The description of the great harlot and of the beast upon which she sits.
The harlot Babylon clothed vvith diuers ornaments, 6 and drunken of the blood of Martyrs, sitteth vpon a beast that hath seuen heades and ten hornes: 7 al which things the Angel expoundeth.
1And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials and spoke with me, saying: Come, I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters:Venne uno de' sette Angeli, che aveano le sette ampolle, e parlò meco, dicendo: vieni, farotti vedere la condannazione della gran meretrice, che siede sopra le molte acque,AND there came one of the seuen Angels vvhich had the seuen vials, & spake vvith me, saying, Come, I vvil shevv thee the damnation of the great harlot, vvhich sitteth vpon many vvaters,Et venit unus de septem angelis, qui habebant septem phialas, et locutus est mecum, dicens: Veni, ostendam tibi damnationem meretricis magnæ, quæ sedet super aquas multas, 2With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. And they who inhabit the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her whoredom.Con la quale hanno fornicato i Re della terra, e col vino della sua fornicazione si sono ubbriacati gli abitatori della terra.vvith vvhom the kings of the earth haue fornicated, and they vvhich inhabite the earth haue been drunke of the vvine of her vvhoredom.cum qua fornicati sunt reges terræ, et inebriati sunt qui inhabitant terram de vino prostitutionis ejus. 3And he took me away in spirit into the desert. And I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.E mi condusse in ispirito nel deserto. E vidi una donna a cavallo d'una bestia di colore del cocco, piena di nomi di bestemmia, che avea sette capi, e dieci corna.And he tooke me avvay in spirit in to the desert. And I savv a womā sitting vpon a scarlet coloured beast, ful of names of blasphemie, hauing seuen heades, and ten hornes.Et abstulit me in spiritu in desertum. Et vidi mulierem sedentem super bestiam coccineam, plenam nominibus blasphemiæ, habentem capita septem, et cornua decem. 4And the woman was clothed round about with purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication.E la donna era vestita di porpora, e di cocco, e sfoggiante d'oro, e di pietre preziose, e perle, e aveva in mano un bicchiere d'oro pieno di abominazione, e di immondezza della sua fornicazione.And the vvoman vvas clothed round about vvith purple and scarlet, and gilted vvith gold, and pretious stone, and pearles, hauing a golden cup in her hand, ful of the abomination & filthines of her fornication.Et mulier erat circumdata purpura, et coccino, et inaurata auro, et lapide pretioso, et margaritis, habens poculum aureum in manu sua, plenum abominatione, et immunditia fornicationis ejus.
5And on her forehead a name was written: A mystery: Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications and the abominations of the earth.E nella fronte di essa il nome scritto: Misterio: la gran Babilonia, madre delle fornicazioni, e delle abominazioni della terra.And in her forehead a name vvritten, Mysterie: Babylon the great, mother of the fornications and the abominations of the earth.Et in fronte ejus nomen scriptum: Mysterium: Babylon magna, mater fornicationum, et abominationum terræ. 6And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And I wondered, when I had seen her, with great admiration.E vidi questa donna ebria del sangue de' santi, e del sangue de' martiri di Gesù. E fui sorpreso da ammirazione grande al vederla.And I savv the vvoman drunken of the bloud of the Sainctes, and of the bloud of the martyrs of IESVS. And I marueled vvhen I had seen her, vvith great admiration.Et vidi mulierem ebriam de sanguine sanctorum, et de sanguine martyrum Jesu. Et miratus sum cum vidissem illam admiratione magna. 7And the angel said to me: Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.E dissemi l'Angelo, perché stupisci? Io dirotti il misterio della donna, e della bestia, che la porta, la quale ha sette capi, e dieci corna.I And the Angel said to me, Vvhy doest thou maruel? I vvil tel thee the mysterie of the woman, and of the beast that carieth her, which hath the seuen heades and the ten hornes.Et dixit mihi angelus: Quare miraris ? ego dicam tibi sacramentum mulieris, et bestiæ, quæ portat eam, quæ habet capita septem, et cornua decem. 8The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit and go into destruction. And the inhabitants on the earth (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) shall wonder, seeing the beast that was and is not.La bestia, che hai veduto, fù, e non è, e salirà dall'abisso, e andrà in perdizione: e resteranno ammirati sii abitatori della terra (quegli, i nomi de' quali non sono scritti nel libro della vita dalla fondazione del mondo) vedendola bestia, che era, e non è.The beast vvhich thou savvest, vvas, and is not, and shal come vp out of the bottomeles depth, and goe into destruction: and the inhabitants on the earth (vvhose names are not vvritten in the booke of life from the making of the vvorld) shal maruel, seeing the beast that vvas, and is not.Bestia, quam vidisti, fuit, et non est, et ascensura est de abysso, et in interitum ibit: et mirabuntur inhabitantes terram (quorum non sunt scripta nomina in libro vitæ a constitutione mundi) videntes bestiam, quæ erat, et non est.
9And here is the understanding that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth: and they are seven kings.Qui sta la mente, che ha saggezza. Le sette teste sono i sette monti, sopra de' quali siede la donna, e sette sono Re.And here is vnderstanding, that hath vvisedom. The seuen heades: are seuen hilles, vpon vvhich the vvoman sitteth, and they are seuen kings.Et hic est sensus, qui habet sapientiam. Septem capita, septem montes sunt, super quos mulier sedet, et reges septem sunt. 10Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come, he must remain a short time.Cinque caddero, uno è, e l'altro non è ancora venuto: e venuto che sia, dee durar poco tempo.Fiue are fallen, one is, and an other is not yet come: & vvhen he shal come, he must tarie a short time.Quinque ceciderunt, unus est, et alius nondum venit: et cum venerit, oportet illum breve tempus manere. 11And the beast which was and is not: the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction.E la bestia, che era, e non è, essa ancora è l'ottavo: ed è di quei sette, e va in perdizione.And the beast vvhich vvas, & is not: the same also is the eight, and is of the seuen, & goeth into destruction.Et bestia, quæ erat, et non est: et ipsa octava est: et de septem est, et in interitum vadit. 12And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom: but shall receive power as kings, one hour after the beast.E le dieci corna, che hai veduto, son dieci Re: i quali non lutti per anco ricevuto il regno, ma riceveranno la potestà come regi per un'ora dopo la bestia.And the ten hornes vvhich thou sawest: are ten kings, vvhich haue not yet receiued kingdom, but shal' receiue povver as kings one houre after the beast.Et decem cornua, quæ vidisti, decem reges sunt: qui regnum nondum acceperunt, sed potestatem tamquam reges una hora accipient post bestiam. 13These have one design: and their strength and power they shall deliver to the beast.Questi son d'un sol sentimento, e porranno la loro potestà, e le loro forze in mano della bestia.These haue one counsel and force: and their povver they shal deliuer to the beast.Hi unum consilium habent, et virtutem, et potestatem suam bestiæ tradent. 14These shall fight with the Lamb. And the Lamb shall overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they that are with him are called and elect and faithful.Questi combatteranno coll'Agnello, e l'Agnello li vincerà: perché egli è il Signore de' Signori, e Re de' Regi, e quelli, che sono con lui, chiamati, eletti, e fedeli.These shal fight vvith the Lambe, and the Lambe shal ouercome them, because he is Lord of lordes, and King of kinges, & they that are vvith him, called, and elect, and faithful.Hi cum Agno pugnabunt, et Agnus vincet illos: quoniam Dominus dominorum est, et Rex regum, et qui cum illo sunt, vocati, electi, et fideles.
15And he said to me: The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples and nations and tongues.E dissemi: le acque, che hai vedute, dove risiede la meretrice, sono i popoli, le genti, e le lingue.And he said to me, The vvaters vvhich thou savvest vvhere the harlot sitteth: are peoples, and nations, and tonges.Et dixit mihi: Aquæ, quas vidisti ubi meretrix sedet, populi sunt, et gentes, et linguæ. 16And the ten horns which thou sawest in the beast: These shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and shall burn her with fire.E le dieci corna, che vedesti alla bestia: questi odieranno la meretrice, e la renderanno desolata, e ignuda, e mangeran le sue carni, e la struggeranno col fuoco.And the ten hornes vvhich thou savvest in the beast: these shal hate the harlot, and shal make her desolate and naked, and shal eare her flesh, and her they shal burne vvith fire.Et decem cornua, quæ vidisti in bestia: hi odient fornicariam, et desolatam facient illam, et nudam, et carnes ejus manducabunt, et ipsam igni concremabunt. 17For God hath given into their hearts to do that which pleaseth him: that they give their kingdom to the beast, till the words of God be fulfilled.Imperocché Dio ha posto loro in cuore di fare quello, che è piaciuto a lui: e di dare il loro regno alla bestia, finché le parole di Dio s'adempiano.for God hath giuen into their hartes, to doe that vvhich pleaseth him: that they giue their kingdom to the beast, til the vvordes of God be cōsummate.Deus enim dedit in corda eorum ut faciant quod placitum est illi: ut dent regnum suum bestiæ donec consummentur verba Dei. 18And the woman which thou sawest is the great city which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth.E la donna, che vedesti, ella è la città grande, che regna sopra i Re della terra.And the vvoman vvhich thou savvest: is the great citie, vvhich hath kingdom ouer the kinges of the earth.Et mulier, quam vidisti, est civitas magna, quæ habet regnum super reges terræ.
17:1
Witham
I must repeat what I have already taken notice of, both in the preface to the Apocalypse, and sometimes in the annotations, that there are three ways of expounding all the visions of this revelation, from the end of Apocalypse 3. to the end of chap 20:10. all of which seem grounded on the opinions of the ancient Fathers. According to the first, all these visions are only to be fulfilled in antichrist's time, a little before the end of the world. According to the second, the visions may be applied to particular events, which happened in the first three or four ages[centuries], under the persecuting heathens, till by Constantine, and the succeeding Christian emperors, idolatry by degrees was extirpated, and the faith of Christ triumphed over all its enemies, whether Jews or pagans. According to the third, by the great city of Babylon, is mystically and metaphorically signified all wicked great cities in the world, all the multitude of the wicked dispersed in all nations, their short and vain happiness, their persecutions and oppressions of the good and faithful servants of God, who live piously in this world, and who are called to be citizens of the celestial Jerusalem in the kingdom of God, where he reigneth for ever with his Angels and saints, and where they all reign with him, happy in his sight and enjoyment. I am more and more inclined to this third exposition, by reading this 17th chapter, with the contents of the 18th, 19th, and 20th chapters, till the 11th verse, and by reading what St. Jerome says in general terms, in his epistle to Marcella, tom. 4, part 1, p. 166, Nov. edit. "that all this book (of the Apocalypse) is either to be expounded spiritually, or if we follow a carnal interpretation, we must content ourselves with Jewish fables. And especially by reading what St. Augustine has delivered us upon the chief difficulties of the Apocalypse, in his 20th book de Civ. Dei[The City of God], from ch. VI. to ch. XVI. and from p. 578. to p. 594. tom. 7. Nov. edit. To expound then these chapters together according to this third interpretation. (Witham)
Calmet
Of the great harlot. Nothing can be better applied than this epithet to ancient Rome, which had conquered almost all the kingdoms of the known world, as it is said in ver. 18., she is the great city, a kingdom which hath dominion over the kings of the earth; ver. 9., it was built upon seven mountains; ver. 6., was watered with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus Christ; and in fine, ver. 5., it was the great Babylon, as St. Peter, in his first epistle, pleases to call it. (Calmet)
Come, I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot,...Babylon....the mother of the fornications. By this harlot, and this Babylon, is signified the multitude of all the wicked of all times and places, who have abandoned themselves to sensual pleasures, and sought for their happiness in riches and worldly grandeur; for this reason she is said to carry on her forehead this inscription, a mystery; that is, to be understood in a mystical sense of all the wicked, who make up as it were one city, as St. Augustine observes, which may be called Babylon, the city of confusion, the city of idolatry, and of all manner of vices.
The beast, that is, the devil, carries her, whose suggestions the wicked follow. He comes out from the bottomless pit. He was, that is had a much greater and more extensive power over the wicked world before Christ's coming and incarnation; and he is not, that is according to St. Augustine, his power hath been much extenuated and lessened since that time. He is bound or chained up for a thousand years, as it is said, Apocalypse 20:2. By which may be understood all the time from Christ's coming, and the establishing of his Christian Church, till the last and severest persecution under antichrist. See St. Augustine, lib. xx. de Civ. Dei. ch. VII. And when he shall come again, and be let loose, as it were, in antichrist's time, he must continue a short while: for all the ancient fathers agree, by the interpretations they give to the Scripture, that antichrist, and consequently the devil with antichrist, must reign but a short time. The scarlet coloured beast, the devil, called the prince of this world, on whom the harlot gilded with gold sat; that is, all the wicked, and particularly all wicked kings and princes, with their worldly greatness, who were drunk with the wine of her prostitution; that is, who abandoned themselves and indulged their passions with all sensual pleasures, and contented themselves with the vain and deceitful happiness of this life; to be convinced of which, the Angel is said to have taken St. John in spirit into a wilderness from the company of the wicked world, the better to see and contemplate the vanity of their short and false happiness. This woman, this harlot, this Babylon, this multitude of the wicked, especially the heathen persecuting emperors at Rome, and in all other places, (and they who acted against the Christians under them) are said to be drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs, by putting the Christians, the Catholics and the servants of God to death, from the foundation of the world to its consummation, by the instigation of the beast, the devil. The beast, the devil, is represented with seven heads and ten horns; that is, with many heads and many horns, signified by the numbers seven and ten. See St. Augustine, ch. XXIII. p. 606.
Witham
The seven heads, as it is said, ver. 9, are seven mountains, and seven kings, that is a great many. And also the ten horns, (ver. 12.) are ten kings. (Witham)
17:4
Cup....full of the abomination, etc. These are common scriptural expressions for the abominations of idolatry, with which ancient Rome had notoriously polluted herself. For not content with worshipping her own heathenish gods, she adopted those of all the countries and nations she had subdued. In Rome itself there were no less than 420 heathenish temples, so that one of their most famous poets, Ovid, (lib. 1:Trist.) says: Sed quae de septem totum circumspicit orbem, Montibus Imperii, Roma, Deûmque locus.
17:5
A mystery. That is, a secret, because what follows of the name and title of the great harlot is to be taken in a mystical sense.
Challoner
Babylon. Either the city of the devil in general; or, if this place be to be understood of any particular city, pagan Rome, which then and for 300 years persecuted the Church, and was the principal seat both of empire and idolatry. (Challoner)
17:6
Pastorini
Drunk with the blood of the saints. Such was pagan Rome, for innumerable were the martyrs she put to death, both throughout the extent of her vast dominions, and even in her own bosom, the city itself. These were the victims of the ten persecutions raised by Rome against the Christians. Such was the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Pastorini)
17:8
Challoner
The beast which thou sawest. This beast, which supports Babylon, may signify the power of the devil; which was, and is not, being much limited by the coming of Christ, but shall again exert itself under antichrist. The seven heads of this beast are seven mountains or empires, instruments of his tyranny; of which five were then fallen, as above, Apocalypse 13:1. The beast itself is said to be the eighth, and is of the seventh; because they all act under the devil, and by his instigation, so that his power is in them all, yet so as to make up, as it were, an eighth empire distinct from them all. (Challoner)
17:9
Seven mountains. We have already observed that ancient Rome stood upon seven mountains. The same cannot be said of modern Rome, as some of the hills are not inhabited.
The seven heads....are seven kings, or seven Roman emperors, who were particularly distinguished as the chief supporters of idolatry, and the most virulent persecutors of the Christian religion. Their names were Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, Valerian, Dioclesian and Antichrist.
Five of them are fallen or gone, viz. Nero, Domitian, Severus, Decius, Valerian, who supported the idolatrous empire for a time; one is, viz. Dioclesian, with whom the reign of idolatry falls; and the other is not yet come, that is, antichrist.
