Locusts come forth from the bottomless pit. The vision of the army of horsemen.
The fifth Angel sounding the tr•mpet, a starre falleth. 3 The issuing forth of locustes from the smoke of the deepe pitte to vexe men, 7 and the description of them. 13 The sixt Angel sounding, foure Angels are let loose, 18 vvhich vvith a great troupe of horsemen do murder the third part of men.
1And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet: and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth. And there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit.E il quinto Angelo diè fiato alla tromba: e vidi la stella caduta dal cielo sopra la terra, e a lui fu data la chiave del pozzo dell'abisso.AND the fifth Angel sounded vvith the trompet, and I savv a starre to haue fallen from heauen vpon the earth, and there vvas giuen to him the key of the pitte of bottomles depth.Et quintus angelus tuba cecinit: et vidi stellam de cælo cecidisse in terram, et data est ei clavis putei abyssi. 2And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit.Ed aprì il pozzo dell'abisso: e sali il fumo del pozzo, come il fumo di gran fornace: e il sole, e l'aria si oscurò pel fumo del pozzo:And he opened the pitte of the bottomles depth: and the smoke of the pitte ascended, as the smoke of a great fornace: and the sunne vvas darkened & the aier vvith the smoke of the pitte.Et aperuit puteum abyssi: et ascendit fumus putei, sicut fumus fornacis magnæ: et obscuratus est sol, et aër de fumo putei: 3And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.E dal fumo del pezzo uscirono locuste per la terra, alle quali fu dato potere, quale lo hanno gli scorpioni della terra:And from the smoke of the pitte there issued forth locustes into the earth and povver vvas giuen to them, as the scorpions of the earth haue povver:et de fumo putei exierunt locustæ in terram, et data est illis potestas, sicut habent potestatem scorpiones terræ: 4And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth nor any green thing nor any tree: but only the men who have not the sign of God on their foreheads.E fu loro ordinato di non far male all'erbe della terra, né a nulla di verde, né ad alcuna pianta: ma solo agli uomini, i quali non hanno la marca di Dio sulle loro fronti:and it vvas commaunded them that they should not hurt the grasse of the earth • not any greene thing, nor any tree: but onely men vvhich haue not the signe of God in their foreheads.et præceptum est illis ne læderent fœnum terræ, neque omne viride, neque omnem arborem: nisi tantum homines, qui non habent signum Dei in frontibus suis: 5And it was given unto them that they should not kill them: but that they should torment them five months. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man.E fu dato loro non di ammazzargli, ma che fossero tormentati per cinque mesi: e il tormento di essi (sia) come il tormento, che da lo scorpione, quando morde un uomo.and it vvas giuen vnto them that they should not kil them: but that they should be tormented fiue monethes: and their tormentes as the tormentes of a scorpion vvhen he striketh a man.et datum est illis ne occiderent eos: sed ut cruciarent mensibus quinque: et cruciatus eorum, ut cruciatus scorpii cum percutit hominem.
6And in those days, men shall seek death and shall not find it. And they shall desire to die: and death shall fly from them.Ed in que' giorni cercheran gli uomini la morte, né la troveranno: e bramaran di morire, e fuggirà da loro la morte.And in those daies men shal seeke for death, and shal not finde it: and they shal desire to die, & death shal flee from them.Et in diebus illis quærent homines mortem, et non invenient eam: et desiderabunt mori, et fugiet mors ab eis. 7And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle. And on their heads were, as it were, crowns like gold: and their faces were as the faces of men.E le figure delle locuste, simili a cavalli messi in punto per la battaglia: e sulle teste di esse una specie di corone simili a all'oro: e i loro volti simili al volto dell'uomo.And the similitudes of the locustes, like to horses prepared into battel: and vpō their heades as it vvere crovvnes like to gold: & their faces as the faces of men.Et similitudines locustarum, similes equis paratis in prælium: et super capita earum tamquam coronæ similes auro: et facies earum tamquam facies hominum. 8And they had hair as the hair of women: and their teeth were as lions.E avevano i capelli simili a' capelli delle donne, e i loro denti eran come di leoni:And they had heare as the heare of vvomen: & their teeth vvere as of lions.Et habebant capillos sicut capillos mulierum. Et dentes earum, sicut dentes leonum erant: 9And they had breastplates as breastplates of iron: and the noise of their wings was as the noise of chariots and many horses running to battle.E avean corazze simili alle corazze di ferro, e il rumore, che facevan coll'ali, simile al rumore de' cocchi a più cavalli correnti alla guerra:And they had habbergions as habbergions of yron, and the voice of their vvinges as the voice of the chariotes of many horses running into battel.et habebant loricas sicut loricas ferreas, et vox alarum earum sicut vox curruum equorum multorum currentium in bellum: 10And they had tails like to scorpions: and there were stings in their tails. And their power was to hurt men, five months. And they had over themE avevan le code simili a quelle degli scorpioni, e i loro pungiglioni gli avevano nelle code, e il lor potere (è) di far male agli uomini per cinque mesi: e avevano sopra di loroand they had tailes like to scorpions, and stinges vvere in their tailes: and their povver vvas to hurt men fiue monethes.et habebant caudas similes scorpionum, et aculei erant in caudis earum: et potestas earum nocere hominibus mensibus quinque: 11A king, the angel of the bottomless pit (whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon, in Latin Exterminans).Per re l'angelo dell'abisso, chiamato in Ebreo Abaddon, in Greco Apollyon, in latino Sterminatore.and they had ouer them a king, the Angel of the bottomles depth, vvhose name in Hebrevv is Abaddon, and in Greeke Apollyon: in Latin hauing the name Exterminans.et habebant super se regem angelum abyssi cui nomen hebraice Abaddon, græce autem Apollyon, latine habens nomen Exterminans.
12One woe is past: and behold there come yet two woes more hereafter.Un guai è passato, ed ecco, che ne vengono due guai in appresso.One vvoe is gone, & behold two vvoes come yet after these.Væ unum abiit, et ecce veniunt adhuc duo væ post hæc. 13And the sixth angel sounded the trumpet: and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before the eyes of God,E il sesto angelo diè fiato alla tromba, e udii una voce da' quattro angoli dell'altare d'oro, che è dinanzi agli occhi di Dio,And the sixt Angel sounded vvith the trompet: and I heard one voice from the foure hornes of the golden altar, vvhich is before the eies of God,Et sextus angelus tuba cecinit: et audivi vocem unam ex quatuor cornibus altaris aurei, quod est ante oculos Dei, 14Saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet: Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates.La quale diceva al sesto angelo che aveva la tromba: sciogli i quattro angeli, che sono legati presso il fiume, grande Eufrate.saying to the sixt Angel which had the trōpet, Loose the foure Angels which are boūd in the great riuer Euphrates.dicentem sexto angelo, qui habebat tubam: Solve quatuor angelos, qui alligati sunt in flumine magno Euphrate. 15And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year: for to kill the third part of men.E furono sciolti i quattro angeli preparati per l'ora, il giorno, il mese e l'anno a uccidere la terza parte degli uomini.And the foure Angels vvere loosed, vvho vvere prepared for an houre, and a day and a moneth and a yere: that they might kil the third part of men.Et soluti sunt quatuor angeli, qui parati erant in horam, et diem, et mensem, et annum, ut occiderent tertiam partem hominum. 16And the number of the army of horsemen was twenty thousand times ten thousand. And I heard the number of them.E il numero dell'esercito a cavallo venti mila volte dugento mila. Imperocché udii il numero di essi.And the number of the armie of horsemen vvas tvventie thousand times ten thousand. And I heard the nūber of them.Et numerus equestris exercitus vicies millies dena millia. Et audivi numerum eorum. 17And thus I saw the horses in the vision. And they that sat on them had breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone. And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions: and from their mouths proceeded fire and smoke and brimstone.Similmente vidi nella visione i cavalli: e quegli, che vi stavan sopra, e avevano corazze fiammanti, e di color ceruleo, e di colore di zolfo, e le teste de' cavalli erano come teste di leoni; e dalla lor bocca usciva fuoco, e fumo, e zolfo.And so I savv the horses in the vision: & they that sate vpō them, had habbergiōs of fire and of hyacinth and brimstone. & the heades of the horses were as it were the heads of lions: & from their mouth procedeth fire, & smoke, and brimstone.Et ita vidi equos in visione: et qui sedebant super eos, habebant loricas igneas, et hyacinthinas, et sulphureas, et capita eorum erant tamquam capita leonum: et de ore eorum procedit ignis, et fumus, et sulphur.
