Satan is bound for a thousand years. The souls of the martyrs reign with Christ in the first resurrection. The last attempts of Satan against the church. The last judgment.
An Angel casteth the dragon (or diuel) bound, into the depth for a thousand yeres, in vvhich the soules of martyes in the first resurrection shal reigne vvith Christ, 7 After vvhich yeres, Satan being let loose, shal raise Gog and Magog, an innumerable armie, against the beloued citie: 9 but a fire from heauen shal destroy them. 12 Then bookes are opened, and he that sitteth vpon the throne, iudgeth al the dead according to their vvorkes.
1And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.E vidi un Angelo scender dal cielo, che aveva la chiave dell'abisso, e una gran catena in mano.AND I savv an Angel descending from heauen, hauing the key of the bottomles depth, and a great chaine in his hand.Et vidi angelum descendentem de cælo, habentem clavem abyssi, et catenam magnam in manu sua. 2And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.Ed egli afferrò il dragone, quel serpente antico, che è il diavolo, e Satanasso, e lo legò per mille anni:And he apprehended the dragon the old serpent, vvhich is the Deuil and Satan, and • bound him for a thousand yeres.Et apprehendit draconem, serpentem antiquum, qui est diabolus, et Satanas, et ligavit eum per annos mille: 3And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should no more seduce the nations till the thousand years be finished. And after that, he must be loosed a little time.E cacciollo nell'abisso, e lo chiuse, e sigillò sopra di lui, perché non seduca più le nazioni, sino a tanto che siano compiti i mille anni: dopo i quali debbe egli essere disciolto per poco tempo.and he threvv him into the depth, and shut him vp, and sealed ouer him, that he seduce no more the nations, til the thousand yeres be consummate. and after these thinges he must be loosed a litle time.et misit eum in abyssum, et clausit, et signavit super illum ut non seducat amplius gentes, donec consummentur mille anni: et post hæc oportet illum solvi modico tempore. 4And I saw seats. And they sat upon them: and judgment was given unto them. And the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God and who had not adored the beast nor his image nor received his character on their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.E vidi de' troni, sederono su questi, e fu dato ad essi di giudicare: e le anime di quegli, che furono decollati a causa della testimonianza (renduta) a Gesù, e a causa della parola di Dio, e quegli, i quali non adoraron la bestia, né l'immagine di essa, né il carattere di lei ricevettero nella fronte, o nelle mani loro, e vissero, e regnarono con Cristo per mille anni.And • I savv seates: and they sate vpon them, & iudgement vvas giuen them, • and the soules of the beheaded for the testimonie of IESVS, and for the vvord of God, and that adored not the beast, not his image, nor receiued his character in their foreheads or in their handes, and haue liued, and reigned vvith Christ a thousand yeres.Et vidi sedes, et sederunt super eas, et judicium datum est illis: et animas decollatorum propter testimonium Jesu, et propter verbum Dei, et qui non adoraverunt bestiam, neque imaginem ejus, nec acceperunt caracterem ejus in frontibus, aut in manibus suis, et vixerunt, et regnaverunt cum Christo mille annis.
5The rest of the dead lived not, till the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.(Gli altri morti poi non vissero, fintantoché siano compiti i mille anni). Questa è la prima risurrezione.• The rest of the dead liued not, til the thousand yeres be consummate. This is the first resurrection.Ceteri mortuorum non vixerunt, donec consummentur mille anni. Hæc est resurrectio prima. 6Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. In these the second death hath no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ: and shall reign with him a thousand years.Beato, e santo, chi ha parte nella prima risurrezione: sopra di questi non ha potere la morte seconda: ma saranno sacerdoti di Dio, e di Cristo, e con lui regneranno per mille anni.Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. in these the second death hath not povver: but • they shal be priestes of God and of Christ: and shal reigne vvith him a thousand yeres.Beatus, et sanctus, qui habet partem in resurrectione prima: in his secunda mors non habet potestatem: sed erunt sacerdotes Dei et Christi, et regnabunt cum illo mille annis. 7And when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go forth and seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog: and shall gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.E compiti i mille anni, sarà sciolto satana dalla sua prigione, e uscirà, e sedurrà le nazioni, che sono nei quattro angoli della terra, Gog, e Magog, e raguneragli a battaglia, il numero de' quali è come dell'arena del mare.And vvhen the thousand yeres shal be consummate, • Satan shal be loosed out of his prison, and shal goe forth, and seduce the nations that are vpon the foure corners of the earth, Gog, and Magog, and shal gather them into battel, the number of vvhom is as the sand of the sea.Et cum consummati fuerint mille anni, solvetur Satanas de carcere suo, et exibit, et seducet gentes, quæ sunt super quatuor angulos terræ, Gog, et Magog, et congregabit eos in prælium, quorum numerus est sicut arena maris. 8And they came upon the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city.E si stesero per l'ampiezza della terra, e circonvallarono gli alloggiamenti de' santi, e la città diletta.And they ascended vpon the bredth of the earth, and compassed • the campe of the Sainctes, and the beloued citie.Et ascenderunt super latitudinem terræ, et circuierunt castra sanctorum, et civitatem dilectam.
9And there came down fire from God out of heaven and devoured them: and the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beastE cadde dal cielo un fuoco (spedito) da Dio, il quale gli divorò: e il diavolo, che gli seduceva, fu gittato in uno stagno di fuoco, e di zolfo, dove anche la bestia,And • there came dovvne fire from God out of heauen, and deuoured them: and the Deuil vvhich seduced them, vvas cast into the poole of fire and brimstone, vvhere both the beastEt descendit ignis a Deo de cælo, et devoravit eos: et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis, et sulphuris, ubi et bestia 10And the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.E il falso profeta saran tormentati dì, e notte pe' secoli de' secoli.and the false-prophet shal be tormented day and night for euer and euer.et pseudopropheta cruciabuntur die ac nocte in sæcula sæculorum. 11And I saw a great white throne and one sitting upon it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away: and there was no place found for them.E vidi un trono grande, e candida, e uno, che sopra di esso sedeva, dalla vista del quale fuggì la terra, e il cielo, nè più comparirono.And I savv a great vvhite throne, and one sitting vpon it, from vvhose sight earth and heauen fled, and there vvas no place found for them.Et vidi thronum magnum candidum, et sedentem super eum, a cujus conspectu fugit terra, et cælum, et locus non est inventus eis. 12And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne. And the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works.E vidi i morti grandi, e piccoli stare davanti al trono, e si aprirono i libri: e un altro libro fu aperto, che è quel della vita: e furon giudicati i morti sopra di quello, che era scritto ne' libri secondo le opere loro:And I savv the dead, great and litle, standing in the sight of the throne, and bookes vvere opened: and • an other booke vvas opened, vvhich is of life: and the dead vvere iudged of those thinges vvhich were vvritten in the bookes according to their vvorkes.Et vidi mortuos, magnos et pusillos, stantes in conspectu throni, et libri aperti sunt: et alius liber apertus est, qui est vitæ: et judicati sunt mortui ex his, quæ scripta erant in libris, secundum opera ipsorum: 13And the sea gave up the dead that were in it: and death and hell gave up their dead that were in them. And they were judged, every one according to their works.E il mare rendette i morti, che riteneva dentro di se: e la morte, e l'inferno rendettero i morti, che avevano: e giudizio si fece di ciascheduno secondo quello, che avevano operato.and the sea gaue the dead that vvere in it, and death and hel gaue their dead that vvere in them, and it vvas iudged of euery one according to their vvorkes.et dedit mare mortuos, qui in eo erant: et mors et infernus dederunt mortuos suos, qui in ipsis erant: et judicatum est de singulis secundum opera ipsorum.
14And hell and death were cast into the pool of fire. This is the second death.E l'inferno, e la morte furono gittati in uno stagno di fuoco. Questa è la seconda morte.And hel and death vvere cast into the poole of fire. This is the second death.Et infernus et mors missi sunt in stagnum ignis. Hæc est mors secunda. 15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the pool of fire.E chi non si trovò scritto nel libro della vita, fu gittato nello stagno di fuoco.And he that vvas not found vvritten in the booke of life, vvas cast into the poole of fire.Et qui non inventus est in libro vitæ scriptus, missus est in stagnum ignis.
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Witham
And bound him for a thousand years. I shall give the reader an abridgment of what St. Augustine has left us on this chapter, in his 20th book de Civ. Dei[City of God]. From the 5th to the 16th Apocalypse, (t. vii. p. 578 et seq.) he treats upon these difficulties: What is meant by the first and second resurrection; by the binding and chaining up of the devil; by the thousand years that the saints reign with Christ; by the first and second death; by Gog and Magog, etc. As to the first resurrection, Apocalypse 6., he takes notice on the 5th verse, that resurrection[Ver. 2. St. Augustine, ch. VI. Prima animarum est.] in the Gospels, and in St. Paul, is applied not only to the body but also to the soul; and the second resurrection, which is to come, is that of the bodies: that there is also a death of the soul, which is by sin; and that the second death is that of soul and body by eternal damnation: that both bad and good shall rise again in their bodies. On those words, (ver. 6) Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection; in these the second death hath no power. Such, saith he, (chap. 9.) as have risen from sin, and have remained in that resurrection of the soul, shall never be liable to the second death, which is damnation. Cap. vii. p. 580, he says that some Catholics not understanding rightly the first resurrection, have been led into ridiculous fables,[Ver. 2. Ch. VII, p. 580. In quasdam riduculas fabulas.] and this by the interpretation which they put on the thousand years; as if the first resurrection implied a resurrection of the bodies of the martyrs and saints, who should live on the earth with Christ for a thousand years before the general resurrection, in all manner of delights. This was the opinion of those called Millenarians: this, saith he, might seem tolerable in some measure,[Ver. 2. P. 581. Utcunque tolerabilis.] if taken for spiritual delights, (for we ourselves were once in these sentiments) but if for carnal pleasures, it can only be believed by carnal men. He then expounds what may be understood by the binding and chaining of the devil for a thousand years; (Cap. vii. et viii, p. 581) that the thousand years, meaning a long time, may signify all the time from Christ's first coming[Ver. 2. Mille annòs pro annis omnibus hujus saeculi posuit, etc. Ch. VIII, p. 583. A primo adventu Christi usque ad finem saeculi.] to his second at the end of the world, and to the last short persecution under antichrist. The devil is said to be bound, that is, his power much lessened and restrained, in comparison of the great and extensive power he had over all nations before Christ's incarnation; not but that he still tempts many,[Ver. 2. Ch. VIII, p. 583. Alligatio diaboli est non permitti exercere totam tentationem, etc.] and raiseth persecutions, which always turn to their greater good; and that towards the end of the world he shall be let loose, as it were, for a short time, and permitted with his infernal spirits to exercise his malice against mankind, to try the patience of the elect, and to shew the power of God's grace, by which his faithful servants shall triumph over the devil. (N. B.[Nota Bene, Note Well?]) What St. Augustine adds divers times in these chapters: "Let no one," says he, "imagine[Ver. 2. Ne quis existimet eo ipso parvo tempore, quo solvetur diabolus, in hac terra ecclesiam non futuram, etc. Tales erunt, cum quibus ei belligerandum est, ut vinci tanto ejus impetu, insidiisque non possint, etc.] that even during that short time, there shall be no Church of Christ on the earth: God forbid: even when the devil shall be let loose, he shall not be able to seduce the Church." Cap. ix, p. 586, he expounds those words, (ver. 4-5) I saw the souls of them that were beheaded....and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years....This is the first resurrection: that is the first resurrection is while the devil is chained up for the space of a thousand years. He takes notice that the present state of the Church is many times called the kingdom of God, and that the Church of Christ reigns now with Christ, both in the living saints and in those who are dead, in the souls of the martyrs, and of others, who having lived and died piously, now reign with Christ, not yet in their bodies,[Ver. 2. Ch. IX, p. 586. Quamvis ergo cum suis corporibus nondum, jam tamen eorum animae regnant cum eo.] but their souls reign with him. On those words of the 4th verse: who had not adored the beast, nor his image, nor received his mark, he only gives this exposition, as agreeable to the Christian faith, that by the beast may be understood the multitude of wicked sinners in general, and the image of the beast[Ver. 2. P. 587. Quae sit ista bestia....non abhorret a fide recta, ut ipsa impia civitas intelligatur, et populus infidelium contrarius populo fideli, et civitati Dei. Imago vero simulatio ejus mihi videtur....fallaci imagine Christiani.] those who are of the Church in outward appearance and profession only, and not by their works. When it is said (ver. 5) that the rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished: they lived not, says he, as to their souls, when they should have lived; and therefore not being happy in heaven, when their bodies shall rise, it shall not be to life, but to judgment and damnation, which is the second death. Cap. xi, he expounds the 7th and 8th verses, where it is said that Satan shall be loosed....and seduce the nations which are over the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog,[Ver. 2. Ch. XI, p. 589. De Gog et Magog: haec erit novissima persecutio, novissimo imminente judicio, quam sancta ecclesia toto terrarum orbe patietur, universa scilicet civitas Christi ab universa diaboli civitate.] and shall gather them together to battle. This, says St. Augustine, will be the last persecution at the approach of the day of judgment, which the whole city, or the whole Church of Christ dispersed through the universe, will suffer from the whole city of the devil. Neither need Gog and Magog be taken for a particular[Gentes istae, quas appellat Gog et Magog, non sic sunt accipiendae, tanquam sint aliqui in aliqua parte terrarum barbari constituti....non utique ad unum locum venisse, vel venturi esse significati sunt, etc.] barbarous people, but such as are dispersed in a manner in every nation, and who shall then break out by the instigation of Satan into an open hatred and persecution against the faithful servants of God; as it is said, (ver. 8.) they ascended upon the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, where we cannot literally understand one camp, one city, or one place, but the Church every where dispersed. Cap. xii, he expounds the 9th verse, where he takes fire to signify, metaphorically, the firm resistance and constancy of the good, and the fire[Ver. 2. Ch. XII, p. 589. Bene intelligitur ignis de caelo de ipsa firmitate sanctorum, qua non cessuri sunt saevientibus, quoniam non poterunt attrahere in partes antichristi sanctos Christi.] of their zeal, which devoured as it were the wicked; or we may understand with others, the temporal fire of God's judgments in this world against the wicked, but not the last eternal fire; because the eternal fire comes not down from heaven but the wicked are cast into it below. Cap. xiii, he teacheth that the last persecution[Ver. 2. Ch. XIII. Haec persecutio novissima, quae futura est ab antichristo (p. 590) tribus annis et sex mensibus erit....tempus exiguum, etc.] of antichrist, here mentioned, shall last but three years and six months; that is a little while. Cap. xiv and xv, he expounds the 10th and following verse, of the devil being cast into the lake of fire, after the last persecution of antichrist. By the beast he understands, as before, the city or multitude of all the wicked; and by the false prophet, either antichrist or the outward appearance of faith in them that have none. Then follows the last judgment, where it is said that the books are opened, and also that another book was opened. By the first book, may be understood men and their consciences; and by the other book, the book of life, that[Ver. 2. Ch. XV, p. 593. Praedestinationem significat eorum, quibus aeterna dabitur vita, etc.] of eternal predestination. Thus far S. Augustine, where we see that he delivers the common Catholic doctrine, that by the thousand years, so often mentioned in this chapter, he understands all that time in which the souls of the martyrs, and of all other saints, reign happy with Christ in heaven, till after the general resurrection they receive a full and complete happiness, both as to soul and body. A false exposition of these thousand years gave occasion to the mistake, the error, and heresy of those called the Millenarians, which Mede and Dr. W. have followed. Papias, who lived soon after, or perhaps with St. John, was the chief promoter of this mistake; a man, says Eusebius, of "little judgment and capacity,"[Ver. 2. Eusebius (lib. 3, ch. XXXIX) says of Papias, omikr[] on ton noun; and that he followed muthikotera.] who misconstrued the discourses which he heard. He was followed by divers writers in the second, third, and fourth century, who did not hold with Cerinthus and his followers, that the saints should rise before the general resurrection, and reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years in all manner of sensual pleasures; but in spiritual delights, in the city of Jerusalem, built anew after that glorious manner described in the next chapter. Now though this opinion had several considerable abettors, of which I find these seven: Papias, St. Justin[St. Justin Martyr], St. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Nepos, (a bishop, in Egypt; in Eusebius, lib. vii. ch. XXIV.) Victorinus Petabionensis, Lactantius, and Severus Sulpitius: yet were there always other learned Catholic writers who rejected it as a fable. Of this number was Caius, a priest, at Rome, about the end of the second age[century]; Origen, in his prologue on the Canticles; St. Denys, of Alexandria, who in the third age[century] wrote to confute Nepos; (see Eusebius, lib. vii. History of the Church, ch. XXIV., who treats it as a fable ) St. Basil,[Ver. 2. St. Basil (tom. 3, p. 284) says, graiodeis muthous.] who calls it an old wife's tale, and a Jewish fiction, Epist. 293; St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. 52; St. Epiphanius, St. Jerome, Philastrius, Theodoret, who place this opinion among the heresies and heretical fables: so that this could never be looked upon as the constant doctrine and tradition of the Church. The bishop of Meaux[Bossuet] takes notice, that Mede either mistook or falsified the text of St. Justin,[Ver. 2. St. Justin, (Ed. Joachimi Perionii, p. 62.) multis autum eorum, etiam qui integrae piaeque sententiae Christianae sunt, haec incognita (seu non agnita) esse tibi exposui. In the Greek of Rob. Stephen, out of a manuscript in the king's library, in the year 1551, p. 88, pollous d au, kai ton tes katharas, kai eusebous onton christianon gnomes, touto me gnorizein, esemena soi.] who, in his Dialogue with Tryphon, holds that opinion of a thousand years reign; but adds, "I also told you, that many who are Christians of pious and sound sentiments, do not own this to be true." Thus we read in the Greek, as well as in the Latin translation: but Mr. Mede quite changes the sense, by adding a negative in this manner; but many who are not of this pure and holy doctrine, etc. We may observe that St. Justin says in the next page, that they who own not the resurrection of the body, and say that souls go to heaven without any future resurrection, are not to be accounted Christians, but are to be looked upon as Sadducees and unbelievers. Which is very true. And he adds, that he, and others who think right with him, know that there will be a resurrection of the flesh, and a rebuilding of Jerusalem for a thousand years, which St. Justin himself judged grounded on the prophets, Isaias, Ezechiel, etc. So that not to make St. Justin contradict himself, he mentions three opinions: the first is the heresy of those who absolutely denied the future resurrection of the dead: these were not Christians, but unbelievers, Sadducees, etc. The second was of those who held that the martyrs and saints should rise, and reign for a thousand years in their bodies on the earth; this, which was his own opinion, he calls the right and true doctrine. But thirdly, he does not condemn those pious Christians who, as he had said before, disowned this thousand years reign, for this would be to contradict himself. (Witham)
Bible de Vence
In the above chapter, what man can reflect without trembling, that the devil has the rage of a dragon, the cunning of an old serpent, the malice of a calumniator, and that he is a most implacable enemy? On the other hand, what man is there that does not feel consolation in the reflection, that Jesus Christ has vanquished this savage fiend, and bound him in fetters, by limiting the exercise of his rage and malice? Some understand this chaining of the dragon of the reign of Constantine, and particularly after the defeat of Licinius; (see above, [Apocalypse] Apocalypse 12:18.) and the thousand years of the intermediate period between Constantine and antichrist, when the devil will again be let loose, but for a short time, only three years and a half. (Bible de Vence)
Challoner
Bound him, etc. The power of Satan has been very much abridged by the passion of Christ; for a thousand years; that is for the whole time of the new testament, but especially from the time of the destruction of Babylon or pagan Rome, till the new efforts of Gog and Magog against the Church, towards the end of the world. During which time the souls of the martyrs and saints live and reign with Christ in heaven, in the first resurrection, which is that of the soul to the life of glory, as the second resurrection will be that of the body, at the day of general judgment. (Challoner)
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Bound him, etc.... The power of Satan has been very much limited by the passion of Christ: for a thousand years; that is, for the whole time of the New Testament; but especially from the time of the destruction of Babylon or pagan Rome, till the new efforts of Gog and Magog against the church, towards the end of the world. During which time the souls of the martyrs and saints live and reign with Christ in heaven, in the first resurrection, which is that of the soul to the life of glory; as the second resurrection will be that of the body, at the day of the general judgment.