17:10
Witham
Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet. The meaning of this is obscure. And perhaps it were better to own with St. Augustine that we do not know the meaning, than to advance suspicions and conjectures. But it is not improbable that by these seven kings may be understood the collection of kings, in what are called the seven ages of the world, from its creations to its consummation. The first age, is reckoned from Adam to Noe[Noah], and the deluge: the second age, from Noe to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to Moses; the fourth, from Moses to David; the fifth, from David to Christ. These five were past, and fallen, when St. John wrote. The sixth is, and is to last from Christ to antichrist. And another, the seventh, is not, being the time of antichrist, and only a short time. See Cornelius a Lapide on this verse. (Witham)
17:11
Witham
The beast that was, and is not: is the eighth: and is of the seven. The devil reigns with the kings in all these ages: he is of the seven, because he is the prince under whom reign the wicked in all ages: he is also the eighth, inasmuch as he is their prince, and they are only his instruments. (Witham)
17:12
Witham
The ten horns, or ten kings, which thou sawest, as yet have received no kingdom, but shall receive power as kings one hour after the beast; or, as it is in the Greek, with the beast. According to the common interpretation, this must be referred to ten, or many kings, who are different from all the wicked kings that had been, and who should follow and live at the same time with the beast, by which here seems to be signified antichrist. Or, if by these ten kings we understand all the wicked kings, who were to come after St. John wrote, to the end of the world, they had not yet kingdoms, but the kingdoms which they should have, and all their vain happiness, would be very short, and at the same time they would be under the beast, and subject to him. (Witham)
Ten horns. These denote ten kings or ten powers; namely, Goths, Huns, Alans, Vandals, Saxons, Burgundians, Franks, Heruli, Suevi, etc., the chief of the Barbarians that invaded the Roman empire in the fifth century.
Pastorini
They shall receive power as kings, one hour after the beast; that is, they will serve under their own leaders, to assist pagan Rome a little against its enemies; and their one design is afterwards to take the fruitful provinces of Rome to themselves, which we know they did. (Pastorini)
Challoner
Ten kings. Ten lesser kingdoms, enemies also of the Church of Christ; which nevertheless shall be made instruments of the justice of God, for the punishment of Babylon. Some understand this of the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarous nations that destroyed the empire of Rome. (Challoner)
17:13
Witham
These have one design, to make themselves as happy as they can in this world: and their power they shall give to the beast, being always slaves of the devil. (Witham)
17:14
Witham
These shall fight with the Lamb. Their actions and affections being always led away with the love of this world, which is an enemy to Christ and his doctrine: but the Lamb, Christ, shall overcome them, and punish them, when he pleases: for he, Christ, God and man, is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and as St. John says again, (chap. 19:16,) has written on his thigh, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, to signify to us his divinity, or divine nature. (Witham)
All these different people were either heathens or heretics, and of course were bitter enemies to the Catholic religion; but the Lamb overcame them, by turning their hearts, and converting them to Christianity.
17:15
Witham
etc. The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, signify the different nations, in all which is a multitude of wicked, especially among the great ones of this world. (Witham)
And the ten horns....shall hate the harlot. That is, ancient Rome; they will make her desolate, by laying waste all her provinces; they will make her....naked, by stripping her of her shining ornaments, her gaudy palaces, Egyptian obelisks, magnificent temples, theatres, triumphal arches, etc.
Pastorini
They will eat her flesh, by plundering her of her wealth and riches, with which she has fed herself by plundering the rest of the world; and lastly, they will burn her with fire; all which we know has been accomplished, even to a tittle. (Pastorini)
Calmet
Alaric, the Goth, in 410[A.D. 410], took the city, pillaged it, and delivered it over to fire and the plunder of his soldiers for three days. The only privileged places that escaped were the churches. (Calmet)
Pastorini
Genseric plundered it for fourteen days, in 455, and set fire to it. Odoacer took it, and deposed the emperor, in 476; and Totila, in 546, burnt it, and reduced it to a solitude. Procopius says he left not one human creature in the city. (Pastorini)
These shall hate the harlot. There is no true love or friendship among them: the wicked hate, envy, make war against the wicked, though they make alliances sometimes one with another.
For God hath put it into their hearts, permits them, and makes use of them as instruments of his justice, against one another: and they give their kingdom to the beast: the wicked reign under the prince of this world, the devil, as long as God pleases, and till his words and judgments are fulfilled. All the contents of the following chapters agree with this exposition. When the Angel cries, (chap. 18.) Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, the false happiness of the wicked is come to its last period; though St. John speaks sometimes by anticipation, especially when the rejoicings of the saints are represented, and the miseries and consternation of the wicked, to encourage the servants of God to patience and perseverance under their trials and persecutions in this mortal life. Babylon will in a short time be the habitation of devils: and therefore the good are admonished by these words, go out from her, my people, avoid and detest her wicked ways. Almighty God hath remembered her iniquities, the provocations of the wicked, nor can they escape the hand of his justice. They lived as if they were never to be called to an account. Babylon, blinded with sensual delights, pride, and vanity, said in her heart, I sit as a queen above others, and sorrow I shall not see; like the wicked in the psalmist, who is Lord over us? (Psalm xi.) But all her plagues (chap. 18:8.) come in one day, at the day of death, or the day of judgment. Then are represented the weeping and mourning of all the accomplices of the wicked, like the disappointment of merchants by the burning and destruction of a great city, where they found so great profit in disposing and selling their merchandise. After this, in the 19th chapter, the blessed in heaven sing Alleluia, etc. the God Almighty hath reigned, or is about to reign. At the latter end of the 19th chapter, ver. 17, it is said, I saw an Angel standing in the sun; saying to all the birds, etc. Here are represented God's judgments on the wicked, as it were after a great battle, in which kings and many noblemen are slain, so that the birds are invited to drink of their blood.
The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet. We may take this as spoken by anticipation of antichrist, and his great impostor, or false prophet. For still after this, (chap. 20:7.) is foretold, according to St. Augustine, the last persecution by the devil, and by antichrist with Gog and Magog; for it is then that fire came down from heaven, and was to devour them; and there it is expressed that the devil, who seduced them, and all the wicked, was cast into the lake of fire, into hell, where also the beast, antichrist, and the false prophet shall be tormented for ever and ever. Now to give a short account of the two other expositions. The first of them, followed by a great many, (as may be seen in Alcazar and Cornelius a Lapide) holds that all these visions will come to pass in the short reign of antichrist, a little while before the end of the world. These interpreters are divided about the signification of Babylon: some understand Babylon the metropolis of Chaldea, where they think that antichrist will begin to reign; others understand Constantinople, the seat of the Turkish empire, which is also built upon seven hills: but many understand Rome, not Christian Rome, but Rome that was a heathen city in the first ages[centuries], and which they think will be heathen Rome again in antichrist's time. See a great number of the fathers and interpreters for this opinion cited by Cornelius a Lapide. By the beast that carries her with her idolatry and vices, they understand the devil; and by the seven heads and ten horns, kings, who shall be in the time of antichrist, and submit themselves to him. All these kings and persecutors will receive their power one hour after, or with the beast, by which they rather understand antichrist, whose reign shall be short, as shall be that of the devil, who shall be let loose, and have greater power for a little while. By the eighth, who is of the seven, they understand the devil, because all the seven will be as it were his instruments. The same kings who committed fornication with the harlot, are also said to hate her, and burn her, says Gagneius, by being the cause of her damnation and destruction: for none are greater enemies than sinners' accomplices. As to the other exposition, (for which see Alcazar, the bishop of Meaux[Bossuet], etc.) they look upon all these visions till the last persecution under antichrist, (chap. 20:7. 10.) to be already fulfilled by the destruction of the heathen Roman empire, as they are also expounded by Dr. Hammond. Babylon is the ancient heathen Rome, mother of fornication, that is of idolatry and of all kind of vices, sitting upon a scarlet beast, supported by the pagan emperors in all their grandeur, pomp, and vanity. When it is said of her, that she was, and is not, this is not to be taken with a regard to the visions one after another represented to St. John, nor with a regard to the time when he wrote under Domitian. She is said to come again out of the bottomless pit, when the same heathen worship was again renewed by Julian the apostate, who had a design and endeavoured to destroy the Christian religion. The seven heads are ingeniously applied to Dioclesian, Maximian Herculeus, Constantius Chlorus, Maximus, and Maxentius, which in a vision of St. John, are said to be the five that are fallen. One, to wit, Maximinus, is the sixth, represented as then in being; and another, the seventh, it is said is not yet come; to wit, Licinius, whose persecution but a short time. The eighth, who is called also one of the seven, they take to be Maximian Herculeus, who had laid down the empire with Dioclesian, but took it up again, and so was the eighth, but of the seven mentioned before. The ten horns represented as not yet having a kingdom, but who are to receive power as kings, one hour after the beast, or at the fall of the empire, are those kings and princes by whom the Roman empire was destroyed; as the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks, Huns, Alans, Suevi, also Persians and Saracens, who invaded and dismembered different parts of the empire: but no great stress need be laid on the exact number of ten; which, as St. Augustine says, may be taken for a great many. They all come with the same design, (ver. 13.) to enrich and settle themselves in the dominions of the empire; yet afterwards they gave their power to the beast, by entering into alliances with the emperors, as Alaric, the Goth, and others did. They at first fought with the Lamb, being then heathens, and afterwards many of them Arians, till the Lamb overcame them, and brought them to the true Christian faith. They are said to have hated the harlot, making her destitute by pillaging Rome and divers other cities: they devoured her flesh, her treasures, God putting it into their hearts, making use of them as instruments to punish these wicked persecuting idolaters; yet they afterwards sometimes agreed to give her their strength by agreements and alliances, till the time that God decreed the empire should be in a manner destroyed. These interpreters conclude that by Babylon must necessarily be understood Rome, because it is said that seven heads, upon which the woman sitteth, are seven mountains; and it is well known that Rome is built upon seven hills; and secondly, because the woman is said to be the city, which hath dominion over the kings of the earth. But first, those seven mountains are also called seven kings; secondly, Constantinople is also built upon seven hills; thirdly, seven may be taken for many. And I cannot but take notice, that some expressions in this and in the next chapter, seem to agree better with that exposition, which takes Babylon for the multitude of all the wicked: as when we read (chap. 18:3.) that all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; (ver. 23.) that all nations were deceived by her sorceries; (ver. 24.) that in her was formed the blood of the prophets, and of the saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth. For though the Roman empire was of so large an extent, yet a greater part of the world was never subject to the Romans: many apostles and martyrs were not put to death at Rome, nor by the Romans, but by the Persians, and in India, etc. so these general expressions are more easily expounded, if by the great city of Babylon we understand the multitude of the wicked in all parts of the world: not but that these visions may also regard heathen Rome as the chief place where such persecutions were acted, and where all kind of vices were practices.
Witham
N. B.[Nota Bene, Note Well?] Some have taken notice, that the English Protestants print the 5th verse of this chapter in capital letters: Mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. I will suppose that these words are only printed in this manner, because they contain an inscription; as when it is said, that he who was called the word of God, had written upon him, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, which words are also printed in great letters: but if our adversaries do this, to make the Church of Rome to be looked upon as the whore of Babylon, and the pope as antichrist, nothing can be more unfair, nothing more ridiculous, as I may shew on the following chapters. (Witham)
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A mystery.... That is, a secret; because what follows of the name and title of the great harlot is to be taken in a mystical sense. Babylon.... Either the city of the devil in general; or, if this place be to be understood of any particular city, pagan Rome, which then and for three hundred years persecuted the church; and was the principal seat both of empire and idolatry.
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The beast which thou sawest.... This beast which supports Babylon, may signify the power of the devil: which was and is not, being much limited by the coming of Christ, but shall again exert itself under Antichrist. The seven heads of this beast are seven mountains or empires, instruments of his tyranny; of which five were then fallen. (See chap. 13.1, and below, ver. 10.) The beast itself is said to be the eighth, and is of the seven; because they all act under the devil, and by his instigation, so that his power is in them all, yet so as to make up, as it were, an eighth empire, distinct from them all.
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The final damnation of the vvhole companie of the reprobate, called here the great vvhoore.
These many vvaters are many peoples. v. 15.
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5. Babylon.] The Protestāts here vvil needs haue Babylō to be Rome, but not in S. Peters epistle. In the end of S. Peters first Epistle, vvhere the Apostle dateth it at Babylon, vvhich the auncient vvriters (as vve there noted) affirme to be meant of Rome: the Protestants vvil not in any vvise haue it so, because they vvould not be driuen to confesse that Peter euer vvas at Rome, but here for that they thinke it maketh for their opinion, that the Pope is Antichrist, and Rome the seate and citie of Antichrist, they vvil needes haue Rome to be this Babylon, this great vvhore, and this purple harlot. for such fellovves, in the exposition of holy Scripture, be ledde onely by their preiudicate opinions and heresies, to vvhich they dravv al things vvithout al indifferencie and sinceritie.
But S. Augustine, Aretas, and other vvriters, most commonly expound it, neither of Babylon itself a citie of Chaldaea or Aegypt, By Babylon (according to al the fathers) is signified, partly the whole societie of the wicked, partly the citie of Rome, only in respect of the terrene & heathenish state of them that persecuted the Church not of Rome, or any one citie, vvhich may be so called spiritually, as Hierusalem before chap. 11 is named spiritual Sodom and Aegypt: but of the general socitie of the impious, & of those that preferre the terrene kingdō and cōmoditie of the vvorld, before God & eternal felicitie. The author of the Commentaries vpon the Apocalypse set forth in S. Ambrose name, vvriteth thus: This great vvhoore sometime signifieth Rome, specially vvhich at that time vvhen the Apostle vvrote this, did persecute the Church of God, but othervvise it signifieth the vvhole citie of the Diuel, li. aduers. Iudan. that is, the vniuersal corps of the reprobate. Tertullian also taketh it for Rome, thus, Babylon (saith he) in S. Iohn is a figure of the citie of Rome, being so great, so proud of the Empire, and the destroier of the saincts. Vvhich is plainely spoken of that citie, vvhen it vvas heathen, the head of the terrene dominion of the vvorld, the persecutor of the Apostles and their successors, the seate of Nero, Bomitian, and the like, Christs special enemies, the sinke of idolatrie, sinne, and false vvorship of the Pagan gods. Then vvas it Babylon, vvhen S. Iohn vvrote this, and then vvas Nero and the rest figures of Antichrist, and that citie the resemblance of the principal place (vvheresoeuer it be) that Antichrist shal reigne in, about the later end of the vvorld.
Novv to apply that to the Romane Church and Apostolike See, either novv or then, vvhich vvas spoken onely of the terrene state of that citie, as it vvas the seate of Peter, vvhen it did slea aboue 30 Popes Christs Vicars, one after an other, & endeuoured to destroy the vvhole Church: that is most blasphemous and foolish.
The Church in Rome vvas one thing, The Church of Rome is neuer called Babylon. & Babylon in Rome an other thing. Peter sate in Rome, and Nero sate in Rome, but Peter, as in the Church of Rome: Nero, as in the Babylon of Rome. Vvhich distinction the Heretikes might haue learned by S. Peter him self ep. 1. chap. 5. vvriting thus, The Church saluteth you, that is in Babylon, coëlect, So that the Church and the very chosen Church vvas in Rome, vvhen Rome vvas Babylon, vvhereby it is plaine that, vvhether Babylon or the great vvhoore do here signifie Rome or no, yet it can not signifie the Church of Rome: vvhich is novv, and euer vvas, differing from the terrene Empire of the same. And if, as in the beginning of the Church, Nero and the rest of the persecuting Emperours (vvhich vvere figures of Antichrist) did principally sit in Rome, so also the great Antichrist shal haue his seate there, as it may vvel be (though others thinke that Hierusalem rather shal be his principal citie:) yet euen then shal neither the Church of Rome, nor the Pope of Rome be Antichrist, but shal be persecuted by Antichrist, and driuen out of Rome, if it be possible. for, to Christs Vicar and the Romane Church he vvil beare as much good vvil as the Protestants novv doe, and he shal haue more povver to persecute him and the Church, then they haue.