18And by these three plagues was slain the third part of men, by the fire and by the smoke and by the brimstone which issued out of their mouths.E da queste tre piaghe fu uccisa la terza parte degli uomini col fuoco, e, col fumo, e col zolfo, che uscivano dal le loro bocche.And by these three plagues vvas slaine the third part of men, of the fire and of the smoke and of the brimstone, vvhich proceded from their mouth.Et ab his tribus plagis occisa est tertia pars hominum de igne, et de fumo, et sulphure, quæ procedebant de ore ipsorum. 19For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For, their tails are like to serpents and have heads: and with them they hurt.Imperocché il potere de' cavalli sta nelle loro bocche, e nelle loro code. Attesoché le code di esiti (sono) simili, ai serpenti, ed hanno teste, colle quali, offendono.For the povver of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tailes for, their tailes be like to serpents, hauing heads: and in these they hurt.Potestas enim equorum in ore eorum est, et in caudis eorum, nam caudæ eorum similes serpentibus, habentes capita: et in his nocent. 20And the rest of the men, who were not slain by these plagues, did not do penance from the works of their hands, that they should not adore devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk:E il resto degli uomini, che non furono uccisi da queste piaghe, neppur fecero penitenza delle opere delle lor mani, per non adorare i demoni, e i simulacri d'oro, e d'argento, e di bronzo, e di pietra, e di legno, i quali non hanno né vista, né udito, né movimento:And the rest of men vvhich vvere not slaine vvith these plagues, neither haue done penance from the vvorkes of their hands, not to adore Deuils and Idols of gold and siluer and brasse and stone and vvood, vvhich neither can see, not heare, nor vvalke,Et ceteri homines, qui non sunt occisi in his plagis, neque pœnitentiam egerunt de operibus manuum suarum, ut non adorarent dæmonia, et simulacra aurea, et argentea, et ærea, et lapidea, et lignea, quæ neque videre possunt, neque audire, neque ambulare, 21Neither did they penance from their murders nor from their sorceries nor from their fornication nor from their thefts.Né fecero penitenza de' loro omicidj, né de' loro veneficj, né de' loro adulterj, né de' loro ladronecci.& haue not done penāce from their murders, nor from their sorceries, nor from their fornication, nor from their theftes.et non egerunt pœnitentiam ab homicidiis suis, neque a veneficiis suis, neque a fornicatione sua, neque a furtis suis.
9:1
Witham
The fifth Angel....and I saw a star, etc. This again may be to represent the confusion of all things in antichrist's time, or it may signify the fall and apostacy of great and learned men from the Christian faith. Bossuet applies it to the fall of Theodotus, of Byzantium, towards the end of the second age; but certainly no great stress can be laid on such arbitrary applications, which it is no hard matter to invent, as may be seen by the different fancies we may meet with about the locusts, etc. (Witham)
Pastorini
Here is a description of the rise and progress of the reformation. This trumpet begins with announcing to us the fall of a star from heaven; a very just emblem of the apostacy of Luther, who in quality of a priest and religious man is styled a star, but renouncing his faith and vows, may truly be said to have fallen from heaven upon the earth. (Pastorini, hic.[here])
Witham
To him (that is, to the Angel, not to the fallen star) was given the key of the bottomless pit, which properly signifies hell. (Witham)
9:2
And the smoke, etc. Luther and his followers propagated and defended their new doctrines with such heat and violence, as to occasion every where seditions and insurrections, which they seemed to glory in. Luther openly boasted of it. "You complain," said he, "that by our gospel the world is become more tumultuous; I answer, God be thanked for it; these things I would have so to be, and wo to me if such things were not."
Pastorini
The sun was darkened, etc. The light of faith, which is the word of God, may well be represented by the sun, according to that of the Psalm 118:105., "Thy word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths." And as the air is the spring of man's respiration and life, it may be a just type of morality, which gives spiritual life and worth to all human actions. By the sun, therefore, and air being darkened, we are to understand faith and morality obscured and perverted by the novel doctrines of the reformers. (Pastorini, hic.[here])
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Witham
There came out locusts; devils, in antichrist's time, when the chief devil, Abaddon, the destroyer, shall be as it were let loose. Others by locusts, understand the Goths and those barbarous people that made an irruption into the Roman empire, in the time of Decius, about the year 250[A.D. 250]. Others again, by locusts, understand heretics, and especially those heretics that spring from the Jews, and with them denied the divinity of our Saviour Christ, as Theodotus, Praxeas, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, Arius, etc. These were the great enemies of Christian religion, and instruments of the devil: they tormented and infected the souls of men, stinging them like scorpions with the poison of their heresies. They had power for five months, by which is signified for a short term, but had no power to hurt those who were sealed with the seal of God in their foreheads. God protected, at least from sin, his faithful servants. It is to no purpose to give the reader divers fancies and inventions about their shape, their heads, tails, hair, teeth, etc. nor is it worth my while to confute such writers as Mr. Willet, who, Brightman-like, makes Abaddon the pope, and the locusts to be friars mendicant. With this fifth trumpet ended the first of the three woes, as we are told in ver. 12. (Witham)
Challoner
The locusts are commonly understood of heretics. They are not able to hurt the green tree; that is, such as have a lively faith, working by charity; but only the reprobate. The latter are represented as prepared to battle, as being ever ready to contend; they wear counterfeit gold on their heads, for all is but pretence and fiction; in shape they are as men, in smoothness of speech as women; in fury and rage against all that opposes them, as lions; their breasts and hearts are as hard as iron; they are full of noise and shuffling; the sting of their pestiferous doctrine is worse than that of a scorpion; but their reign is generally but for a short time. (Challoner)
Pastorini
Heretics are compared to locusts, says St. Jerome, because they are a species of insects extremely hurtful to mankind, as they occasion famine, eat up the harvest, and even strip the trees and the vines. With very great propriety then may the locusts here mentioned be understood of the first reformers, not only on account of their rapacity, but also for their number. Luther was their leader, by allowing every one to be his own interpreter of Scripture, the effects of which we have described by Dudithius, a learned Protestant divine, in his epistle to Beza. "What sort of people are our Protestants, straggling to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, sometimes to this side, and sometimes to that? You may, perhaps, know what their sentiments in matters of religion are to-day; but you can never certainly tell what they will be to-morrow. In what article of religion do these churches agree, which have cast off the bishop of Rome? Examine all of them from top to bottom, and you will scarce find one thing affirmed by one, which is not immediately condemned by another for wicked doctrine." The same confusion of opinions is thus described by an English Protestant, the learned Dr. Walton: "Aristarchus heretofore could scarcely find seven wise men in Greece, but with us scarce are to be found so many idiots; for all are doctors, all are divinely learned; there is not so much as the meanest fanatic, or jack-pudding, who does not give you his own dreams for the word of God." (Pastorini, hic.[here])
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Pastorini
Nor any green thing. The Greek and Latin texts express it every green thing; meaning, that though the locusts, or the sects of Protestants, are allowed by the Almighty to seduce some of all sorts from the Church, yet that the generality of the faithful will be preserved unhurt. (Pastorini)
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And the shapes of the locusts. We now come to the description of these locusts, which expresses the spirit of sedition and rebellion that animated the reformers and their proselytes. Luther proclaimed himself the leader in this as well as in other articles of the new discipline: see his works, particularly Contra statem Ecclesiae et falsò nominatum ordinem Episcoporum, lib. contra Sylvest. Prieras, De Saeculari potestate et Contra Rusticos, etc. Erasmus thus describes the effects of the inflammatory doctrine of these ministers of evangelical liberty: "I saw them (the people) come forth from their sermons with fierce looks and threatening countenances," like men "that just come from hearing bloody invectives and seditious speeches." Accordingly, we found "these evangelical people always ready to rise up in arms, and equally as good at fighting as at disputing." The learned Protestant historian, Dr. Heylin, in his Cosmography, (B. i.) says of the Calvinists: "Rather than their discipline should not be admitted, and the episcopal government destroyed in all the Churches of Christ, they were resolved to depose kings, ruin kingdoms, and to subvert the fundamental constitutions of all civil states."
