“By Thy Words Thou Shall Be Condemned” (Matt 12:37)

The Council of Trent, as is well known, declared the Latin Vulgate to be the only authentic version of Scripture, and doctors at the council preferred it to the Hebrew and Greek text itself—though the prophets and the apostles wrote in the latter. For over a thousand years the Roman Church Latinized everything, and to a large ex-tent still does use the Latin: in the Mass, prayers, hymns, litanies, canons, decretals, bulls, titles, inscriptions, and councils.

The “number of his [the beast’s] name” (Verse 17) is “the number of a man,” the “man of sin” (2 Thess 2:3). In other words, the first beast is the Man of Sin, the Papacy. Since according to the prophecy this mystical number is the number of a man, the suggestion is that the number is to be derived from the name or title of some particular symbolic man.

The most plausible explanation, noted by others, is a certain Latin title the pope has taken to himself and allowed others to apply to him. The title is “Vicarius Filii Dei,” that is, “Vicar of the Son of God.” Vicar, meaning “instead of” or “substitute,” describes the pope acting as the representative on earth of God or Christ. Jesus’ death on the Cross-is sometimes spoken of as a vicarious sacrifice, meaning a substitutionary sacrifice, namely, a man’s life for a man’s life. The letters of this title, which the Latin’s used as numerals, add up as follows:

V        = 5

I          = 1

C        = 100

A        = 0

R        = 0

I          = 1

V        = 5

S        = 0

 

F         = 0

I          = 1

L         = 50

I          = 1

I          = 1

 

D        = 500

E        = 0

I          = 1

Total = 666,

Note: In Latin the “U” of Vicarius becomes a “V,” and the double U [W] is actually a double “V.”

The following testimony that this title was formerly inscribed on the papal crown was given by the late Elder D.E. Scoles, of Washburn, Mo,

“I have met two men who declare that they have seen this specific crown; and their testimony is so perfectly in agreement that I am convinced that what they saw is true. The first man was M. De Latti, a Sabbath-keeper who had previously been a Catholic priest, and had spent four years in Rome. He visited me when I was pastor in St. Paul, Minn., several years ago. I showed him my tract, “The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast.” He at once told me that the inscription was not correctly placed in my illustration. He stated that he had often seen it in the museum at the Vatican, and gave a detailed and accurate description of the whole crown. When my tract was published, I was ignorant of the arrangement of the words of the Latin inscription, hence, in the illustration of the crown, placed them in one line. Brother De Latti at once pointed out the mistake, and said the first word of the sentence was on the first crown of the triple arrangement, the second word on the second part of the crown, while the word Dei was on the lower division of the Triple Crown. He also explained that the first two words were in dark-colored jewels, while the Dei was composed entirely of diamonds.

During a tent meeting, which I held in Webb City, Mo., I presented the subject, “The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast.” I used charts to illustrate it, one being a reproduction of the crown as Brother De Latti had described it. A Presbyterian minister was present, Rev. B. Hoffman, and when I described the crown, he spoke out publicly and made a statement to the congregation, saying that while in Rome studying for the priesthood, he had seen this very crown, and noted its inscription, and that the word Dei was composed of one hundred diamonds. I met him and learned his name, and visited him at his home, and was convinced from his description that this was the identical crown that Brother De Latti had seen, but which has been denied by many. I then asked him for a written statement, and he gave me the following:

“To Whom It May Concern: This is to certify that I was born in Bavaria in 1828, was educated in Munich, and was reared a Roman Catholic. In 1844 and 1845 I was a student for the priesthood in the Jesuit College in Rome. During the Easter service of 1845, Pope Gregory XVI wore a triple crown upon which was the inscription, in jewels, Vicarius Filii Dei. We were told that there were one hundred diamonds in the word Dei; the other words were of some other kind of precious stones of a darker color. There was one word upon each crown, and not all on the same line. I was present at the service, and saw the crown distinctly, and noted it carefully. In 1850 I was converted to God and to Protestantism. Two years later I entered the Evangelical Church ministry, but later in life I united with the Presbyterian Church, of which I am now a retired pastor, having been in the ministry for fifty years. I have made the above statement at the request of Elder D. E. Scoles, as he states that some deny that the pope ever wore this tiara. But I know that he did, for I saw it upon his head. Sincerely yours in Christian service, (Signed) ‘“B. Hoffman. Webb City, Mo., Oct. 29, 1906.”

The following extract is from a work entitled “The Reformation”, bearing the date of 1832:

“Mrs. A.,” said Miss Emmons, “I saw a very curious fact the other day; I have dwelt upon it much, and will mention it. A person, lately, was witnessing a ceremony of the Romish Church. As the pope passed him in procession, splendidly dressed in his pontifical robes, the gentleman’s eye rested on these full, blazing letters in front of his miter: ‘VICARIUS FILII DEI,’ the Vicar of the Son of God. His thoughts, with the rapidity of lightning, reverted to Revelation 13:18. Will you turn to it?” said Mrs. A. Alice opened the New Testament and read: “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” She paused, and Miss Emmons said, “He took out his pencil, and marking the numerical letters of the inscription on his tablet, it stood 666.”

“Here we have indeed the number of a man, even the ‘man of sin;’ and it is a little singular, perhaps providential, that he should select a title which shows the blasphemous character of the beast, and then cause it to be inscribed upon his miter, as if to brand himself with the number 666. The foregoing extract doubtless refers to a particular pope on a particular occasion. Other popes might not wear the title emblazoned on the miter, as there stated. But this does not affect the application at all; for the popes all assume to be the ‘Vicar of Christ’ (see Standard Dictionary under ‘vicar’), and the Latin words given above are the words which express that title, in the form ‘vicar of the Son of God;’ and their numerical value is 666.”

“The tiara, in ecclesiastical usage, is the triple crown of the pope. It is a beehive-shaped, somewhat bulging, approximately 15-inch-high headpiece preferentially made of either silver or gold cloth encircled by three coronets, with a mound and cross of gold on top and two loose pendants or streamers hanging from the back. “Tiaras of Renaissance popes were especially ornate and precious, but tiaras of some popes contained no precious stones.”

“From the 14th century the popes have worn the triple crown. The three tiers of the tiara, richly ornamented with precious stones, indicated the power of the pope over heaven by his canonizing [saints], over purgatory by his granting of indulgences, and over the earth by his pronouncing anathemas.

For these reasons the Latinized version of the mysterious cabalistic (Kabbala) number 666 is most favored as the one intended in Holy Writ. But others feel that since the Apocalypse was originally written in Greek, the mystery should be resolved in that language. Accordingly, the following alternate title, based upon uncial Aeolian Greek (Latin is of that origin), and bearing some credibility, is given for the Italian Church, that is, the Roman Church.

I        = 10

T       = 300

A       = 1

L       = 30

I        = 10

K      = 20

A      = 1

 

E      = 5

K      = 20

K      = 20

L      = 30

H     = 8

S     = 200

I       = 10

A     = 1

Total = 666,

This view was sponsored by one named Pareus, who tried the substitution of every other conceivable national Church instead of Italika—Greek, Nestorian, Eutychian, Jacobite, Abyssinian, Armenian, English, Lutheran, Swedish, etc.—but no other Church answered. (The Keys of Revelation, Pages 361- 364)

To be continued.