S. Hierom epist. 17. c. 7. to Marcella, to dravv her out of the citie of Rome to the holy land, vvarning her of the manifold allurements to sinne and il life, that be in so great and populous a citie, alludeth at length to these vvordes of the Apocalypse, and maketh it to be Babylon, and the purple vvhoore, but straight vvay, lest some naughtie person might thinke he meant that of the Church of Rome, vvhich he spake of the societie of the vvicked only, he addeth: There is there in deeds the holy Church, there are the triumphans monuments of the Apostles, and Martyrs, there is the true confession of Christ, Ro. 1. there is the faith praised, of the Apostle, and Gentilitie troden vnder foote, the name of Christian daily aduancing it self on high. Vvhereby you see that vvhatsoeuer may be spoken or interpreted of Rome, out of this vvord Babylō, it is not meant of the Church of Rome, but of the terrene state, in so much that the said holy Doctor (li. 2. aduers. Iouinian. c. 19.) signifieth, that the holines of the Church there, hath vviped avvay the blasphemie vvritten in the forehead of her former iniquitie. But of the difference of the old state and dominion of the Heathen there, for vvhich it is resembled to Antichrist, and the Priestly state vvhich novv it hath, reade a notable place in S. Leo serm. 1 in natali Petri & Pauli.
5. Mysterie.] S. Paul calleth this secrete and close vvorking of abomination, Mysterie. the mysterie of iniquitie. 2. Thessal. 2. and it is called a litle after in this chapter vers. 7. the Sacrament (or mysterie) of the vvoman, and it is also the marke of reprobation and damnation.
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6. Drunken of the bloud.] This woman signifieth al persecutors of saincts. It is plaine that this vvoman signifieth the vvhole corps of al the persecutors that haue and shal shede so much bloud of the iust: of the Prophets, Apostles, and other Martyrs from the beginning of the vvorld to the end. The Protestants folishly expound it of Rome, for that there they put Heretikes to death, and allovv of their punishment in other countries: but their bloud is not called the bloud of saincts, Putting heretikes to death, is not to shede the bloud of saincts. no more then the bloud of theeues, mankillers, and other malefactors: for the sheding of vvhich by order of iustice, no Commonvvealth shal ansvver.
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It signifieth the short reigne of Antichrist, vvho is the cheefe horne or head of the beast.
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9. Seuen hilles.] The Angel him self here expoundeth these 7 hilles to be al one vvith the 7 heads and the 7 kings: & yet the Heretikes blinded excedingly vvith malice against the Church of Rome, are so madde to take them for the seuen hilles literally, vpon vvhich in old time Rome did stand: that so they might make the vnlearned beleeue that Rome is the seate of Antichrist, The Protestants madnes in expounding the 7 hilles, of Rome: the Angel himself expounding it otherwise. But if they had any consideration, they might marke that the Prophets visions here are most of them by Seuens, vvhether he talke of heads, hornes, candlestickes, Churches, kings, hilles, or other thinges: and that he alluded not to the hilles, because they vvere iust seuen, but that Seuen is a mystical number, as sometimes Ten is, signifying vniuersally al of that sort whereof he speaketh, as, that the seuen heads, hilles, or kingdoms (which are here al one) should be al the kingdoms of the world that persecute the Christians: being heads and mountaines for their height in dignitie aboue others. And some take it, that there were seuen special Empires, kingdoms, or States, that vvere or shal be the greatest persecutors of Gods people, as of Aegypt, (hanaan, Babylon, the Persians, and Greekes, which be fiue-sixtly of the Romane Empire which once persecuted most of al other, and which (as the Apostle here saith) yet is, or standeth. but the seuenth, then vvhen S. Iohn vvrote this, vvas not come, neither is yet come in our daies: vvhich is Antichrists state, vvhich shal not come so long as the Empire of Rome standeth, as S. Paul did Prophecie. 2 Thessal. 2.
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Some expound it of ten smal kingdoms, into which the Romane Empire shal be deuided, vvhich shal al serue Antichrist both in his life and a litle after.
doe
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13. The same is the eight.] Vvhat is the eight beast. The beast it self being the congregation of al these vvicked persecutors, though it consist of the foresaid seuen, yet for that the malice of al is complete in it, may be called the eight. Or, Antichrist him self, though he be one of the seuen, yet for his extraordinarie vvickednes shal be counted the odde persecutor, or the accomplishment of al other, & therfore is named the eight. Some take this beast called the eight, to be the Diuel.
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Concordance 1 Tim. 6, 15. Apo. 19, 16.
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Not forcing or mouing any to folow Antichrist, but by his iust iudgement, & for punishment of their sinnes, permitting thē to beleeue and cōsent to him.
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18. The great citie.] If it be meant of any one citie, and not of the vniuersal societie of the reprobate (vvhich is the citie of the Diuel, as the Church & the vniuersal fellovvship of the faithful is called the citie of God) it is most like to be old Rome, The double interpretation of Babylon. as some of the Greekes expound it, from the time of the first Emperours, til Constantines daies, vvho made an end of the persecution. for by the authoritie of the old Romane Empire, Christ vvas put to death first, and aftervvard the tvvo cheefe Apostles, & the Popes their successors, and infinite Catholike men through out the vvorld, by lesser kings vvhich then vvere subiect to Rome. Al vvhich Antichristian persecutions ceased, vvhen Constantine reigned, and yelded vp the citie to the Pope, vvho holdeth not the kingdom or Empire ouet the vvorld, as the Heathen did, but the fatherhod and spiritual rule of the Church. Hovvbeit the more probable sense is the other, of the citie of the Diuel, as the author of the homilies vpon the Apocalypse in S. Augustine, declareth.
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Dress of Virgins 12
… And he carried me away in spirit; and I saw a woman sit upon a beast, and that woman was arrayed in a purple and scarlet mantle, and was adorned with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of curses, and filthiness, and fornication of the whole earth.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.37
… And I saw a woman who sate upon a beast. And that woman was clothed with a purple and scarlet robe; and she was adorned with gold, and precious stones, and pearls, holding a golden cup in her hand full of curses, and impurity, and fornication of the whole earth.”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.10
94. John wept sore, and, as he tells us, the mysteries of Christ were revealed to him. But that woman who, when she was in sin and ought to have wept, nevertheless rejoiced, and covered herself with a robe of purple and scarlet,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 46.12
12. Read the apocalypse of John, and consider what is sung therein of the woman arrayed in purple, and of the blasphemy written upon her brow, of the seven mountains, of the many waters, and of the end of Babylon.
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Tertullian † AD 220 Scorpiace 12
… The uncleanness, indeed, is washed away by baptism, but the stains are changed into dazzling whiteness by martyrdom. For Esaias also promises, that out of red and scarlet there will come forth the whiteness of snow and wool. When great Babylon likewise is represented as drunk with the blood of the saints,
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.30.4
… the name, however, is suppressed, because it is not worthy of being proclaimed by the Holy Spirit. For if it had been declared by Him, he (Antichrist) might perhaps continue for a long period. But now as “he was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the abyss, and goes into perdition,”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 29
… For if the blessed prophets who preceded us did not choose to proclaim these things, though they knew them, openly and boldly, lest they should disquiet the souls of men, but recounted them mystically in parables and dark sayings, speaking thus, “Here is the mind which hath wisdom,”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Daniel 2.4
… for “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled. And they are not yet fulfilled, as John says: “five are fallen; one is,” that is, the sixth; “the other is not yet come.”
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 15.13
… (he says, not only the ten, but also all who have been before him;) and he shall subdue three kings ; manifestly out of the ten former kings: but it is plain that by subduing three of these ten, he will become the eighth king; and he shall speak words against the Most High
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.26
… “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but shall receive power as if kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and give their strength and power to the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings.”
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Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus 1
“‘Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself, and took the form of a servant.’ What poorer, in respect of God, than the form of a servant? What more lowly, in respect of the King of all, than approach to fellowship in our poor nature? The King of Kings and Lord of Lords
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 62.12
… for the divine Scripture in the Apocalypse declares that the waters signify the people, saying, “The waters which thou sawest, upon which the whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes, and nations of the Gentiles, and tongues,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Christian Doctrine 3.25
… water denotes people, as we read in the Apocalypse,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 3.15
… In its origin it became unto me as lying water, having no certainty," —if the term "water" were never used figuratively and in the allegorical language of prophecy except to signify baptism, we should have trouble in discovering what these words of Jeremiah meant; but as it is, when "waters" are expressly used in the Apocalypse
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 2.103
… But that a people is commonly understood under the appellation of water is shown in the Apocalypse, where we understand "many waters" to mean "many peoples," not by any conjecture of our own, but by an express explanation in the place itself.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 3.33
… whereas it is not Isaiah but Jeremiah that says this of lying men, calling the people in a figure water, as is most clearly shown in the Apocalypse.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 75.3
… What then does this mystery mean? For it is not without a meaning. Attend, Beloved. Waters are put in the Apocalypse for a figure of peoples. For when in the Apocalypse John saw many waters, he asked what it meant, and it was told him that they were peoples.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 17.2
… That pool and that water seem to me to have signified the Jewish people. For that peoples are signified under the name of waters the Apocalypse of John clearly indicates to us, where, after he had been shown many waters, and he had asked what they were, was answered that they were peoples.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.11
… and we have heard from this epistle, “Believe not every spirit;” and those words of Solomon bear witness, “From strange water keep thee far.” What meaneth, “water”? Spirit. Does water always signify spirit? Not always: but in some places it signifies the Spirit, in some places it signifies baptism, in some places signifies peoples,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 1.3
… water of thee, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water, of which whoso drinketh shall never thirst, but it shall be made in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” Or, “by the running streams of waters” may be by the sins of the people, because first the waters are called “peoples” in the Apocalypse;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 77.17
17. And he continueth how? “The waters have seen Thee, O God, and they have feared and the abysses have been troubled” ( ver. 16 ). What are the waters? The peoples. What are these waters hath been asked in the Apocalypse,
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 7.4
… and often to watch alone when all who are without charge of the ship are at rest. How, moreover, having undertaken the burden of pastoral charge, can you have serenity of thought, seeing that it is written, Behold giants groan under the waters ( Job xxvi. 5 )? For, according to the words of John, The waters are peoples (
Anonymous A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop 5
… Moreover, by the waters, the cataracts broken forth meeting together on all sides, and growing, were signified the peoples which grew up for the desolation of the Church; as the Apocalypse teaches, saying, “The waters which thou sawest are peoples, and nations, and kingdoms.”
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1. "And there came one of the seven Angels, who had the seven vials." — From this it is clear that this destruction of Babylon pertains to the seven angels, vials and the final plagues, of which in the preceding chapter. Therefore there is no hysteron proteron here, as Ribera contends, but a correct sequence and order of things and times; concerning which matter more at verse 16. "Come, I will show thee the damnation of the great harlot," — namely Babylon, as verse 5 explains. You will ask, what Babylon is understood here? First, many understand the assembly of all the impious, or the world, and the world's glory, riches, delights, pomp, insofar as the city is founded upon these, or the assembly of the impious upon seven mountains, that is, upon the multitude of all proud kings, in which the devil is the head, and therefore this is the city of the devil, which is opposed to the city of God, just as Babylon was opposed to Sion, or Jerusalem, and builds itself by the love of self even unto contempt of God; concerning which matter St. Augustine wrote the books On the City of God. Thus Ambrose, Ticonius, Bede, Primasius, St. Thomas, Haymo, Rupertus, Gagneius, St. Augustine in Psalm. xxvi, exposition 2, Prosper in Half the Time, chapter vii. "This is," says Prosper, "that great Babylon throughout the world; but its daughters are whatever imitate its deeds and pride: nor should you think it a city existing in one place, which is scattered throughout the whole world." These therefore understand by Babylon the multitude of all the impious. To these are added Joachim, Seraphinus and Ubertinus, who by Babylon understand the assembly of the wicked, not indeed all, but only of Christians. But this seems mystical and too general; for John speaks of a certain city, which has power over the kings of the earth, as he himself says in the last verse, and which is to be overthrown and burned in the times of Antichrist by ten kings, as verse 16 says. And how can that which is said of Babylon overthrown in chapter xviii, verse 9, be fitting to an assembly of the impious: "And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication with her, and lived in delights with her, shall weep, and bewail themselves over her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of her torments." For these kings will be from the assembly of the impious; how then will they stand afar off and behold the burning of Babylon, and mourn over it, if Babylon is an assembly of the impious, and consequently contains these kings within itself? Again, how can that which is said here, verse 16, of kings equally impious be said of an assembly of the impious: "These shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire." For these kings will be from the assembly of the impious: how then can they hate it, make it desolate, burn it and eat it? Second, Aureolus understands by Babylon Saracenism, or the sect of Mahomet, which is most foul, and teaches fornication and all turpitude: whence it permits each man as many wives as he can support. By the beast he understands the Sultan of Egypt, who was despoiled of his kingdom, namely Syria and Egypt, by the Sultan of the Turks residing then in Persia. Babylon fell, that is, Saracenism in Syria, when the Christians in the year of Christ 1100, having defeated the Saracens, recovered the Holy Land. Third, Aretas and Caponsachius understand by Babylon Constantinople, because this is the metropolis of the Turks, enemies of Christ and the Church, and "sits upon many waters:" for it is adjacent to the Thracian Bosphorus. But John here understands by waters not the sea, but peoples: "The waters," he says in verse 15, "which thou sawest, are peoples." Fourth, some here properly understand Babylon, which was the metropolis of the Chaldeans; for they believe that Antichrist will come forth from Babylon, and will begin his kingdom there. They prove this because Nemrod, the first tyrant of the world, began to reign there, and afterwards Nabuchodonosor; and afterwards Antiochus Epiphanes ruled over it, who were types of Antichrist. Whence also Zacharias, chapter v, verse 11, saw a woman sitting in an amphora carried into Sennaar, that is into Babylon, and adds: "This is wickedness." Moreover, St. Jerome in chapter xi of Daniel, D. Soto in IV, dist. xlix, Question 1, article 1, Pererius, book XIV in Daniel, and Suarez, tome II, in III part., disputation liv, section 5, and others, believe that Antichrist will come from Babylon. But those things which John here says do not befit Babylon, as will soon be evident. The same I say of Jerusalem, which some (and Francis Suarez hints at this in the place just cited) understand here by Babylon. I say therefore: Babylon here and in the following chapter is Rome, not Christian, as it now is; but infidel and pagan, as it was in the time of St. John, and as it will be again in the time of Antichrist. This opinion is proved. First, because pagan Rome is "a great city which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth;" and John says that this is a woman, namely Babylon, in the last verse: and which hath "seven mountains," as he says of the same in verse 9; for this belongs to no other than to Rome alone. Second, because John asserts that the name of Babylon here is to be taken not properly, but mystically; for he says in verse 5: "Mystery, Babylon the great," etc. Therefore it signifies the most flourishing and most vicious city, which persecuted Christians, as Babylon of old persecuted the Jews. But such is pagan Rome. Third, because Rome and the Roman Emperors most fiercely in the time of St. John, and afterwards for three hundred years, not only in Rome but throughout the whole world, attacked the Church, so as to destroy it. Whence to no other than to pagan Rome belongs that which is in verse 6: "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus." And that which is in chapter xviii, last verse: "And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Fourth, because for this same reason Rome is called Babylon by St. Peter likewise, in his first epistle, chapter v, verse 13, that is, confusion of errors, vices and tyrants. "The Church," he says, "that is in Babylon (that is, in Rome, as Bede, Oecumenius, St. Thomas, Eusebius in the second book of his History, chapter xv, from Papias the disciple of St. John, St. Jerome in the Catalogue of Writers, in the Life of St. Mark, and others say) saluteth you, being elected together." For the same reason Rome and the Roman Emperors are called by St. Paul, in II Thessalonians ii, 7, "Mystery of iniquity;" where he also adds that Rome and the Roman Empire will last until Antichrist, and therefore the sign of the coming, or rather the present Antichrist will be the ruin of the Roman Empire. Fifth, St. John, recently cast by Domitian into a vessel of boiling oil, and thence banished to Patmos (where he wrote these things), saw and wrote these things for the consolation and strengthening of himself and of the faithful afflicted with him, namely that, being vexed by the Babylonians, that is, by the Roman Emperors, they would see God their avenger, who would burn Babylon with fire: therefore Babylon here is pagan Rome. This is the opinion first of St. Jerome in that passage of Isaiah xiv, The city of vanity is brought to nothing: "The city of vanity," he says, "shall be brought to nothing, or every city, or spiritual Babylon, which sitteth upon seven mountains clothed in purple, whose punishments we read of in the Apocalypse of St. John. And he well said the city of vanity. For if of heaven and earth, and all things that are earthly it is said: Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity; how much more should this be said of one city, which is a small part of the whole world?" The same, in the Prologue to the books of Didymus on the Holy Spirit: "When," he says, "I was in Babylon, and was a dweller in the land of the woman clothed in purple, and lived by the law of the Romans." The same, epistle 151 to Algasia, Question XI: "According to the Apocalypse of John on the forehead of the woman clothed in purple is written the name of blasphemy, that is, of eternal Rome." The same, in the preface to the eleventh book of his Commentary on Isaiah: "But if," he says, "in the exposition of the statue, and its feet and toes, I have interpreted the discrepancy of iron and clay concerning the Roman Empire, which Scripture shows to be first strong, then weak, let them not impute it to me, but to the Prophet. For neither should we so flatter princes that the truth of Holy Scripture be neglected, nor is a general discussion the injury of one person." Second, Tertullian, in the book Against the Jews, chapter ix: "So also Babylon," he says, "in our John bears the figure of the city of Rome, and therefore both great, and proud in kingdom, and a fighter against the Saints." He asserts the same thing in the third book Against