Pastorini
And on their heads, etc. These crowns shew clearly their general spirit of independence; and their faces being as the faces of men, indicate the presumption with which they announced themselves as teachers of orthodox and holy doctrine. (Pastorini, hic.[here])
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And they had hair as the hair of women. This latter allusion, unhappily for the sectaries, betrays too plainly their sensual disposition towards that sex, their shameful doctrine on that score, and the scandalous example of their practice. Luther, in despite of a vow he had solemnly made to God of observing continence, married; and married a nun, equally bound as himself to that sacred religious promise! But, as St. Jerome says, "it is rare to find a heretic that loves chastity." Luther's example had indeed been anticipated by Carlostadius, a priest and ringleader of the Sacramentarians, who had married a little before; and it was followed by most of the heads of the reformation. Zuinglius, a priest and chief of that sect which bore his name, took a wife. Bucer, a religious man of the order of St. Dominic, became a Lutheran, left his cloister, and married a nun. oecolampadius, a Brigittin monk, became a Zuinglian, and also married. Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, had also his wife. Peter Martyr, a canon regular, embraced the doctrine of Calvin; but followed the example of Luther, and married a nun. Ochin, general of the Capuchins, became a Lutheran, and also married. Beza, the most celebrated minister in the Calvinistic party, being asked in his old age, by an intimate acquaintance of his, (Deshayes, governor of Montargis) what was the leading reason which connected him so closely with the Calvinists? Beza called in his mistress, a beautiful young girl who lived with him, and said: "That is the principle reason which convinces me of the excellence of my religion." (Marsollier's Life of St. Francis de Sales, book iii.)
Pastorini
Thus the principal leaders in the reformation went forth preaching the new gospel, with two marks upon them---apostacy from the faith, and open violation of the most sacred vows. The passion of lust, it is also well known, hurried Henry VIII of England, into a separation from the Catholic Church, and ranked him amongst the reformers. (Pastorini, hic.[here])
Pastorini
Teeth of lions. What is more known than the truth of this representation? Did not the reformers, wherever they got footing, pillage the churches, seize the church possessions, destroy the monasteries, and appropriate to themselves the revenues? Such was the case in Germany, in Holland, in France, in Switzerland, in Scotland, and in England; what a scene of rapine! Let it suffice to say, that in the reign of Henry VIII were suppressed not less than 645 monasteries, 90 colleges, 110 hospitals, and 2374 chantries and free chapels; (Baker's Chron.) the lands, etc. of all which were confiscated to the king. Is not this to devour with lions' teeth? The whole explication here given of the allegory of the locusts, we presume, appears so consonant with the history of the reformation, that the propriety will not be denied. The application is even so obvious, that the learned Protestant divine, Dr. Walton, used it for describing the multitudes of new sectaries that swarmed out of the English Church. Thus he speaks in the preface of his Polyglot: "The bottomless pit seems to have been set open, from whence a smoke has risen, which has darkened the heavens and the stars; and locusts are come out with stings, a numerous race of sectaries and heretics, who have renewed all the ancient heresies, and invented many monstrous opinions of their own. These have filled our cities, villages, camps, houses, nay our pulpits too, and lead the poor deluded people with them to the pit of perdition." (Pastorini, Apocalypse ix.)
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Haydock
And their power was to hurt men five months. The duration of their power is here limited, but we dare not venture to explain what is meant by the dark expression, five months; time to come must clear up the difficulty. (Haydock)
9:13
Witham
At the sounding of the sixth trumpet, are said to be loosed the four angels bound in the river Euphrates. By these four angels, and the two hundred millions of horsemen, many understand the devils and their instruments, men incited by them in antichrist's time, to make war and persecute the Church of Christ, who shall destroy a third part, that is, a great part of men then in the world. Divers others apply this to the Persians, the successors of the Parthians, who about the middle of the third age[century], in the time of Valerian, a great persecutor of the Christians, passed the Euphrates, which used to be the bounds of the Roman empire to the east, defeated, took, and kept Valerian prisoner, which by its consequences gave a great stroke to the Roman empire. See the bishop of Meaux[Bossuet], Pere Alleman, etc. (Witham)
9:15
And the four angels were loosed. This seems to indicate the moment in which Satan himself is loosed from the abyss or hell, where, as we shall see in Apocalypse 20:2. he was chained up for a thousand years. This is the time of antichrist, whose coming, as St. Paul says, is according to the working of Satan. (2 Thessalonians 2:9.) The antichristian period is described by the ancient Fathers as the most dreadful of all; and the Apocalypse plainly shews it to be so, as we shall see. But we have this comfort, that his time will be short. He must be loosed a little time. (Apocalypse 20:3.)
9:16
Twenty thousand times ten thousand, or two hundred millions. Such an immense multitude cannot be accounted for, but by supposing a great part of it to consist of the infernal beings in human form, as it is doubtful whether there be that number of men capable of bearing arms upon the whole globe of the earth.
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And thus I saw the horses in the vision. The horsemen appeared to St. John with breastplates of fire, and of hyacinth, and of brimstone. By this expression is indicated the firing of carabines, or such firearms as cavalry use, which are applied to the breast when shot off. St. John took the fire that issued out of the muskets to come from the horsemen's breast, on which the muskets rested, and so thought the horsemen had breastplates of fire. The prophet here even describes to us the composition of gunpowder, with its three ingredients, viz. brimstone or sulphur, fire or charcoal, and hyacinth or saltpetre; because saltpetre, when set on fire, emits a flame of a fine purple colour, similar to the colour of the hyacinth stone. Here then we see revealed to St. John both the composition and use of gunpowder, to which he and all mankind at that time were strangers. Then it is said: And the heads of the horses, etc. Here is pointed out the artillery of the army, or cannon. He saw in this vision the whole army drawn up at a distance, and the artillery placed upon a line with the cavalry. He seemed to confound the cannon with the horses, and the cannons' mouths with the mouths of the horses, as the height of both from the ground is nearly the same. He describes the appearances as he saw in the vision, not the reality. When therefore he says, the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions, it is the same as if he said, the mouths of the cannon were as to the noise they made, like the mouths of roaring lions. Hence it appears that St. John, in this vision, both saw the fire of the cannon, and heard the explosion.
