n the dust."--_"Rome and Its Papal
Rulers," p. 436._

The decree of the French Convention in 1793 was followed by the stroke
with the sword at Rome in 1798. The full history is told in fewest words
by a Roman Catholic writer, Rev. Joseph Rickaby, of the Jesuit Society:

"When, in 1797, Pope Pius VI fell grievously ill, Napoleon gave
orders that in the event of his death no successor should be
elected to his office, and that the Papacy should be
discontinued.

"But the Pope recovered. The peace was soon broken; Berthier
entered Rome on the tenth of February, 1798, and proclaimed a
republic. The aged pontiff refused to violate his oath by
recognizing it, and was hurried from prison to prison in
France. Broken with fatigue and sorrows, he died on the
nineteenth of August, 1799, in the French fortress of Valence,
aged eighty-two years. No wonder that half Europe thought
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the
Papacy was dead."--_"The Modern Papacy," p. 1 (Catholic Truth
Society, London)._

These events of the French Revolution marked the ending of the prophetic
period of papal supremacy. A "deadly wound" had been given the Papacy.
And the blow with the sword at Rome was struck in 1798, just 1260 years
from the year 538, when the sword of empire struck that decisive blow
against the Goths at Rome, and prepared the way for the new order of
popes, the kingly rulers of church and state.

Of the condition of the Papacy at this time Canon Trevor says:

"The Papacy was extinct: not a vestige of its existence
remained; and among all the Roman Catholic powers not a finger
was stirred in its defense. The Eternal City had no longer
prince or pontiff; its bishop was a dying captive in foreign
lands; and the decree was already announced that no successor
would be allowed in his place."--_"Rome and Its Papal Rulers,"
p. 440._

"No wonder that half Europe," the Jesuit writer says, "thought
Napoleon's veto would be obeyed, and that with the Pope the Papacy was
dead." But he adds that "since then the Papacy has been lifted to a
pinnacle of spiritual power" unreached before.

The stroke dealt the Papacy by the French Revolution was not to be the
ending of it, by any means, according to the prophecy. These events
proclaimed the ending of the prophetic period of special supremacy.
Another prophecy distinc