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CHURCH LETTER
TEMPORAL POWERS - Eternal Purposes
` Then I saw another Beast coming out of the sea '
In the course of time there come moments which can only be seen in retrospect as defining moments in history. The Western Reformation was one such moment. It led to a halt in the universal quest to establish the Kingdom of God on earth (that is, Christendom) under the sole authority of the Vicar of Christ, the Pope - to use the full title first given to the Imperial Roman Caesars, Ponticus Maximus, signifying total universal authority over all its Imperial domains. This was a defining moment, for out of that Reformation came forth Protestantism which led to the secularisation of Christendom in the form of a multitude of National Churches appearing, all undergirding the temporal power of the kings of their various kingdoms instead of those kings being subjected to a higher authority, the Ponticus Maximus. This defining moment led to religious wars which eventually spilled out of Greater Europe and engulfed the whole world, and which will continue until that ultimate soon-to-come `Defining Moment in history' when the KING of kings comes to establish His Kingdom on earth.
But first in this Letter must come a short history of Greater Europe in order to bring home the reality of what we have called a `defining moment in history'. We have written more fully of the two main contenders to imperial power in Greater Europe in our study entitled `Beyond the Storm . . .a Ripened Harvest'. This sets out the continual conflicts between two dominant Frankish tribes which settled in southern Europe in the 5th century, the Merovingian Franks, from which came the semi-mystical Clovis, the founder of what could be called the old widespread kingdom of France. As this line weakened a new leader rose up in the person of Charles Martel, who founded the Carolingian line of the Franks and from whom also came the semi-mystical Charlemange. From the Carolingians came the Mayors of the Palace of Austrasia, who as they became more powerful usurped the power of their Merovingian masters and became the dominant power over Greater Europe. Over the centuries this battle for supremacy between the two Frankish powers of the Merovingians and the usurping Carolingians has caused the wars that have ravaged Greater Europe and have have only been held in check by the universal claims of the spiritual authority of Popes who believe they have authority as `Vicar of Christ' over all Roman lands. But with no temporal power to enforce those beliefs a Pope must work to establish a spiritual dominance over those temporal powers, subjecting them to a Higher Authority for whom he speaks.
In this Letter we are mainly concerned with the usurping Carolingian line of power, for it was through this Imperial line that the Roman Church had sought to regain its universal power over the kingdoms of this earth. This Christendom was broken by that defining moment in history known as the Protestant Reformation - and with that we have brought a third imperial power into this Letter, that of Imperial Rome under the authority of the `Popes' (Ponticus Maximas, an earlier Roman title of imperial power now vested in a Pope).
In order to keep this Letter short we move on into the history of the Caroligian (the Germanic) line and to the House of Babenburgh, from whom in the 9th century came the Austrian Dukes. By marriage into the female line of the Byzantine Emperor in the early 12th century the influence of the Babenburgh dynasty extended into both western and eastern parts of the old Roman Empire. Also by marriage, into this House of Babenburgh came the powerful House of Habsburg, with Albert 4th, the son of that union, becoming the Duke of Austria. Thereafter through marriage and inter-marriage the House of Habsburg became the dominant power in Greater Europe, lasting over six hundred years until 1918 when the imperial rule of the Habsburgs came to an end.
The name Habsburg comes from the name of their Family Seat `the castle (or house) of the hawk'. Although there is no direct hereditary link, the Habsburgs claimed (and convinced themselves) that they descended from the great Carolingian Charlemange, the first Holy Roman Emperor who was crowned in that position by the Pope in AD 800. As we shall see, this `self-conviction' was common to the Carolingian line through their early usurping work against the Merovingians. This self-conviction later came through a chaplin to Frederich Barbarosa - a later Habsburg Emperor of fame who `proved to his satisfaction that Romans and Germans are of one seed . . . Romans and Germans are of one populance'. This self-conviction accepted that, as Charlemange was the first embodiment of this dual ancestry of Romans and Germans the Habsburgs stood in direct line of succession to the first Holy Roman Emperor - it therefore followed that first a Habsburg from the royal line of the Dukes of Austria must be crowned King of the Romans and afterwards crowned by the Pope as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Finally in AD 1440 Frederick 3rd was elected King of the Romans and twelve years later in AD 1452 he was crowned by Pope Nicholas 5th, the first Habsburg to become Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
This system of rulership would continue until the 16th century when Martin Luther struck an unintentional blow to the universal Catholic ambition of Papal authority over all earthly kings. Earlier in AD 1512 at the Diet of Cologne the title of the empire was changed to `the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation', but by the 18th century it had fallen out of use, leading to the Holy Roman Empire being formally dissolved in AD 1806 by the Emperor Francis 2nd. It has been said that Francis 2nd, after the defeat and death of Francis 1st by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitze, dissolved the title and claim to the Holy Roman Empire in order to stop the empire falling under the rule of Napoleon - for he had married the Austrian Arch Duchess Marie-Louise of the Habsburg line, thereby enabling himself to claim the title of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Be that as it may, the spirit of the Habsburgs' universal ambition was not extinguished by that act, for although no Protestant was ever elected to the imperial throne - and not all Emperors were strictly German - since the 14th century Renaissance a German heritage was regarded as vital for the claim of Emperor to be considered legitimate.
