The Signs of the Times, Vol. 13 (1887)
January 6, 1887
"The Ten Kingdoms in the Dark Ages" The Signs of the Times 13, 1 ,
pp. 3, 4.
WE have now shown not only the rise of the ten kingdoms foretold in the
prophecy, but we have traced directly to the great States of modern Western
Europe, the seven of the ten nations which remained after the uprooting of the
three to establish the Papacy.
To form of these kingdoms an empire such as that of Rome, ws the ambition
of Charlemagne, and of others after him, "but the unity of the empire and the
absolute power of the emperor were buried in his grave." In his grandsons design
of the mighty Charles was dissipated into a dream. It was this same ambition that
led Otto the Great to Rome, to his compact with the Pope, and to the
establishment of the Holy Roman Empire. But "the Imperial Crown was the most
fatal gift that could have been offered them all things, it deprived them of nearly
everything. And in doing this, it inflicted on many generations incalculable and
needless suffering." In theory, the Emperor was "the secular lord of the world,"
but in fact, he was but the servant and the tool of the Papacy. The Imperial office
was the symbol of united power, but the nations which were connected with the
empire were, in fact, the most divided of all the European nations. This was true
of the empire as long as it existed, and when it was destroyed by Napoleon in
1806, it was only that he might establish, in reality, a great European Empire,
with himself as Cesar, Augustus, Constantine, Charlemagne, and Otto all in one.
"He picture to himself the creation of feudal States, believing
that he could make them acceptable, and preserve them from the
criticism which was beginning to assail ancient institutions, by
establishing them on a scale so grand that, as our pride would be
enlisted, our reason might be silenced. He believed that once again
he could exhibit what history has already witnessed–the world
subject to a 'People-King;' but that royalty was to be represented in
his own person. A combination of Eastern and Roman institutions,
bearing, also, some resemblance to the times of Charlemagne, was
to transform the sovereigns of Europe into great feudatories of the
French Empire."–Memoirs of Madame de Remusat, chap. 12.
The English newspaper had said:–
"If Bonaparte succeeds in accomplishing his system of Federal
Empire, France will become sovereign arbiter of almost the whole
continent. He was delighted at this prediction, and resolutely strove
to realize it."–Id., chap. 20.
"The European phalanxes were gradually giving way before
him, and he began to believe that he was destined to regulate the
