Hi Nathan, Here's the specific reference to 539CE per the "Bible Students" I found on the web:
REF: http://www.biblestudents.org/presence/time-pro.htm
539 A.D.
Dan. 12:11 gives us the starting date for these periods of time. "...from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up..."
The one special false doctrine, or fundamental error, which led to the full rejection of Papacy by our Lord and made it in his sight the desolating abomination was the Mass. Christ's sacrifice was once for all and forever - a continual, ever efficacious sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. However, each time the Mass is offered in sacrifice, the false doctrine claims a fresh sacrifice of Christ for the particular persons and sins to which the priest offering it mentally applies it. The corner stone of the Reformation was, that the forgiveness of sins was effected by Christ alone, as a consequence of his sacrifice at Calvary, and not by indulgences, confessionals and masses.
Although Papacy existed before 539 A.D., it wasn't recognized as the chief authority in Rome until the fall of the Heruli, the Ostrogoths, and finally the Exarchs in A.D. 539.
Where two events occurring at different times are mentioned, as in this case, we must always reckon from the time that both were true. Although the Mass took the daily sacrifice away earlier, it wasn't until 539 A.D. that the Papacy was "set up" in power in Rome.
P.S. I posted earlier that it was the "Holy Roman Empire" etc. but that was way off, sorry. I had forgotten the specific reference.
L.G.