Marcion, at the beginning. Third, St. Augustine, in the eighteenth book On the City of God, chapter ii, says that Babylon is as it were the first Rome. "So that it may appear," he says, "how Babylon as it were the first Rome, while the city of God, a stranger in this world, is carried on, etc. Where Rome itself is as it were a second Babylon." And in chapter xxii: "Rome was founded as another Babylon, and as the daughter of the former Babylon." And in chapter xxviii, he calls Rome the western Babylon. Paul Orosius, as it were a disciple, follows St. Augustine, in the second book of his History, chapter iv, where he shows that Rome is similar to Babylon in many respects. Fourth, Andrew of Caesarea, Arethas, Ambrose, Victorinus, Oecumenius, Viegas and Ribera here, and more fully in chapter xiv, verses 8 et seq., Lindanus, book IV of the Panoplia, chapter lxxxii; Sixtus Senensis, book II of the Bibliotheca, under the word Inscription of the Great Harlot; Cardinal Bellarmine, book II On the Pontificate, chapter ii; Alcazar, Apocalypse xiii, page 670, letter D, where he also cites for this opinion Cassiodorus, Apringius, Forerius, Gagneius, Salmerón, Pererius, Pradus, Hesselius, and about twenty others. Thomas Bozius holds the same view, book XXIV On the Signs of the Church, chapter vi, Francis Suarez, III part., tome II, disputation lix, section 2. All these interpret Babylon here as Rome unfaithful and pagan, such as it was in the time of John, and shall be again at the end of the world. To this is added the prophecy of St. Malachy, which Arnold Wion recounts in the Chronicles of the Order of St. Benedict, or in the Tree of Life, book II, chapter xl, at the end; for in it Malachy from his own age (he himself was contemporary with St. Bernard; for he wrote his life) depicts through symbols all future Roman Pontiffs until the end of the world; and he asserts that the last shall be Peter the Roman, of whom he prophesies thus: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, Peter the Roman shall sit, who shall feed the sheep in many tribulations; when these have passed, the seven-hilled city (Rome) shall be destroyed, and the terrible judge shall judge his people." These oracles of St. Malachy, Alphonsus Ciacconus aptly adapted to individual Pontiffs up to Clement VIII, as may be seen in Wion in the place cited. Heretics object: Rome is Babylon; therefore the Roman Church with its Pontiff is Babylon. I reply that the consequence is absurd and equally fallacious. For one thing is the city of Rome, another is the Roman Church. Again, one thing is pagan Rome, another is Christian Rome. St. John speaks of pagan Rome, such as it was in his time under Domitian the persecutor, not of Christian Rome, much less of the Roman Church. Thus under Domitian, Nero, Decius and similar rulers Rome was powerful, but impious; yet the Roman Church was pious and holy, indeed then it had the most illustrious Martyrs, virgins, priests and Pontiffs. Far be it therefore that he should wish to censure it, or St. Peter the Roman then Pontiff, St. John himself, who also at Rome for the faith of Christ, of Peter and of the Roman Church, suffered martyrdom in a cauldron of boiling oil before the Latin Gate. For the faithful Romans are "Martyrs of Jesus," whose blood, as verse 6 says, Babylon shed, that is pagan Rome, and the pagan Roman Emperors. This therefore is Babylon, not the Roman Church, whose founder, head and Pontiff was St. Peter. Wherefore the reproach, condemnation and destruction of pagan Rome here is the praise, exaltation, triumph and glory of Christian Rome, and of the Roman Church. For the more impious pagan Rome was, and raged against Christians, the more constant, victorious and glorious was Christian Rome, as is evident in its first three hundred years after Christ. The same shall be at the end of the world: yet many faithful and holy ones shall be in it, as they were of old, both public and hidden and concealing themselves in crypts and hiding places. Of these therefore, as well as of the Pontiff, greater was and shall be the virtue, praise and glory, in that among impious magistrates and citizens they persevere constant in faith and piety even unto martyrdom, than if Rome were wholly faithful and pious. Indeed the most illustrious Roman Martyrs drew all their glory from the persecution of the Roman Emperors, nor did the Roman faith ever flourish more than then. It is therefore a manifest paralogism of heretics, and a notable fraud and fallacy, when they distort those things which St. John and St. Peter say concerning ancient pagan Rome, to the Roman Church, or to Rome as it now is, namely faithful, and the seat and dominion of the Pontiff, who is the Vicar of Christ. Pagan Rome therefore under Nero and the succeeding Emperors down to Constantine was Babylon: under Constantine, having become Christian and pious, it ceased to be Babylon, and began to be a holy city, a faithful city, Sion beloved of God, the pillar of faith, the mother of piety, the teacher of holiness; at the end of the world, abandoning faith, piety, Christ, and the Pontiff, it will again become Babylon. And God will permit this, so that we may distinguish the city from the Church, Rome from the Chair of Peter; and so that the Romans may attribute not to the majesty of their city, nor to their own merits, but to the grace of Christ and Peter, that they themselves hold the Pontifical See and the metropolis of the Church. Cardinal Baronius noted and annotated this carefully, vol. I, in the year of Christ 53. Paul, he says, reproved the Romans "of facility and pride, which (as Jerome notes) were the peculiar vices of the Romans; which also Bernard reproves, book IV On Consideration to Eugenius, saying thus: The Roman people is. Neither more briefly could I, nor more expressly however open what I feel concerning your parishioners. What is so well known to the ages as the insolence and pride of the Romans? A people unaccustomed to peace, accustomed to tumult, a people harsh and intractable, and even to this day knowing not how to submit, except when they are not able to resist." Baronius adds: "Which things we therefore wished to relate, so that each one might understand that it is not from the virtue of the Romans, if the Roman Church, always most flourishing, has been the head of all Churches, and with the other apostolic sees failing, it itself has remained unshaken; and as once, so always, its unblemished faith is preached throughout the whole Catholic world: but rather that it is the most excellent prerogative of the Chair of Peter, and a privilege divinely imparted to it. For it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should glory." Wherefore Tertullian, On Prescription: "Blessed," he says, "is the Church (Roman) to which the Apostles poured out their whole doctrine together with their blood." St. Cyprian, book I, epistle 3, calls the Roman See the Chair of Peter, and the principal Church, whence the unity of the priesthood arose. And book IV, verse 8, he calls the same "the mother and root of the Church." St. Jerome to Damasus: "I," he says, "am joined in communion with Your Blessedness, that is with the Chair of Peter; I know the Church built upon that rock; whoever eats the lamb outside this house is profane: if anyone shall not have been in the ark of Noah, he will perish when the flood reigns." St. Irenaeus has similar things in book III, chapter iii, Optatus in book II Against Parmenian, St. Augustine in epistle 162, St. Leo in epistle 87, and others. The heretics press on, and perpetually cry out, that crimes are still not lacking in Rome, and namely that harlots and brothels are permitted: therefore it is still Babylon the harlot. Rome, they say, is Ruma. But where among the nations are crimes lacking? Are all heretics of such integrity of life and purity from crime? How many honorable and noble Republics tolerate harlots and fornication, so as to consult the modesty of virgins and honest women, and to avert graver crimes? The Church is holy, yet how many impious are in it? Indeed Rome is Holy, and holier than all the Churches and cities of the world. Where are there so many Monasteries, so many Basilicas, so many shrines and temples of the Apostles, of Holy Pontiffs, of martyrs, of virgin martyrs, as in Rome? Where so many hospitals, so many infirmaries, so many orphanages, as in Rome? Where so many works of charity, so many Sodalities of mercy, so many alms, so many exercises of piety, as in Rome? Where so many wise and upright prelates, so many worthy and pious priests, so many holy religious, so many virgins dedicated to God, as in Rome? Where citizens and people so devout, so Christian, so burning with zeal for God, as we see in Rome? But the heretics, blinded by envy, turn their eyes away from these things, and seek in Rome nothing but harlots and hovels: they seek and find; for a thief recognizes a thief, a wolf a wolf, a pimp a pimp. For these are far more known to foreigners than to citizens, as they are exposed; for Rome is the confluence of all nations from the whole world: in the city is the world. What wonder is it that in such a mixture there are filthy and wicked people, to whom if you do not concede harlots, they will attack lambs. To heretics therefore, as curious ones, Rome is a crack and a rumor; as drunkards, it is a gullet; as the sick, it is a rheum and a ruin; as the effeminate, it is a fissure and a hindrance to salvation. But to the faithful as believers, Rome is λόγος and ῥώμη, that is, an oracle and a bulwark of faith; as penitents, it is ῥύμα, that is, a cleansing and a purification; as saints, it is רמה rama, that is, sublimity and loftiness of virtue; as the pious and solitary, it is ῥύμη, that is, a street, a desert and a solitude of clergy and religious; as the sound and robust, it is ῥώμη, that is, strength and fortitude of mind and body, as St. Jerome says. Indeed, certain learned men hold this to be the proper etymology of Rome, inasmuch as the ancients, according to Solinus the Polyhistor, cap. ii, Festus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, lib. I Antiq. Roman., report to the Latins that it was formerly called Valentia. Finally, Rome is ῥυμός, that is, a pole for charioteers, and an oar for those sailing to heaven. By anastrophe, Rome is the Love of God and heaven; whence the verse returning backward upon itself: Rome, to you suddenly Love will go in its motions. But these things, although opportune for heretics, are nevertheless incidental to St. John, inasmuch as he speaks not of Rome Christian, but Pagan, as I showed a little before. Furthermore, since the sealed book, namely the Apocalypse, is a prophecy concerning future things at the end of the world under the Antichrist, as I taught in the proem and cap. v, it follows from this that these things are to be understood of the city of Rome, not as it is or was, but as it will be at the end of the world; and consequently that the Roman city will then return to its former glory, likewise to idolatry and other vices, and will be such as it was in the time of St. John under Domitian, Nero, Decius, etc. Namely, from Christian it will again become Pagan, and will cast out, persecute and kill the Christian Pontiff and the faithful and his adherents, as is said in verse 6. Whence she is called a harlot, because imbued with the worship of all gods, superstitions and vices, like a harlot prostituted to all nations, she will sit upon the gods of the nations. Of her indeed it is rightly said that she is "Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth," that she is "drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus," and that God will judge and avenge in her the slaughter of the Apostles: because namely at the end of the world, she herself will again, being Pagan, emulate the persecutions of the Pagan Emperors against Christians; and thus God will punish in her both her own and the ancient infidelity of the fathers. If anyone, however, prefers to understand by persecution heresy, and to say that Rome at the end of the world will fall into heresy, or a similar vice, as we see new heresies arising in individual ages, and therefore will persecute the Orthodox, just as the Pagans once persecuted them, and thus will imitate and fulfill their sins, and on account of these, as well as her own, will be punished and burned by God, I will not greatly resist; although the context more favors the former opinion, and more suggests that Rome will return to Paganism. Be that as it may, it must be a grave crime that is to be avenged by so horrible a burning and destruction of the city, concerning which in the following cap. You will say: How will Rome at the end of the world return to its former wealth and glory, and likewise to Paganism? I answer, the manner in which this will happen is hidden from us, and is known to God alone in His foreknowledge. Nevertheless, it could happen in various ways, for example, if some Pagan should seize the Roman Empire, and Roman Senators who are Gentiles should restore the ancient dignity, as Julian the Apostate did. Again, if many noble and powerful Pagans should migrate to Rome, who might gradually increase in number and strength, as Rome originally grew. Third, if certain magicians and politicians should pervert the leading Romans, and incite them to restore the ancient glory of their fathers and the worship of the gods, etc., if they invite them to the vices of the flesh and every license of life, so as to lead them to atheism, as was done in many places formerly, and as we still hear and see being done. For gluttony and continual lust are the straight path to atheism. Thus we see Jerusalem first was Pagan under the Canaanites; second, faithful under the Jews; third, Christian under the Apostles; fourth, Pagan again under the Romans, especially under Hadrian and thereafter; fifth, Saracen under the Turks. We see the like in Tyre, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, etc. In the same manner in wealth and glory these cities, as well as Babylon itself of the Chaldeans, have now grown, now declined, now regrown many times: how Rome formerly now grew, as under the Kings and Caesars; now declined, as under Hannibal, and under the Gauls, under their leader Brennus, who occupied Rome, so that the Romans held nothing but the Capitol, until Camillus freed them and struck down the Gauls, at the citadel and gate which is still called from that time Porta Gallica, or the Gallic tomb, as Marlianus testifies, lib. III Topogr. Rom., cap. xxv. Thus the same declined under the Goths, Alans, Vandals, Lombards, but shortly after recovered its strength and as it were rose again. In the same manner we see Venice, Antwerp, Paris, Bruges and other cities now growing, now declining. Indeed, in almost every century we observe many kingdoms either growing, or declining, or even completely changing. This is the vicissitude of human affairs, this is the nature, lot and condition of contingent things. From what has been said it is clear that it is not probable what a learned man has thought, namely that this chapter and the following can be understood of the disasters and destructions inflicted on Rome by Alaric, Genseric, Odoacer and Totila: for those were inflicted not by ten, but by individual kings of Rome; nor were they so great as this will be which is described in the following chapter, namely the final and unheard-of one. Again, then Rome was Christian, and consequently was not then infidel, nor so proud and rich that it could be called Babylon. I have said this in order to show that I deal candidly and liberally with those heterodox in faith, that I do not flee from difficulties, do not equivocate, nor am I moved by affection, but by reason; indeed I concede to them what can probably be conceded, so that they may more easily concede to me what right reason and faith teach should be conceded. Otherwise I could say that another mystery lies hidden in this prophecy, which God wished to be hidden from us, so that at the opportune time when this is actually fulfilled, He may reveal it, as we know He did in the ancient oracles of the Prophets. I concede therefore to the heterodox that the city of Rome is called here Babylon; let them in turn concede to me that it does not follow from this that the Roman Church is called Babylon, inasmuch as it is the head of all Churches, over which presides the Supreme Pontiff, successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ the Lord on earth. If they acknowledge this, we shall give them the right hand of faith and fellowship, and with heresy excluded all will come together in one mind and Church, and there will be one flock and one Shepherd. It is less probable what Alcazar holds, that here is described literally the vengeance which God took upon Pagan Rome and the murderess of so many Martyrs, when He abolished Paganism in it and introduced Christianity under Constantine. For then, he says, God as it were killed Pagan Rome and changed it into Christian Rome. Whence one, that is the first, angel of the phials, of which in the preceding chapter, verse 1, namely St. Paul, announced to John this divine vengeance upon Rome. For Paul was the teacher of the Gentiles and Romans, who first poured out his phial upon them, when he convicted and refuted them of their crimes, as appears in his epistle to the Romans. But the other glorious Angel, having great power, who in chapter xviii, verse 1, cries out to John: "Babylon is fallen, Babylon is fallen," is St. Peter, to whom Christ gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and who, calling Rome Babylon, in his First Epistle, chapter v, verse 13, this ruin of it will last, but in the time of Antichrist it will be overthrown. The origin of the opinion concerning Rome's eternity arose from this, that Lucius Florus writes concerning Tarquinius Superbus: "From the spoils," he says, "of captured cities he erected a temple; which when it was being inaugurated, the other gods yielding, Youth and Terminus stood firm. It pleased the seers, the stubbornness of the gods, since they promised all things firm and eternal." Hence Attalus, tyrant of the Empire under the Emperor Honorius, struck a coin, on the other side of which Rome was expressed with this inscription: "Unconquered eternal Rome." Pierius has many similar coins, Hieroglyphics 43. Hence also Virgil, in the First Aeneid, thus sings from the mouth of Jupiter: "Romulus shall receive the race and found the Martial walls, and shall call the Romans by his own name; To these I set neither bounds of things nor times, I have given empire without end." Tertullian, Lactantius and others have similar passages, whose words I shall relate at the end of the chapter. Whence also St. Benedict predicted that it would never be overthrown by infidels, as St. Gregory relates, book II of the Dialogues, chapter XV. The same once sang Erinna of Lesbos, an ode in Praise of Rome: "O offspring of Mars, Rome, hail to me, adorning the golden crown with wars. Which even on earth stable Olympus holds in its citadels. This the Fates gave to you alone as a gift, that you hold the scepter never weakened, by which your power as empress governs all things. She herself who delights to give all to ruin, and transforming the things of men by ancient time, fills your kingdoms alone eternal with favorable winds." I answer: St. Benedict only predicted that Rome would not be overthrown by Totila and in his age; for thus the words of St. Gregory have it: "The Bishop of the Church of Canusium, while he was having a conversation with the man of God (St. Benedict) concerning the entry of King Totila and the destruction of the Roman city, said: By this king this city would be destroyed, so that it would no longer be inhabited. To whom the man of the Lord answered: Rome will not be exterminated by the Gentiles, but wearied by violent storms, whirlwinds, and earthquakes, will waste away in itself. The mysteries of whose prophecy have now become clearer than light to us, who in this ruined city see broken walls, overturned houses, destroyed churches by the whirlwind." St. Benedict therefore spoke of his own times, not of the last times of the world. Furthermore, the proud name of eternity, and consequently of divinity, was given to Rome by Pagan writers, as flatterers, so that it was called eternal Rome, Rome the Goddess. I confess, however, that it can be called eternal in this sense, because it seems to have known and to have signified to John until the end of the world. For Peter and Paul are the authors and princes of the Roman faith and Church: whence God revealed to them this future change of Rome. For this pertained to their state and rank. These two angels, namely Peter and Paul, were prefigured by the rider of the camel, that is Darius, and the rider of the ass, that is Cyrus, who in Isaiah xxi, 7, were seen to overthrow Babylon. For Peter was the rider of the camel, that is the teacher of the Jews; Paul the rider of the ass, that is the teacher of the Gentiles. These therefore desolated and burned up Pagan Rome, when they overthrew idolatry in it, and set it on fire with the fire of the love of Christ. But these are not only mystical, but also αὐτόλογα: for they convert the sad, atrocious and fatal destruction and conflagration of Rome, which is graphically depicted in the following chapter, into a joyful, pious, and in all respects desirable fire of faith, salvation and charity. Alcazar objects that Rome will be eternal and not to be cut off, as the ancients thought: whence also St. Benedict predicted that it would never be overthrown by infidels, as St. Gregory relates. He objects secondly: In Chapter XVIII, verses 5, 6 and 20, it is said that Rome is to be destroyed on account of the Prophets and Apostles killed by the Romans, namely by Nero, Decius, etc. But who would believe that God would defer this punishment of Rome for two thousand years? Who would believe that God would punish the cruelty of Nero and Decius in Romans who will exist at the end of the world? He punished her therefore when He overthrew her, by converting the Romans to Christ and subjecting them to Him. To this I will respond at chapter XVIII, verse 20. "Which sitteth upon many waters," — that is, she presides over many peoples (for thus John explains it in verse 15), who flow away like water, and succeed one another. He alludes to the situation of ancient Babylon. For Babylon was situated at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, as it were the mistress of both. Thus also maritime cities, such as Tyre, Lisbon, Venice and others are rightly considered as mistresses of that sea, which they overlook far and wide.