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See in S. Augustine (li. 20. de Ciuit. c. 7. 8. & seq.) the exposition of this chapter.
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2. Bound him;] Christ by his Passion hath abridged the povver of the Deuil for a thousand yeres, that is, the vvhole time of the nevv Testament, vntil Antichrists time, vvhen he shal be loosed againe, that is, be permitted to deceiue the vvorld, but for a short time only, to vvit, three yeres and a halfe.
4. I savv seates.] S. Augustine (li. 20 de Ciuit. Dei c. 9) taketh this to be spoken, not of the last iudgement, Bishops consistories & iudicial power. but of the Sees or Consistories of Bishops and Prelates, and of the Prelates them selues, by vvhom the Church is novv gouerned. As the iudgement here giuen, can be taken no othervvise better, then of that vvhich vvas said by our Sauior Mat. 18. Whatsoeuer you binde in earth, 1. Cor. 5. shal be bound in heauen. and therfore the Apostle saith, What haue I to doe to iudge of them that are vvith out?
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3. This is the first resurrection.] As there be tvvo regenerations, one by faith, vvhich is novv in Baptisme: and an other according to the flesh, vvhen at the later day the body shal be made immortal and incorruptible: The first resurrection, of the soule only. so there are tvvo resurrections, the one novv of the soules to saluation vvhen they die in grace, vvhich is called the first, the other of the bodies at the later day. S. August. li•. 20 de Ciui•. c. 6.
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4. And the soules.] During a thousand yeres (that is the time ofthis militant Church) saints reigne vvith Christ in soule only. He meaneth (saith S. Augustine in the place alleaged) the soules of Martyrs, that they shal in the meane time, during those thousand yeres; vvhich is the time of the Church militant, be in heauen vvithout their bodies, and reigne vvith Christ. for, the soules (saith he) of the godly departed, are not separated from the Church, vvhich is euen novv the kingdom of Christ. for els there should be kept no memorie of them as the altar of God in the communicating of the body of Christ: neither should it auaile to hasten to Baptisme in the perils of death, for feare of ending our life vvithout it: nor to hasten to be reconciled, if vve fortune for penence or of il conscience to be separated from the same body. And vvhy are al these things done, but for that the faithful departed also be members of the Church? And though for an example the Martyrs be onely named here, yet it is mean• of others also that die in the state of grace.
Quid in millenari• numero nisi ad proferandam nouam sobolem perfecta vniuersitas praes•ita generationis exprim•• 〈◊〉 hinc per 〈◊〉 dicitur, It regnabunt cū 〈◊〉 •ill• a•nis, 〈◊〉 regnum sancta Ecclesia, vniuersitatis perfe c•ione so•iidatur. D. Gregor. li. 9. Moral. c. 1.
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5. The rest liued not.] The rest are dead and damned in soule, during the same time. The rest vvhich are not of the happie number aforesaid, but liued and died in sinne, reigne not vvith Christ in their soules during this time of the nevv Testament, but are dead in soule spiritually, and in body naturally, til the day of iudgement. S. August. ibidem.
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6. They shal be Priests.] It is not spoken (saith S. Augustine li. 20 de Ciuit. c. 10) of Bishops and Priests onely, Priests, some proprely so called, some vnproprely. vvhich are properly novv in the Church called Priests: but as vve call al, Christians, for the mystical Chrisme or ointment, 1. Pet. •. so al, Priests, because they are the members of one Priest. of vvhom the Apostle Peter saith, A holy people, a kingly Priesthod. Vvhich vvordes be notable for their learning that thinke there be none properly called Priests novv in the nevv Testament, no othervvise then al Christian men and vvomen, and a confusion to them that therfore haue turned the name Priests into Ministers.
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7. Satan shal be loosed.] The binding and loosing of Satan, explicated by S. Augustine. In the vvhole 8 chapter of the said 20 booke de Ciuitate Dei in S. Augustine, is a notable commentarie of these vvordes. Vvhere first he declareth, that neither this binding nor loosing of Satan is in respect of seducing or not seducing the Church of God: prouing that vvhether he be bound or loose, he can neuer seduce the same. The same, saith he, shal be the state of the Church at that time vvhen the Diuel is to be loosed, euen as since it vvas instituted. the same hath it been & shal be at al time in her children that succede eche other by birth & death. And a litle after. This I thought vvas therfore to be mentioned, left any man should thinke, that during the litle time wherein the Diuel shal be loosed, the Church shal not be vpon the earth, he either not finding it here vvhen he shal be le• loose, or consuming it vvhen be shal by al meanes persecute the same. Secondly he declareth, that the Diuel to be bound, is nothing els but not to be permitted by God to exercise al his force or fraude in tentations: as to be loosed, is to be suffered by God for a small time, that is, for three yeres and a halfe, to practise and proue al his povver and artes of tentations against the Church and her children, and yet not to preuaile against them. Thirdly this Doctor shevveth by vvhat great mercie our Lord hath tied Satan and abridged his povver during the vvhole millenarie or thousand yeres, vvhich is al the time of the nevv Testament vntil then: & vvith vvhat vvisedom he permitteth him to breake loose that litle time of three yeres and sixe moneths, The short reigne of Antichrist. tovvard the later day, vvhich shal be the reigne of Antichrist. Lastly he shevveth vvhat kinde of men shal be most subiect to the Diuels seductiō, (euen such as novv by tentation of Heretikes goe out of the Church) and vvho shal auoid it.
By al vvhich vve may confute diuers false expositiōs of old & late Heretikes. Millenarij or Chiliast• first, the aūcient sect of the Millenaries, that grounded vpon these thousand yeres named by the Prophet, this heresie, that there should be so many yeres after the resurrectiō of our bodies, in vvhich vve should reigne vvith Christ in this vvorld, in our bodies, in al delites and pleasures corporal, of meates, drinkes, and such like, vvhich they called the first resurrection. of vvhich heresie Cerinthus vvas the author. Epiph. haer. 77. in fine. Hiero. Comment. in c. 19 Mat. August. har. 8 ad Quodvul• Deum. Eusebius also (li. 3 historia c. 33) shevveth that some principal men vvere in part (though after a more honest maner cōcerning those corporal delicacies) of the same opinion by misconstruction of these vvordes of S. Iohn. The Scriptures hard. Vvhereby vve learne and al the vvorld may perceiue, the holy Scriptures to be hard, vvhen so great clerkes did erre, and that there is no securitie but in that sense vvhich the Church allovveth of.
The late Heretikes also by the said S. Augustines vvordes are fully refuted, affirming not only that the Church may be seduced in that great persecution of the Diuels loosing, By S. Augustines foresaid explication, is eurdently dedu⸢c⸣ed against the Protestāts, that the Churche can not erre, and that the Pope can not possibly be Antichrist. but that it hath been seduced euen a great peece of this time vvhen the Diuel is bound: holding that the very true Church may erre or fall from truth to errour and idolatrie, yea (vvhich is more blasphemie) that the cheefe gouernour of the Church is Antichrist him self, and the very Church vnder him, the vvhoore of Babylon: and that this Antichrist, (vvhich the Scriptures in so many places, and here plainely by S. Augustines exposition, testifie, shal reigne but a small time, and that tovvard the last iudgement,) hath been reuealed long sithence, to be the Pope him self, Christs ovvne Vicar, and that he hath persecuted the Saincts of their secte for these thousand yeres at the least. Vvhich is no more but to make the Diuel to be loose, and Antichrist to reigne the vvhole thousand yeres, or the most part thereof, that is, almost the vvhole time of the Churches state in the new Testamēt: (vvhich is against this and other Scriptures euidently, appointing that, to be the time of the Diuels binding:) Yea it is to make Antichrist and the Diuel vveaker tovvard the day of iudgement then before, An inuincible demōstration. and the truth better to be knovven, and the faith more common. the neerer vve come to the same iudgement: vvhich is expresly against the Gospel. and this prophecie of S. Iohn.
Vve see that the sectes of Luther, Mat. 24. Caluin, and other, be more spred through the vvorld then they vvere euer before, Lu. 18, 8. and consequently the Pope and his religion lessened, and his povver of punishing (or, as they call it) persecuting the said Sectaries, through the multitude of his aduersaries, diminished. How then is the Pope Antichrist, Whose force shal be greater at the later end of the vvorld, then before? or how can it be othervvise, but these Sect•Maisters should be Antichrists neere precursors, that make Christs cheefe Ministers & the Churches cheefe gouelnours that haue been these thousand yeres and more, to be Antichristes: • and them selues and their sectes to be true, that come so neere the time of the Diuels loosing and seduction & of the personal reigne of Antichrist?
S. Augustine thinketh that these do not signifie any certaine natiōs but al that shal then be ioyned vvith the Diuel and Antichrist against the Church. li. 20. de Ciuit. c. 11. See S. Hierom in Exech. li. 11.
Concordance Ezec. 38, 14. 39, 2.
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8. The campe of the Saincts.] The camp⸢e⸣ of Saincts is the Catho. Church through the vvorld. S. Augustine in the said 20 booke de Clui•. Dei cap. 11. It is not, saith he, to be taken that the persecutors shal gather to any place, as though the campe of the saincts or the beloued citie should be but in one place, vvhich in deede are no other thing but the Church of Christ spred through the vvhole vvorld. And therfore vvheresoeuer the Church shal then be (vvhich shal be in al Nations euen them, for so much is insinuated by this latitude of the earth here specified) there shal the tents of saincts be, and the beloued citie of God, and there shal she be besieged by al her enemies, vvhich shal be in euery countrie vvhere she is, As novv Heretikes in particular countries, so Antichrist shal persecute the Churches of al nations. in most cruel and forcible sort. So vvriteth this profound holy Doctor. Vvhereby vve see, that, as novv the particular Churches of England, Scotland, Flanders, and such like, be persecuted by their enemies in those countries, so in the time of Antichrist, the Churches of al Nations. as of Italie, Spaine, France, and al other vvhich novv be quiet, shal be assaulted as novv the foresaid are, and much more, for that the general persecution of the vvhole, shal be greater. then the particular persecution of any Churches in the vvorld.
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9. There came dovvne a fire.] Vvhat is mean• by fire from heauen. It is not meant of the fire of Hel (saith S. Augustine ib. c. 12) into which the vvicked shal be cast after the resurrection of their bodies, but of an extraordinarie helpe that God vvil send from heauen, to giue succourse to the Saincts of the Church that then shal fight against the vvicked: or, the very feruent and burning zeale of religion and Gods honour, vvhich God vvil kindle in the hartes of the faithful, to be constant against al the forces of that great persecution.
See S. Hierom in Exech. li. 11.
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Concordance THE 6 VISION.
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They shal then be new, not the substā ce, but the shape chāged. 2 Pet. 3. See S. Augustine. li. 20. de Ciuit. c. 14.
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12. An other booke.] This is the booke of Gods knovvledge or predestination, The booke of euery mans workes, opened in the day of iudgement. vvherein that vvhich before vvas hid to the vvorld, shal be opened, and vvherein the true record of euery mans vvorkes shal be conteined, and they haue their iudgemēt diuersly according to their vvorkes, and not according to faith only, or lacke of faith only. for, al infidels (as Turkes, obstinate Ievves, and Heretikes) shal neuer come to that examination, being othervvise condemned.
The bookes of mens consciēces, where it shal plainely be read vvhat euery mans life hath been.
Concordance Apoc. 3, 5. 21, 27.
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Such as doe no good workes, if they haue age and time to doe them, are not found in the booke of life.
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Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 3.39.12
12. To these belong his statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.59
… and so by the resurrection of this bird the people of those regions understand that a period of five hundred years is accomplished. So to that bird the five hundredth is the year of resurrection, but to us the thousandth:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.7
… For the Apostle John says in the foresaid book, “And I saw an angel come down from heaven. . . . Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 3.23.7
… and that the lion, that is, antichrist, rampant against mankind in the latter days, should be trampled down by Him; and that He should bind “the dragon, that old serpent”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 25
… and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while,
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Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 11
… nay more, in vain has God appointed any judgment at all, when He means, indeed, to inflict punishment with injustice. But if, on the other hand, there is to be an end of evil, when the chief thereof, the devil, shall “go away into the fire which God hath prepared for him and his angels” —having been first “cast into the bottomless pit;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 70.4
… kings believed, peace was given to the Church, the Church began to be set in the highest place of dignity, even on this earth, even in this life: but there is not wanting the roar of persecutors, they have turned their assaults into thoughts. In these thoughts, as in a bottomless pit, the devil hath been bound,
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 81
… We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, ‘The day of the Lord is as a thousand years,’ is connected with this subject. And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 25
… and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while, the blessed prerogative of the first resurrection may be ordained from the thrones;
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus 12
… “And whosoever had not worshipped the image of the beast, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hand;” all these he joins together, as seen by him at one time in the same place, and says, “And they lived and reigned with Christ.”