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Pastorini
For the power of the horses. The power of the imagined horses or real cannon, lying in their mouths and in their tails, signifies that the mischievous power of the cannon is directed to the object by their mouths, but takes its birth in the tail or breech of the cannon, where the charge is lodged: whence the cannon's breech is here compared to the serpent's head, which contains its venom. (Pastorini, hic.[here])
9:20
Witham
The rest of men, who were not slain by these plagues, which before are metaphorically called fire, smoke, and brimstone, did not for all that do penance, nor repent of their idolatrous worship of devils, and of idols of gold, silver, etc. nor for their sorceries of magic, nor for their fornication, nor for their thefts. This again may be either understood of what shall happen hereafter, a little before the end of the world (see Cornelius a Lapide); or perhaps of the Roman heathen idolaters, who still persisted in their iniquitous practices. Dr. Hammond expounds it of the Gnostic heretics. But to apply it to popish Christians, is a groundless invention of the late pretended reformers, neither supported by any authority or reason; (though Dr. W. is pleased to join with them) whereas all Catholics (and as he calls them, papists) have constantly declared in their controversies, in all their catechisms, that they adore none but God alone. Of this more hereafter. (Witham)
9:1
A star full.... This may mean the fall and apostasy of great and learned men from the true faith. Or a whole nation falling into error and separating from the church, not having the sign of God in their foreheads. And there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit.... That is, to the angel, not to the fallen star. To this angel was given the power, which is here signified by a key, of opening hell.
9:3
There came out locusts.... These may be devils in Antichrist’s time, having the appearance of locusts, but large and monstrous, as here described. Or they may be real locusts, but of an extraordinary size and monstrous shape, such as were never before seen on earth, sent to torment those who have not the sign (or seal) of God on their foreheads. Some commentators by these locusts understand heretics, and especially those heretics, that sprung from Jews, and with them denied the divinity of Jesus Christ; as Theodotus, Praxeas, Noetus, Paul of Samosata, Sabellius, Arius, etc. These were great enemies of the Christian religion; they tormented and infected the souls of men, stinging them like scorpions, with the poison of their heresies. Others have explained these locusts, and other animals, mentioned in different places throughout this sacred and mystical book, in a most absurd, fanciful, and ridiculous manner; they make Abaddon the Pope, and the locusts to be friars mendicant, etc. Here it is thought proper, not to enter into any controversy upon that subject, as the inventors of these fancies have been already answered, and fully refuted by many controvertists: besides, those who might be inposed on by such chimerical writers, are in these days much better informed.
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Most vnderstand al this of Heretikes.
The fall of an Arch heretike, as Arius, Luther, Caluin, out of the Church of God. Which haue the key of Hel to open & bring forth al the old condemned heresies buried before in the depth.
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Innumerable peny heretikes folowing their Maisters after the opening & the smoke of the bottomlesse pit.
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4. Nor any greene thing.] The Heretikes neuer hurt or seduce the greene tree, that is, such as haue a liuing faith vvorking by charitie, Vvho are seduced by Heretikes. but commonly they corrupt him in faith vvho should othervvise haue perished for il life, and him that is reprobate, that hath neither the signe of the Crosse (vvhich is Gods marke) in the forehead of his body, nor the note of election in his soule.
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Concordance Apoc. 6, 16.
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7. Prepared into battel.] Heretikes being euer ready to contend, do pretend victorie, and counterfeit gold: The manifold hypocrisie of Heretikes. in shape as men, as smothe and delicate as vvomen, their tongues and pennes ful of gall and venim: their hartes obdurate: ful of noise and shuffling: their doctrine as pestiserous and ful of poison, as the taile and sting of a scorpion, but they endure for a litle season.
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The cheefe Maister of heretikes.
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〈Greek〉, In English, Destroier.
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20. Idols of gold.] Here againe the nevv Translatours abuse the people, for idols saying images: Her⸢e⸣t. translation. the place being plainely against the pourtiates of the Heathen Gods, vvhich are here and in the Psalme 95 called, damenia, Diuels.
Pagans, Infidels, and sinful impenitent Catholikes must be condemned also.
This phrase being the like both in greeke and latin, signifieth such sorowful & penal repentance as causeth a man to forsake his former sinnes and depart from them. 〈Greek〉. See the same phrase. c. 2, 21, 22. & Act. •. v. 22.
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.60
… And the rest of the men who were not slain by these plagues, nor repented of the works of the deeds of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols, that is, images of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see nor walk, repented not also of their murders.”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.39
39. So, then, death is not only not an evil, but is even a good thing. So that it is sought as a good, as it is written: “Men shall seek death and shall not find it.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.31
… so you also, like a second Salmoneus, brighten the whole path on which you tread, and reproach us as mere men of smoke, to whom perhaps the words might be applied, “Thou touchest the hills and they smoke.” You do not understand the allusion of the Prophet
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You ask, what is this star, what is this smoke, what and what kind of locusts are these? First, Alcazar holds that in this chapter IX the fifth and sixth plagues are described as sent upon the unbelieving Jews. These two plagues, he says, are "horrible locusts and furious horses," or Sirens and Furies. For the Jews were delivered to Sirens, that is, to their unbridled lusts, according to that which David threatened them with in Psalm LXXX, 13: "I sent them according to the desires of their heart." Hence consequently they were delivered to the furies of conscience, so that these from the memory of crimes, and from the atrocity of punishment and plagues, would gnaw at their heart, and drive them as it were into madness, concerning which Cicero says in Pro Roscio Amerino: "These are the constant and domestic furies of the impious, which day and night exact the penalties of parents from the most wicked sons." Second, by the fall of the star is signified, not that which some Astrologers wish, namely that God sometimes permits the impression of the stars and the force of depraved nature to dominate the foolish and wicked, and to subject them to the desires of their heart, as Horace says, book I, ode 19: All-rushing Venus has abandoned Cyprus for me; and Cupid throws himself upon Anacreon (as he feigns). But rather this star signifies the law of Moses, which as if rushing down from above oppressed the Jews, and by occasion kindled concupiscence in them, Romans chapter VII, verse 7; for locusts are the desires of the heart and unbridled lusts, which from this star opening the abyss came forth from there. Third, the pit of the abyss is not hell, but a very deep pit, so that it appears to be without bottom. This pit is a symbol of the just judgment of God (according to that Psalm XXXV, 7: "Thy judgments are a great deep"), by which God delivered the Jews to their lusts, according to that Proverbs XXII, 14: "A deep pit is a harlot: he whom the Lord is angry with shall fall into it." For just as here the judgment of God, so there the harlot is feigned to be a deep pit, into which the sinner rushes headlong by the just judgment of God. Moreover, understand concupiscence here, not only of lust, but also of riches, goods, gluttony and all vices; for ἄβυσσος is a chasm, or a quantity of waters lacking a bottom: for this is what the Hebrew tehom signifies. Whence in Genesis I, 2, it is said: "Darkness were upon the face of the abyss." And St. Augustine, book XXII Against Faustus: "The abyss," he says, "is an immeasurable depth of waters." Scapula also in the Lexicon: "The abyss," he says, "is a chasm of waters"; the same thing concerning the Hebrew tehom Pagninus says. Allegorically, however, the abyss signifies hell, both because hell is as it were a sea, into which the damned are immersed, and is very deep like a pit, or a very deep and dark prison; and