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2. "With whom have committed fornication" (spiritually, namely by worshipping idols, so that they might be the lovers and mystical rivals of this great harlot) "the kings of the earth," — both the Roman Senators, who were as it were the kings of the world; and the proper kings and princes of other provinces, who were subject to the Romans or confederated with them. For thus the Prophets call idolatry fornication, because in it the soul, abandoning God as her spouse, departs to idols as it were to adulterers. "And they that dwell on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication," — namely with that wine by which she herself enticed both kings and peoples to fornicate with her, that is to commit idolatry. This wine was the wealth and honors of the Romans, or the hope of gain, pleasure and dignity to be obtained from the Romans, if one should flatter them and worship their gods. There exists an emblem: Cupid the thunderbolt-bearer, that is, flashing with lightning, with this conclusion: "Love conquers all things." Thus Alcibiades had on his golden shield as his device Cupid, who embraced the thunderbolt with his arms. For Cupid is more powerful than the stroke of lightning. Hear Oppian, in his book on Cupid: All things fear thee, and the broad heaven above, and whatever things are beneath the earth, and the sad assemblies of the dead. And soon after: To thy fires even light yields, trembling, and together the thunderbolts of Jupiter yield. And there exists also among the antiquities of Europe, Cupid in place of Jupiter the Thunderer hurling the thunderbolt into the sea, with Neptune then placed holding his trident, and kneeling in reverence of the divinity of Love. Thus Love sings: The Sun grows hot with my fire, Neptune burns in the waves. Though he was free, I made the Thunderer serve: Though he was free, Mars I subdued without Mars. Otherwise Alcazar: This wine, he says, is wrath and savage persecution of Christians. For the Romans imbibed this, learned it and practiced it, and other princes and peoples did the same, concerning which savagery of wine it receives that passage in chapter XVIII, verse 3: "All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." This sense is ingenious, but the former is plainer and more natural.
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3. "And he carried me away in spirit into the desert." — This desert, says Alcazar, is the uncultivated and desolate gentility, whose head was Rome, which John here saw in spirit through this mystical conflagration of the Holy Spirit, to be converted from the desert into the Paradise of God. But I say that John here, being placed in mental rapture, is seen to be carried into the desert, both that the destruction of Babylon may be signified, which is to be converted into a desert, and that it may be intimated that to a spiritual man, and to a divine Prophet such as John was, all the pomp of the world is like a desert: so that we may understand that innumerable multitude of Gentiles dwelling in Rome, the excellent structure of the city, the magnificence of palaces, temples, and the curia, the wonderful order of the republic, its laws and polity, the splendor of the senate, and all other things are to a holy man intent upon heavenly things like a desert and solitude, which is the habitation not of men, but of beasts and brutes: where no account is had of piety and true virtue, but only of pomp, pride and glory; in which not roses, but thorns of all crimes are born. As Diogenes, walking through a crowded city with a lamp, used to say, "I am seeking a man, and I find none." "And I saw a woman" (this is Babylon, as is evident from verse 5) "sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten horns." — You will ask: What is this beast? First, Ribera, Viegas and others hold that this beast is different from the beast of chapter XIII, verse 1: for that one was like a leopard, this one is scarlet; that one signified the Antichrist, this one the devil and his kingdom: whence it is called a beast, which "was, and is not," because it was before Christ, but Christ took away this kingdom from the devil; it is scarlet, because the devil is a red and bloodthirsty dragon, as was said in chapter XII, verse 3. Secondly, Alcazar and Suarez, III part., tom. II, disp. LIX, art. 6, sect. 2, and others hold that this beast is the same as that of chapter XIII, verse 1: for it is called a beast there, equally as here, and again in chapter XIX, verse 19, which signifies and represents the Antichrist; whence also in chapter XIII, equally as here, it is said to have seven heads, and ten horns. The Antichrist is said to have seven heads, because he had seven tyrants as his predecessors and forerunners, whom he himself in the last place follows as king and prince. He had them, therefore, when he did not yet exist; he had them, I say, not as present, but as predecessors, just as Christ had Prophets as his precursors, figures and types of himself, in whom he was and existed typically. For there are various modes of having, says Aristotle in the Postpredicaments, just as of existing. For a thing is said to exist when its exemplar, image, type or figure exists. Thirdly, others understand by the beast a gathering or congregation of the impious, namely enemies and persecutors of Christ and the Church. Fourthly, others properly understand by the beast this world, or the age ruling and dominating — the world, I say, not so much physical as moral and theological, that is, the complex of worldly and vicious men, who from the vice of corrupted nature strive for honors, delights, riches and the pomps of the world, and are therefore proud, avaricious, luxurious, impious. This world therefore is the kingdom of infidelity, idolatry, pride, and all sin. For Babylon sits upon it and presides over it, and gives it her wine to drink from a golden cup. This also has seven heads, and ten horns, as will soon be evident. All three opinions tend to the same end, and conspire into one and the same thing. For the sustainer of this world, and as it were the soul directing, moving and agitating it, is the devil, and consequently the Antichrist, the devil's vicar and prince. Again, this world is nothing other than a gathering of worldly men, that is, of proud and vicious men, which is the political body of the devil and the Antichrist, just as the republic is the civil body of the king and prince. The beast therefore is the world, or the kingdom, pride and pomp of the world. An Anglo-Calvinist objects: This Babylon is Rome; the beast upon which she sits is the Antichrist. But she does not sit upon a future beast: for this does not yet exist; but upon one present and existing. Therefore the Antichrist is already present, and truly exists: therefore the Papists vainly expect him to come. But no other Antichrist now existing can be devised upon whom Rome sits, than the Pope; therefore the Pope is the Antichrist. But by this argument one could equally conclude that St. Peter and the other first Pontiffs and Martyrs were Antichrists. For these too were Popes, to whom Rome and the Roman Church was subject. Again, Rome was Babylon in the time of St. John: therefore if the beast to which it was subject will be Antichrist, and he is the Pope, it follows that St. Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement, etc., who in the time of St. John were Popes of Babylon, that is Rome, were Antichrists—which even they themselves shudder to say, indeed they execrate it. I respond therefore that this beast is an assembly of the impious, as I have said; for to this assembly Pagan Rome was subject and presided in the time of St. John, and again will be subject and preside at the end of the world. But if you absolutely contend that this beast is the same as in chapter XIII, and therefore is Antichrist, I respond that this is true in this sense, that Antichrist is the head and king of the impious, and therefore wherever the body of the impious is, there his head is also reckoned to be, namely Antichrist. For even if Antichrist did not yet exist physically and personally in the time of St. John, as all heretics also admit, he nevertheless existed politically and by moral denomination; because namely his political body, that is the assembly of the impious, existed, and because his vicars and forerunners, who presided over this body and governed it, existed. These were namely Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Decius, etc., who bore the type and office of Antichrist to be born; for they did and began that which Antichrist will do and perfect. Again, it cannot be said truly and properly that Pagan Rome will be subject in the end of the world to Antichrist himself; for, as will be said at verse 16, Antichrist will pursue with hatred and through his ten kings will overthrow and burn Rome. Therefore in no other sense can it be said that Pagan Rome is subject to the beast, and this beast is Antichrist, than this, that namely Rome is subject to the assembly of the impious, whose head will be Antichrist, who in the time of St. John and even now is reckoned to be by mystical and moral denomination: just as an absent king is said to be present, to command, to make laws, when parliament, which bears the office of the king, is present, commands and makes laws. For it is established from what is said in chapter XI, verse 8, that Antichrist will place the throne of his kingdom not at Rome, but at Jerusalem. Just as therefore the Roman Church cannot be called Babylon, so neither can the Pope presiding over it be called the beast, that is Antichrist; rather Calvin should be called Antichrist, and the heretical Church should be called Babylon, such as now is the Genevan and Anglican, in which there is a wonderful confusion of dogmas, statutes and all things. And, to pass over other things, the first head of the deformed Anglican Church was Henry VIII the king, a layman, and husband of six wives. To him in this primacy of the Church succeeded his son, not a man, but a boy Edward. To the boy Edward succeeded, not a male, but a female, namely his sister Elizabeth, etc. Is this not Babylon? Is this not a confusion of kingdom and Church? What age, what generation of posterity will not marvel at these religious abominations, these Church disgraces? will not be astounded? indeed, who will believe they existed in the world? Just art thou, O Lord, and righteous is thy judgment, so that those who refused to acknowledge the head of the Church constituted by thee, and lacerate and rend it with unworthy titles, are headless, nay blinded and senseless, and constitute for themselves laymen, boys, women, etc., as heads of religion, faith and Church, so that they themselves worship and venerate this idol of women which they have fashioned for themselves. For thou hast mixed with them a spirit of error and dizziness, so that they believe a lie, "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." But how long, O Lord, wilt thou not have mercy on those who err, nay on those who are deceived? "Scarlet." — This beast is said to be scarlet, not the woman sitting upon it, as is evident from the neuter gender which is in the Greek: for it says καὶ εἶδον γυναῖκα καθημένην ἐπὶ θηρίον κόκκινον, because the beast, that is the world, triumphs in splendor and pomp: for scarlet and purple are the garments of kings and princes. Otherwise Alcazar: Scarlet, he says, is red clothing, that is, stained with the blood of Martyrs. For this beast was of the color of a leopard, as I said at XIII, 2; but here it is said to be scarlet, because sprinkled with the blood of Martyrs. Scarlet therefore here pertains not to delights, nor to pomp, but is an argument of the slaughter and destruction which it had wrought upon the lambs of Christ. But the former exposition is the truer. For even if the beast were a leopard and of leopard color, it is nevertheless introduced here as clothed and covered in scarlet, to signify its wealth, luxury and pomp. For soon the woman sitting upon it is likewise said to be "clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and precious stone, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand." All which things pertain not to slaughter, but to pomp. "Having seven heads, and ten horns." — What these are, verse 9 will tell. Foolishly and impiously Kemnitius, in his Examination of the Council of Trent, part II, p. 18 and 50, attempts to prove from this that there are not seven Sacraments in the Church of Christ, but that there are as many in the Church of Antichrist. For the beast, he says, in Apocalypse XVII, is called a Sacrament, which had seven heads: therefore the number seven of Sacraments pertains to the beast, that is to Antichrist. But away with you, blasphemer, who assert that the Sacraments of Christ and the Church, and consequently Baptism and the Eucharist (which you yourself confess to be truly Sacraments, and which Catholics place among the seven Sacraments as first and principal) are the heads of the beast. Add to this: St. John does not say that seven heads are seven Sacraments, but that they are one Sacrament of the beast: which agrees more with Luther, who posited only one Sacrament, and several sacramental signs. Finally, St. John interprets these seven heads to be seven kings, not seven Sacraments. The Sacrament of the beast, therefore, here is the same as mystery, or the hidden meaning of the beast, not however a Sacrament properly so called.