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 3.28.2
… and he says that after the resurrection the kingdom of Christ will be set up on earth, and that the flesh dwelling in Jerusalem will again be subject to desires and pleasures. And being an enemy of the Scriptures of God, he asserts, with the purpose of deceiving men, that there is to be a period of a thousand years
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.9
… and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Whence the apostle says, “What have I to do with judging them that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?” “And the souls,” says John, “of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God,”—understanding what he afterwards says, “reigned with Christ a thousand years,”
Anonymous Martyrdom of Habib the Deacon 1
Habib said: Those who die for the sake of the name of Christ, and worship not those objects that are made and created, will find their life in the presence of God;
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Mathetes † fl. AD 130 Epistle to Diognetus 12
… Bearing this tree and displaying its fruit, thou shalt always gather in those things which are desired by God, which the Serpent cannot reach, and to which deception does not approach; nor is Eve then corrupted, but is trusted as a virgin; and salvation is manifested, and the Apostles are filled with understanding, and the Passover
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Letters 17
… And what means this opposing array of new Altars? Do we announce another Jesus? Do we hint at another? Do we produce other scriptures? Have any of ourselves dared to say “Mother of Man” of the Holy Virgin, the Mother of God : which is what we hear that some of them say without restraint? Do we romance about three Resurrections
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.34.2
… And if He shall come in the evening watch, and find them so, blessed are they, because He shall make them sit down, and minister to them; or if this be in the second, or it be in the third, blessed are they.” Again John also says the very same in the Apocalypse: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 65
… is healing to them.” The Lord says, “Many in that day shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” And the prophet says, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” And John says, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 9.3
Such fruit it is necessary that we bring when we come to the judgment-seat of Christ, on the first day of the feast; for if we are without it we shall not be able to feast with God, nor to have part, according to John,
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 23
… But, if we be vigilant, we too have a pillar of fire, the grace of the Spirit. The same both enlightens and overshadows us. We have manna; yea rather not manna, but far more than manna. Spiritual drink we have, not water, that springs forth from the Rock. So have we too our encampment (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.8
… “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 58
… where will you find adversities in the presence of God? where, incursions of an enemy in the bosom of Christ? where, attacks of the devil in the face of the Holy Spirit?—now that the devil himself and his angels are “cast into the lake of fire.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 21.10
… For the man himself who is in such a state, though it be in spirit only, not in body, yet sees himself so like to his own body that he cannot discern any difference whatever. But that hell, which also is called a lake of fire and brimstone,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 21.23
… And there is also that declaration in the Apocalypse, “The devil their deceiver was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also are the beast and the false prophet. And they shall be tormented day and night for ever.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 21.24
As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth in such passages as these: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” and “These shall go away into eternal punishment;” and “They shall be tormented for ever and ever;”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.35
… And in the Apocalypse John saw this new [Jerusalem] descending upon the new earth. For after the times of the kingdom, he says, “I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, from whose face the earth fled away, and the heavens; and there was no more place for them.”
Tertullian † AD 220 Against Hermogenes 34
… For “the very heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll;” nay, it shall come to nothing along with the earth itself, with which it was made in the beginning. “Heaven and earth shall pass away,” says He. “The first heaven and the first earth passed away,” “and there was found no place for them,”
St Hippolytus † AD 235 A discourse by the most blessed Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, on the end of the world, and on Antichrist, and on the second coming of our lord Jesus Christ 43
… Thou art He who made all things out of nothing. Thou art the prince of the angels. Thou art He at whom the depths tremble. Thou art He who is covered with light as with a garment. Thou art He who made us, and fashioned us of earth. Thou art He who formed things invisible. From Thy presence the whole earth fleeth away,
Anonymous A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop 17
… and their place was not found. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the sight of the Lord’s throne: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is (the book) of life: and every one was judged according to those things that were written in the book, according to their own works.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.35
… and the books were opened. Moreover,” he says, “the book of life was opened, and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works; and death and hell were sent into the lake of fire, the second death.”
Tertullian † AD 220 On the Resurrection of the Flesh 25
… and that, after the casting of the devil into the bottomless pit for a while, the blessed prerogative of the first resurrection may be ordained from the thrones; and then again, after the consignment of him to the fire, that the judgment of the final and universal resurrection may be determined out of the books.
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.121
… “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and they opened the books; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and hell gave up the dead which were in it.”
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St Methodius † AD 311 From the Discourse on the Resurrection, Part III 2
IX. Consider, he says, whether too the blessed John, when he says, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them,”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 5.35
… and death and hell were sent into the lake of fire, the second death.” Now this is what is called Gehenna, which the Lord styled eternal fire. “And if any one,” it is said, “was not found written in the book of life, he was sent into the lake of fire.”
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Alcazar, in his manner, refers and determines all these things to the Roman Church, as if after the burning of Babylon, that is of Rome, namely a mystical burning of charity, when under Constantine there began public exercise of the Christian faith in it, Satan is bound, so that he cannot overturn or take away that at any time whatsoever. That therefore is to endure until the time of Antichrist, who for a short time will take it away; but after his death it will be restored again, and will endure until the day of judgment, when it will be changed into the heavenly kingdom, blessed and glorious. He therefore holds that Satan is bound here so that he may not hinder the nuptials of the Lamb with the Roman Church; just as Raphael bound Asmodeus, so that he might not hinder the nuptials of Tobias with Sara, Tobias viii, 3. Furthermore, from this she attempts to prove that all the preceding things from chapter xv up to this point are to be understood of the victory of the primitive Church against paganism, because in the following chapter it is said that Satan is bound for a thousand years. Therefore, she says, the binding of Satan followed after the destruction of Babylon, after the battle of Michael with the dragon, etc. Therefore this destruction, this battle, etc., will not happen under Antichrist at the end of the world; but they happened long ago in the conversion of the Gentiles, when Rome professed Christianity publicly; then indeed Satan was bound for a thousand years. For after Antichrist there will not remain to the world a thousand years, so that Satan would then be bound at that time. But I answer with Ribera that this is a new vision here, as is wont to happen in the Prophets, in which certain things are set forth and repeated by hysterology, which happened long ago. For the binding of Satan, done long ago by Christ, is narrated here by John, and is drawn from its beginning: and this is so that from there he may pass on and narrate its loosing, which will happen at the end of the world under the time of Antichrist. For how would Satan be understood to be loosed from his chains, unless it were first narrated that he was bound by Christ in those same chains a thousand years ago? 1. AND I SAW AN ANGEL DESCENDING FROM HEAVEN, HAVING THE KEY OF THE ABYSS. — This Angel is Christ, says St. Augustine, lib. XX On the City of God, cap. vii, Viegas and Alcazar; for Christ has the key of the abyss, and seized and bound the demon with the chain of his empire. But more simply and plainly here, equally as in cap. ix, vers. 1, we will take Angel in the proper sense, who is the president and as it were praetor of hell. Whence he has the key of the abyss, that is he has the power of loosening hell, and of thrusting the devil into it, namely Lucifer, and binding him there by a chain, that is by divine empire, and its detentive and coercive force (of which I spoke cap. ix, vers. 14), and this for a thousand years, that is for the whole time of the reign of Christ in this life, namely in the Church militant, until Antichrist; for the number thousand is perfect, of a square and solid figure: for ten times ten make a hundred, and ten times a hundred make a thousand. A thousand therefore is the squaring of ten, and therefore signifies the fullness and universality of time, says St. Augustine and others everywhere. Or a thousand, that is many years; for a definite number is put for an indefinite one. HAVING THE KEY OF THE ABYSS, — namely of hell. Mystically, Ansbert and Haymo understand by the abyss the multitude of the impious, to which the demon is as it were bound. Again Alcazar: "In the abyss," he says, "that is in the most just judgment of God (for the judgments of God are an abyss of many things), the demon is bound and shut up."
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THE ANCIENT SERPENT,—because the devil from of old in Paradise, through the serpent, poisoned the first men with the venom of his envy, says St. Leo. AND HE BOUND HIM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS.—The Arabic version reads, "for a thousand years." With what chains the demons are bound I have said in chapter ix, verse 14. Note that this binding of the demon for a thousand years is reckoned and explained by Interpreters in five ways. First indeed, some begin these thousand years from the passion of Christ, and end them in the Antichrist; second, others begin them from Constantine the Emperor or from the death of Julian: for then idolatry was as it were destroyed at the same time; third, others after Constantine; fourth, others from the death or time of the Antichrist; fifth, others begin them from the day of judgment, and say they are to be completed in the kingdom of heaven. I omit the opinion of Prosper in the Half of the Time, chapter iv, who begins these thousand years from the beginning of the seventy weeks of Daniel, because this is his alone singular opinion. First, from the passion of Christ begin St. Gregory, Augustine, Primasius, Bede, Andrew, Viegas and Pererius, book XV in Daniel. For Christ on the cross took away from the devil the usurped right and power over men, and bound him. Whence he himself says: "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out;" but under the Antichrist he shall be loosed, and shall recover his strength, and shall exercise it through the Antichrist. Therefore from Christ on the cross Satan, that is the prince of demons (whence in the Greek there is the article; and St. Prosper in the Half of the Time reads, "that great dragon, that ancient serpent"), namely Lucifer, was really and personally relegated to hell, and there bound, so that he could not go forth from it, nor thus harm men as if he were present to them, until the time of the Antichrist: for then he shall be loosed and shall go forth. This St. Gregory teaches expressly, book IV of the Morals, XII, Ambrose, Andrew, Lactantius, book VII of the Divine Institutes, xxv and xxvi, Ribera and Viegas, who teach that here a certain secret is revealed, namely that in the passion and death of Christ a certain angel descended from heaven, who bound Satan in hell, so that he could not go forth from it until the time of the Antichrist. Again, Lucifer is bound, so that through his demons, who act among us, he may not exert all his strength against the Church, so that he may not seduce the nations of which the Church consists, says St. Augustine, whom he had before seduced and held subject, but is forced to permit, so that they may freely be converted to Christ, and the faith of Christ may be propagated throughout the whole world among all nations, says St. Augustine, sermon 197 On the Seasons. Thus St. Athanasius relates in the Life of St. Anthony, that the devil once fell at the feet of St. Anthony, saying: "Why do men curse me? Let them impute it to themselves, if they fall. For I can do nothing, unless they of their own will subject themselves to me." And St. Anthony adds: "By the hook of the cross the dragon is caught by the Lord, and bound with a bridle like a beast of burden, and like a fugitive slave bound with a circle, and his lips pierced with a ring, he is not permitted to devour any of the faithful. Now miserable like a sparrow, caught for sport by Christ, he lies beneath the heel of Christians groaning. He who once clapped his hands at all the seas being cleared from him, he who boasted that the whole world was held in his hand, behold he is conquered by us, behold he cannot prevent me from disputing against him." See St. Augustine where above. Thus in the Life of St. Marcellinus and St. Peter the Martyrs, June 2, we read that this Peter, an Exorcist, in order to show to Artemius the prefect of the prison the power of Christ, went forth from the prison by divine force, his bonds loosed, and stood at the table of Artemius and his wife Candida and his daughter Paulina, who was possessed by a demon, who suddenly fleeing at Peter's presence, cried out: "The power of Christ, which is in you, O Peter, has bound me and drives me out;" so that Paulina escaped entirely free and whole. Wherefore Artemius with his wife coming to the feet of Peter became a Christian, and finally with the same became a martyr. For, as St. Augustine says, XX Of the City of God, viii: "The binding of the devil was made not only from when the Church began to spread among the nations, but also now is made, and will be made until the end of the age; because this strong one is bound to each of the faithful, when he is snatched from him as a vessel." See the things said cap. ix, vers. 14. Wherefore aptly St. Cyprian, treatise On Works and Almsgiving, introduces the devil thus insulting before Christ the judge those Christians who consented to his temptation: "I for these whom you see with me, neither received blows, nor endured scourges, nor bore the cross, nor shed blood, nor redeemed my family by the price of passion and blood; but neither do I promise them the heavenly kingdom, nor do I restore them to Paradise with restored immortality; and what gifts to me most precious, how great, how sought with excessive and long labor, do they prepare with most costly apparatus? Show your such gift-givers, Christ, admonished by your precepts, and those who are about to receive heavenly things for earthly ones, those rich, those more abundantly abounding; or do they render such a gift in the Church presiding and beholding you? In these gifts of mine, fleeting and earthly, no one is fed, no one is clothed, no one is sustained by the solace of any food; all things perish among the fury of the eater and the error of the beholder, prodigal and foolish in the vanity of frustrating pleasures. There in your poor you are clothed and fed, you promise eternal life to those working, and scarcely do mine equal those losing mine, who are honored by you with divine rewards and heavenly prizes. What shall we answer to these things, dearest brethren?" Furthermore, that these thousand years are finished in the Antichrist, and then Satan is to be loosed, St. Augustine expressly teaches, in the cited book, cap. vii, Gregory, lib. IX Moral., cap. i, and lib. XXXV, cap. xx, Primasius, Bede and others throughout. Secondly, from the time of Constantine, who introduced the public exercise of Christianity, with paganism abolished, Ferdinand Castiglione begins these thousand years in the History of St. Dominic, part II, cap. 1, and others, and ends them in the beginning of the Ottoman Empire; for then Satan seems to be loosed, when the Ottoman became the first Emperor of the Turks, whom his successors followed until this day. For from the year of the Lord 300, when Constantine reigned, until the year of the Lord 1300, when the Ottoman began, there are precisely a thousand years. Again, Ubertinus of Casalis says Satan was bound under Constantine, but loosed under John XXII the Pontiff, who began to sit in the year of the Lord 1316. For Ubertinus, offended by this one less favoring the Mendicant Orders, rages against him, and calls him a mystical Antichrist. But unjustly: for bile made him vomit forth these words against a legitimate Pontiff. For John rightly judged the Emperor an enemy of the Church, and interdicted him from the sacraments, because he had created Peter Corbarius an Antipope. Moreover Alcazar begins these thousand years from Constantine, who exalted Christianity, and ends them in the Antichrist. But these are accommodated, not genuine, nor literal, especially since St. John the Evangelist, cap. xii, vers. 31, and the other Evangelists, as Matt. xii, 29, Mark iii, 27, Luke xi, 22, teach that Satan is bound by the living and remaining Christ: therefore from the time of Christ, not Constantine, these thousand years are to be reckoned. Third, after Constantine, Aureolus begins these thousand years, namely from Pope Calixtus II, in the year of the Lord 1122. For he considers this angel to be Pope Calixtus, who has the key of the abyss, that is, the power of closing the gates of hell and opening the doors of heaven. He bound Satan, because he took away from the Emperor the right of investing Bishops and Abbots, by giving them the ring and the staff, which they had usurped from Charlemagne for 300 years. Wherefore under Calixtus II, Henry V the Emperor coming to Rome, renounced this right in the year of the Lord 1122, although Popes Gregory VII, Victor, Urban and Paschal had attempted this before, but were unable to accomplish it. Calixtus therefore bound Satan for a thousand years, that is, perpetually as long as the Church shall endure. Yet this too is an accommodation of a most grave prophecy to a matter far smaller and more trivial than it. Fourth, from the death of Antichrist these thousand years begin, first, according to the Chiliasts or Millenarians; whose leader was Papias, a disciple of St. John the Apostle, whom the heretic Cerinthus followed, and from among the Catholics Irenaeus, Tertullian, Lactantius, Victorinus, Apollinaris, Severus, Justin and others. For they thought that those things which were predicted and promised by Christ concerning the peace and happiness of the Church had not yet been fulfilled, but would be fulfilled after Antichrist, when he had been overcome the just would rise again and reign with Christ on earth for a thousand years: wherefore Satan was to be bound by them. And so they taught that after six thousand years, during which this world would stand, would follow a sabbath, or the seventh millennium of years, in which the Saints would reign with Christ on earth in the greatest delights, either carnal ones of gluttony and luxury, as the impure Cerinthus wished, or rather spiritual ones, as Irenaeus and others wished: and this pleased St. Augustine at some time, as he himself relates in book XX of the City of God, chapter vii. This therefore they said was the first resurrection, of which John here treats: after which he says a second would follow, in which namely those who were in the eighth millennium of happiness and eternity would be transferred from earth to heaven. Whence also they interpret the following chapter concerning this first resurrection: for they said this was the new Jerusalem descending from the heavens to the earth. Into this error they were led by this passage of the Apocalypse, which seems to assert it. Wherefore others, directly opposed to these, in order to refute this error, rejected the Apocalypse, and attributed it to Cerinthus the heretic, who was among the first Chiliasts. This therefore is the error of the Millenarians: I do not dare to call it a heresy, because I do not have explicit Scriptures or Decrees of Councils by which this opinion is condemned as heretical. Whence also St. Augustine, in the place cited, did not dare