“After considering the first 800 years of the 1,260 years indicated by the prophecy of Daniel 7, we do not find historical evidence that the papacy exercised political-religious supremacy over emperors, kings, and princes. In that period, according to our traditional interpretation, we find the three main exponents of papal supremacy in the pontificates of Innocent III, Gregory VII, and Boniface VIII. The first exercised a certain circumstantial supremacy, which in some cases did not depend on the priestly position he held, but on the credibility, respect, and trust he earned in his early years as a pontiff committed to law and justice. The remaining two, Gregory VII and Boniface VIII, did not go beyond having exaggerated pretensions of papal supremacy, because when they clashed with the interests of the rulers of the time, they were deposed from their positions.
The 14th century saw the emergence of the so-called Babylonian Captivity, in which, by the decree of King Philip the Fair, the papal seat was moved to France, from where the following six popes held their pontifical offices for over 70 years, following the dictates of the French kings. Subsequently, a crisis arose in the Catholic Church, called the Papal Schism, which lasted approximately 45 years. During that period, the church had up to three Popes simultaneously, who warred against each other; and at one point, the Conciliar Movement with representatives from England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, branded them as heretics, authorizing the persecution of Pope John XXIII to force him to resign. The Adventist Bible Commentary, volume IV, page 863, commenting on the aforementioned events, records the following: “The decline of papal power became fully evident during the so-called Babylonian captivity (1,309 – 1,377) when the French forcibly moved the papal seat from Rome to Avignon, in France. Shortly after the return to Rome, what is known as the great papal schism (1,378 – 1,417) began. During that time, there were at least two and sometimes three rival Popes, each threatening and excommunicating their opponents; and claiming to be the true Pope.
It is worth noting that in the following two centuries, Pope Paul IV recruited Protestants to fight against the Catholic emperor Ferdinand I, and Pope Urban VIII allied with Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden who was a protestant, to fight against Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor who led the Catholic armies.
Regarding the detention and exile of Pope Pius VI in 1798, it is important to note that before the aforementioned event, the French government had decided to respect the religious freedom of the Roman people, and the physical integrity and religious status of their leader; for which it offered a salary of 2,000 Roman shields to maintain his rank. What the Pope was not allowed to do was continue to exercise political authority in Rome, so new civil authorities were appointed for the city. Due to this, Pius VI made plans to have the new authorities assassinated. When the plot was discovered, the French government decided to remove the Pope from Rome, sending him initially to the Augustine convent in Siena and then to the Great Charterhouse monastery in Florence; accompanied by his doctor, his chamberlain, and his cook. Because from these places, in some way, Pius VI continued to incite the rebellion and killing of the French and their Roman sympathizers; the French Directorate decided to move him to Valence in France, where he was assigned the governor’s house, allowing him to form a court with all his servants.
The detention and exile of Pius VI in 1798 was an extreme measure taken by the French government, which initially intended for Pius VI to continue to exercise his religious responsibility as the leader of the Roman church. To claim that the detention of Pius VI represented an extreme case of papal humiliation and outrage that had not occurred in the past, as we have believed; and that this event marks the end of the prophecy, is to ignore history, because as we have seen, in the 10th and 11th centuries four popes were sent to prison; three of whom were strangled and one was sentenced to death by starvation. More recently in the 16th century, Pope Clement VII was sent to prison where he was held captive for six months, subject to ignominious treatment.
At this point, we must ask ourselves the question: Did the 1,260 years of papal supremacy end in 1798? To answer that question, we must first ask ourselves three other questions: Can we affirm that papal supremacy began in 538, when the pontiff in that year, who was supposed to initiate the religious persecution of the saints, was the one persecuted, captured, and held captive for approximately ten years? Can we affirm that there was papal supremacy, that is, political-religious supremacy over emperors, kings, and princes for 1,260 years, when two of the three main exponents of papal supremacy were deposed from their pontifical positions by the rulers of the time? Can we affirm that papal supremacy ended in 1798, when in that year the French government decided to respect the religious authority of the Pope and give him the freedom to fulfill his papal duties; an initiative that Pius VI ruined by inciting the people under his pontifical authority to kill the French and their Roman sympathizers? If we cannot answer affirmatively to the previous questions, it first indicates that there was no papal supremacy for 1,260 years in the Middle Ages; and secondly, that the little horn that was prophesied to oppress the saints was not the papacy during that period of history.
The above does not deny that there was intolerance and persecution by the religious power of the time, in this case the papacy; but the same happened when the Protestants had power, as in England with the Protestant Inquisition that led to the brutal persecution of papal sympathizers in the 16th and 17th centuries; as well as the martyrdom of tens of thousands of Anabaptists in northern Europe by Lutherans, Calvinists, and Zwinglians.
Before concluding this exposition, we must ask ourselves the following question: If the little horn was not represented by the papacy from the 6th century to the 18th century, what power does the little horn of Daniel 7 represent?, and at what moment is dominion over the saints of the Most High really taken away? Blessings”
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