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4. "And the woman was clothed round about with purple and scarlet." — Here is described the worldly glory, luxury and riches with which pagan Rome was puffed up, like a harlot, who walks proudly clothed in gold and gems. Wherefore Beza, both foolishly and impudently, thinks that by this name and garment the Cardinals of the Christian Church are marked, and hurls this virulent curse against them: Whoever thou seest, half-men Fathers with gleaming mitre And long robes of scarlet toga; Truly thou seest the slaughter of holy men in red, And all are drenched and soaked in innocent blood. Or mindful of those crimes which this garment conceals, For its masters, touched with just shame, it blushes red. Thus this impure sycophant thinks all men like himself, and strives to rub his Candidus and Audebert upon all. How false and unlearned these things are is evident from what was said a little before. "Gilded with gold." — Thus it should be read with the Romans, although the Greek texts already have κεχρυσωμένη χρυσῷ, that is, gilded with gold; both tend to the same meaning, but the Roman reading is more significant; for it signifies the deception of this woman, as if to say: She was not clothed in true and solid gold, but only in the surface and external appearance of gold, namely she was clothed in gold, that is in gilt bronze, or bronze gilded over. Thus Alcazar. Or rather this seems to be referred to luxury and ostentation, as if to say: She was dressed so splendidly that she was adorned not with simple gold, but with gilded gold, that is, double gold: for goldsmiths are accustomed in magnificent work to cover common gold and gild it with superior and brilliant gold. This is required by what follows, which teaches that she was moreover surrounded with gems and pearls, especially because women properly are not gilded, but their garments are. Whence it is not correctly said that she herself is gilded with gold, but well said that she is clothed in gilded gold: but the city is correctly said to be gilded with gold in XVIII, 16. "Having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abominations and filthiness of the fornication of her." — The golden cup is worldly happiness, the majesty of empire, terror and splendor, and the abundance of riches and all things, under the appearance of which, by allurement and pomp, pagan Rome offered her idolatry and her vices to all nations. It alludes to Jeremiah, chapter LI, 7: "Babylon is a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, that maketh all the earth drunk: of her wine the nations have drunk, and therefore they have been moved." But there the cup denotes punishment, to be inflicted on other nations by the Babylonians: whence it is in the hand of the Lord. Here, however, it denotes guilt, namely the offering of idolatry and crimes: whence it is in the hand of the harlot, namely Babylon. For thus harlots by external appearance and pomp in banquets, through golden and jeweled cups, and through splendid and magnificent feasts, bewitch their lovers, as Cleopatra bewitched Antony; concerning whose luxury and pomp in banquets, see Pliny, book IX, verse 35, and Plutarch, in the Life of Antony, who among other things says of Cleopatra coming to Antony: "The rumor spread through all that Venus was coming to feast with Bacchus for the salvation of Asia," and adds that Antony, invited by her, was astonished at the magnificence of the banquet, and laughed at the sordidness and rusticity of his own supper. But Pliny relates that she made a wager with Antony concerning the magnificence of a banquet, and on the appointed day produced two pearls handed to her by the hands of the kings of the East, valued at six hundred times a sestertius, that is twelve hundred times a thousand Philippics, and dissolved one of them in vinegar and swallowed it, and when she was about to dissolve and swallow the second, she was prevented by L. Plancus, saying that she had already surpassed Antony in magnificence. This one Augustus afterwards, having captured Cleopatra, divided into two parts and hung them on the ears of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome. Concerning the luxury of these banquets and drinking bouts, Seneca truly said: We drink poison in gold. And the Poet: No aconites are drunk from earthenware: then fear it, when thou takest cups Jeweled, and Setine wine shall burn in broad gold. Otherwise Jerome Prado in Ezekiel XXIII, 31: The cup, he says, which the harlot Babylon offered to others, is the cup of the damned, as if to say: She damned them to death, because they would not commit fornication with her, that is, worship idols. For thus in Jeremiah XXV, 17, Isaiah LI, 17, and elsewhere the cup signifies damnation and vengeance. But from what has been said it is clear that the cup is here taken otherwise, namely for delights and sins, not for damnation and punishments. "Full of the abominations and filthiness." — It alludes to harlots and sorceresses, who in a golden cup offer their love potions to their lovers. For the love potions of sorceresses are made from the ashes of toads, frogs, serpents, and other unclean and abominable things. Tropologically, heretics and the like are noted, who by their eloquence and the seductions of their words offer and instill their errors and impious customs to their hearers.
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5. "And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of fornications and of the abominations of the earth." — The Arabic version: And a name written upon her forehead, that is, the mystery of Babylon the mother of fornicators, and of the unclean in heart, who are of the earth. He alludes to the brothel and the cells in which the names of harlots were inscribed, as Tertullian teaches, in the book On Modesty: "Where," he says, "this liberality shall be displayed beneath the very doors of lusts, beneath the very titles of lusts." And more clearly Seneca in Controversies 1: "You were called a harlot," he says, "you stood in a common place, a title was placed above your cell." Moreover, if a harlot were quite shameless or notorious, she bore not only in her cell but on her forehead a name and inscription written. Seneca teaches this in the place cited: "Your name," he says, "hung on your forehead, you received the price of debauchery, and the hand which was to give sacred offerings to the gods, bore captives." Durandus teaches the same from Martial, Tertullian and Juvenal, in book I of Variae, chapter II. Such is this Babylon introduced here by John, which has fornicated publicly, and gloried in its fornications, that is, in its idolatries. Therefore this harlot bears her mystical name on her forehead, just as Aaron bore the name of God on his forehead, by which it is signified that she professes publicly and boasts of being a worshipper of Jupiter and the gods, and of following and propagating their errors, together with their vices and crimes, and therefore persecutes Christ and Christians resisting them even unto death, as follows. "Mystery." — This is not the name of the woman, as Pannonius thought, but is inserted by John as it were by way of parenthesis, so that he may arouse our attention, and so that we may remember that the name of the woman which follows is not proper to her, but figurative and to be expounded mystically. Whence, verse 7, he calls it the Sacrament of the woman, that is, what the woman signifies typologically. Thus also in chapter XI, verse 8, he said of Jerusalem: "Which is spiritually called Sodom." "Babylon the great." — This is the name of the harlot, that is, of Pagan Rome; and this first, because, just as Babylon worshipped Bel or Baal, and propagated his worship among other nations, even the Jews: so did Pagan Rome formerly, and shall do again at the end of the world. Secondly, because, just as Babylon was a receptacle and confusion of all nations, and consequently of all idols and vices, so also was Pagan Rome. Hear St. Leo, in the sermon on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, concerning Rome: "When it ruled over almost all nations, it served the errors of all nations; and it seemed to itself to have assumed a great religion, because it rejected no falsehood." Hence all the temples of the gods were in Rome, and, lest any be forgotten, they finally built the Pantheon, that is, the temple of all the gods, which as it were a marvel of the world from all the temples of ancient Rome alone remains, and is consecrated in honor of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints to God. Deservedly therefore is it called the mother of fornications, that is, of errors and idols, because as a mother it fostered and propagated them. Thirdly, just as Babylon was renowned for luxury, riches and glory, and was the mistress of the world, so also was Pagan Rome. Fourthly, just as Babylon persecuted and killed the Jews, so Pagan Rome persecuted and killed Christians, and shall again persecute and kill them at the end of the world; for it shall then be, as it was formerly, the head of idolatry and all abomination. Whence follows: "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints." Beautifully St. Jerome, in book II against Jovinian, at the end: "To you," he says, "I speak, you who have wiped out by the confession of Christ the blasphemy written on your forehead: mighty city, mistress of the world, city praised by the voice of an Apostle. Interpret your name; Rome is either a name of strength among the Greeks (from ῥώμη rhomē, that is, to be strong and robust), or of sublimity according to the Hebrews (from the root רום rum, that is, he was high, Rome is said, as if you were to say, Height, sublimity, loftiness): keep what you are called. Let virtue make you exalted, not pleasure make you base. The curse which the Savior threatened you in the Apocalypse, you can escape through repentance, having the example of the Ninevites. Beware the name of Jovinian, which is derived from an idol. The Capitol is filthy, the temples of Jupiter and ceremonies have fallen, why do his name and vices flourish among you? Still under the kings, and under Numa Pompilius your ancestors more easily embraced the continence of Pythagoras than under the Consuls the luxury of Epicurus." Just as therefore in Scripture the figured thing often takes the name of the figure, as when Christ is called David, Solomon, Zerubbabel, etc., so here Rome is called Babylon, and this is what he said, mystery. I have reviewed more analogies of Rome and Babylon from St. Augustine and Orosius in I Peter V, 13. "The mother of fornications," — that is, of idolatry, superstitions and crimes. He alludes to the Babylonian virgins and brides, who, about to be married, first prostituted themselves, and collected the price from it which they offered to Venus, so that by her aid they might enter upon auspicious marriages, and obtain good husbands, and thus by their fornication they worshipped and as it were sacrificed to Venus, as I taught in Baruch VI, 42.
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6. "And I saw a woman drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus." — For, as Prudentius sings in the hymn II of the Peristephanon, concerning the immense blood of Martyrs shed in Rome: Not content to stain the ground within the walls of lofty Rome With the constant slaughter of the just: When he saw the Janiculum already wet, the forums, the rostra, the Subura flowing with the effusion of blood. The same will happen at the end of the world when Rome, returning to paganism, will persecute Christ and Christians, and especially the Pontiff, will expel or kill them, as is evident from this passage, etc. cap. XVIII, vers. 20, and the last. Nevertheless, the faithful will remain in Rome, as they remained in the persecution of Decius and Diocletian; and consequently the Roman Church and the Roman Pontificate will remain: and the Pontiff will be Bishop of the city of Rome, although an exile and expelled. For the Gentiles will not be able to depose him from his episcopate, much less from his pontificate. In like manner, when the Pontiffs resided in Avignon in France for 70 years, they were nevertheless called and were truly Bishops of the city of Rome. But whether the Pontiff with the consent of the Church can transfer the pontificate from Rome to another city, if the necessity of the Church should require it, as Bellarmine, Suarez in the place cited, and others think, is not the business of the present place to inquire. "And I wondered when I saw her," — so mad, and so raging against Christians, and so drunk with the blood of the Saints. Again I wondered at the appearance of the woman, namely that she sat upon a beast with seven heads, and having ten horns, with that pomp and title which I described a little before, not understanding what all these things signified and portended. Whence the angel explains these things to him, so that he ceases to wonder.
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7. "And the angel said to me: Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath seven heads, and ten horns." — "Mystery" is a secret, as I said vers. 5, that is to say, I will explain to thee this mystical vision of the woman, namely what this woman mystically signifies and represents.
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8. "And the beast, which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and shall go into destruction." — I said at verse 3 that this beast is the kingdom of the world and of the devil, or the devil in the world as it were reigning in a kingdom of his impiety. Before Christ, therefore, this beast was, because impiety and the devil dominated in the world. But Christ took away this kingdom, and bound the devil, as we shall hear at chapter XX, verse 3. This is what Christ says: "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out," John XII, 31. But at the end of the world again this beast "shall ascend out of the bottomless pit." He alludes to what he said of this beast at chapter XIII, verse 1, namely that it comes forth out of the bottomless pit, or out of the sea, as if to say: This beast is like a dragon or whale, which now raises its head and back out of the sea, now again plunges itself wholly into it, a third time emerges and ascends again. For thus the devil and his kingdom and power, namely the kingdom of infidelity and impiety, have been in great part taken away by Christ. For although he still dominates over many, yet if his power and dominion at present be compared with that which he had before Christ, it will be reckoned as small and as it were nothing; but at the end of the world again he shall as it were ascend out of the bottomless pit, when Lucifer bound in hell shall be loosed, and shall receive the kingdom of the world, and shall exert all his force and fury through Antichrist upon men. But he shall have a short time of his reign; for soon again with Antichrist he shall be plunged into the bottomless pit, "and into destruction," and into hell: thus Ambrose, Bede, Aretas, Viegas, Ribera and others. Wherefore the Greek texts soon add, καὶ πάρεστι, and is present. Whence Vatablus translates, the beast which was, and is not, and yet is, as if to say: This beast "was," that is, it existed; but now "is not," that is, does not appear; "and yet," because plunged into the bottomless pit it lives in hell; whence at the end of the world it shall again come forth, and show itself. Wherefore the Royal Bible and Aretas, for πάρεστι, that is, is present, read παρέσται, that is, shall be present. Alcazar thinks that by this phrase, "was, and is not," there is an allusion to Ezekiel XXVII, 13, where for Greece in the Hebrew is יָוָן javan, which according to St. Jerome signifies "is and is not," by which the inconstancy of the Greeks seems to be noted, not only in their ingenuity but also in their pride and power. Again by this phrase, "was, and is not," the brevity of duration is signified, says Maldonatus in his Notes. "And they shall wonder (men) at the beast, which was, and is not," — seeing it, which as if plunged in the bottomless pit and extinguished appeared, suddenly emerge again, and ascend with such power, pride and pomp. For wonder, says Aristotle, arises from this, that a new effect is seen whose cause is not seen. Thus earthly men wonder at the honours, riches and delights of the world, because they do not know the greater things which are in the heavens; just as children wonder at nuts, apples and trifles, because they have not tasted the delights of men; and rustics wonder at their straw houses and cattle, because they have not seen palaces, temples, and city houses. On the other hand, the learned and holy wonder at nothing on earth, because they see all things to be exiles, weak, perishable, brief compared with the heavenly, divine, immense and eternal things. Rightly Petrarch: "To the wise nothing is unexpected, to the fool all things are unpremeditated." Thus Cyrus, says Xenophon, wondered at nothing, but despised all things under him as small and subject, and taught princes to wonder at nothing. For they, being of exalted mind, and as it were placed on the summit of things, regard all things before them as small and common, and therefore unworthy that great men should esteem them, and fix their mind and soul upon them. Truly Horace: To wonder at nothing is almost the one thing, Numicius, and the only thing which can make and keep one blessed. Dwelling in mind in the heavens, he despises this point of earth, and says: "O how small are the bounds of mortals! O how small are the minds of mortals!"
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9. "And this is the sense which hath wisdom." — Here the mind, which hath wisdom, that is, here lies hidden the understanding which hath wisdom, namely secret and hidden, as if to say: This enigma of the beast and the woman is wise, and wisely invented by the Holy Spirit to signify secret things: and so in it lies great wisdom and great mysteries. Others translate: Here let the mind attend which hath wisdom; for nous properly signifies mind; yet it also signifies sense or understanding, as when the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians xiv, 15: "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind," in Greek nooi, that is, sense, understanding, that is, intelligibly, so that others may feel and understand what I sing. "Seven heads, seven mountains are, upon which the woman sitteth, and seven kings are." — As if to say: Seven heads signify first, seven mountains; secondly, seven kings. In seven mountains Rome is plainly denoted, of which Virgil sings in the Georgics II, at the end: Namely, and Rome, most beautiful of things, became, Which with one wall encircled seven citadels for herself. And the Sibyl, book II: Rome having seven peaks, great riches shall perish, Watered with much fire from the flame of Vulcan. And Horace in the Secular Hymn: Gods to whom the seven hills were pleasing. And Ovid, book 1 of the Tristia: But she who from seven mountains looks round upon the whole world, Rome, the seat of Empire and of Gods. And Tertullian, Apology LIII: "The very," he says, "Quirites, the very native people of the seven hills I address." And Claudian in the Panegyric: Which on seven cliffs imitates the zones of Olympus, Mighty in arms and laws, which pours forth to all The empire. Furthermore, these seven hills of Rome are: first, the Capitoline or Tarpeian; second, the Palatine, in which stand the ruins of the great palace of Nero; third, the Caelian, in which is situated the Lateran basilica, which was and is the first of the whole world; whence on its front we read this poem inscribed in capital letters: By Papal gift and also by Imperial grant, That I am mother and head of all Churches. For this is the ancient seat of the Pope, who in this church receives possession of the Roman episcopate, and consequently of the pontificate of the whole world annexed to it. Fourth, the Esquiline, in which stands out the temple of the Blessed Virgin Major, whose dedication is celebrated on the 5th of August under the name of the Blessed Virgin of the Snows, on account of the miracle of snow which designated the place for the temple under Pope Liberius. Fifth, the Viminal, in which stands the place of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence, in his church which is called Panisperna. Sixth, the Quirinal, which today from two huge marble statues of Alexander taming Bucephalus, one of which Phidias sculpted, the other Praxiteles, is called "Monte Cavallo." Seventh, the Aventine, in which are the temples of St. Sabina, St. Alexius, St. Saba. For Romulus enclosed within the circuit of the city of Rome only two hills, the Capitoline and the Palatine; the third, namely the Caelian, after Alba was destroyed, Tullius added, and enlarged the Esquiline (which is the fourth); the fifth, namely the Aventine, for newcomers Ancus Marcius joined; the sixth and seventh, namely the Quirinal and the Viminal, Servius Tullius, the sixth king of the Romans, added. Indeed, afterwards they enclosed three others within the circuit of the city, namely the Janiculum beyond the Tiber, in which St. Peter is said to have been crucified; the Vatican, in which St. Peter was buried in his Basilica which is the marvel of the world; and the Pincian, in which stands today the temple of the Holy Trinity, and the monastery of the Religious of St. Francis of Paula: thus Bartholomaeus Marlianus in the Topography of the City of Rome, book I, chapter IV. Wherefore, although when John wrote this, Rome embraced more than seven hills within its walls, nevertheless by him from the ancient name it is called Septimontium: because under the kings there were only seven hills in the city, each dedicated and consecrated to individual gods, as now to individual Saints. Note: These seven heads represent two things, first, the seven hills of Rome already mentioned; secondly, seven kings, of which follows. For these seven heads are not of the woman, but of the beast, or of the world, that is, of the kingdom of impiety and of the devil, who is king in it, and reigns through his ministers. Wherefore the Arabic translator rendered it less correctly: "Seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth; these are seven kings:" as if seven heads and seven mountains were nothing other than seven kings.