to condemn it. Yet it is sufficiently convicted of error, and could be condemned by the Church as heretical (as our Father Salas and others condemn it). First, from those Scriptures and Decrees of the Pontiffs, which teach that pure and holy souls, having finished this life, immediately fly to heaven: for from this it follows that they do not dwell on earth for a thousand years. Second, from those which teach that there is only one resurrection properly so called, namely of bodies coming to life again, and that it will be at the end of the world, namely on the day of judgment: for from this it follows that souls will not remain in this world and on earth for a thousand years thereafter. Such Scriptures are, Job chapter xix, verse 25: "In the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God my Saviour." And Paul, I Corinthians xv, 52, says we shall rise "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, in the last trumpet." John sufficiently hints at the same thing in this chapter, verses 12 and 13. Third, from those which teach that after the resurrection the Blessed will not have carnal delights, but spiritual ones, as Matthew xxii, 30: "In the resurrection they shall neither marry, nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God." Fourth, from those which teach that in the resurrection we shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air, as it is said I Thessalonians iv, 16. Fifth, because in this verse 7, it is said: "And when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed, and shall go out to seduce the nations, etc., Gog and Magog." But these will be the leaders and army of Antichrist, who will come before the end of the world, and before the resurrection. Therefore these thousand years will not follow, but will precede Antichrist and the end of the world. Therefore they are years of this life and age, not of the resurrection. Finally, the later Fathers and the sense of the Church rejected this opinion: whence it now appears to have vanished. To the Chiliasts there partly accedes the opinion of Abbot Joachim, a Pannonian, Seraphinus and Bullinger, who think that such magnificent promises of Christ concerning the peace and felicity of the Church have not yet been fulfilled, but will be fulfilled after Antichrist. Then therefore in the Church there will be no heresy, or enemy that may afflict it or disturb it, and the faithful themselves will be saints, so that they will not need correction of morals or reformation: for all will be "called of the Lord," and then there will be on earth a specimen of the heavenly monarchy. Wherefore they teach from the Sibyl that after the death of Elias and Henoch there will remain 350 years until the day of judgment; concerning which see Langius on Justin, volume two, fol. 72. Ubertinus however doubles these years, and says there will be 700. But these things are said gratuitously and without foundation, nor do they agree with Scripture, which teaches that Antichrist will come at the end of the world, and not long after Antichrist there will be the final judgment and resurrection, as St. John also sufficiently intimates here, when after the slaughter of Gog, Magog and the army of Antichrist, he immediately in verse 11 passes to the day of judgment. Wherefore Hortulanus in the Canticles, fol. 386, where he teaches the same opinion as Joachim, in order to escape these difficulties, asserts these thousand years of the felicity of the Church to be future not after, but before Antichrist. But this too is invented, especially since up to these times, which gradually approach Antichrist, there has never been a century without heresy, enemy and disturbance of the Church, such as he himself thinks will be for a thousand years before Antichrist, just as Q. Julius Hilarion thought, in his book On the Duration of the World, volume VII of the Library of the Holy Fathers. To this opinion there accedes Peter Galatinus here, whose manuscript I have read in the Vatican Library, who reckons these thousand years of the binding of Satan from the time of Christ, but asserts that the principal part of them will be in the age of the Angelic Pastor (Pontiff), who will be of admirable humility, wisdom and sanctity, and will have twelve Apostles in the manner of Christ, with whom he will reform, and first under the Apostles will restore the Church to its splendor: after whom Antichrist will follow, who will overturn all things, and then Satan previously bound will be loosed. This Angelic Pastor is promised by St. Catherine of Siena according to Ambrose Catharinus, book III of her Life, chapter iii, and the Revelations of Blessed Amadeus, from which Galatinus appears to have borrowed him, and many others who await him. Whether rightly and truly, the age of posterity will teach. To me it is certain that he is not described here by St. John, nor promised. In the oracle of St. Malachy, which Arnold Wion recites, book II of the Tree of Life, chapter XL, at the end, the Angelic Pastor in the series of future Pontiffs is placed sixth from the end, or sixth from Peter the Roman, who is placed as the last Pontiff. Fifthly, Alphonsus a Castro begins these thousand years from the day of the final judgment, book III Against Heresies, word Beatitude, heresy 2, where through these thousand years he teaches is denoted the eternity of the Blessed in joy and heavenly glory. So also St. Justin, in his book On the Truth of the Christian Religion, asserts that John in the Apocalypse speaks of a thousand years, and the tree of life is those same thousand years. For he says: "In these words, According to the days of the tree of life shall the days of my people be, etc., we understand a thousand years to be designated in a hidden mystery. For as it was said to Adam, on the day he should eat of the tree of life, he would die; we know he did not fulfill a thousand years. We also know that this applies: A day of the Lord is as a thousand years." To this Viegas partly accedes, writing on verse 4, as I will say there. Furthermore, what is said that Satan is to be loosed after a thousand years, they explain thus, that is to say, when a thousand years are completed, that is, forever, Satan is bound; and yet for those who are in the world, he still remains loosed; or when the beatitude of the piously dying begins, then the war of others being born and living begins. But this is a violent and forced explanation. For, to pass over other things, after these thousand years John asserts Satan is to be loosed, who will gather Gog and Magog into battle, and after these are slain there will be judgment and resurrection, as is evident from verses 7, 11 and 12, and thence he describes the glory of the Saints in heaven in chapters xxi and xxii, and closes the Apocalypse with these. Therefore these thousand years will not follow, but will precede the judgment, resurrection and glory of the Blessed. The first exposition therefore, as it has the most and most weighty authorities, so it appears to be the most genuine and true. Finally, our Turrianus reckons, in his book On the Eucharist, xxxi, and Alcazar, that St. John here alludes to Isaiah xxiv, 21 and 22, where it is said: "In that day the Lord shall visit upon the army of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth that are upon the earth; and they shall be gathered together as prisoners into a pit, and shall be shut up there in prison, and after many days they shall be visited." For they say that the kings are demons, whom Paul calls "the rulers of this world." But although in the words there may appear to be some allusion and similarity, nevertheless the mind and meaning of Isaiah is altogether different, as I have taught there, from that of John. The Anglo-Calvinist reckons these thousand years from the year of the Lord 300, when Constantine the Christian reigned, and thus Satan is bound, and he ends them in the year of the Lord 1300: for then Satan was loosed, because then the Turkish empire began, namely the Ottoman, which has laid waste and lays waste the Church of God. And he adds that meanwhile during these thousand years the faithful reign in secret, that is, follow the true faith, even though the beast rules, that is, the Antichrist, namely the Roman Pontiff. But how is Satan bound during these thousand years, when, as he himself asserts, the beast reigns during the same period in the Church, that is, the Antichrist? What greater liberty will Satan have, what greater kingdom of his, than in the time of the Antichrist, in which Satan will work and rule with all his might in all power and seduction, as St. Paul says in II Thessalonians ii, 10? Moreover, the things which the heretic adds and divines, or rather raves, are equally ridiculous and foolish, namely first, that the Turkish empire will last for a "short time," as John says here, namely only "for an hour, a day, a month, and a year," that is, three hundred and ninety years. "If we follow the reckoning of Julian years," he says, "the impious kingdom will not be prolonged beyond seven years more: then it must be utterly destroyed, so that not even a vestige of its name remains." Secondly, he asserts that the first resurrection was made by John Wycliffe, and the like, who likewise, an Englishman in the year of the Lord 1300 (but he errs: for Wycliffe began in 1352) opposed himself to the papacy, and restored the true faith of the Church. Do the Calvinists thus transform themselves into Hussites and Wycliffites? Entirely: for being ignorant and unwilling, they here speak the truth. For if you compare the articles of Wycliffe, which Prateolus recites, in book X of the Waldensian work, and others, with the articles of Luther and Calvin, you will clearly see that these have begged their heresies from him, and so Lutheranism and Calvinism are nothing other than a sweetening and restoration of the preceding heresies, condemned in the Roman and Constance Councils. Thirdly, he adds that after these thousand years, which end in the year of the Lord 1300, there will follow another thousand years, in which the faithful, with the Papacy and Turkism overthrown (which, he says, we expect shortly), will reign with Christ in the Church; which being completed, Satan will be loosed a second time, and will seduce Gog and Magog. Thus he himself; but these things are directly contrary to the words and mind of St. John, equally as to the outcome of events, and to orthodox faith. For first, St. John asserts these thousand years of the first resurrection, in which the souls of the Martyrs reign with Christ in heaven, equally as Christians with Christ's Vicar the Roman Pontiff in the Church; and therefore Satan is bound during the same period, but is to be loosed after they are completed so that he may seduce Gog and Magog. These thousand years therefore are simple and the same, not double and different: namely they are years of the reign of Christ in heaven, equally as in the Church, and after they are completed Satan will be loosed once only, not twice, as John here teaches. Secondly, how can the year 1300 be called the first resurrection on account of a few Wycliffites, when it should rather be called the second death on account of the Ottomans, who then began to rage, and their persecutions and slaughters? Add that before the Ottomans, from the time of Muhammad, who lived in the year of Christ 600, he himself and his successors always afflicted the Church, and that gravely. Thirdly, he divines that the Turkish Empire, equally as the Papacy, will not last more than seven years. But he divined and wrote this in the year of the Lord 1609 (for the book testifies that it was printed then). Now however the year of the Lord 1620 is at hand, that is, the twelfth after this divination of his, in which the Papacy, equally as Turkism, stands firm. Therefore he errs and is deceived, and deceives as a false prophet, since after the seventh year of his, in which he predicted they would cease, they have endured for five years, nor does any sign or beginning of their destruction appear. Fourthly, the thousand years of the reign of Christ do not follow the thousand years in which Satan is bound, but are the same with them: for the reign of Christ is the binding of Satan. For Christ reigning bound Satan: just as on the other hand the loosing of Satan under the Antichrist will be the depression, and almost the overthrow of the reign of Christ, namely of the Church. Finally, the Orthodox and Roman Church will stand, the Pontificate will stand until the end of the world, as Christ promised to the first Pontiff Peter, Matt. xvi, 18: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." And it is said in many other places that the kingdom of Christ, that is, the Church, will be eternal. Let heretics therefore cease to hope for its imminent overthrow, as if after that they themselves were to reign for a thousand years until the times of Gog and Magog. For the Novations, as lovers of themselves, fabricate dreams, while they augur that the ruin of the Pontificate, which they so greatly desire, is at hand. They learned this from their father Luther, for whom this was both an oracle and a wish: I was a plague while living; dying, I shall be thy death, O Pope. "I was a plague while living; dying, I shall be thy death, O Pope." But he was false, and the impostor deceived. For Luther died long ago, and yet the Pope lives, and will live: but surely the love of heresy and liberty had driven him mad and robbed him of his brain, and from this followed the consequent hatred of the Pope and the Papacy.
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3. AND HE SEALED HIM,—namely the devil, as is evident from the Greek gender, which is masculine: he sealed, I say, the abyss, that is, he shut up hell most firmly against Lucifer, lest he himself be able to go forth from it; and this he did by kingly and divine power and authority, just as Daniel, cap. xiv, vers. 13, says that the temple of Bel was sealed with the king's ring. It is a catachresis; for neither did the Angel properly seal, that is, impress some seal upon hell; and even if he had impressed it, the devil, who is a spirit, would easily penetrate it unharmed, as also any bodies whatsoever, prisons and closures: therefore this seal would be placed upon the devil in vain. Therefore by this sealing is signified symbolically only the firm binding and shutting up of Lucifer in hell by divine authority and force, for the thousand years already mentioned, so that when these are completed he may be loosed for a short time, namely for three and a half years during which Antichrist will reign, and this, says St. Augustine, lib. XXII De Civit., cap. viii (where he treats this passage at length, but interprets much of it mystically), in order that his malign power and the most faithful patience of the holy city may be tested, and conversely the benign, useful and...
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4. AND I SAW SEATS (magnificent and august: for thus the Greek word θρόνους signifies), AND THEY SAT UPON THEM, AND JUDGMENT WAS GIVEN TO THEM. — Alcazar understands by these seats the public authority and majesty of the Bishops, and especially of the Roman Pontiffs, and the judicial power which they obtained as soon as the public exercise of the Christian faith was introduced under Constantine, and thus Satan was bound, and his worship in idols. Wherefore he thinks those sitting in these thrones to be the same as the twenty-four elders sitting in thrones in chapter IV. But because it follows: "And the souls of them that were beheaded, etc. And they that adored not the beast," it is clear that these seats pertain to another age and to the times of Antichrist. Secondly, Aureolus in his manner accommodates these seats to the Orders of Premonstratensians and Cistercians, which began to flourish again under St. Bernard in the year of the Lord 1135. For in these two Religious Orders, as it were in seats, many religious men sat, resting through contemplation, the composition of affections, and manifold perfection. Thirdly, Viegas refers these seats to the day of judgment, concerning which Christ says to the Apostles, Matthew xix, 28: "You shall sit also upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." But these seats are said to be in the thousand years of peace, which the Church shall enjoy before the second resurrection, which shall be of bodies on the day of judgment; whence he adds: "This is the first resurrection." Fourthly therefore and genuinely, these seats are thrones, in which already through the thousand years of peace of the Church, the souls of those beheaded for Jesus dwell, and those who adored not the beast. For they themselves are in heaven kings and princes, sitting as it were with God, and enjoying His vision. Hence also "judgment was given to them," because they are created by God and destined to be judges, so that with Christ on the day of judgment they may judge the world. They have therefore now judicial power as it were in the first act, but its use and second act they shall exercise on the day of judgment. It is a hyperbaton. For thus the words are to be arranged: "And I saw seats and the souls of them that were beheaded, and they sat," namely these souls, "upon them" the seats: for John postpones "and the souls of them that were beheaded," because he was about to say more of them, namely that they were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, as St. Paul was beheaded, St. James, and other Apostles and Martyrs. Again, to these beheaded souls he joins those who at the end of the world shall not adore the beast, that is Antichrist, nor receive his mark. For both are witnesses of Jesus, and both partly now sit, partly dying at the end of the world shall sit, in these seats. It is a Hebraism: for the relative is placed before its antecedent. Similar is Numbers xxiv, 17, where Balaam says: "I shall see him, but not now;" and whom he is about to see he explains, when he adds: "A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel;" as if to say: Christ shall be he whom I said I should see. Similar things are elsewhere. Paul otherwise Ribera arranges and explains these, as if to say: I saw the souls of the Blessed in seats, and particularly the souls of Martyrs; as it is said in Mark, last chapter, verse 7: "Tell his disciples, and Peter," as if to say: Tell the disciples, and especially Peter. Mystically, St. Augustine, book XXII of the City of God, ix, and from him Bede, Rupert and Ansbert, understand these of judgment not final, but present, by which Prelates in the Church have from Christ and exercise the power of binding and loosing: hence they say the beast is not Antichrist, but the people of the infidels; but the image of the beast is the simulation of those who, although they profess the faith, yet live unfaithfully. This is mystical. For according to the letter, the blessedness of the Saints was shown to John here in passing, as also in chapter vii, verse 9, especially of those who resist Antichrist; for these shall sit as judges with Christ, and shall condemn the Antichristians with him, so that namely by this means he might animate his own faithful under Domitian, Trajan, etc., and posterity, especially those to come under Antichrist, by this hope of heavenly glory to patience and fortitude, so that they might generously stand even unto death for Christ, and resist tyrants and Antichrist. AND I SAW THE SOULS OF THEM THAT WERE BEHEADED FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS, AND FOR THE WORD OF GOD, AND THEY THAT ADORED NOT THE BEAST, etc., AND THEY LIVED, AND THEY REIGNED WITH CHRIST A THOUSAND YEARS. — The Syriac: "And they reigned with Christ their own these thousand years." "They lived," that is as it were they rose again, passing over to blessed and immortal life. Whence concerning the reprobate he adds: "The rest of the dead lived not," that is they rose not again to blessed life. Now first, Alcazar understands this life and resurrection as mystical, as if to say: The souls of the beheaded Martyrs have risen, not in themselves, but in the unbelievers who were converted to the faith of Christ by their example and martyrdom, or were confirmed in it. For the spirit, religion and holiness of the Martyrs rises again in the faith of those who are converted to Christ, and consequently in the glory and splendor of the Roman Church. Again, the very souls of the Martyrs rise again in themselves in a manner: because they are venerated on earth, celebrated and honored publicly from the time of Constantine, when public profession of the Christian religion was made. In like manner he explains what follows as if by antithesis: "And the rest of the dead lived not, till the thousand years were finished." For the sense is, says Alcazar, as if to say: The tyrants and other reprobates already dead did not rise again, that is, were not illustrious and celebrated in the world, but after a thousand years, namely when Satan shall be loosed at the time of Antichrist, then they shall rise again, that is, shall be famous and celebrated. For Nero, Diocletian and other reprobates shall rise again as it were in Antichrist and his followers, who will praise, imitate, and indeed surpass the impiety and persecution of Nero, etc., against Christians. Secondly, Aureolus thinks that by the souls of the beheaded is signified the greatest persecution of Saladin, who by cunning seizing the kingdom of Egypt in the year of Christ 1187, killed many Christians, and took from them Jerusalem and the Holy Land (which the Christians, under the leadership of Godfrey of Bouillon, had recovered and held for eighty years). By those who did not adore the image of the beast, he understands the kings of France, England and Sicily, who in the year of Christ 1191 had received Acre, and in the year of Christ 1217 Damietta. For these did not adore the beast, that is, Saladin; nor his image, namely Mahomet; nor did they receive his mark, namely circumcision. Then therefore the Palestinians, who