It is rather difficult to trace the true work of God during those times; for his "saints" were either ignored by the professed multitude or else regarded as heretics. But there existed in different countries bands of people who opposed the doctrines and ecclesiastical tyranny of Rome and who claimed adherence to the simple, primitive faith of Christ as expressed in the gospel. Among these were the Cathari, Lombards, Albigenses, Waldenses, and Vaudois. I will not say that all these so-called heretics are to be regarded as the true people of God, but from the few records that we have of them, derived chiefly from their enemies, it seems clear that there were among them many who were truly "saints" and who clung tenaciously to the true faith of Christ. God's Word and Spirit were therefore prophesying, although in an unnatural condition, symbolized by the sackcloth state of the witnesses. We must also remember that even among the Catholic party were to be found noble persons whose hearts were true to whatever truth they had and whose emotions and aspirations at times broke over the bounds of traditional theology and gave expression to sentiments Scriptural and sublime. The time period first specified in this special scene is the same twelve hundred and sixty years that marks the reign of the beast and therefore closes with the reformation of the sixteenth century. We shall have occasion to return to this series later and trace its predictions down to our own times. CHAPTER XIII ERA OF MODERN SECTS [Sidenote: Another epoch predicted] We have seen that the 1,260-year universal reign of the first beast of Revelation 13 ends with the period of the Reformation. The exact manner in which this should be accomplished is not definitely given in the prophecy, aside from the statement, "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword" (verse 10). This description would seem to indicate a period of captivity in which the papacy would be deprived of its great power, after which it would be finally destroyed; and this agrees with Paul's description of the papacy in 2 Thessalonians 2, where he speaks of that Wicked "whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming" (verse 8). And Daniel, speaking of the end of the 1,260-year reign of the same papal beast, points out a reformation time when "they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (Dan. 7:26).