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10. "Five have fallen, one is, and another has not yet come: and when he comes, he must remain for a short time." — First, Andrew of Caesarea: Seven, he says, heads and mountains are seven monarchies and kingdoms: the first, of the Assyrians in Nineveh; the second, of the Medes in Ecbatana under the prince Arbaces; the third, of the Chaldeans in Babylon; the fourth, of Cyrus in Susa; the fifth, of Alexander in Macedonia; the sixth, of Augustus and the Emperors in ancient Rome; the seventh, of Constantine in the new and Christian Rome. Consequently the seven kings are: the first Ninus, the second Arbaces, the third Nebuchadnezzar, the fourth Cyrus, the fifth Alexander, the sixth Augustus, the seventh Constantine. But here he confuses mountains with kings, which ought to be distinguished, as I have said. Moreover, he places Constantine, faithful and as it were the foster-father of the Church, among the heads of the beast. For this reason the same Andrew, from St. Irenaeus, reckons these seven kings differently, in the manner which I shall presently relate. Second, Victorinus: Five kings, he says, who, when John wrote these things, had fallen, that is, had died, are Vespasian, Titus, Galba, Otho, Vitellius; the sixth who already "is" and reigns is Domitian. The seventh who has not yet come is Nerva; because these reigned after Nero up to the time when John wrote these things. But what do these have to do with the Antichrist, whose times St. John described with all these heads? I say therefore that these seven kings signify a collection of tyrants, who reigned in seven ages, or centuries, in the world, or in the kingdom of impiety and the devil, and persecuted the faithful and the Church. Thus Richard, Ambrose, Bede and others, and it is evident from what follows. For John says that five have passed away, the sixth still remains, the seventh is awaited and will reign for a short time. The first king therefore is Cain with giants and others like him, who persecuted the faithful and pious, in the first age of the world, which was from Adam to Noah and the flood. The second is Nimrod with the builders of the tower of Babel, in the second age of the world which was from Noah to Abraham. The third are the kings of Sodom and the Pharaohs of Egypt before Moses in the third age of the world, which was from Abraham to Moses. The fourth are the impious kings of Israel and Judah with others like them, who lived from the time of Moses to the Babylonian captivity, which was the fourth age of the world. The fifth are the kings of the Chaldeans, such as Nebuchadnezzar; and of Asia and Syria, such as Antiochus Epiphanes, and others from the Babylonian captivity to Christ, which was the fifth age of the world. The sixth are the pagan Emperors of Rome, likewise the Saracens, Turks and others who were, are and will be from Christ to the Antichrist. Whence of him it is said here: "One still is." The seventh is the Antichrist, who is to come, and will reign for a short time, namely three and a half years: thus Gagneius, Ribera and Viegas, who asserts this to be the common exposition. Richard also agrees with his followers, except that he assigns the fourth age from Moses to David, when there were Balaam, Balac, the Moabites, the Idumeans, the Philistines, and similar enemies of the people of God, namely Israel; but he assigns the fifth from David to Christ. He alludes to the first kings of Babylon on which the beast sits, that is Rome. These were indeed seven in number, namely Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius Superbus. Therefore the Anglo-Calvinist wrongly understands by these seven kings seven forms of government of Rome; for he says that first Kings ruled it; second, Consuls; third, Dictators; fourth, Decemvirs; fifth, Tribunes; sixth, Emperors at the time of St. John; whence he says of them: "One is;" seventh, the Pope, of whom he says: "He must remain for a short time;" because after one hundred years from Constantine Rome was destroyed by Genseric and the Vandals, and again by Totila. Whence of the same he adds: "And the beast which was, and is not," as if to say, That seventh king the Pope, who had come and "was" as to the origin and beginning of power for one hundred years from Constantine, "and is not," because he seems to have been extinguished by the opinion of men through the invasion of the Barbarians: This, he says, beast is the eighth, and of those seven, because after Genseric the Pope resumed empire and the papacy, and as it were revived. But these things are contrary both to history and to the text. For Dictators did not succeed Consuls as ordinary governors of Rome, but were added to them as extraordinary ones, who would protect the city in time of grave war and danger. The Decemvirs were similar. The Tribunes of the plebs were also patrons, while the Consuls governed the city. Secondly, under Genseric, although Rome was laid waste, the pontificate was nevertheless not extinguished; indeed St. Leo remained Pontiff, and Genseric, revering him, refrained from laying hands on the temples, and soon departed from Rome, and soon St. Leo administered both the Republic and the Church in such a way that scarcely a greater and more glorious Pontiff existed thereafter. It is therefore falsely said of the papacy and the Pope: "He must remain a short time," when he has already remained for 1600 years; and that: "The beast that was, and is not." For the papacy always remained, in whatever devastation by Genseric and Totila, uninterrupted. Thirdly, it is false that the ten kings of the beast, that is, of the Pope, hate the harlot (that is, Rome), and will overthrow and burn her; which nevertheless is said of the ten kings of the beast in verse 16. For what Pope ever cared to have Rome overthrown and burned by kings or princes? What Pope ever fought against the Lamb, that is, against Christ, and was defeated by Him? Fourthly, the heretic wrongly confuses the beast with the seven kings, when it is distinct and different from them, as is evident from the text, and will soon be clearer. With these principles of his therefore overturned, his conjecture falls, which he himself considers to be a demonstration, and it is of this kind: this seventh king is Antichrist; but this seventh king is the Pope: for the Pope succeeded the sixth king, that is, the Roman Emperors. Therefore the Pope is Antichrist. For the minor premise is false; for the Pope remains with the Roman Emperor, and both together will remain until Antichrist: therefore the Pope did not succeed the Emperors in the Roman Empire, but exists with them together, as we now see that His Most Serene Majesty Ferdinand is Emperor of the Roman Empire, and His Holiness Paul V is Pontiff of the Roman Church. Morally, just as the name of God is Jehova, that is, He who is, or, I am who I am, Exodus III, 14, and VI, 3: so the name of creature and man, especially the impious, is: "He who is not." Secondly, the name of God is: "He who was, and is;"; of man and beast: "He who was, and is not." Thirdly, the name of God is: He was, is, will be; of man, Babylon and time: "It will be no more," chapter X, verse 6. Thus also of the Devil it is said in Job XVIII, 15: "The companions of him who is not," that is, the companions of the devil, as St. Gregory says, book XIV of the Morals, chapter XI: "Who now is not, because he has withdrawn from the supreme being, and as it were tends toward non-being, from the time he once fell from Him who truly is, because he lost his well-being."
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11. "And the beast that was, and is not: and she herself is the eighth" (that is, she herself is the eighth head of the beast (for it was one beast, but it had seven heads); whence the Greek texts have, and he himself is the eighth, namely king: for these heads signify kings), "and is of the seven." — The sense is, as if to say, The Devil, who is this beast, is distinct from the seven heads of the beast, that is, from the kings already named; and yet is of the seven, because he himself in all seven as it were in members and subjects of his, rules and dominates, and fights against the Church, and harasses her. The Arabic version favors this, which translates: And the beast that was, and is not, is also an angel of the seven; and is unto destruction. Again, this beast is the world, or the kingdom of impiety and sin: over this a daemon presides as a monarch; this kingdom is the eighth, because distinct from each of the seven kings already mentioned; and yet is of the seven, because it exists in all seven, as it were the whole in its parts by which it is formed and completed. Thirdly, Prosper in the book On the Half of the Time, chapter VIII, and Haymo: The beast, they say, is Antichrist; he is one of the seven heads, that is, kings, as I have already said; and yet is the eighth, because he will not only be a particular king, as the others, but prince, Emperor and as it were monarch of all the preceding ones, and, as Haymo says, will dominate and persecute the Church seven times more than all the other superior tyrants, who persecuted the Church in various times and ages. Morally, note that "which was, and is not." For this is the epithet of the impious, and a periphrasis of their death and destruction. Thus God threatens the king of Tyre, Ezekiel XXVIII, 19: "Thou art made nothing, and thou shalt not be forever." Whatever therefore a man was, if he was a man and has finished his life, "he was, and is not." But God, who is Alpha and Omega, alone has immortality, whose kingdom is the kingdom of all ages, therefore His name is: "He who is, and who was, and who is to come," chapter I, verse 8. Otherwise Alcazar, whose explanation I reviewed in chapter XIII.
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12. "And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings." — Alcazar understands by the ten kings a polyarchy, or multitude of Senators of Rome, who, to take vengeance upon Rome the effectrix of so many Martyrs, being converted to Christ by the just judgment of God through St. Peter, Paul, Alexander and other Pontiffs, condemned and uprooted Paganism at Rome with all their might, fell down venerating before the relics of the Martyrs, and indeed offered themselves to martyrdom for the faith of Christ, and thus at length set Rome on fire with the charity of Christ and burned it up. These things are pious and ingenious, but mystical. Secondly, Ambrose, Ticonius, Bede and others throughout, as I said at verse 1, understand by this Babylon the harlot the assembly of all the impious; by the ten horns they understand all kingdoms subject to impious kings, of which it is said: "They shall hate the harlot;" because by fostering and aiding the multitude of the impious against Christ, they shall make her liable to eternal torments, which in reality is to hate, even if in their mind and affection it may seem to be love and to love, as Gagneius explains at length. But this sense is more alien, improper and harsh; for who would say, for example, that Decius and Diocletian hated Rome and the Roman Empire, destroyed it, and ate the flesh of Romans, when they aided and defended the idolatry and impiety of Romans? Thirdly, plainly and genuinely Anselm, Ansbert, Haymo, Richard, Ribera and Viegas understand by the ten horns ten kings who shall be in the world at the end of the world, as it were lords of the world, when Antichrist shall come, who shall be subject to Rome and the Roman Empire, or certainly shall proceed from it, and envying Rome such great riches and glory, shall shake off her yoke, invade her, lay her waste and burn her up. Of these, Antichrist shall overcome three in war, soon the remaining seven shall submit to him, and one shall become king and monarch of all, as is evident from this verse and verse 16, joined with Daniel VII, 24. And this is the common sense and tradition of the Fathers and Interpreters, as St. Jerome says, Daniel VII. Hence it is clear that these ten kings shall be different from those seven who are represented by the seven horns at verse 9; for those shall precede Antichrist in time, but these ten shall be in the time of Antichrist. Whence it is said they have not yet received power, but shall receive it after the beast for one hour, that is, in a very brief time. "After the beast." — The Interpreter reads in Greek ὀπίσω τοῦ θηρίου; others read μετὰ τοῦ θηρίου, that is, with the beast: both are true, namely after the beast, because they shall follow it; with the beast, because they shall obey it: thus Ribera. What this beast is I said at verse 3.
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13. "These have one mind, and shall give their power and authority to the beast." — They have one mind and will concerning the conquest of Rome, and shall give their power to the beast, that is to Antichrist, so that they may wage war against the Lamb.
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14. "These shall fight with the Lamb" (namely with the faithful and Christian people, who are subject to the Lamb, that is Christ), "and the Lamb shall overcome them," — because with Antichrist whom they shall follow, they shall be cast down by Christ into the depths of hell.
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15. "The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and nations, and tongues," — that is to say, The waters which thou sawest signify all the nations and peoples over which Rome shall rule; who therefore shall walk at the feet of Rome alone, as their mistress and lady of the world, in obedience, vanity and the superstition of idols.
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16. "They shall hate the harlot" (namely Babylon, that is Rome), "and shall eat her flesh." — It is a hyperbole, that is to say, With such fury shall they invade Rome and the Romans, that they shall seem to devour their flesh. A similar expression is in Job XIX, 22: "Why do you persecute me, and are not satisfied with my flesh?" And Ps. XXVI, verse 2: "When they that trouble me come upon me, to eat my flesh." Whence it follows: "And shall burn her with fire."