under Saladin seemed to be dead in Palestine, as it were came to life again and reigned with Christ a thousand years, maintaining namely the kingdom of Christendom until the time of Antichrist, but not in Palestine. For Christians have long since been expelled from there. Again, Aureolus begins these thousand years from St. Sylvester the Pontiff, who sat in the year of Christ 316: from there, he says, until the present year in which I write, which is 1319, there are one thousand and three years. Now therefore Antichrist should have been born three years ago. But because he has not yet appeared, for this reason the certainty of this number ought to be reserved to the Holy Spirit. Thus he himself already three hundred years ago confesses himself false in the number. Add three hundred years that have elapsed after him, and more that will elapse until Antichrist, and experience itself will teach you that he has erred very much in this computation and conjecture of his from the truth. Third, Viegas takes these thousand years in verse 4 to mean eternity, by which the Saints after the judgment will reign with Christ in heaven. For this seems to be what John is saying here, when he says: "And they sat down, and judgment was given to them;" and a little later: "And they lived, and they reigned a thousand years," namely after the day of judgment, concerning which I have treated at the end of the preceding chapter. But there is an obstacle in that, after these thousand years, Satan is said to be loosed, who will gather Gog and Magog, so that they may fight against Christ and the Christians on behalf of the Antichrist. Viegas responds that the thousand years in this verse are different from those in verses 2 and 7, and that St. John is playing with the thousand years, just as Daniel plays with the word "time," Daniel vii, 12. But this is more involved and obscure, and greatly entangles this passage: nor is Holy Scripture accustomed to play thus and equivocate in certain and defined numbers, especially when the article is prefixed to them, as in both places here the same article is prefixed to these thousand years. Add that the context itself of the whole chapter plainly indicates that the same thousand years are being discussed here. Finally, St. John calls this the first resurrection: therefore it will be before the second resurrection, which will occur at the final judgment. To Viegas's argument I respond that it is said of these souls, "They sat down," namely as it were princes and triumphators; add: and as it were judges, not present, but future. Whence "judgment was given to them," that is, judicial power, so that namely they may judge with Christ, when he himself comes to judge the world, as if to say: Those souls despised here, their heads diminished, and as it were buried and consigned to oblivion, live and reign before God a thousand years, and therefore sit in royal thrones, in which they are about to judge their enemies. For John is accustomed to console the Martyrs and the faithful in persecution, by refreshing in them the memory and hope of judgment, in which those who were unjustly judged here will judge their judges and rulers by whom they were condemned. Again, John meets a tacit objection; for someone will say: If the Saints slain here will only appear and judge at the end of the world, are they therefore dead until the end of the world, or do they sleep, and lurk in their tombs or caves? John responds, not at all. For these souls live and reign in the heavens, even if they are not seen by us. Add that John is here acting as a prophet, and therefore in the prophetic spirit mixes distinct and remote times, namely mixes the thousand years with the day of judgment. For this is the manner of the Prophets, who therefore often fly from one time to another, and soon fly back: hence they also have their hyperbata and hysterologiae, as here in verses 5 and 7, a hysterologia is manifest, and an anacephalaeosis, or recapitulation, as Viegas himself admits. For the response therefore, note that the Hebrews are accustomed to refer their sayings often not to what immediately precedes, but to what is more remote, which has gone before earlier. Thus what is said here of these souls: "They lived, and they reigned a thousand years," is to be referred not so much to the Confessors and Martyrs, who were unwilling to adore the beast, that is the Antichrist, which immediately preceded, as to the souls of the beheaded, namely in the time of St. John under Domitian and other Roman tyrants. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The souls of these beheaded Martyrs, although they appear dead and annihilated to the impious, nevertheless live and reign with Christ in heaven a thousand years already mentioned, that is, the whole series of the time of this age, which will flow from Christ until the Antichrist and the day of judgment; in which those who were formerly beheaded lived and reigned for more years, those who came later for fewer years, and will live and reign until the end of the world, when in body they will rise gloriously, so that they may reign fully and completely blessed in eternity: thus Primasius, Richard, Arethas, Ambrose, Bede and others throughout. The same therefore are here the thousand years as in verses 2, 3 and 7; for the millenary, as I have said, signifies the multitude and universality of time. Now these thousand years, when the binding of Satan is discussed, and he is said to be loosed after a thousand years, are precisely finished at the beginning of the reign of Antichrist: for then Satan will be loosed. But when these same thousand years are attributed to the Saints, and it is said that their souls will reign with Christ in the first resurrection for a thousand years, then these thousand years, during which this reign of souls lasts, and their first resurrection, extends even to the second resurrection, namely of bodies, which will occur on the day of judgment. Otherwise indeed there would be manifest contradiction, to assert this reign of souls to be about to last for a thousand years before Satan is loosed, and at the same time to say this reign will be the reward of those who, after the loosing of Satan, have either been attacked or put to death, because they were unwilling to adore Satan's beast, that is Antichrist. You will truly reconcile both things rightly in this way, if you say these thousand years, insofar as they regard the binding of Satan, are precisely terminated in Antichrist; but insofar as they regard the reign and glory of souls, extend further even to the day near to judgment, in which they will obtain an eternal and complete kingdom in every way. For the reign which they once began they will not lose, but the half-complete which they have obtained they will hold, until they obtain the complete on the day of judgment. Finally, some suspect that by the thousand years, which St. John here precisely assigns and repeats six times, are symbolically denoted the thousand years during which the sect, reign and persecution of Mahomet will last, namely of the Saracens and Turks. For this sect lasted very long, and most grievously afflicted the Church, and was a type and prelude of Antichrist: whence also after it is rooted out, and some peace and flourishing of the Church follows, the precursors of Antichrist will follow, and Antichrist himself. Thus they explain this passage thus: The Angel, they say, bound Satan, who previously raged through Simonians, Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians, Pelagians, and many other most powerful heretics, in the abyss under the year of the Lord 630, that is in the sect of Mahomet, which is an abyss and gulf of errors, lusts and crimes. For after Mahomet there were not so many heresies and heretics as before, because Satan seems to be bound as it were to that sect, and occupied in it exerts all his forces. After these thousand years, namely with the sect of Mahomet rooted out, Satan will be loosed, and will produce new and very many monsters of heresies, heretics and persecutors, as he did before Mahomet. Whence verse 4, John saw the souls of those beheaded (for very many faithful were killed and beheaded by Saracens and Turks, because they were unwilling to adore the beast, that is to worship Mahomet, who instituted a carnal and bestial law), who during these thousand years in which the sect of Mahomet will last, will reign with Christ in the heavens. Moreover, "the rest of the dead lived not, till the thousand years should be finished," that is to say, the Saracens, Turks and other infidels, who through Mahometanism, infidelity and other crimes are spiritually dead before God as to the soul, and destined for eternal death, these during these thousand years of the sect of Mahomet did not live; but when they are completed they will live, because they will be converted to Christ, and will live the life of grace and glory. This is the first resurrection, by which the greater part of the world will rise from the death of infidelity and sin to the life of faith and justice: to these will fall the second resurrection, by which those rising will go into blessed life, and will reign with Christ a thousand years, that is, throughout all eternity. And when the first thousand years, which precede the first resurrection already mentioned, shall be completed, Satan will be loosed, because after the sect of Mahomet is extinguished, Satan will stir up Gog and Magog, precursors of Antichrist, and finally Antichrist himself. They confirm this their opinion and explanation, first, because St. John, when he writes in the Apocalypse the more notable and illustrious persecutions of the Church, does not seem to have omitted the greatest and longest, such as that of Mahomet and the Saracens; but rather it is indicated before the rest, but prophetically, that is, enigmatically and obscurely. Secondly, because he here treats of the final times, and its preludes and types, such as the sect of Mahomet. Whence also in chapter vi, verse 8, he designated the sect of Mahomet by a pale horse on which death sat, and soon after it he passes to the final times of Antichrist, as if these are about to follow shortly after it. Third, because he assigns and repeats the thousand years so precisely in this chapter. But we can find a thousand nowhere except in the sect of Mahomet. For Mahomet himself, whether inspired by God or by the devil, predicted that his sect and kingdom would last for a thousand years. Others predicted the same thing, and so this is a common voice and opinion of the Saracens and Christians, which the Mahometans hold as indubitable and most certain. Fourth, from the outcome of the matter. For we see that, with a thousand years of Mahometanism now nearly completed, this sect and its empire are greatly wavering and declining. For the Turks are failing in spirit, in strength, in unity (while they stir up rebellions and internecine schisms among themselves), in military force, in leaders, in money, and in other things by which Christian Emperors, Kings and Princes increase and rise. Certainly God heaps upon the Most Serene Emperor Ferdinand, as one faithful, pious, clement, and just beyond many, so many prosperous successes, victories and benefits, that we perceive him to be the care and concern of God not so much with our eyes as we touch it with our hands. I say the same of other orthodox Princes. And to pass over others, the most serene King of Poland Sigismund III and his nobles, in the year of the Lord 1621, obtained that illustrious and signal victory over the Turks as a gift from God, by which they nearly crushed them; and would have crushed them completely if they had pursued them. For that year of the Lord 1621 was precisely the thousandth from the year of the Lord 621, from which the Turks count the years of Mahomet and his sect. For in that year they assert that Mahomet began to give laws and ordinances: from which therefore they begin their era, which they themselves call the Hegira, just as Christians begin their era from the nativity of Christ: thus Genebrardus in his Chronology at the year of Christ 621. But Christians count the years of the sect and kingdom of Mahomet from the year of Christ 30. For in that year this sect and kingdom were founded, and in that year likewise Mahomet died. Thus Theophanes, Cedrenus, Baronius, Bellarmine, Gordonus, Bzovius, Spondanus, and others in their Chronologies. Wherefore, since the thousandth year from Mahomet is now about to be completed as the year of Christ 1630 approaches, around that time they expect a great decline of the Turkish Empire and the sect of Mahomet, or the beginning of its ruin. This very thing, certain men celebrated in Italy, Germany, Spain, etc., for their reputation of sanctity and prophecy, have predicted will truly come to pass. These same men, wise and sagacious, shrewdly conjecture from various both past and present events, and say that the end and term of war against heretics, which they hope for soon, will be the beginning of war against Turks and Saracens, unless the emulations and dissensions of Christians, or their sloth and torpor, or graver crimes, hinder it. For God seems to invite and call them to this by many and great signs of His will. There is added the congruence of type with antitype. For the liberation of the Hebrews from Pharaoh and Egypt was a type of the liberation of Christians from the power of infidels, especially Turks. But about 1630 years have flowed from the servitude of the Hebrews in Egypt until their full liberation accomplished through Christ. Therefore the same number of years will flow from Christ until the full liberation of Christians from infidels, especially Turks: this therefore will happen around the year of Christ 1630. And Christ somewhat foreshadowed this in his age: for in the thirtieth year he began to preach and establish Christianity. I pass over the Astrologers, who from the concourse of the stars around the year already mentioned divine the same thing in the future, and have published books on this matter. For this divination is rather unsafe, uncertain and unreliable. Thus certain authors, more mystically than literally. But how true their opinion or suspicion may be, the event and age will soon teach.
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5. THE REST OF THE DEAD (namely all the wicked and reprobate) DID NOT LIVE (that is, the blessed life; but they went into the first death, that is, into the damnation of the soul in hell), UNTIL THE THOUSAND YEARS SHOULD BE FINISHED, — of this age in this temporal life, so that when it is ended through the resurrection they may go into the second death. For he contrasts the pious with the impious, the elect with the reprobate through these thousand years, in that truly the pious and elect live in the first resurrection, that is, as to the soul they are blessed, and they reign with Christ, until those thousand years are finished, so that then they may pass to the second resurrection, and be blessed and glorious in soul and body: but the wicked and reprobate, when they die, pass into the first death, that is, into the punishment of the soul in hell, so that when the thousand years of this life are finished, on the day of judgment rising again they may pass into the second death, that is, the eternal punishment of soul and body. John alludes throughout this passage to Isaiah xxvi, 14, where first, concerning the wicked dying, Isaiah says: "The dead shall not live, the giants shall not rise again; therefore thou hast visited and destroyed them, and hast destroyed all their memory." Then verse 19, concerning the pious dying, he adds by antithesis: "Thy dead shall live, my slain shall rise again;" and verse 20: "Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation pass by," that is, the persecution of Antichrist, says Alcazar. See the remarks there. Aureolus understands by these dead Frederick II the Emperor with his followers, who was excommunicated by Gregory IX the Pontiff in the Lateran Council: whence it seems that this schism of Frederick would last a thousand years, namely until Antichrist. But here too the prophecy fails, or rather the conjecture of Aureolus; for this schism has long since vanished. Aureolus reckoned badly, from the fact that he thought Antichrist would come immediately after his own times. For he pursues the History of the Church from the beginning, and brings it down to his own times, and he adapts it to the Apocalypse in such parts that he ends it in his own age, and from it immediately leaps to Antichrist: truly he was himself a Historian, not a Prophet; he knew what had been done before him, he knew not what would be done after him. Whence it is clear that the explanation of the Apocalypse which he gives is only an application and adaptation to the History of the Church from Christ to his own times. But this heavenly eagle, namely St. John, looked upon another matter, and other times after Aureolus, and saw and foretold the final things of the world, as will soon be evident. Moving in a similar way St. Norbert, founder of the Order of Premonstratensians, an apostolic man and endowed with a prophetic spirit, in the year of the Lord 1106, thought that the coming of Antichrist was imminent; concerning which an eyewitness and earwitness, St. Bernard, writes thus, epistle 56: "Concerning what you ask me about the Lord Norbert, namely whether he is about to go to Jerusalem, I do not know. For when I saw his face a few days ago, and merited to draw much from the heavenly pipe, that is, from his mouth, I did not hear this from him. But when I inquired of him concerning Antichrist what he thought, he protested most certainly that he knew that during this generation which still endures he was to be revealed. But when he wished to explain to me whence he had this same certainty, having heard what he replied, I did not think I ought to believe that for certain. In sum, however, he asserted this, that he would not see death unless he first saw a general persecution in the Church." He perhaps noted the schism which shortly after was made by Peter Leonis against Innocent II the Pontiff. Some note symbolically that the thousand years are repeated and named here twice, during which the Martyrs and Saints will reign with Christ, so as to denote that the Church will last two thousand years, and the kingdom of Christ in this age, and after those there will be the end of the world, and the glorious and eternal kingdom of Christ and the Saints in heaven. For many think, or rather conjecture, that the world will last through six thousand years, namely four thousand before Christ, and two thousand after Christ, not precisely, but approximately, or more or less. Therefore the thousand years are named here from Christ to the end of the world: because they will truly be a thousand, not simple, but repeated or double, that is, two thousand. Indeed Viegas and some others think that St. John counts two thousand years, because the former were different from the latter, and so John counts precisely two thousand years after Christ. To establish this, they bring forward several suitable reasons. The first is, because the world was created in six days: therefore it will endure for the same number, namely six thousand years. For a thousand years are with God as one day, as St. Peter says, epistle II, chapter iii, verse 8, and Psalm LXXXIX, verse 4. Whence in Genesis, chapter 1, where the creation and fabric of the world is described, there are found six aleph; aleph moreover denotes arithmetically among the Hebrews a thousand, as if to say, God created heaven and earth for six Aleph, that is, so that it might last six thousand years. This is confirmed first, because the seventh day, namely the sabbath, on which God rested from the work of creation, signifies the day of blessed rest of the Saints after the common resurrection in heaven, as the Fathers teach, namely the seventh millennium of eternity: therefore proportionally and consequently, the six preceding days of the creation of the world represent six millennia of the time and age of this world, after which the sabbath will immediately follow, that is, the seventh millennium of eternity. Whence St. Cyprian, tract. On the Exhortation to Martyrdom, chapter xi: "The first," he says, "in the divine arrangement seven days contain seven thousand years." Secondly, the six first parents of the world, namely Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Malaleel, Jared, died; the seventh Enoch was taken alive into heaven: because after six millennia in which labor and death prevailed, there will be the beginning of quiet and immortal life; Isidore says, cited by the Gloss in chapter v of Genesis. Thirdly, in Genesis vi, 3, the measure of the life and age of men is set at 120 years, which symbolic interpreters take symbolically, namely so that these are great and Mosaic years, that is, jubilees, so that each comprises fifty years: by which it comes about that these 120 Mosaic years make up six thousand ordinary years, for which the world and the generation of men will last. For multiply 120 by fifty, you will find six thousand. Fourthly, because John, here marking the age and end of the world, names a thousand years six times, as if hinting that the world will last six thousand years; first indeed he says verse 2: "He bound him for a thousand years;"; secondly, verse 3: "Until a thousand years are finished;"; thirdly, verse 4: "They reigned with Christ a thousand years;"; fourthly, verse 5: "Until a thousand years are finished;"; fifthly, verse 6: "They shall reign with him a thousand years;"; sixthly, verse 7: "When a thousand years are finished." Why then does he repeat precisely six times this thousand years without necessity, and iterate and inculcate it six times, unless to hint that after six thousand years there will be the consummation of the world, of the Apocalypse and all things. This is confirmed, because for this reason St. John, chapter vi, from