pertain to the dragon, only one remained to have an existence after this change in the empire took place.  After the Emperors, the sixth and last head that existed in Rome in its dragonic form, came the Popes, the only head that existed after the empire had nominally become Christian.  The “Exarch of Ravenna” existed so “short a space,” Rev. 17:10, that it has no place in the general enumeration of the heads of this power.

From these considerations, it is evident that the head which received the mortal wound, was none other than the papal head.  This conclusion cannot be shaken.  We have now only to inquire when the papal head was wounded to death.  It could not certainly be till after its full development; but after this, the prophecy marked out for it an uninterrupted rule of 1260 years from its establishment in 538, till the revolution of 1798.  Then the papacy was, for the time being, overthrown.  General Berthier, by order of the French Directory, moved against the dominions of the pope in January, 1798.  February 10, he effected an entrance into the self styled eternal city, and, on the 15th of the same month, proclaimed the establishment of the Roman republic.  The pope, after this deprivation of his authority, was conveyed to France as a prisoner, and died at Valence, Aug. 29, 1799.

This would have been the end of the papacy, had this overthrow been made permanent.  The wound would have proved fatal had it not been healed.  But, though the wound was healed, the scar, so to speak, has ever since remained.  A new pope was elected in 1800, and the papacy was restored, but only to a partial possession of its former privileges.

Let the reader look carefully at this event.  It furnishes a complete fulfillment of the prophecy; and it is the only event in all Roman history which does this; for though the first six heads were each, in turn; exterminated, or gave place to a succeeding head, of no one of them could it be said that it received a deadly wound, and was afterward healed.  And as this overthrow of the papacy by the French military must be the wounding of the head mentioned in Rev. 13:3, so, likewise, must it be the going into captivity, and the killing with the sword, mentioned in verse 10; for it is an event of the right nature to fulfill the prophecy, and one which occurred at the right time; namely, at the end of the time, times, and a half, the forty-two months, or the 1260 years; and no other event can be found answering to the record in these respects.  We are not left, therefore, with any discretionary power in the application of this prophecy; for God, by his providence, has marked the era of its accomplishment in as plain a manner as if he had proclaimed with an audible voice, Behold here the accomplishment of my prophetic word!