because it itself is the deep judgment of God, that is the punishment which God justly exacts from the damned. Fourth, the smoke of the pit signifies that lusts are the darkest darkness, and it is not permitted to the mind to enjoy them by the sun, that is by heavenly light, indeed not even by the light of reason. From this smoke of hell, that is from the error already mentioned, and from the darkness of disordered affection and deception come forth locusts, that is inconstant and carnal desires: for the locust is a windy and voracious animal; whence it aptly signifies the hunger of appetites, and the variety and infinity of desires and anxieties, as much as the insatiable belly of gluttons. Again, the locust is a restless, wandering, filthy, harmful, shameless, biting animal: such is concupiscence also. "And it was given to them power, as the scorpions have power": for there are certain locusts which have a tail like that of a scorpion. It aptly signifies locusts, that is desires going forth, to fix a sting in the mind as much as in the body, just as the scorpion has teeth in its tail, as Pliny testifies, book XI, chapter XXXVII, according to that Proverbs XXIII, 31: "Look not upon the wine when it is yellow, when the color thereof shineth in the glass: it goeth down smoothly, but in the end it will bite like a serpent, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk." Wherefore Seneca said: "He who shuts up desire, by Hercules contends with Jupiter concerning happiness." Sixth, these locusts are commanded not to harm the herbs, but men: by which is signified that these are spiritual locusts, and mystical, not physical and natural, namely the lusts already mentioned. Seventh, when it is said: "That they should torment for five months," allusion is made to Genesis VII, 24, and chapter VIII, 1, where it is said that the flood occupied and held the earth for one hundred and fifty days (for so many days do five months contain). Just as therefore then there was a flood of waters in the world, and afterwards under Moses a flood of locusts covering all Egypt, Exodus X, 15: thus is signified here a flood of concupiscences sent upon the Jews to last for 150 days, that is for a very long time, until God, taking pity on them, on the mystical Noah, that is on Christ our Saviour, remembers them, and sends forth His spirit and the zephyr of the earth, which may take away these locusts, and convert the Jews to Christ, which shall be at the end of the world. Eighth, men shall seek death, and shall not find it; because inordinate desires bring so many fears, anguishes and torments to the mind, that men subject to them often wish for death. Whence Pliny, book VII, chapter L: "So many," says he, "fears, so many cares, so often is death invoked, that no wish is more frequent." It is therefore clear that these arise from the tinder of concupiscence, without which there is no fear, no care, no anxiety. Whence St. Bernard wisely says: "Take away self-will, and hell shall not be." Ninth, they are "like horses prepared for battle," because the force, ardour and impetus of concupiscence is very great in trampling down all that resists it: thus we see the lustful and the wrathful rush into fires and swords, while driven by the frenzy of lust or anger. Tenth, they have on their heads crowns of gold, because men, given over to their concupiscences, falsely think them to be as it were queens, to whom they ought to submit and obey in all things: for to them they yield the kingdom and dominion of their heart. Whence Paul says, Romans V, 21, and VI, 12: "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof." Eleventh, they have the faces of men and the hair of women, because they exhibit themselves with blandishments and softness at first sight, and thus entice unwary men. This is what St. James says, I, 14: "Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured." Twelfth, they have the teeth of lions, because they bite the soul, lacerate it, and have a deadly outcome. Whence of them it is said in Ecclesiasticus XXI, 3: "The teeth of a lion are the teeth thereof, killing souls." Thirteenth, they make a noise with their wings like chariots, because with their clamours saying, "Bring, bring," Proverbs XXX, 15, they thus deafen and fill the ears of the mind, so that they absorb its attention, and leave no room for the ears to be accommodated to wholesome counsels. Fourteenth, they have over them a king, Abaddon, namely the devil, who through concupiscences as it were his soldiers, wages war against men. Whence Paul says of him, II Timothy II, 26: "By whom they are held captive to his will." He is called the Exterminator, because he himself sharpens and inflames concupiscences, so that through them he may exterminate all seed of virtue. For, as the Apostle says: "Desires plunge men into destruction and perdition," I Timothy VI, 9. Where for perdition the Greek is ἀπώλειαν; whence he was called here ἀπολλύων, that is, the destroyer, or the exterminator, namely these are "graves of concupiscence," of which Numbers XI, 34. That saying is well known: "Gluttony has slain more than the sword." Or by the Angel of the abyss understand self-love; for this is the king of concupiscences, and directs, sends forth and inflames them, to which you may rightly apply that of Habakkuk III, 5: "Before His face shall go death, and the devil shall go forth before His feet." For truly self-love is to the soul itself as it were a most harmful demon. Thus far Alcazar aptly as to the tropological sense, but not as to the literal sense, as he himself contends. The second exposition is that of Aureolus, Lyrani and St. Antoninus, in the first part of the Chronicle, title VI, chapter 1, who hold that the Vandal persecution is here predicted, which was most severe for five months, that is under five Vandal kings, namely Gunderic, Genseric, Huneric, Thrasamund and Gilimer. For Stilicho the Vandal, a strenuous military commander under Theodosius the Elder, was left by him at his death as guardian of his sons and of the whole Empire: wherefore he himself gave his two daughters to Honorius successively as wives. Finally, wishing to transfer the empire from Honorius to himself and his son Eucherius, he secretly incited the Vandals against Honorius: but his treachery being detected, he himself with his son was punished with death by Honorius. After Stilicho's death the Vandals created for themselves a king Corsico, who devastated all things which are between the Alps and the Pyrenees. The Vandals were made Arians by the Goths. Corsico besieging Arles is captured and killed by the Prefect of the city. To him succeeds Fredebaldus II, king of the Vandals, upon whose death the third king Gunderic succeeds, the first king of the Vandals in Spain: to him likewise succeeds his brother Genseric, the fourth of their kings, who devastated Africa, and besieged Hippo, and in it St. Augustine, the Bishop of the city; then crossing into Italy, he took and plundered Rome, and soon also Capua and Nola, in which was Bishop St. Paulinus, who gave himself captive to the Vandals for the son of a widow. Genseric was proclaimed the most fortunate and most glorious of all kings, in that he was the conqueror of two of the most powerful and principal cities of the whole world, Rome and Carthage. To Genseric succeeds another Huneric, the fifth king of the Vandals, who sent three hundred Bishops, Deacons, Presbyters, and indeed four thousand nine hundred and forty laymen into exile, and afflicted many with martyrdom; the citizens of Trachis, because they would not endure an Arian Bishop, he severely punished, and cut off their tongues and right hands; who nevertheless by a miracle, God granting it, spoke as if they had tongues: one of whom, when he sinned and fell into lust, lost this gift, as St. Gregory testifies, book III of the Dialogues, chapter XXXII. Huneric, after he had reigned eight years, was consumed by worms and died. To Huneric succeeds Guntabundus; to him then Thrasamund his brother, who reigned for 26 years. To Thrasamund succeeded his son Hilpericus, whom he begot from the daughter of the Emperor Valentinian, who therefore from his mother sucked the orthodox faith with milk. Wherefore Gilimer, Hilpericus' brother and cousin, eager for the kingdom, accused Hilpericus of treachery, that he was secretly colluding with Justinian. Hilpericus therefore was deprived of the kingdom by the Vandals and handed over to custody, and Gilimer was put in his place, who reigned for five years. The Emperor Justinian, wishing to restore the kingdom to Hilpericus, made war on Gilimer, sending against him Belisarius, by whom Gilimer was overcome and captured, bound with a silver chain, and led to Constantinople in triumph to the Emperor Justinian in the year of the Lord 536. Where, seeing the magnificence of Justinian, Gilimer rightly exclaimed: "Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity. I was a king yesterday, now I am a captive and chained like a slave." Then therefore the kingdom of the Vandals ceased, namely in the year 95 from when Africa was invaded and occupied by them, as St. Cyprian had predicted it would be, as