the fourth seal of the pale horse, which represents Mahomet and the Saracens, through the fifth seal by which come forth the souls of the Martyrs slain by them seeking vengeance, immediately in the sixth seal verse 12, passes to the final times of the world, and sees the sun darkened, the moon reddened, the stars falling from heaven, etc., so as to signify that after Saracenism the end of the world will immediately follow. The third reason is, because the world now appears to be growing old, and tending toward its setting and destruction. It itself therefore is the last public and general persecution of the Church: and therefore its and the world's end in this sixth millennium of its years approaches. For already Saracenism has lasted a thousand years, and tends toward its end. Moreover the Mahometans boast of an oracle, that their sect and kingdom will last a thousand years; and this is frequent and celebrated in their mouths, namely that after a thousand years it will decline, so that gradually the sect will fail and go to ruin. The second reason is from parity or similarity. Three laws and states have succeeded one another in the world, namely the law of nature, the law of Moses, and the law of Christ. But the time of the law of nature, which lasted from Adam until Abraham (who received circumcision from God and instituted it, which was the beginning and sign of the Mosaic law), endured for nearly two thousand years. Again, the time of the Mosaic law, or circumcision, likewise lasted two thousand years: for there are precisely that many from Abraham until the birth of Christ, as is evident from the chronological table which I prefixed to Genesis. Therefore, likewise the third law and state of the world, namely the law of grace and of Christ, will last the same number of years, that is, about two thousand years, so that this threefold period of the threefold law, which is the age of the whole world, joined together, makes up and lasts through six thousand years. Whence, as a symbol and type of this matter, God commanded Joshua that in the crossing of the Jordan the ark of God should be distant two thousand cubits from the people, Joshua III, 4, to signify that period of two thousand years which was to be described, during which this sacred Jordan of baptism and the other Sacraments would be in force; during which we see the ark, and the mysteries contained in it, only from afar, and as it were through a mirror, the ark, that is the humanity of Christ, and the divinity hidden in it, which has already preceded for fifteen hundred years, to be contemplated near at hand, that is face to face, in the promised land, that is in heaven, after two thousand years are completed, as our Serarius says there, Question VIII, at the end. Whence it follows that from this time until the Antichrist, the day of judgment, resurrection and glory of the Blessed, there remain four hundred years, not precisely, but indefinitely, as I shall say presently, during which the Gospel is still to be preached in Sina, Tartary and other unknown regions of the Indies, and Churches are to be founded there, and the religion of Christ established: and then, when these are completed, the end of the world and of all things will come, and there the Apocalypse will be terminated, and all its mysteries, as St. John hints here. Moreover, that the time of the law of Christ will not be greater, or not much greater, than the time of the law of nature and of Moses, is gathered from the fact that the time of the law of Christ is called by the Prophets the "last"; and by St. John, epistle I, chapter ii, verse 18, the "last hour"; and by Paul, I Corinthians x, 11, the "end of ages." Whence also St. Peter, epistle I, chapter iv, verse 7: "The end," he says, "of all things has drawn near"; and St. James, v, 8: "The coming of the Lord has drawn near." St. Justin, Question LXXI to the Gentiles, Irenaeus, book V, last chapter, Lactantius, book VII, chapter III, Hilary, canon 47 in Matthew, whose words Sixtus Senensis cites, book V of the Library, annotation 190; although some of these were Chiliasts, yet this opinion of theirs concerning six thousand years of the world is not pertinent to the error of the Chiliasts. The same is held by Rabanus in Deuteronomy, book I, chapter XI, Q. Julius Hilary, book On the Duration of the World, which is found in volume VII of the Holy Fathers. From the Gentiles the same was handed down by Hydaspes, Hermes Trismegistus and the Sibyls, as Lactantius and Sixtus Senensis testify. Again, the same is asserted expressly by St. Gaudentius of Brescia, tract. 10: "We await," he says, "that truly holy day of the seventh thousandth year, which will come after these six days, namely six thousand years of the age, which being completed there will be rest for true holiness, and for those who have faithfully believed in the resurrection of Christ. For there will be no struggle there against the devil, who will then certainly be confined, relegated to punishments." The same is taught by St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, from the authority of the illustrious Fathers of Greece, St. Cyril, Hippolytus, etc., in the book On the Theory of Ecclesiastical Things, where he inquires why the Pontiff, blessing the people, raises his fingers accommodated to the calculation of the number 6500? and he answers: that the Pontiff seals the people, this signifies that the coming of Christ to judgment will be in the year of the world 6500. The same is taught by Isidore and our Serarius, whom I cited a little before, Abbot Joachim here, Bellarmine, book III On the Roman Pontiff, chapter III; Fevardentius, book V in Irenaeus, last chapter; Genebrardus, book I of the Chronology, page 2; John Pico of Mirandola, book V, chapter X in Astrology, where from the year of the Lord 1486, when he himself was writing these things, he counts five hundred and fourteen years, and twenty-five days (but this is too minute and precise) until the consummation of the age. Add to the year of the Lord 1485 five hundred and fourteen years still to come, you will have two thousand years after Christ. The same doctrine is taught by Peter Bongus, in his treatise On the Mysteries of Numbers, concerning the six thousandth year, where he cites for the same opinion Anastasius of Sinai, John Lucidus, Nicholas of Cusa, St. Cyril and Chrysostom. Among the Hebrews, Moses of Gerona, a man of great authority among the Hebrews, R. Isaac in Genesis cap. 1, R. Elias, whose opinion is celebrated as an oracle by the Jews in the Talmud vol. IV, tract. 4 which is entitled Sanhedrin, that is, judgment: "The world will last six thousand years, and then will be destroyed; two thousand were of emptiness (of the natural law), two thousand of the Mosaic law, two thousand will be the days of the Messiah." Furthermore, St. Ambrose, more than the other Fathers, opposes this opinion of theirs, in lib. VII on Luke, but he relies upon a false reasoning and calculation: For, he says, up to my own times more than six thousand years have elapsed since the creation of the world. Whence at the end he concludes: "Since the end of the world is now at hand, turn your minds to God with the fear of God." For he believed, though falsely, from a false chronology, that St. Cyprian had already seen six thousand years elapse, the duration of the world appointed by God. This is what he himself says to Fortunatus in the Exhortation to Martyrs: "Six thousand years are now almost completed, since the devil has assailed man." St. Ambrose held the same opinion concerning the aging of the world, as well as concerning the approach of its end, in lib. X on Luke, Hilary in Constantius, St. Gregory, homil. 1 on the Gospel, and St. Chrysostom, homil. 33 on John: "We are not," he says, "far from the end, but already the world hastens: this war, this affliction, this earthquake, this extinction of charity signifies it." It is confirmed first, because we see the Roman Empire greatly declining, and tending toward destruction. But this will last until the Antichrist and the end of the world, as is evident from Daniel cap. II, vers. 43 and 44; therefore the end of the world approaches. Again, we see the Gospel preached in China, Japan, the Indies, and in provinces hitherto unknown, and thus it has pervaded the whole world. Therefore the end of the world is coming. For the voice of Christ is: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations; and then shall come the consummation," Matt. XXIV, 14. The fourth reason is from authority and tradition. For thus do Christians, Hebrews, Gentiles, Greeks and Latins all agree in this opinion, so that it appears to be an ancient and common tradition. Thus St. Augustine, lib. XX On the City of God, cap. VII, explaining these thousand years of the Apocalypse: "A thousand," he says, "years can be understood in two ways: either because in the last thousand years this matter is dealt with, that is, in the sixth thousand-year period, as on the sixth day, in the space of which we now move through the latter part; the sabbath then following, which has no evening, namely the rest of the Saints which has no end: so that he called the thousand years as the last part of this thousand-year period, which will remain until the end of the age; or certainly he put a thousand years for all the years of this age, so that by a perfect number the very fullness of time might be marked." Jerome in his epistolary explanation of Psalm LXXXIX to Cyprian, from that verse of his: "For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday which is past," deduces that the entire duration of the present age will be six thousand years. "I," he says, "judge from this place that a thousand years are customarily called one day, so that, since the world was made in six days, it is believed to subsist for only six thousand years, and afterwards the seventh and eighth number will come, in which true sabbatism will be exercised: whence also to eight beatitudes the rewards of good works are promised." He hints at the same thing writing on chapter IV of Micah. The same is expressly taught by Victorinus here. For this is evident from true chronology to be false. The same reasoning, and the same calculation, led Philip the Solitary (whom our James Pontanus published) into the same error, lib. III of the Dioptra, cap. VIII; for he believed that in his own age six thousand years had already been completed from the creation of the world. For he lived and wrote in the year 16 of Alexius Comnenus the Emperor (as he himself says there), which was the year after Christ 1105, and he counts from the beginning of the world to Christ 5500 years; whence it follows that in the year 16 of Comnenus, which was Christ's year 1105, 6605 years had elapsed from the creation of the world. Which is manifestly false: For Christ was born in the year of the world 3950, as I showed in the Chronological Table prefixed to Genesis, and consequently in this year of Christ 1620, the year of the world is 5570. There remain therefore still 430 years to complete the number of six thousand years, for which the world will last. This opinion (not defining a certain day or year) is, like a common conjecture, also a probable one; for we can define nothing certain in this matter, since it depends upon the secret decree of God, lest we hear that word of Christ: "It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power," Acts 1. And this alone seem to wish St. Augustine in Psalm LXXXIX, verse 4, Bede, in the book On the Reckoning of Times, chapter LXV, Pererius in Genesis, chapter II, verse 4, Francis Suarez, III part., disputation LIII, section 4, Joseph Acosta, book I On the Last Times, chapter II, and some others, who reject this computation of six thousand years of the world, namely if it be understood definitely and precisely. For from this it would follow, as they themselves rightly argue, that we could know and declare precisely the year and day of the consummation of the world and of the final judgment, namely that the day of judgment would be in the year of the world first after six thousand, and on its first day. For in that year precisely are completed the six thousand years for which the world is said to endure. But this is repugnant to Christ saying: "But of that day and hour no one knoweth, no not the angels of heaven," Mark XIII, 32. But this same thing does not follow if you take this number of six thousand years not arithmetically and precisely, but geometrically and morally, namely in this sense, that the world is to endure only six thousand years, not more, and therefore will not extend to seven thousand, but will cease before it; but whether, and how many years, either simple, or tens, or even hundreds, after six thousand will be future, and will run toward seven thousand, until the end of the world, this we are ignorant of: it suffices for us to know that we are living in the last thousand years of the world: what will be lacking to it, or what will be over, is hidden from us. From what has been said it is clear that we are drawing very near to the end of the world, and that it is not far off; of which there are many signs: first, that we see the Gospel now preached almost throughout the whole world, and thus has penetrated even to the furthest Chinese; second, that St. Vincent Ferrer, who lived recently, for he died in the year 1418, asserted and preached this very thing confidently, and by the command of Christ, as you have in his Life, book II, chapters IV and V; third, that among the Turks there is a constant oracle, that the sect of Mahomet will endure a thousand years; but these years are now almost completed: for this sect seems to be the last persecution against the Church; fourth, there is the prophecy of St. Malachy, Archbishop of Ireland, whose life was written by St. Bernard, which is found in Arnold Wion in the Chronicles of the Order of St. Benedict, or in the Tree of Life, book II, chapter XL, at the end; in which St. Malachy depicts in order by symbols and emblems all the Roman Pontiffs from his time until the end of the world: which symbols Alphonsus Ciaconius explained, and aptly adapted to individual Pontiffs up to Clement VIII. For in this prophecy after Gregory XV, who now presides over the Church, only thirty-two Roman Pontiffs are numbered, and the last is said to be Peter the Roman. If therefore this prophecy is true, and only 32 Roman Pontiffs remain, therefore about two hundred years remain until the end of the world; for in each hundred years sixteen Pontiffs are easily numbered, indeed more: whence from St. Peter until now, that is, to the year of the Lord 1623, 238 Pontiffs are numbered; if you distribute these through the years of the Lord already mentioned, there will fall to each Pontiff about seven years. Assign as many to each of the thirty-two still to come, and you will find their entire succession and duration to be completed in 224 years. If you give each ten years, 320 years will remain to be completed; but if you give nearly double the septenary, there will be completed nearly as many years precisely as remain to complete the sixth thousand years of the world, namely 430. Christian Druthmar adds in chapter XVI of St. Matthew: "Our ancestors," he says, "left it written, that on the eighth day before the Calends of April (March 25) the world was made, the Lord was conceived, and suffered; and similarly the world will be destroyed." But this is uncertain. Let us think on these things, and prepare ourselves for the day of the Lord as if it were at hand: let us not fix our heart on the earth, let us not strive to build here families and palaces, since they will scarcely last two hundred years; but let us build eternal houses in the heavens through the works of almsgiving and other virtues. Let us transfer our whole mind to the future age; let us strive, let us paint, let us live for eternity. Therefore learn morally here to despise this world, as one growing old and passing away: for with it both you and all things that are in it must necessarily grow old and pass away in a short time. This is what St. John inculcates, epistle I, chapter II, verse 15: "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof. But he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last hour." And St. Peter, epistle II, chapter III, verse 8: "But of this one thing be not ignorant, beloved, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation and godliness, expecting and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord? But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, wherein dwelleth justice." Most excellently St. Gregory, book VIII of the Morals, chapter XXVIII, in the new edition, chapter XXIV: "No one is able to love moveable things and himself to stand immoveable." And homily 36 in the Gospel: "Let temporal things be in use, eternal things in desire; those in the journey, these in arrival." And book VI, epistle 26, exhorting Andrew to contempt of the world: "Why," he says, "my noble son, do you not consider that the world is at its end? All things are pressed daily, we are led to render accounts to the eternal and terrible judge. What therefore ought we to think of but of his coming? For our life is like that of one who navigates. For he who navigates stands, sits, lies down, walks: because he is carried by the impulse of the ship. So also are we, who whether waking, or sleeping, or silent, or speaking, or walking, or willing, or unwilling, through the moments of time daily tend toward the end. When therefore the day of our end shall have come, where will be for us all that is now sought with such care, and gathered with such solicitude?" Whence he infers: "Therefore neither honor nor riches are to be sought, which are left behind. But if we seek good things, let us love those which we shall have without end. But if we fear evil things, let us fear those which the reprobate shall endure without end." THIS IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION. — The first resurrection, says St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, chapters VI and VII, is that by which the soul rises from sin through grace; the second, by which it rises from death through glory. But this sense is tropological. For John adds: "In these the second death hath no power." But the second death is the eternal damnation of soul and body. The first resurrection therefore is the beatitude of the soul alone, by which the soul alone through death passes into life and the heavenly kingdom. This is called a resurrection, because the Saints, when they lay down their bodies here and die, in that they pass into a new life, and one more happy, seem in a manner to rise again. For the soul, when the body dies, seems likewise to die to the body, just as the body dies to the soul, and through this death to pass into heavenly life. The second resurrection is the full beatitude, by which the soul with the body at the end of the world fully rises again into the same blessed life. In like manner on the other hand the first death of the reprobate is the damnation of the soul alone; the second death is the damnation of the soul and body rising again, and again united: which shall happen in the universal judgment. Thus Ribera, Viegas and Pererius, book VIII in Daniel. Alcazar by the first resurrection understands the golden age of Constantine, in which the Christian Church, before oppressed and as it were dead, began to revive, nay to rule over the whole world. This is mystical. Aureolus adapts the first resurrection to the institution of the Order of St. Francis and St. Dominic, under the Emperor Frederick and Pope Innocent III. For by their doctrine and the example of their holy life, it seems as if all Christendom rose again, so as to walk in newness of life. In like manner you may adapt this to other founders of Orders, and other reformers of the Church. Symbolically St. Augustine: "Death," he says, "the first is the death of the body; the second is damnation." Hear him in the Sentences, number 147: "Of the first death of the body it can be said that it is good for the good, evil for the evil: but the second, without doubt, as it is the good of none, so it is good for none."
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6. BLESSED, AND HOLY, IS HE THAT HATH PART IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION; ON SUCH THE SECOND DEATH HATH NO POWER; BUT THEY SHALL BE PRIESTS OF GOD AND OF CHRIST (The saints, here as also in chapter I, verse 6, are called mystical priests, namely because they offer to God sacrifices of praise, of thanksgiving and of all obedience), AND SHALL REIGN WITH HIM A THOUSAND YEARS, — concerning which I have spoken in verse 2, namely until the second resurrection, that is of bodies, which shall take place on the day of judgment. Note the proportion and relation which exists between blessed and holy, and between priests and shall reign. For the word holy corresponds to the word priests, and the word blessed corresponds to the word shall reign. For holiness is the proper gift and glory of priests; but blessedness is proper to the just reigning with Christ. Thus Alcazar. Finally, St. Augustine notes with these words: "They shall be priests of God and of Christ," against the Arians it is denoted that Christ also is God. For those very ones who are called priests of God the Father are also called priests of Christ: for priests are consecrated to God alone, as altars and temples are, so also priests; for it is the office of a priest to offer sacrifice, which can be offered to none but God. Wherefore these four things are connected among themselves as correlatives. For a priest is the priest of a sacrifice, and conversely a sacrifice is the sacrifice of a priest. Again, a priest and a sacrifice is the priest and sacrifice of an altar and temple, and conversely an altar and temple is the altar and temple of a priest and sacrifice. To whom therefore one of these is due, to him are the others also due, namely to God alone.
