. 508 terminated united resistance to the development of the papacy. The question of supremacy between Frank and Goth, between the Catholic and the Arian religions, had been settled in favor of the Catholics. ” – D & R, 330.
(to be continued)