to the decisive epochs of 1530 and 1531.  The History of the Reformation, properly so-called, is then in my opinion almost complete in those countries.  The work of faith has there attained its apogee:  that of conferences, of interims, of diplomacy begins....  The movement of the sixteenth century has there made its effort.  I said from the very first, It is the History of the Reformation, and not of Protestantism, that I am relating.”—­Preface to Volume IV.

Protestantism, then, is to be distinguished from the Reformation.  Considering its prominence in the ecclesiastical world, we should naturally expect to find it represented in the symbols of the Revelation.  Strangely enough, few commentators ever make the least effort to identify Protestantism with any of the symbols of this book.  Mohammedanism is there; Paganism is there; the true church is there, and, it is universally admitted, the false church is there.  Therefore, whether Protestantism be true or false, it must be there, but where?

The application of the first beast of Revelation 13 to the papacy has been so clearly established that the point is well-nigh indisputable.  The period of its universal supremacy is clearly limited to the 1,260 years.  And everyone knows that it was the sixteenth century reformation that ended that period of tyranny.  We have shown that that period ends with A.D. 1530.  The prophecy immediately following describes Protestantism in these words: 

[Sidenote:  The two-horned beast]

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:  and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom.  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” (Rev. 13:  11-18).