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17. "For God hath given into their hearts to give their kingdom to the beast," — that is to the devil, to Antichrist, to tyranny and to impiety. "God gave," not by sending forth, but first, permissively, namely by loosening the reins to their ambitious will, which without God's permission, indeed without His general concurrence, could not have come into act. Secondly, objectively, by sending into them the thought concerning Rome, that it is proud, rich, and worthy of being conquered, and easily conquerable on account of its crimes, which God wishes to punish; and this for this reason, "that they may do that which is pleasing to him," namely that they may carry out the judgment and vengeance upon Babylon to be exercised by the decree and sentence of God: "Until the words of God shall be fulfilled," which namely God predicted through me here, and through Daniel cap. VII and XI, concerning the consumption of the city and of the world, as if to say, Until the complete destruction of the city and of the world shall be consummated. Some Greek texts add: And that they may consent, or have one mind and will concerning the conquest of Rome. But this is sufficiently indicated in what follows. Note: From this place, and from Daniel VII, 24, it is certain that there will be ten kings in the world when Antichrist comes, of whom he himself will conquer three in battle; soon the remaining seven, terrified, will submit themselves to him. Again it is certain that these ten kings will overthrow and burn Rome; but it is doubtful whether they will do this before Antichrist, or under Antichrist, so that Antichrist will overthrow Rome, and likewise the Roman Empire through these kings. First, Francis Suarez, III part., tom. II., disp. LIX, art. 6, sect. II, holds it to be uncertain whether the Roman Empire, and much more whether the Roman city, is to be overthrown before Antichrist, or by Antichrist himself. Secondly, Ribera and Viegas here hold that it is to be overthrown before Antichrist, and they think they demonstrate this from the fact that Rome is here said to be overthrown by ten kings: therefore before Antichrist; for Antichrist coming immediately will defeat three kings and kill them, so that only seven remain, who will of their own accord submit themselves to him. Since therefore under Antichrist there will be only seven kings, it follows that Rome is not to be overthrown, but before, when namely there will be ten kings in the world. This opinion is probable, and I followed it in II Thessalonians II, 9, and St. Jerome in Daniel VII seems to favor it. But the matter being considered more exactly, and the whole sequence of the Apocalypse and of Daniel being examined, the contrary now seems to me more probable, namely that Rome and the Roman Empire are to be overthrown not before Antichrist, but by Antichrist through ten kings already subject to him. It is proved first, because Daniel, cap. VII, recounting the series of monarchies, teaches that, just as the monarchy of the Chaldeans was overthrown by the Persians, that of the Persians by the Greeks, that of the Greeks by the Romans, so the Roman Empire will be overthrown by Antichrist himself. Secondly, because the common opinion of the Doctors is that the Roman Empire is the last and will endure until the end of the world: not only of recent doctors, but also the common opinion of the Fathers; as St. Jerome testifies in cap. IX of Daniel, this is the tradition, and it seems to be Apostolic: therefore it will not be overthrown by ten kings, but by Antichrist at the end of the world. It is confirmed, because Daniel, VII, 8 and 24, saw a little horn, which designates Antichrist, arising among ten horns, that is, ten kings, from the beast which designates the Roman Empire. Therefore Antichrist will arise from the Roman Empire. It will therefore stand until his coming, and will be overthrown by him. Again, since in this place the woman, that is Rome, is said to sit upon the same beast having these ten horns, it follows that Rome will rule over the Roman empire and the ten kings, until she is overthrown and burned by the little horn, that is, by Antichrist arising from it, through the ten kings rebelling against it, as is said here in verse 16. Thirdly, because the sequence of the Apocalypse requires it. For this is divided into two parts: the former up to chapter eleven, contains and explains the seven seals of the sealed book; the latter from cap. eleven to the end, contains the contents of the book itself. Now the seals contain those things which ought to precede the time of Antichrist, but the book contains those things which will happen in the time of Antichrist. Therefore since these two chapters XVII and XVIII are contained in the sealed book itself, it follows that they pertain to Antichrist himself and to his time. Ribera responds that this is a hysteron proteron, or a disordered sequence. For these two chapters, namely this destruction of Babylon, that is Rome, ought to be placed in the correct order earlier, namely in chapter IX, verse 13, in the trumpet of the sixth angel. But this hysteron proteron is too harsh and inverted: for it disturbs the entire order of the Apocalypse. Add that thus the seals of the book itself would be far greater and more abundant than the book itself: for if you remove these two chapters and other things which pertain to the same matter, you will leave behind scanty material of the book. Therefore, in order that in the sequence of the Apocalypse we might avoid this hysteron proteron and these not inconsiderable inconveniences, it must be said that these, like the preceding ones, pertain to the sealed book itself, and consequently to the times of the Antichrist. For thus the entire series of the Apocalypse becomes clear. It is confirmed, because one angel from those who in the preceding chapter were seen by John to have the phials and the final plagues revealed to John these things concerning the destruction of Babylon: therefore this itself pertains to the final plagues of the world. Fourth, because here, verses 12 and 13, these ten kings are said to have received power after the beast, and to have given their power to the beast, that is to the Antichrist; and then of the same ones it is added verse 16: "These shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and shall burn her with fire," as if this were to happen later. Fifth, because in the preceding chapter in the phial of the seventh angel John says: "And Babylon the great came in remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the indignation of his wrath." And in this chapter XVII, he begins to explain this cup. Therefore it plainly signifies that after the seven phials and the final plagues, this destruction of Babylon will be. For this is fittingly reserved as it were for the last place: because it will be universal, and will be as it were a plague of the whole world; for the reason that she herself will be the mistress of the world, and therefore with her cut off, the world will appear cut off. It is confirmed, because this will be very fitting to the genius and purpose of the Antichrist, namely that he himself, king of Jerusalem and of the Jews, fighting against Christ, might overturn the metropolis of his kingdom and Church, namely Rome. For he himself will desire this with the highest wishes, so that the kingdom of Christ might appear to have been destroyed. Just as therefore the Antichrist is opposed to Christ, the Jews to Christians, Jerusalem to Rome: so the Antichrist will strive to abolish Christ, Christians, Rome, and its pontificate, as already his forerunners the Calvinists and other heretics are striving. Sixth, the Fathers teach this. Tertullian, in the book to Scapula, chapter II: "A Christian," he says, "is the enemy of no one, least of all of the Emperor, whom, knowing him to be constituted by his God, he must necessarily both love and revere, and honor, and wish safe together with the whole Roman Empire, as long as the world stands; for as long as it stands, so long will it stand." Theodoret in Daniel VII teaches that the Antichrist will come forth from the Roman Empire, and will fight against it. St. Jerome in Daniel XI speaks thus concerning the Antichrist: "And the arms of the people of Rome fighting shall be broken by him and shall be crushed." Lactantius, book VII, chapters XV and XXV, teaches that the Antichrist will overturn the Roman Empire, and will transfer it from the West to Asia: "By whose," he says, "destruction the world itself will fall." Again: "The thing itself declares that the fall and ruin will be soon, except that as long as the city of Rome remains unharmed, nothing of these things seems to them to be feared." "But truly when that head of the world has fallen, and has begun to be a crossroads (which the Sibyls are said to be), who doubts that the end of human affairs and of the world has already come?" St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on the epistle II to the Thessalonians: "Just as," he says, "the kingdom of the Medes was destroyed by the Babylonians, that of the Babylonians by the Persians, that of the Persians by the Macedonians, that of the Macedonians by the Romans, so also the kingdom of the Romans by the Antichrist." Therefore Beza and the heretics err, but willingly and fraudulently, when they teach that the Roman Empire has ceased, so that from this they might prove that the Antichrist has already come, and that he is the Roman Pontiff: which error I have refuted more fully and more effectively in II Thessalonians II, 3. Alcazar also falls into this opinion, but thoughtlessly and on another foundation. For he contends that the Roman Empire has ceased, so that from this he might prove that these things are not to be understood concerning the Antichrist, and concerning the destruction of Rome and the Roman Empire at the end of the world, but concerning the destruction of Pagan Rome, or of Paganism through Christianity under Constantine; concerning which I have already spoken many times. To the argument of Ribera I reply: although the Antichrist is to overcome three kings, it is not established that he will kill them. For Daniel says only that he will humble them, that is, subjugate them. And even if he were to kill them, he would hand over their kingdoms to others friendly to him or subject to him, so that after him, equally as before, there would be ten kings. This is evident from the fact that the beast, cap. XIII, vers. 1, which signifies the Antichrist, is said to have ten horns, that is, ten kingdoms and kings. Again, from the fact that here the ten kings are said to have received power after the beast, that is, after the Antichrist. Therefore the Antichrist will be the monarch and king of ten kingdoms and kings of the world, and through them as it were his vassals he will invade and overthrow Rome. For it does not appear how ten kings scattered throughout the whole world would conspire in the destruction of one Rome, unless because they have submitted themselves to one monarch, namely the Antichrist, and by him are directed to the destruction of Rome hateful to them; and John insinuates this here, when bringing forward the cause of the destruction of Rome, he adds: "God hath given in their hearts to give their kingdom to the beast;" Therefore the destruction of Rome and of the Roman Empire will be a sign not preceding, but simultaneous, not of the Antichrist coming, but present. I join Rome with the Roman Empire, because Rome at the end of the world will be, as once it was, rich and powerful: whence at the end of the chapter John says: "The great city which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth;" therefore it will then hold the empire, especially because not only Gentiles, but also many Christians, as Tertullian, Lactantius in the words already cited and others held, believed Rome, equally as the Roman Empire, to be eternal, that is, to last until the end of the world, namely until the Antichrist. For in the following chapter, the Antichrist will be slain with his followers, and soon in cap. II, the day of judgment will be introduced. Yet this empire of Rome, after the ten kings have been slain and subjugated by the Antichrist, will be greatly diminished and reduced, and near to ruin.
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18. "And the woman whom thou sawest, is the great city, which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth." — Here therefore the order and series of things to be done appears to be future. Antichrist, growing gradually in strength and number, shall overcome three kings out of the ten who shall then be in the world. Soon the remaining ten, and all nations struck down, shall send legations to him, and shall submit themselves to him, as they did to Alexander the Great after he had conquered Darius; whence he himself then immediately became a monarch. Antichrist then, exerting all his venom against Christ and Christians, and establishing and extending his empire, shall take care that Rome be besieged and overthrown, both because it was and will be a rival of empire, and because it was the seat of the Pontiffs of Christ, and shall commit the matter to ten kings, that is, to some of those who shall be more powerful and nearer to Rome, yet with the others favoring, and helping by money, provisions, and other means. For it will not be necessary to gather the armies of ten kings, that is, of the whole world, for the destruction of one city, nor will the time of the reign of Antichrist (which shall be three years and a half) endure such long delays, that kings from the far East, as it is said in cap. XVI, vers. 14, should come to him in Armageddon, then proceed thence to overthrow Rome, and soon return to Armageddon. For these things require many years. Therefore some kings nearer to Rome shall overthrow and burn it. These he shall then summon to Armageddon: as he had already summoned them from the East, cap. XVI, vers. 14, and other nations from the four quarters of the earth together with Gog and Magog. All these therefore shall assemble to Antichrist in Judea, that they may everywhere blot out the name of Christ and Christians, and their army shall be innumerable. Soon Christ shall destroy all assembled, and shall slay them with fire sent down from heaven upon them, as it is said in cap. XX, 9. But Antichrist himself, and his false prophet, he shall cast down alive into the abyss. That this is so shall be evident, if one considers together cap. XVI, vers. 14 and 16, where the kings beyond the Euphrates from the rising of the sun are summoned to the great day of God in Armageddon, and cap. XVII, vers. 14, where it is said of the ten kings that they shall give their power to the beast, that is to Antichrist, and that they shall fight for him against Christ and Christians; but Christ shall overcome and destroy them: "These," he says, "shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them." And cap. XIX, vers. 11 and 18, where Christ with his heavenly army goes forth conquering and slaying them; for there among other things it is said to the birds of the air: "Come, and gather yourselves together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of tribunes, and the flesh of mighty men," etc. And vers. 19: "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth (namely the ten already mentioned), and their armies gathered together to make war with him that sat upon the horse," that is with Christ. Soon he adds that the beast, that is Antichrist with his false prophet, was caught up into the abyss, but the rest were slain, namely in the manner which he describes in cap. XX, vers. 7, 8 and 9, where concerning Satan loosed after a thousand years he says: "And he shall seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall gather them to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city (Jerusalem); and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Hence it is clear that there is no hysteron proteron in this destruction of Babylon, but that St. John has rightly placed all these things in order, each in its proper place. From what has been said it is gathered that Rome is to be overthrown not at the beginning, but rather toward the end of the reign of Antichrist. For he shall first overcome the kings and princes subject to Rome and the Roman Empire, and shall subject them to himself, and thus the Roman Empire being already weakened, he shall attack Rome itself, which had been the head of the Empire, shall take it and overthrow it: with it overthrown, the Roman Empire shall likewise fall and be completely destroyed. Then shall follow the battle of Gog and Magog, and the slaughter of them and of Antichrist. Then the day of judgment, and the resurrection and glory of the elect, which John here recounts in order, so that he closes the Apocalypse in the glory and felicity of the heavenly Jerusalem. For this seems to be required by the plain and orderly narrative of St. John, and thus we avoid many confused, troublesome and ambiguous hysterologies, and therefore plainly uncertain and fictitious ones. Moreover, whether the Roman Pontiff, with Rome occupied and laid waste by the Antichrist, is about to transfer his seat to another city and province, or is able to transfer it, is a question. For many, from the fact that St. Peter transferred his chair and pontificate from Antioch to Rome, since there is no decree of Christ concerning this, judge that the pontificate placed by St. Peter in Rome is of human right, not divine, and therefore the Pontiff, for grave cause (as if the Turk, which God forbid, should occupy Italy and Rome), with the consent of the Cardinals and Bishops, is able to transfer the pontificate from Rome to another city and province; thus D. Soto holds in IV, dist. XXIV, Quaest. II, art. 5, at the end; Antonius Cordubensis, Gasparus Casalius, Waldensis and others, whom Alfonsus Mendoza cites and follows, Scholastic. controv., Quaest. IV, concl. 3. Although the contrary, namely that the Roman papacy is of divine right, because Christ commanded Peter to place it there, and therefore cannot be transferred by the Pontiff, without divine revelation, to another city, is held by Joannes Driedo, lib. IV, cap. III, part. III; Turrecremata in glossa super cap. Rogamus, XXIV, Quaest. 1; Cardinal Jacobatius, lib. VIII De Conciliis, art. 6, where he also cites for this opinion the Archdeacon, Ockam, Albericus and others; St. Antoninus, III part. Scholast., tit. 22, cap. IV, § 1; Alvarus Pelagius, lib. I De Planctu Ecclesiae, art. 32. But whatever may be the case concerning right and possibility, I judge that in fact it will never happen, as it has never happened hitherto, that the pontificate be transferred from Rome elsewhere (for even when the Pontiffs sat at Avignon for 70 years, they were and were called Roman Pontiffs, not Avignonese). First, because in the time of the Antichrist in all cities and provinces, there will be a general persecution of the Pontiff and the faithful, and therefore it would be useless to transfer the Roman seat elsewhere, since the Pontiff would not escape persecution there, but would rather incur it. Second, because St. Peter sat in Rome in the most burning persecution of Nero: all his successors did the same constantly for three hundred years in ten most grievous persecutions, until the times of Constantine. Third, because the persecution of the Antichrist will be brief, namely three and a half years; and the day of judgment will be at hand: but for so short a time, it will not be worth the trouble to change the seat. Fourth, because the Roman Pontiff in the time of the Antichrist will be Peter the Roman, and the final judgment will succeed him, the prophecy of St. Malachy holds, which I cited at the beginning of the chapter. The Pontiff can, however, when persecution and the destruction of the city press hard, flee outside Rome and hide himself in other places and cities, as St. Sylvester did on Mount Soracte, and many others after him. To this prophecy concerning ten kings are consonant those things which St. Francis of Paula, founder of the Order of Minims, predicted concerning almost as many kings. For he in various letters, which Father Lucas Montoya recites word for word in the Chronicles of the same Order, at the end, prophesied the same thing, and namely in one which he wrote in the year of Christ 1469, on the 13th of August, to Simon of Limena, lord of Montalti, which is still preserved there, thus he says: "From you (O Simon) will descend the founder of a new Religion, which will have three parts: the first will be of armed knights; the second, of priests; the third, of hospitallers. This Religion will be the last of all, it will bring great fruit to the Church, it will extinguish the accursed sect of Mahomet, and indeed all heresies, so that there may be one fold and one Shepherd. In the whole world there will be only twelve kings, one Emperor and one Pontiff, and few Princes, who will all be holy." In other letters he calls this Order "Cruciferi," because in their standards they will bear the image of the cross, or of Christ crucified, for which they will fight, and to which they will subject both Mahometans and heretics and wicked Christians. And he asserts that all these things were revealed to him by God, and will certainly come to pass; similar prophecies of others are circulated, but which require examination.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
17:3
… controls all commerce (Apoc. 13:17; 18:11-19); master of all means, he irresistibly subjugates and fascinates men with masked violence and flattering promises, and through self-interest and pleasures estranges them from the heavenly Kingdom (Apoc. 13:3-17; 17:3-4, 17-18; 18:9-24): rather than fighting God directly he substitutes himself (ἀντίθεος) in the hearts of men, this being the only way to annihilate His Kingdom. …
17:7
… Denis the Carthusian, and Bossuet in the preface to his Apocalypse, praise him greatly; Bossuet follows him in explaining Apoc. 17:7-18. Like St. Bede, B. discerns the situation of the Church in the various epochs, not predictions of individual events; in the 7 churches (chaps. 1-3) « una Ecclesia catholica designatur …
17:8
… Paul distinguishes two times: already now the A. exists and works in secret; at the end, however, he will have full freedom of action (cf. Apoc. 17:8; 20:3 b. 7), but after a brief triumph he will be routed by Jesus (cf. Apoc. 20:3 ["modico tempore"]. 8-9).
… "Then your people shall be saved, whoever is found written in the book of life" (Dan. 12:1; cf. Ex. 32:32 and Ps. 69 [68]:19; the identical image is found in Apoc. 3:5; 17:8; 21:12). What is also emphasized in the Old Testament is that God freely chose the Hebrew people in preference to others, just as no less freely he chose among many others Abraham, …
17:32
… St. Peter and St. John "annunciabant in Iesu resurrectionem ex mortuis" (Acts 4:2; cf. Rev. 20:11 ff.) and St. Paul professed his faith in this truth, disputing with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers in the Areopagus (ibid. 17:32), before the priests and Sadducees of Jerusalem (ibid. 23:6), before the Roman governor Felix (ibid. 24:15), before Agrippa (ibid. 26:8, 23); he vindicated its somatic meaning …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Rheims 1582), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.