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7. AND WHEN THE THOUSAND YEARS SHALL BE FINISHED (in the time of Antichrist) SATAN SHALL BE LOOSED (in Greek ὁ Σατανᾶς, namely Lucifer), AND SHALL GO FORTH, AND SHALL SEDUCE THE NATIONS WHICH ARE OVER THE FOUR CORNERS (that is, regions) OF THE EARTH, GOG AND MAGOG, — as if to say, He shall seduce all nations, and indeed even Gog and Magog. For Gog and Magog are not scattered over the four corners of the earth, but shall certainly be nations having their own king or prince, as Ezekiel says in chapter XXXVIII, verse 2. The same is indicated here in Greek, τοῦ Γώγ καὶ τοῦ Μαγώγ. Wherefore it seems that their king or prince here will be one of the ten kings who shall rule in the world in the time of Antichrist, as I have said in chapter XVII, verses 3 and 12. One, I say, more fierce than the rest, savage, barbarous and warlike. For this reason Gog and Magog are named here before the rest, because they seem to be fierce and cruel nations, which shall fight for Antichrist against Christ and Christians; hence many think they shall be Arabs, or Scythians, or Tartars. Hence also the Sibyl, in book III of the Oracles, speaks thus: "Woe to thee, region of Gog and Magog, which art in the midst of the rivers of Ethiopia," that is, which art surrounded by the rivers of Ethiopia. Where perhaps, says Alcazar, the arms of the sea are called by the name of rivers. For Arabia is situated between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Gulf. As therefore Mahomet was raised to empire through the Arabs, Tamerlane through Scythians and Tartars: so through the same, or similar ones, shall Antichrist be raised. See what is said in Ezekiel XXXVIII, at the beginning of the chapter. Indeed, M. Paul the Venetian, in book I On Eastern Matters, chapter LXIV, writes that in Tartary, in the province of Tenduch, there are regions of Gog and Magog, which the Tartars, he says, call Ung and Mungug. Therefore the Novations, Tremellius and Junius err in thinking that Gog is named from Gyges, who, by treachery slaying Candaules, king of the Lydians, seized his kingdom, as if from this Asia Minor were called Gog; just as afterwards when Croesus extended the boundaries of the kingdom into Syria, a certain city was called Gygarta, for the reason that it is Gog karta, that is the city of Gog. Whence at the time when Ezekiel prophesied these things concerning Gog, either Halyattes or Croesus, both grandsons of Gyges, reigned in Asia Minor. But truly there is nothing of Gyges in Gog, especially because Gog shall rule most widely, as Ezekiel teaches here: but Gyges ruled only over Lydia; and his grandson Croesus ruled only as far as the river Halys, as Herodotus testifies in the Clio. Add to this: Gyges passed away and vanished two thousand years ago; but Gog shall be in the end of the world, when there shall be no memory of Gyges.
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8. AND THEY WENT UP OVER THE BREADTH OF THE EARTH, — that is to say, the broad plains and regions of the earth they shall fill with their forces, horses, chariots, etc., just as Xerxes with his army covered both sea and land. AND THEY COMPASSED THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS. — He calls "camps" the places and hiding places into which Christians shall flock in bands, fleeing the persecution of Antichrist, as the Jews did in the time of the Maccabees fleeing the cruelty of Antiochus Epiphanes, I Maccabees II, 1 and 28. For it is not likely that Christians in the time of Antichrist, being oppressed by so mighty a tyrant, would have camps, so that with standards joined they might fight with Antichrist and his kings and nations. AND THE BELOVED CITY, — that is to say Rome, says Alcazar. But Rome was called Babylon a little before, and it will already have been overthrown by ten kings, as is evident from chapter XVII, 18. Therefore this beloved city is Jerusalem, which Ezekiel, chapter XXXVIII, verse 12, calls the navel of the earth (for it was situated in the midst of the earth once inhabited). For although Jerusalem will be the royal seat of Antichrist, nevertheless many Christians will dwell in it as the holy land in which Christ dwelt. Wherefore just as formerly Roman nobles and matrons, such as St. Paula, Melania, Marcella, etc., migrated with St. Jerome from Rome to Palestine, so also at the end of the world, when Jerusalem, equally with Rome, shall flourish again. Again, many Christians, likewise Gentiles and Jews, some converted to Christ, some to be converted, shall flock to Jerusalem, so that there they may hear Elijah and Enoch preaching. For these shall preach in Jerusalem against Antichrist, and there shall be slain by him, as I said chapter XI, verse 8. Finally, St. Augustine understands by the beloved city the Church spread throughout the whole world: for Antichrist shall persecute this everywhere.
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9. AND FIRE CAME DOWN FROM GOD OUT OF HEAVEN, AND DEVOURED THEM. — Alcazar understands this fire mystically. Fire, he says, from heaven is the heat of heaven and divine, by which Elijah and Enoch, both in life and especially after death, both their own and that of Antichrist, through their preachers, as well as through prayers, shall kindle all nations, converting them to Christ, as the Apostles did having received the fire of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. For this is a vengeance unheard of, worthy of God. And then all Israel shall be saved, as the Apostle predicted, Romans chapter XI, verse 26. To this St. Augustine agrees, book XX On the City of God, chapter XII: "Well," he says, "is this fire from heaven understood of the firmness of the Saints. For the firmament is heaven: by whose firmness sinners shall be tormented with the most ardent zeal, because they could not draw the saints of Christ to the side of Antichrist. Or if he called fire itself the plague by which sinners are to be struck in the Church when Christ comes, namely those whom he shall find alive upon the earth, when he shall slay Antichrist by the spirit of his mouth: this is not their final punishment." But the words of Holy Scripture here sound vengeance and punishment properly so called, namely that Gog and Magog, and the whole army of Antichrist shall be consumed and burned by fire sent from heaven. For he adds concerning their leader himself: "And the devil who seduced them was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone; where both the beast (Antichrist) and (his) false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Which words it is clear are to be understood properly, and all, and Alcazar himself, assert this, although Ribera, who also cites Ambrose and Augustine, thinks there is an anticipation in these words, because the devil is not to be cast down into hell so long as the warfare of the Church lasts; but it will last until the end of the world. Therefore also after the death of Antichrist, the devil will be permitted to tempt the faithful until the day of judgment. But I answer that St. John here at once embraces and involves this end of the world together with the slaughter of Antichrist and his army, and with the casting down of the devil: for soon after it shall follow. Whence in the next verse John passes to the final judgment. Add that it is probable that the devil with Antichrist is to be cast down into the depths, so that shortly before the end of the world full peace may be given to the world and the Church after so dreadful and final a persecution of Antichrist, so that in it those who have fallen may repent and rise again, Jews and Gentiles may be converted, and all Israel may be saved. Moreover, by the false prophet, some understand Mahomet, the author of Mahometanism: Genebrardus in the Chronicle, book IV, at the year of the Lord 1302, understands the Ottoman, and his line and Ottoman empire; for this is the forerunner of Antichrist, and perhaps will last until him. But who this false prophet is I have said chapter XIII, verse 11.
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10. DAY AND NIGHT, — that is to say always. For the damned in hell never have day, but perpetual night. Otherwise Alcazar: for he refers day to the brightness of the Blessed, night to the darkness of hell: from both indeed the most grievous torment redounds to the damned. For they are tormented not only by the darkness of their own miserable and unhappy lot, but also by the rage and fury conceived from the brightness and happiness of their adversaries.
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11. AND I SAW A GREAT WHITE THRONE (that is, solemn, joyful and glorious: for whiteness is the garment of the Blessed and a symbol of glory), AND HIM THAT SAT UPON IT (Christ the judge. For here John passes to the day of judgment), FROM WHOSE SIGHT FLED AWAY HEAVEN AND EARTH, — that is, their former appearance, state and form of heaven and earth: because namely they will be changed into another more beautiful form, as Primasius, Ambrose, Bede, Aretas and Viegas say. Mystically Alcazar (although he himself thinks it to be literal): By heavens, he says, is signified symbolically both the intercession of the Saints and the power of priests to remit sins through the Sacraments; by earth is signified mercy, by which according to the condition of human nature a father ought to be moved in the affliction of his son, a wife in that of her husband, a brother in that of his brother, that is to say: So great will be the integrity of Christ the judge, so great the reason of law and equity, that there will be no favor or aid of the mystical heavens there, namely of the Saints and priests, no compassion of the mystical earth already mentioned (for neither will a father have mercy on his son, nor a wife on her husband, nor a brother on his brother); but only law and equity, so that each one may be judged according to his own works.
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12. AND I SAW THE DEAD (who had died before, but now had risen again, and stood about to be judged before Christ the judge) GREAT AND SMALL. — Hence some prove that infants will be in the judgment, and that they are to be judged. But truly for "small" the Greek is μικρους, that is, small, both in age and stature, as are children of ten or fourteen years: and rather in dignity and rank, that is, vile and abject, such as are servants, rustics, handmaids, etc. For thus in chapter XIX, verse 18, inviting birds to devour the flesh of the free and servants, he adds: "Of the small and great," as if to say: Of the plebeians and nobles, or princes. For soon in this same verse he subjoins that these small ones, equally as the great, are to be judged according to the works of each: therefore he does not speak of infants. AND THE BOOKS WERE OPENED: AND ANOTHER BOOK WAS OPENED, WHICH IS OF LIFE. — St. Augustine, book XX of the City of God, XIV, reads, "of the life of each"; whence the book, he says, of life is that which contains the life and actions of each. "For it will come to pass that, by the power of God, the works of each will be seen with wonderful swiftness by anyone." Moreover "the books opened" are the Saints, because in them it will become clear what precepts God gave, and how severely he ordained them. But this reading is corrupt: for all codices read "book of life," and so it will be evident that it should be read in verse 27. Moreover, that the Saints are called books is either mystical or forced. Secondly, St. Jerome in Daniel VII teaches that in the judgment two books are to be opened: one of God, which contains the good works of each; the other of the demon, which contains the evil. God therefore has a book of life, the devil a book of death. But St. John manifestly distinguishes these books from the book of life. For he says: "And another book was opened, which is of life." Thirdly, Viegas: The book, he says, of life is one, because it contains few elect and those to be saved; but the "books" which are said to be "opened" are of the reprobate, and therefore many, because many are to be damned. But these books are universal and common, both to the good and to the wicked. Fourthly, Bede and Alcazar consider these books to be Holy Scripture, which contains the laws and precepts of God, from the observance of which men are to be judged. For this reason in Deuteronomy XXXIII, 2, God bearing the law is thus described: "The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto us; in his right hand a fiery law." Where for Lord, in Hebrew it is Elohim, that is, judge, so that it might be signified that God came in the form of a judge, and as a most brilliant sun rose upon the Hebrews through the mountains of Seir and Sinai. Moreover, the right hand bore the fiery law, which Cajetan thus explains, that not God himself bears the law, but for greater pomp, the book of the law was borne by ministers near his right hand, and fire, by which it was signified that he would judge by the law, and punish by fire. Some add that for the same reason it was said at the beginning of Genesis: "In the beginning God created heaven and earth," where again for God in Hebrew it is Elohim, that is, judge, or judges; so that it might be signified that the Scripture, namely Genesis, was begun by God the judge, so that he might give laws and rights to men, by which he is about to judge them at the end of the world. But I say that these books are those in which the works of each, both good and evil, are written, so that from them each may be judged. For concerning them he subjoins: "The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." For in Holy Scripture, or in the Decalogue, and the law of God, the works of each cannot be read, namely how each fulfilled it. These books therefore are the conscience and memory of each, in which, as if in books, the deeds of each, both good and evil, are described. Again, although these books in themselves would perish, namely the memory of men would forget their deeds, yet the same are preserved in divine knowledge and memory, in which likewise both the works and the consciences of each are recorded and described. These books therefore are in men the conscience, in God is the knowledge and cognition of the deeds of each. This is what the Apostle says in Romans II, 13: The Gentiles who lack the law of God written, "show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing or also defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men." Thus throughout the Interpreters, and Francis Suarez III part., Question LIX, article VI, disputation 57, section 9. Moreover, God will open these books on the day of judgment, both to individuals their own proper books, namely by presenting to the conscience and memory of each one his own deeds; and also to all He will open the books and consciences of all others, either through mental speech, namely through divine revelation, and finally by impressing and suggesting from His omniscience whatever anyone else has done, just as the Prophets foresaw future things through God's revelation and inspiration: or by God simultaneously and at once elevating the imagination and intellect of all men, and providing them with strength and supernatural light and concurring supernaturally with each one, so that he may see the deeds of each in another's conscience and memory as if written down. For something similar occurs in angels and separated souls. For when these speak to one another, they naturally bring it about that he to whom they speak sees their thoughts and volitions, by the very fact that they will him to know them. For by this very fact their concept and thought, otherwise secret, becomes an object proportioned to the intellect of the hearer, so that it can naturally be perceived and known by him. Thus therefore God through this elevation of each mind will bring it about that the power of each one's intellect is proportioned and sufficient for all things presented to it, namely for the deeds of individual men to be known, at least successively in time, but in the briefest time, just as Elisha and other Saints elevated by God saw absent things; and St. Benedict, elevated in spirit, saw the whole world as if in a globe collected in the rays of the sun, as St. Gregory testifies, lib. II of the Dialogues, cap. XXXV. That this particular examination of each one on the day of judgment is not going to happen through vocal speech is evident, because by this reasoning the deeds of each would have to be uttered and pronounced successively, and thus the judgment would be drawn out for many months or years, since the deeds of so many millions of men would have to be enumerated one by one, each in its own order, by word of mouth. Which indeed would demand many months, indeed years. Finally, in his customary manner St. John here alludes to Daniel, cap. VII, vers. 10: "The judgment sat, and the books were opened." For there Daniel describes the destruction of four monarchies and the kingdom of Antichrist, and he says that the kingdom of Christ and the Saints, which will last forever, will succeed them. St. John says and teaches the same thing in these chapters. AND ANOTHER BOOK WAS OPENED, WHICH IS OF LIFE. — St. Augustine, lib. XX of the City of God, XIV, by the books which are opened, understands the hearts and minds of the Saints, in which the law and will of God are written: but by the book of life, he understands the memory of all the Saints, which by divine power will know whatever he did well or badly in life. St. Anselm, in the Elucidarium, says the book of life is the life of Jesus, which ought to be the norm of living for all, by which and according to which all are to be judged. But I say: the book of life is the book of God's predestination, in which all and only those are written who are destined and elected to eternal life, and that efficaciously, as it were with life already completed and the works of each consummated through death. Moreover, the book of life is mentioned here, both because it is God's book, which is to be composed and made equal with the books opened of individuals, that is with the consciences of men; and because on account of the elect, who are written in the book of life, the judgment will be made especially, so that namely they are glorified by God, and their labors and sorrows receive a just reward according to their merits. For John wishes here to encourage the faithful and Martyrs, enduring hardships under Domitian, and about to endure harder things hereafter, especially under Antichrist, so that they may bravely undergo martyrdoms and death, thinking that through it they will pass to blessed life, to which they are written by God in the book of life. Alcazar thinks the book of life here is taken not only as completed, but also as begun, that is, written in it are not only those who died in grace and are to be saved; but also those who are baptized and endowed with God's grace, destined for salvation, even if they are blotted out from it on account of their crimes, and dying in final impenitence are rejected and damned. Which is not improbable; but then this book is in great part the same as the books opened, insofar as these books are God's, not of the conscience of men, as I said a little before. ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. — Therefore here only adults are treated, whose works are examined and judged, not infants, who cannot act and merit or demerit. For infants who die with baptism are by this very fact adjudged to heaven; without baptism, to hell, that is to limbo. Alcazar nevertheless from St. Augustine thinks that even infants are comprehended here, because unbaptized infants are judged according to the work and original sin of Adam: for this is imputed to them, indeed inheres in them; but the baptized are judged according to the works and merits of Christ, which are applied to them in baptism. But this is more subtle than solid.
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13. AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD THAT WERE IN IT: AND DEATH AND HELL GAVE UP THE DEAD THAT WERE IN THEM. — St. Augustine, Ticonius, Haymo and Anselm, by the dead of death and hell understand truly the dead; but by the dead of the sea, those who shall be found alive when Christ comes to judgment. For thus Augustine says: "These dead therefore the sea gave up, that is, this world gave up men who had not yet died, and as they were found, so they appeared. But death and hell gave up bodies, because they recalled them to life. And perhaps it was not enough to say: death or hell; but death, on account of the good; hell, on account of the wicked." Secondly, Ambrose: The dead, he says, of the sea, that is of baptism, shall be baptized and elect. Then death shall give up the bodies of the impious, hell the souls. Thirdly, Aretas: Whatever, he says, element shall return whatever human bodies came to it: the sea therefore shall give the moisture that came to it; death (that is earth), the dust; hell (that is air and fire), that which vanished into the breezes and was dissolved. Fourthly, Viegas and Delrio, Adage 197, place 64: The sea, they say, shall give up bodies submerged in it, or devoured by fishes; death shall give up bodies buried in the earth; hell truly shall give up souls. And so death here is divided from hell and the sea, namely to give up bodies which perished in the earth. For these are reckoned to be in the belly of death, and death shall vomit them up on the day of judgment that they may rise. To this Ribera agrees; but he differs in this, that he thinks those called dead of hell are those who, living, were swallowed up from the earth, and descended into hell with body and soul, such as were Core, Dathan and Abiron. But these will be very few. Add, soon it is said of death and hell that they were sent into the lake of fire: where Ribera and Viegas are forced to understand hell and death otherwise, namely that they signify the devil. Which however is harsh and violent. More aptly therefore, more consistently and more elegantly Alcazar, both here and a little before, thinks death and hell are introduced as it were two tragic persons, whose office it is, that the one take away life from mortals, the other swallow them up, and hold them bound in subterranean sepulchres and caves. Most elegantly therefore are these two horrible persons feigned, who shall exult in the world, and triumph, after the universal judgment, together with the damned to descend to the fiery lake of hell. But mention is not made of another devourer, namely the sea, because it is said to be no more, to the mystery of which in the following chapter, verse 1. Two persons therefore remaining, that is death and hell, are fittingly sent there, where throughout all the eternity of ages they may feed themselves in the very damned, so that not only can it be truly said: "Death shall feed on them;" but also: "Hell shall feed on them." Nor truly will death and hell be content with the slaughter and devouring of the wretched, as they were wont before; but death shall always kill them, hell shall always hide and devour them. Nor shall death ever cease to kill them, because hell shall always keep them alive, that they may always suffer and die. And this is the second death, which death and hell shall alike bring upon the damned. And so hell and death are sent into the lake of fire, not that they may suffer from the fire, but that they may eternally torment the enemies of God. Thus far Alcazar. The Arabic for death renders abyss, because death has a most vast mouth and belly, by which it embraces all the dying, like a horrible abyss: "And the abyss," it says, "and hell were cast into the lake of fire full of sulphur."
