What is the meaning of 'pompous words' of the little horn in history?

To answer your question I am quoting from Bible Readings for the Home, pages 103-105. If you're interested in getting a copy, please reach out to us and we will post it.

THE KINGDOM AND WORK OF ANTICHRIST

What is said of the little horn as compared with the ten horns of the fourth beast of Daniel 7?

"He shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings." (Daniel 7:24)

Note: The Papacy, which arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire, differed from all previous forms of Roman power in that it was an ecclesiastical despotism claiming universal dominion over both spiritual and temporal affairs, especially the former. It was a union of church and state, frequently with the church dominant.

"The Pope, who calls himself 'King' and 'Pontifex Maximus, is Caesar's successor." — Adolf Harnack, What Is Christianity? (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1903), p. 270.

THE PAPACY AND GOD

What attitude of rivalry was the Papacy, represented by the little horn, to assume toward the Most High?

"And he shall speak great words against the most High." (Daniel 7:25)

How does Paul, speaking of the man of sin, describe this same power?

"Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thessalonians 2:4)

Note: The following extracts from authoritative works, most of them by Roman Catholic writers, will indicate to what extent the Papacy has done this:

• "All names which in the Scriptures are applied to Christ, by virtue of which it is established that he is over the church, all the same names are applied to the Pope." — Robert Bellarmine, Disputationes de Controversiis, Tom. 2, "Controversia Prima," Book 2 (*De Conciliorum Auctoritate" (On the Authority of Councils)), chap. 17 (1628 ed., vol. 1, p. 266), translated.

• "For thou art the shepherd, thou art the physician, thou art the director, thou art the husbandman; finally, thou art another God on earth." — Christopher Marcellus's Oration in the Fifth Lateran Council, 4th session, in J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum... Collectio, vol. 32, col. 761, translated.

• “For not man, but God separates those whom the Roman Pontiff (who exercises the functions, not of mere men, but of the true God), having weighed the necessity or benefit of the churches, dissolves, not by human but rather by divine authority." — "The Decretals of Gregory IX," book 1, title 7, chap. 3, in Corpus Juris Canonici (1555-56 ed.), vol. 2, col. 203, translated.

• "The pope is the supreme judge of the law of the land.... He is the vicegerent of Christ, who is not only a Priest forever, but also King of kings and Lord of lords." — La Civilta Cattolica, March 18, 1871, quoted in Leonard Woolsey Bacon, An Inside View of the Vatican Council (American Tract Society ed.), p. 229, n.

• "Christ entrusted His office to the chief pontiff;... but all power in heaven and in earth has been given to Christ;... therefore the chief pontiff, who is His vicar, will have this power." — Corpus Juris Canonici (1555-56 ed.), vol. 3, Extravagantes Communes, book 1, chap. 1, col. 29, translated from a gloss on the words Porro Subesse Romano Pontiff.

• "Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of the lower regions. (Infernorum)." — Lucius Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca, "Papa" (the Pope), art. 2 (1772-77 ed., vol. 6, p. 26), translated.

• "All the faithful of Christ must believe that the Holy Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff possesses the primacy over the whole world, and that the Roman Pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and is true vicar of Christ, and head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians; and that full power was given to him in blessed Peter to rule, feed, and govern the universal Church by Jesus Christ our Lord." -First Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ (Pastor Aeternus, published in the fourth session of the Vatican Council, 1870), chap. 3, in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom New York: Charles Scribner's Sons), vol. 2, p. 262.

• "We teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharged of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed that His Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church." — Ibid., chap. 4, pp. 269, 270.

Among the twenty-seven propositions known as the "Dictates of Hildebrand," who, under the name of Gregory VII, was Pope from 1073-87, occur the following:

• 2. That the Roman pontiff alone is justly styled universal.

• 6. That no person.. may live under the same roof with one excommunicated by the Pope.

• 9. That all princes should kiss his feet only.

• 12. That it is lawful for him to depose emperors.

• 18. That his sentence is not to be reviewed by any one; while he alone can review the decisions of all others.

• 19. That he can be judged by no one.

• 22. That the Roman Church never erred, nor will it, according to the Scriptures, ever err.

• 26. That no one is to be accounted a Catholic who does not harmonize with the Roman Church.

• 27. That he can absolve subjects from their allegiance to unrighteous rulers." — Cesare Baronius, Annales, year 1076, secs. 31-33, vol. 17 (1869 ed.), pp. 405, 406, translated.

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