Evagrius testifies, book IV, chapter XVI. Therefore Lyrani, Aureolus and St. Antoninus hold that the falling star is the Emperor Valens an Arian, or Genseric, who was the first of the kings of the Vandals to be an Arian, and the first called by Count Boniface into Africa, invaded it, and he and his successors held it for 95 years until Gilimer, as I have said. The locusts therefore are the Vandals; the five months they hold to be five Arian kings already mentioned, or the times of the kings: for these, being Arians, grievously afflicted the Church, as among others an eyewitness recounts, and one who suffered grave things from them along with other orthodox, Victor of Utica in three books, which he wrote On the Persecution of the Vandals, worthy indeed of reading. But, as I have already shown many times, all these things pertain to the ultimate times of the world from the sixth seal and thenceforward to the end of the Apocalypse. The third exposition therefore is that of our Blasius Viegas, who following St. Augustine, Bede, Primasius, Gagneius and many others, understands by this fifth angel the fifth order of preachers. The falling star, he says, is Lucifer (Alcazar, Judas the traitor; Cardinal Bellarmine, Luther; others, Calvin and similar heretics—from clerics making them laymen, from monks making them husbands, from the chaste making them incestuous, and therefore from the highest into the lowest abyss, that is of heresy, and thence into hell fallen). Whence some have conjectured that Luther's heresy would last five months, or 150 days, that is, 150 years: for they say a day is taken for a year). Lucifer therefore once fell like a falling star from heaven, and now again his fall was represented to John through an imaginary vision. Whence Christ says of him: "I saw Satan as lightning falling from heaven," Luke X, 18. The locusts are heresiarchs and heretics, who at the end of the world will be very many like locusts, as Christ forewarned, Matt. XXIV, 24. These Lucifer will lead forth from hell with smoke, that is, with dense clouds of errors and heresies, which will obscure the sun, that is, Christ's divinity and dignity; and the moon, that is, the Church; and the stars, that is, the faithful. Their power will be like that of scorpions, that is, most deceitful and pernicious. They are commanded not to harm the grass, that is, the faithful who have faith and charity, but tender and delicate; nor the green things, that is, the faithful flourishing and strong in faith and charity; nor the trees, that is, the holy and exalted Prelates; but only those who do not have the sign of God, that is, who do not have faith and charity: for these easily fall into heresy. These therefore will persecute the Church unto death and martyrdoms: whence they have weapons, horses, breastplates, etc. You will ask, why are heretics called locusts? The cited authors answer, and beautifully and at length Cardinal Bellarmine in the oration which he prefixed to the last volume, and Viegas here: First, because, just as locusts greatly harm green things, so heretics harm faith and virtues. Second, because they conspire against the Church, just as the locust goes forth all in its swarms, Proverbs cap. XXX, vers. 27. Third, on account of the leaps of locusts, which heretics imitate by their inconstancy, whereby they leap from one error and heresy into another. Fourth, because heretics with their filthy mouth pollute all things, and are like locusts inclined to the belly, that is gluttony and lust. Wherefore just as ambition and lust are steps to heresy, so humility, chastity and innocence of life are the most efficacious means that one may preserve sound faith and not fall into heresy. Note first: These locusts have crowns on their heads, because heretics seduce kings and princes (as Arius seduced Constantine and Constantius, the Eutychians Justinian, the Monothelites Heraclius, Luther the Duke of Saxony), who protect them and their heresies with arms and propagate them. These crowns are similar to gold, first, because heretics and the princes their followers display before themselves zeal for faith and ardor of charity; second, because their victory against the Church is futile, shadowy and evanescent; hence it appears to be gold, but is not; because by their persecution they do not conquer, but are conquered both heretics and tyrants by the patience and constancy of the Orthodox, as Viegas beautifully shows, sect. 7, num. 3. Moreover Cardinal Bellarmine by crowns as if of gold understands the pride of heretics, as of Luther, who in his letter to George, Duke of Saxony, says he surpasses St. Augustine and Ambrose. Likewise in the book Against the Bull of Leo X, he dared to excommunicate the Supreme Pontiff, together with the whole Church which adheres to him. Hence they call themselves Prophets, Evangelists, third Elias, reformers of the Church, restorers of faith and religion. Second, they have a human face, that is they simulate humanity and benevolence, but they bite, because they have the teeth of a lion. Tropologically such is the detractor, of whom Psalm CXXXIX: "They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent." For the serpent's tongue, as Pliny says, lib. V, cap. XXXVII, is very thin, three-forked, vibrating, of dark color, and if you draw it out, very long. Similar is the tongue of the detractor, and especially three-forked, because it harms himself, the listeners and those of whom he detracts; thus with a single stroke it strikes and harms three. So the ministers of heretics continually detract from monks, clerics, the Pontiff; nay, even from Saints and the Blessed Virgin. Third, they have hair like women. First, because they are effeminate and lustful. Second, because they are weak and feeble like a woman, so that they cannot overcome the Church, which is a virago. Third, because heresy, unless it puts on hair and cosmetics for itself, displeases everyone. Fourth, because almost all heretics, as St. Jerome testifies to Ctesiphon, propagated their heresies with the aid of women. Fourth, the breast armed with an iron breastplate signifies their obstinacy, which is so great that although they are clearly refuted, they prefer nevertheless to die rather than to recede from error. The likeness of horses is a sign of boldness and rashness. Fifth, they have tails with stings like scorpions, because although they have a smooth mouth and offer the allurements of the flesh, nevertheless in the end they entangle many souls and bodies in difficulties in this life, and in eternal fires in the future. Sixth, flying chariots signify the wonderful swiftness by which heresy, like a plague and flame spreading, seizes and devastates various provinces. Seventh, the king of the abyss Abaddon, that is, the destroyer, presides over them; because, as Bellarmine rightly says, heretics, for example Luther and his line and offspring, rages in heaven, earth, Purgatory, and hell. In heaven they have despoiled God of the Trinity, Christ of divinity and humanity, the Saints of beatitude, the same along with angels of all worship and veneration. On earth and in the Church they have exterminated a great part of Holy Scripture, almost all the Sacraments, all traditions, the priesthood, sacrifice, vows, fasts, feasts, temples, altars, relics, crosses, images, all monuments of piety, ecclesiastical laws, discipline and the entire order, the obedience of peoples toward princes, the power of princes toward subjects, finally all modesty, shame, reverence, all virtue and spirit, all the beauty and adornment of the house of God. They strive to overturn Purgatory utterly. Indeed, many of the Lutherans deny true and local hells, and fabricate from their own heads I know not what imaginary hells. And so they do not refrain their virulent tongue from their abyss king, but injure him and take away his jurisdiction along with his subjects. Certainly Calvin teaches that hell and its torments are nothing other than the apprehension by which the reprobate apprehend God as angry with them. Namely, this greatly torments the impious, who, if they did not feel the blows and fires of God's wrath, would send their angers away from God, nor would they be moved a whit by his anger or threats, much less would they be tormented. But although these things are said appropriately, they seem nevertheless to be more mystical than literal. Add: this interpretation is opposed by the fact that these locusts torment men so that they wish to die, which does not befit heretics; for it is theirs to pervert men in faith and morals, not to torment or kill; indeed, perverted and seduced by them, since they regard nothing but the pleasures and comforts of this life, they love life exceedingly and abhor death. Third, these locusts will torment those who do not have the sign of God; heretics, however, torment those who have this sign, namely the faithful and the Orthodox. Moreover, foolish and shameless here are our heretics, especially the English Calvinists, who, in order to vindicate themselves, return the same treatment to Catholics. From among whom one (learn all from one) a more recent commentator on this passage of the Apocalypse, by