Although the title and claims of the Holy Roman Empire were dissolved in AD 1806 it was said of Frederich Barbarosa - one of the greatest Emperors who died returning from the Crusades and whose resting place is not known - that he is resting on his throne under the Kyffhauser mountains in Thurringa waiting for his release into his inheritance. A poet once said of him:
" As one people cry, `Hail, lord of the world,
hail our Caesar, through God's grace you rule
above all other kings'. "
Such is the power of the mythology of the House of the Habsburgs! During medieval times the Habsburgs had split into two parts, the Austrian House and the Spanish House, but the Spanish line, although illustrious, came to an end in AD 1700 when the Emperor Charles 2nd died childless, leaving the Austrian Habsburgs to carry their House into whatever future that lay ahead at that time.
With that brief historical background in place we can now return to our main concern which begins with Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation in AD 1517. Five hundred years have passed since then and now in the year 2017 we see the shadow of Frederich Barbarosa strangely close. We now see that this Letter is but a continuation of a Letter written in 2016 under the title `Eternal Purposes . . . Temporal Powers . . upon this Rock I will build My Church'. In that earlier Letter we set out a brief history of the Church, that is, His `Eternal Purpose' - a rather ambitious effort for such a short Letter which stopped at the 1517 Reformation. Little did we know then that one year later we would be writing this much shorter Letter entitled `Temporal Powers . . Eternal Purposes . . then I saw another Beast coming out of the earth'. This concerns the temporal earthly powers, which apart from the short history you have read above starts at the Reformation of AD 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the Wittenburg Church. We mentioned earlier this `protest' of Martin Luther which eventually led to the break-up of universal Christendom under the earthly authority of its spiritual head, the Roman Pope, who together with the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor had long before convinced themselves and their known world that they derived their spiritual and temporal authority through continuity with the old Roman Empire.
The Protestant movement shattered that long-held delusion as the collective nations of the old Roman Empire broke free from that imperial system of rule. But in order to hold authority over their subjects the leaders of those separate State Nations needed the blessing of the Church, and so arose the many National Churches, each one endorsing the sovereign claims of nationhood vested in charismatic leaders enthroned and anointed by a `national priesthood'. The national leaders whom people accept are those who understand and can harness national aspirations, but the anointing of such leaders by a `national priesthood' inevitably leads to a `one nation chosen by God above all others' mentality and spawns civil religions within those separated State Nations. It has been said that `a savage bows down to idols of wood and stone, but the civilised man bows down to idols of flesh and blood'. Therefore `salvation' now lay in this world . . . in the future . . . in a national social order which when threatened by another nation also `chosen by God' would lead to war! This is what is meant by the earlier expression that Protestantism secularised Christendom. This transformation of a spiritual religion into a secular religion happens over a long period of time before becoming conviction in the minds of the people that they are a Christian nation. This is endorsed, indeed promoted, by continual quasi Christian-national commemorations to the national honour.
This Protestant Reformation led to a Catholic counter-Reformation - which takes us back to the original founders of Europe, the Frankish Merovingians and the usurping Germanic Carolingians whose disputes and wars over territory have formed the geo-political face of Europe. The year 1618 saw the outbreak of the first European Thirty Years War, a series of twelve wars spread over thirty years which were essentially religious national wars between Protestant and Catholic States in a continual battle for supremacy between France and the Habsburg dynasty. War broke out when the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand 2nd sought to impose the Catholic religion on all subjects of his Empire and the Protestant States of that Empire rebelled against that imposition. The devastating war tore through all Europe leaving in its wake widespread famine, disease, destruction and the near-collapse of the participants. It led to the rise of Bourbon France, whose land had not been the battleground of this war, and so France regained her original `Merovingian supremacy' and became the dominant force in the 17th century. This first Thirty Year War was brought to an end by The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which established the sovereignty of independent national States and severely curtailed the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire.