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14. AND HELL AND DEATH WERE CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE. THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH. — First, St. Augustine, Primasius, Ticonius, Viegas and Ribera, by hell and death understand metonymically the devil, who is the prince of death and hell: for he with his followers shall be adjudged and sent into the lake of fire, that they may be perpetual inhabitants of death and hell. But it should have been said thus: He was sent, namely the devil, not "They were sent." Again it plainly appears that death and hell are understood here in the same way as a little before, when he said of them: "Death and hell gave up the dead that were in them." But there death and hell does not signify the devil, as is plain, and the authors of this explanation themselves confess it. For the same reason others less rightly understand by hell demons, by death any punishments whatsoever: equally as others, who by hell understand the damned who were before tormented in hell, as if he said, those after judgment shall return to hell, from which they came forth; and others, as Maldonatus in manuscript Notes, which I saw at Rome, as if he said: Death and hell shall be no more, that is, no one shall henceforth die, or be sent into hell.
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15. AND HE WHO WAS NOT FOUND WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE WAS CAST INTO THE POOL OF FIRE, that is to say, the Saints and the elect who are written in the book of life shall go into heaven to eternal glory, as I shall explain in the following chapter: but the wicked who are not written in the book of God and of life, but of the devil and of death, these shall go into the fire of hell eternal. You will object: Little children dying without baptism in original sin are not written in the book of life, and yet they shall not go into the pool of fire, because they have the punishment of loss, that is, the deprivation of glory, not of sense, as the common opinion of theologians holds. I answer: St. John here speaks only of adults, not of little children, as is evident from verse 12: "The dead," he says, "were judged according to the things that were written in the books, according to their works." Only adults are judged according to their works, not little children. The same is evident from the following chapter, verse 8. St. Augustine answers differently, in book VI Against Julian, chapter IV, and from him Bellarmine, in book VI On the Loss of Grace and the State of Sin, chapter v, namely that little children are judged according to the works which they committed through Adam and in Adam and sinned: and therefore they are to be sent into the pool of fire, that is, into the lake where there is fire; and yet they are not to be inflamed by that fire or tormented, either because they are in a higher part of that place, or because the fire has the power to detain them, not however to burn them. Furthermore, this pool is full of fire and sulphur, as the Arabic version has it, and St. John expressly asserts it, chapter xxi, verse 8, and Isaiah, chapter xxx, verse 33. The fire of hell therefore is sulphurous: whence its type and forerunner was the sulphurous fire by which Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed, Genesis xix, concerning which St. Jude therefore says that they "sustaining the punishment of eternal fire became an example to the world." This fire is most apt for the punishment of the wicked, first, because it is most burning: for sulphur, since it is of a fiery nature, if it conceive fire, burns most vehemently; secondly, because this fire has a most foul and acrid odour, which is fitting to the stench of sins in punishment; thirdly, because sulphur is wont to be used in fumigations for the expiation of houses, as Pliny testifies, book XXXV, chapter xv. The wicked have defiled their houses, namely their soul and flesh, with the sins of gluttony, lust, wrath, etc., it is therefore fitting that God cleanse these houses with sulphurous fire and as it were expiate them. For the punishment of sinners is a kind of expiation and purification. For this reason an immense quantity of sulphur, partly burning, partly not burning, lies hidden beneath the earth, as is evident from hot springs and burning mountains, which are many throughout the world: for the hot springs smell of sulphur, and the fires of mountains are sulphurous. Even the thunderbolts themselves, which are symbols of divine wrath, consist of sulphurous fire, and smell of sulphur. And so the whole pool of hell with all the bodies of the damned cast into it shall burn horribly, and that whole mass of the wicked shall burn as it were a victim to God, and a holocaust for sin: which sacrifice shall never be completed, but shall always be performed before the Lord and all the Saints, just as the sin itself shall always be expiated, and shall never be expiated. Hence not only shall fire be applied from without to the bodies to torture them by its contact, but the very bodies themselves shall burn continually, as is wont to happen in a holocaust. Moreover the wicked, especially those who have sinned grievously, such as the Antichrist, shall be cast into the depths of this pool and as it were buried: thus the rich man in the parable is said to be buried in hell, Luke xvi: so that no relief can reach them from without, nor can they breathe or cry out: for crying out in great torments of this life is wont to bring some alleviation of pain. But this shall not be granted to the Antichrist and his associates in hell, so that the compressed pain shall rage most bitterly within. Others indeed who shall stand out at least with their heads shall be able to cry out, such as those who have sinned less; but even their cries and voices shall be lamentable, by which they shall afflict themselves and their companions. For from such great and unavoidable and eternal punishments shall follow despair, fury and cursing, by which they shall curse both themselves, because they have been the cause of such torments to themselves, and God who created them, and the parents who begot them, and the demons who seduced them, and the companions who attracted them, and every creature which served them either for guilt or for punishment, or serves them. Thus Father Lessius, book XIII On Divine Perfections, chapter xxiv, who also in chapters xxix and xxx eruditely explains the manifold punishments of the damned, and how corporeal fire can act upon souls and demons, and torture them. Truly the Psalmist, Psalm LXXXIX: "Who knoweth the power of thy wrath, and for fear of thee can number thy wrath (O Lord)?" Morally. Read this law, re-read it, meditate upon it and ponder it daily, O Christian. See what you inscribe in these books of yours, which on the day of judgment will be laid open and read before the whole world, when, as Anselm says in his book On Similitudes, "on the right hand will be sins accusing, on the left hand infinite demons, below the horrible chaos of hell, above an angry judge, without a burning world, within a burning conscience. There scarcely shall the just be saved. Alas, wretched sinner thus caught, where will you flee? For it will be impossible to hide, intolerable to appear." In these books, in this light of Christ, all foxlike consciences will be revealed, all counsels of hearts, all deceits of minds, all hidden things of darkness. Thinking this, fearing this, Hugh of St. Victor, in book I of On the Soul, chapter xv, instituted this humble confession of himself, that he might obtain pardon: "Under a sheep's," he says, "skin I hid a foxlike conscience; truly a foxlike conscience, lukewarm conduct, animal thinking, feigned confession, brief and rare compunction; obedience without devotion, prayer without intention, reading without edification, speech without circumspection. O how harsh are these things which I speak, because in speaking them I wound myself!" Do you wish counsel? Do you wish a remedy? Receive it from St. Paul: think, weigh, examine, compose to the norm of divine law and will each of your actions, not only your deeds, but also your thoughts and intentions of mind. "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged," 1 Corinthians xi, 31; and: "For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword, and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to his eyes." The Gentiles saw this from afar. Seneca, in book III of On Anger: "The mind," he says, "must be called daily to render an account. Sextius did this, so that when the day was finished, having retired to his nightly rest, he would question his mind: What evil of yours have you healed today? What vice have you resisted? In what way are you better? Anger will cease, or will be more moderate, knowing that it must come daily before a judge." Plutarch writes of Livius Drusus, tribune of the plebs, that when his house was open in many places to the eyes of his neighbors, and a certain craftsman offered himself for a fee of five talents to turn it away and change it: "Ten," he said, "I will give if you make my whole house visible, so that all citizens may contemplate what kind of life I establish." For he was a man temperate and moderate. So live, that you always remember, nay rather wish and rejoice, that you and your innermost things are seen by God, that you are noted by angels, by demons, by men: "For we are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men." O how wise is he who constantly turns over in his mind the last and censorious day of this world, which will be the horizon of blessed and miserable eternity, and will separate the Blessed from the damned, the upper regions from the lower, angels from demons, heaven from hell for all eternities! O how wise is he to whom this trumpet constantly sounds: "Rise, you dead, come to judgment!" O how wise is he who so performs and arranges each action, as he will wish to have performed and arranged it on the day of judgment!
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
20:1
… St. Thomas, taking his cue from certain biblical texts (II Pt. 2, 4; Apoc. 20, 1-3; Iud. 6), held that fire, per modum alligationis, prevents, in a tormenting constraint, the free movement of the spirit, which thus falls into a new boundless anguish (De Veritate, …
Primacy of Saint Peter and of the Roman Pontiff
… Key in fact in Sacred Scripture is a synonym for authority (cf. Is. 22:22: "et dabo clavem domus David super humerum eius"; Apoc. 1:7 ff.; 3:7; 9:1; 20:1; the only exception Lk. 11:52: "clavis scientiae"). …
… their use, so that these become an occasion of sin. The Redemption is therefore a cosmic drama (Rom. 8:19-23; Apoc. 12-13), which will be resolved with the triumph of the absolute sovereignty of God over the shattered satanic empire (I Cor. 15:22-57; Apoc. 20:1-21:4). The descent into hell (kingdom of death), the resurrection from the dead and the ascension into heaven were stages by which the Incarnate Word had to redeem man from sin and from …
20:2
… The cult of Asclepius, with the emblem of the serpent, may have evoked Gen. 3:1 (cf. Rev. 12:9; 20:2).
… After the definitive defeat of the Beast and the kings of the earth (Apoc. 19), S. ("the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the seducer of all the earth": Apoc. 12:9) is imprisoned in the bottomless pit for 1000 years (Apoc. 20:2); then he is released and deceives the nations, but in the end he is cast into the lake of fire (Apoc. 20:10; cf. Enoch 54:5-6; II Pt. 2:4).
20:3
… 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).
20:4
Apostles (Gr. Ἀπόστολος "Sent One", from ἀποστέλλω)
… Son of Man. The "twelve" will therefore participate in the judicial function of the "Son of Man" over Israel; they too will be, like Him, revealed in glory; the Greek word (χρίνων) can also be interpreted in the sense of governance (cf. Mt. 19, 21, and Rev. 20, 4). This glorious future of the "twelve" is the reward for the sacrifices they now make, abandoning everything and following Jesus (Mt. 9, 27, 29); they who persevere with Him in tribulations …
… Nevertheless, even stripped of the body, the soul is not supposed to live in the sleep of še'ôl, but to dwell near the Lord (II Cor. 5, 8; Phil. 1, 23). And the fact that this separated soul is no longer only called ψυχή (Apoc. 6, 9; 20, 4), but also πνεῦμα (I Pt. 3, 19; Hebr. 12, 23), provides at least a precious indication in favor of its spiritual nature.
20:6
… In the New Testament similar beatitudes occur: Mt. 11:6; 13:16; 16:17; 24:46; Lk. 11:28; 12:37 f., 43; 14:15; Jn. 20:29; Jas. 1:12; 1 Pet. 3:14; 4:14; Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14. To this day the Christians of the East call the beatitudes "macarisms." The Arabic Diatessaron interprets the initial adjective "blessed" in an adverbial sense: "long live!" …
… Jesus also comes to a single person (Apoc. 2:16; 2:5; 3:3). All those who will go to meet Jesus will have passed through death and resurrection (ibid. 14:13; 20:6, 12-13). The "end" is considered in the broadest sense, and the final universal p. is there conjoined with the present personal p. awaited and invoked (ibid. 1:7; 3:20; 22:7, 11, 12, 20; v. MARANATHA).
… In the same manner the passages analogous to the letter of St. Peter that are found in Is. 61:6; 62:12; Apoc. 1:5-6; 20:6 are to be interpreted (P. De Ambroggi, Il s. dei fedeli secondo la prima di Pietro, in La scuola catt., 75 [1947], pp. 52-57; cf. L. Cerfaux, Regale sacerdotium, in Revue des …
20:7
… In the Talmud (Shabbat, 55ᵃ) A. is set over (with death, cf. Rev. 20:14) the six "angels of destruction." It seems that A. is identified with the fallen star of Rev. 9:1, perhaps also with the beast from the abyss (Rev. 11:7), with the dragon (Rev. 12:3-4) and with Satan (Rev. 20:7). A similar personification is in Wis. 18:25 (ὁ Ὀλοθρεύων; cf. I Cor. 10:10).
GOG AND MAGOG. - Symbol of the enemies of Israel (Ezek. 38-39) and of the Church (Rev. 20:7-10). In cuneiform texts, G., the name of a deity (gaga, gugu: Enūma elī, III, etc.), becomes the name of a region (mura ga-ga-ia: J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, I, Leipzig …
… but beneath it (Mt. 11:23 = Lk. 10:15; Rev. 9:1). God cast the rebel angels down into Tartarus (ἐταρτάρωσα), shutting them in those dark cavities (II Pt. 2:4); so too Enoch 10:12; 18:11-19:1; 88:1; there Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years (Rev. 20:7). The hell (v.) of the damned is called gehenna (v.); Jesus insists on the eternal torment of the reprobate in the "outer darkness" (Mt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30) where there is "weeping …
20:9
… opposition between "the children of the d." and "the children of God" (Jn. 8:44, 47 [Judas is a d.: 6:71]; 1 Jn. 3:8, 10), the former performing the "works of the d." (Acts 13:10) which are summed up in imposture or seduction (Jn. 8:44; 1 Tim. 4:2; Rev. 12:9; 20:9; cf. Acts 5:3-4), by which truth and justice are replaced by sin (Rom. 1:25-27; Jas. 5:19). The Christian must "resist the d." (Jas. 4:7; 1 Pt. 5:8) with "the whole armor" (Eph. 6:11), …
20:10
… But in I Io. the pseudo-prophet (4:1-3) is identified with the A. (2:22: identical features); cf. Apoc. 16:13; 19:20; 20:10. The Fathers apply Io. 5:43 b directly to the A.; e.g. Origen (Tractatus de libris ss. Scripturarum, ed. Batiffol, Paris 1900, p. 116).
The eternity of hell is formally asserted by Scripture (Mt. 25:46; Mk. 9:42; Rev. 14:11; 20:10) and by Tradition (see above), of which St. Augustine gathers all the elements when he affirms « multum absurdum est » (De Civitate Dei, 21, 32: PL 41, 736) to wish to exclude the …
… 19), S. ("the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the seducer of all the earth": Apoc. 12:9) is imprisoned in the bottomless pit for 1000 years (Apoc. 20:2); then he is released and deceives the nations, but in the end he is cast into the lake of fire (Apoc. 20:10; cf. Enoch 54:5-6; II Pt. 2:4).
20:11
… 24, 31; Mk. 8, 38; Lk. 9, 26; I Thess. 3, 13; II Thess. 1, 7), in a luminous halo of clouds and fire (Mt. 25, 30; 26, 64; Mk. 13, 26; 14, 62; Lk. 21, 27; Acts 7, 30; I Thess. 4, 17; II Thess. 1, 8), seated on a throne of majesty (Mt. 19, 27; 25, 31; Rev. 20, 11-12), assisted in the act of judging by the Apostles (Lk. 22, 2), by the martyrs and by those who observed the evangelical counsels (Mt. 19, 27-28).
… 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 …
20:12
… devil and his angels..." (Mt. 25, 31-46; cf. Mk. 13, 26-27; Lk. 21, 27). The Apostles echoed the Master's teaching (Acts 10, 42; 17, 31; 24, 25; Rom. 2, 16; 14, 10; I Cor. 3, 4; 4, 5; II Cor. 5, 10; II Tim. 4, 15; II Thess. 2, 5; II Pt. 2, 9; Jude 15; Rev. 20, 12).
20:13
… the smoke of the torments of the wicked will rise (Rev. 14:10-11). The hades-death for all will be transformed, after the resurrection and the judgment of all according to their works, into a "second" (definitive) hades-death for the damned alone (Rev. 20:13-15). Among the Fathers, the term ᾱᾱᾱ or inferi will long remain multivalent. …
20:14
… In the Talmud (Shabbat, 55ᵃ) A. is set over (with death, cf. Rev. 20:14) the six "angels of destruction." It seems that A. is identified with the fallen star of Rev. 9:1, perhaps also with the beast from the abyss (Rev. 11:7), with the dragon (Rev. …
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.