this star fallen from heaven and opening the pit of the abyss, understands Mahomet and Antichrist, that is, the Roman Pontiff; for each, he says, began at the same time, namely in the year of the Lord 600. For then the Roman Pontiffs, departing from the purity of faith and religion of their Fathers, introduced superstitions, namely Masses, invocations of Saints, prayers for the dead, the cult of relics, of images, of ceremonies. Then Boniface III obtained from the Emperor Phocas that he be called Universal Bishop. Soon Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon, a temple of Gentile idolatry, to all the Saints, exercising the same impiety, namely the worship of a new army of gods, while he established their feast throughout the whole world, lest the crime be of Rome alone. He brings forward many other things concerning Boniface V, Theodatus and others, but plainly false, which he imputes to them through calumny; indeed he does not refrain from tearing and cursing St. Gregory with a malevolent tongue and pen. Smoke therefore, he says, is heresy in doctrine, and in worship superstition, by which the sun and air, that is, the light of truth, is darkened in the Church. From this smoke came forth locusts: the Eastern locusts are the Mahometans; the Western are monks, nuns, a numerous host of Religious, Cardinals with the whole Pontifical hierarchy. All these beetles swarmed forth from the same smoke, or filth of ignorance and error. These, as Mendicant friars, do not kill, but torment men; because they despoil heirs of their patrimony, sitting by dying parents, and extorting from them partly by threats of Purgatory, partly by the hope of being freed from it through their prayers and Masses, rich estates, lands, fields, great sums of money, indeed even sons and daughters: for they teach that it is lawful for sons to enter Religion against the will of their parents. Greater torment and butchery was inflicted, by casting a snare upon consciences, and imposing upon them the necessity of confessing all sins yearly with each circumstance. They have crowns upon their heads, because they are shorn in the manner of a crown. They have the hair of women, because they are worshippers of the Blessed Virgin, and cover and veil themselves by her name, as the Carmelites are called by Honorius III the family of the Virgin, and therefore use a white mantle. Thus the heretic trifles and blasphemes, and vomits calumnies, each of which has already been refuted a thousand times by Cardinal Bellarmine, Gretser, Sander, Stapleton and many others. But what does this have to do with the seventh and final seal of the Apocalypse, which will bring the final plagues upon the world, and with them the end and destruction? For already more than a thousand years have elapsed since the birth of Mahomet, and since St. Gregory and Boniface III. Again, what agreement has Mahomet with the Pontiff, that they should be one and the same star? What consensus have the Saracens with monks, that both should be the same locusts? when it is certain that these are separated from those by the whole heaven in faith, nation, place, life and customs, so that the Saracens are the most bitter enemies of monks. Third, before Mahomet and St. Gregory, the Roman Pontiff was the head of the whole Church, the sacrifice of the Mass existed, there were monks and anchorites, there was invocation of Saints, veneration of relics, images, etc., as is evident from St. Jerome Against Vigilantius, from St. Augustine, book XXII On the City of God, chapter VIII, from St. Basil, homily On the Forty Martyrs, and On Monastic Constitutions. For Basil himself was a monk, and prescribed rules and constitutions to monks; indeed, of the four Doctors of the Church, both Greek and Latin, three were monks, namely of the Greeks St. Basil, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Chrysostom; of the Latins St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. Gregory. Therefore falsely is the invention of these attributed to Boniface III and his successors. It is indeed remarkable that the English so loudly protest against St. Gregory and monks, when by him and his monks, St. Augustine and his companions, sent by him into England, they were converted from paganism to the faith of Christ, as the Venerable Bede and all others testify. Surely heresy is shameless, and is like a harlot, who when caught in adultery, cries out that all witnesses, even eyewitnesses, are pimps and harlots; thus indeed Luther, Calvin, and other heretics impute the crime of heresy to the Orthodox, and call them heretics and idolaters, because they see themselves condemned by them. Fourth, the Mahometans did not torture for five months, but killed and kill Christians; for by the sword they propagate their sect by the precept of Mahomet. Fifth, the Saracens have vexed the Church not for five months, but already for a thousand years; monks, however, were born almost with Christ, as is evident from St. Dionysius, book On Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. Sixth, monks have crowns on their heads, but not of gold, as these locusts have: even if they have the hair of the Blessed Virgin, they do not have the hair of women, as the apostate Luther had, bound to his nun, and his soft and effeminate progeny of Ministers. Finally, monks do not have the tails of scorpions, nor the teeth of lions, nor iron breastplates, etc. The fourth explanation, therefore, more fitting, is that of Ribera, which Primasius and his followers favor, saying: "The horses are men, the riders are evil spirits." Ribera says therefore: The fifth angel sounds the trumpet, and immediately a star, that is, one angel from the good ones, who presides over hell, descends from heaven having the key of the abyss, that is, having the power of opening and loosing hell. For the keys of the infernal prison are not committed to Lucifer or to demons, as being damned and imprisoned, but to good angels, as being ministers of God and His justice. From hell proceeds smoke, that is, the furious and most dreadful machinations of demons against men. Hence the sun and air are darkened, that is, the minds of men are blinded, so that they do not look up to heaven, but prone look upon and seek the earth, says Richard. For we are compelled to receive these symbolically and figuratively, because no key of hell is properly given; nor is there any door or opening of it which exhales smoke over the earth, so as to be able to darken the sun; and it is clear from what follows that the locusts, as being similar to so many beasts, ought to be received figuratively. The locusts therefore will be a certain army of barbarians, sent by the demon against the wicked, so that he may lay waste and torment them for five months, as once the Goths, Alans, Vandals and Lombards did. To these first it was permitted, that is, allowed, that they should not kill, but torment almost more grievously than death by the torture of a scorpion, which is stealthy and cruel. Second, they are similar to horses prepared for battle, because they will be most warlike horsemen. Third, they have crowns similar to gold, that is, helmets gleaming like gold. For thus crown is taken for helmet by Virgil, Aeneid V: In all, after the manner, hair shorn, pressed crown. Where Servius says: "A crown, that is, a helmet; and he used the manner of speech of Homer, who called a helmet στέφανον, that is, a crown. Whence, explaining this, he adds: He cast down the helmet empty before his feet." Fourth, the face is only that of men, because the heart and mind will be as that of lions. Fifth, they have hair like women; because they will be soft and effeminate, and will display this through the care of their body, especially with curled locks and twisted hair. Sixth, they have teeth like lions, so that they may bite and harm most powerfully. Seventh, they have breastplates as if iron, that is, iron; but he says as if, because this was a vision; and because he called these locusts soldiers, to which a breastplate does not properly belong. Eighth, the sound of their wings is the swift impetus and noise of them, which will arise from the multitude of swift chariots rushing forth to battle. Ninth, they have tails like scorpions, so that, just as scorpions harm secretly through their tail, so also do these harm secretly, and that in their end and departure. Tenth, they have as king the angel of the abyss, that is, the devil stirring them up. But it is not correct that armed soldiers are compared to unwarlike locusts. Second, since horses are mentioned here, no riders or horsemen are mentioned; therefore there were none. Third, these locusts have various and monstrous forms, plainly different from the form and appearance of soldiers. Fourth, soldiers fight with swords and spears: but these locusts sting and harm with their tail's stinger, as scorpions do. Fifth, this plague of the fifth angel is distinguished from the following plague of the sixth angel, in which two hundred million soldiers are sent forth by four angels against the wicked: therefore this was not of soldiers. I say therefore: The plainest and most fitting sense is (which Ribera also judges to