And so Europe settled into a long period of uneasy peace. Minor wars continually broke out but were curtailed and controlled by a `balance of power' diplomacy centered on Great Britain and its changing allies. Even the devastating French Revolution - which brought forth Napoleon Boneparte with his dreams of forming a universal empire by marrying into the Habsburg dynasty Marie Louise, a daughter of the Austrian Emperor - was brought to nought through this system of balance-of-power diplomacy. With the curtailing of the power of the Habsburg Empire through The Peace of Westphalia Germany lost its dominant position for two hundred years until once again it was threatened by the break-up of the economic union which it had been slowly building with the surrounding nations. This unleashed the second Thirty Year European War in 1914, which by its end in 1945 Germany had not only Greater Europe in its grasp but was also seeking to draw into its destructive embrace large parts the world.
This second Thirty Year European War was but a continuing war between the Franco Merovingians and the Germanic Carolingians, now in the modern forms of France and Germany. It was ended in 1945 not by a balance of power by Great Britain but by a coalition between America and Great Britain, the Allied Forces, into a new geo-political balance of power which drew others in to bring the conflict to an end. Once again Europe was left devastated and bankrupt with untold numbers dead through starvation, disease and violence. As with the first Thirty Years War it changed the face of the power structure of Europe, now with the rise of America which was used to rebuild the shattered world. However this new dominant power was not European, and we have seen that quietly and steadily the true dominant power has been emerging since when in 1951 in The Treaty of Paris there came the beginning of the European Union, which was initially dominated by France with Germany broken, bankrupt and divided. But since 1990 and the re-unification of Germany we have seen that the centuries-old rivallry for supremacy in Europe has been settled by Germany. France `won the battle' for supremacy, but Germany `won the war' and now sits at the head of a unified Europe, which is once more threatened by the break-up of its power-base which had been steadily and stealthily built since 1945. First the break-up was seen in the economic problems of Greece, which spilled over into other countries of the EU, and latterly by Great Britain's 2016 Referendum result - the so-called Brexit result which has led to nationalist cries from other members of the EU.
And so the pattern of Europe's past emerges again and will lead to a final European war as the age-old rivallry between the two dominant powers of Europe is once again revealed. We speak no prophetic statement in this Letter for we can safely leave that to others. However it is worth noting that Emperor Francis 2nd dissolved the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, although the Habsburgs ruled as Emperors of Austria until 1918 when the Empire totally collapsed. The House of the Habsburgs then passed to Otto, the last Grand Duke of Austria, who died in 2011 leaving the heir apparent, Karl von Habsburg. He is now known publicly as Karl Habsburg-Lothringen as all royal and nobility titles have been abolished by the Austrian government.
We will now briefly fill out the second half of his name (Lothringen) for this was accepted by the Austrian government in 1957 as the Habsburg family name. It comes from the Latin Lotharingia, which was the successor kingdom of the Carolingian Empire and is a `built up name' from its first king Lothair 2nd in approximately AD 946. The name has become the German Lothringen and was adopted by the Plalzgrafs, the Counts of the Palace, as their family name which then passed to the Babenburg dynasty into which the Habsburgs married. It can therefore be said that Otto Habsburg, stripped of all royal titles, added to his name `Lothringen', signifying to those who understood that the Habsburgs live in the `continuous present' as rulers of the (now in abeyance) Holy Roman Empire, for Karl was baptised -and regarded as such - as Archduke Karl of Austria and his heir is listed as Archduke Ferdinand!
Although Karl's father Otto renounced all monarchical claims to the throne in 1961, when his son Karl was accepted as Archduke of the House of Habsburg he was invested, along with other royal honours, with the premier one of Sovereign Knight of the Austrian Imperial and Royal Order of the Golden Fleece. This Order, when formed, drew heavily upon the Greek legend of the mythological figure of Jason who was sent to find the golden fleece, for whoever wore it had supreme authority and sovereign power. Karl Habsburg-Lothringen is still known as such in all social gatherings of the old nobility! As we said previously, the Habsburgs live in a `continuous present', like their early ancestor Frederich Barbarosa - resting on his throne and waiting in the continuous present!
Thus we have brought into this Letter `Temporal Powers . . Eternal Purposes' the continuing power of the Merovingians and the Carolingians with `another Beast coming out of the sea'. This is the mystical union between the spiritual and the temporal which raises the historical question, `Who is the greater; he who blesses or he that is blessed?' - a conflict ever present between the rulers of this earth. The answer to that we shall see at the end of this Age!
Selah!
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