be probable) that you should take these properly, just as they sound. These locusts therefore will be demons, who will assume the appearance and form of locusts, but a new and monstrous one, namely mixed and patched together from various animals, such as a lion, scorpion, horse and man. This opinion is proved first from the refutation of others; for it does not appear what more plainly and fittingly these so monstrous locusts could be understood than as monstrous demons, and their monstrous bodies, in which they are accustomed to appear, especially because all the other plagues are to be understood literally, just as they sound: therefore this one too. Second, because they proceed from the pit of the abyss, that is of hell: therefore they are infernal; therefore demons. Third, because at the end of the world the plagues will be new, unusual and unheard of; and then Satan and his demons will be loosed, as it is said in chapter xx, verse 3, who being loosed will exert all their force and furies upon men. Just as therefore now they tempt and vex men invisibly, so then they will vex and torment them visibly. Fourth, even now at the death of men a demon is accustomed to appear visibly to the dying man, so that he may undergo the final struggle and agony with him, and may claim his soul for himself if he can, as it appeared to St. Martin dying, and we hear and see that it appears daily to the dying; which Bartholius Sibylla confirms with many examples, in his book Peregrin., last question: therefore he will do the same at the end and as it were at the agony of the world, after which he will no longer have the power to tempt and torment men. Fifth, the king of these locusts is a demon called Abaddon, verse 11: for all agree that this is a demon; therefore his subjects too, namely these locusts, will likewise be demons. Sixth, to St. Anthony, St. Hilarion and other Saints demons appeared in a similar terrifying and monstrous form of bears, lions, wolves, indeed in a mixed form and appearance of various animals. Therefore much more will they appear thus at the end of the world, as being about to show and appear to the world no longer. Seventh, the common conception of men is that demons are monstrous creatures made up of various horrible animals; and so in images, namely in the type of hell and similar things, painters depict them, namely with a horrible head and variously horned, with a bristly and barbed tail, with horrible wings, with a lion's mouth and teeth, etc. And this fittingly, because demons are accustomed to assume such monstrous bodies by God's nod and command, so that through them the deformity of their monstrous souls (and of each of its powers) disfigured by so many vices may be demonstrated. Finally, that demons will appear in this monstrous form in the destruction of Babylon and other unbelieving and impious cities, and much more in the destruction of the world, of which those were the type and prelude, Isaiah teaches, chapter xxxiv, verse 14: "Demons," he says, "shall meet with onocentaurs, and the hairy one shall cry out to another: there the lamia lay down and found rest for herself." And chapter xiii, verse 21: "Beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with dragons; and ostriches shall dwell there, and hairy ones shall leap there: owls shall answer one another there in his houses, and sirens in the temples of pleasure." For it is fitting that those who were the authors of desolation and destruction should, as it were victors of the city and world, dwell and rule in it now laid waste and almost destroyed. And so when the fifth angel sings, a star, that is an angel, hovering down from heaven, will open and loosen hell, there will be a chasm, and as it were a furnace, from which a great infernal darkness will exhale, such as is accustomed to exhale from Aetna and Vesuvius (which on that account many suppose and call the furnace and mouth of hell), and so great that it will darken the air and sun, of which Virgil sings, Aeneid 1: "Suddenly the clouds snatch away the sun and day from the eyes of the Teucrians, dark night lies upon the sea." From this furnace and its gloomy smoke and darkness will come forth armies, that is innumerable demons, in number and form similar to huge locusts. For a locust is a foul, harmful, proud, winged and flying animal, biting, stinging, restless, inconstant and putrid (whence locusts were one of the greatest plagues of Egypt, Exodus vii, 17). But demons are such in all respects. Again, a locust is a symbol of a reviler and envious person (such as demons are), because they have teeth in the bosom of the heart, as it were in the stomach, because they have a mouth and teeth inclined downward, and therefore near to the breast and heart; indeed they have other teeth moreover on the back of the head, with which they make a grinding sound, if we believe Pliny and others, whom Aldrovandus cites, tract. On Insects, page 420. Again, the Egyptians, wishing to signify a tyrant ruling over his own tyrannically, painted a polyp and a locust. For locusts, as Horus says, and from him Aldrovandus in his work on the Locust, exercise their strength against polyps and overcome them. But demons are tyrants of all. Moreover Pierius, Hierog. 18, teaches that it is a symbol of popular sedition, if one paints two locusts rushing at each other; for locusts fight with their horns and butt each other like rams. But they fight for pastures, or for offspring, or for females, as Aldrovandus teaches from Albert. Such are demons tumultuous among themselves, quarreling and fighting. To this exposition is added the opinion of our Father Lessius, book XIII On the Divine Perfections, chapter xviii, where he holds that these locusts will not only have the appearance and form of locusts, but will be true and living locusts, though strange and monstrous. For by divine power a very deep chasm (perhaps even to the infernal regions: for shortly after a great chasm, by which all the impious will be swallowed up into the depths, will be opened to that extent) will be opened somewhere in the earth, or in the mountains; whence, as it were from a pit of the abyss, that is, abyssal and most profound, an immense mass of smoke will issue forth, just as we read has often issued from Aetna and Vesuvius. From which it is clear that in the bowels of the earth many and monstrous fires lie hidden, which are now held in check, so that at the end of the world they may burst forth, and first infest all things with smoke and ash, then together with the fire of conflagration burn up the earth. Now while this smoke lasts, it will be easy by divine power to produce a strange kind of stinging and venomous locusts, which will come forth from the smoke and occupy all things far and wide; just as once immense swarms, first of frogs, then of locusts, afterwards of gnats, finally of flies, occupied all Egypt, and that suddenly, divine power forming these animals, as is evident from Exodus chapter vii and following. In a similar manner the fields of the Philistines suddenly poured forth an infinite multitude of mice, I Kings v. As to their form, it is not necessary that their faces be entirely similar to a human face, or of the same size; a rough similarity suffices, such as is found in apes. The same must be judged concerning their hair or antennae, and teeth. This opinion is proved, first, because the locusts sent by Moses into Egypt were true locusts; therefore these also will be true: for those were the forerunners and harbingers of these. Second, because St. John expressly calls them locusts, and gives them a sting, and compares them to scorpions. Since therefore we accept here a true sting, which they will truly have, a true scorpion, why not also true locusts? why would we interpret them mystically or symbolically? Third, because there is no kind of animal in which there is so great a variety of strange forms as in the locust, as is evident from the various and monstrous species of them, which Aldrovandus reviews and depicts in his Locust. Fourth, because the other plagues here, namely fire, hail, a falling star, a burning mountain, heat, rivers turned to blood, earthquakes, wounds, demons loosed, etc., are to be taken literally, as they sound: why not also these locusts? Wherefore this opinion, being very literal, is also very probable: to which however add that these locusts will be directed and impelled by the demon Abaddon and his associates. For these will not invade herbs and plants, as locusts are wont to do, but men, and only those who do not have the sign of God on their foreheads, as St. John says, verse 4. But this sign, and men marked with it, since the locusts cannot naturally discern them, so they do not naturally desire to sting or torment them: both of these things therefore will be the work of the demons impelling the locusts, who by God's command will exercise through the locusts this vengeance of His upon impious men. Wherefore what is said here concerning locusts applies also to the demons who move them, some things more, some things less: just as what is said in Genesis iii concerning the serpent tempting Eve applies partly to the serpent, partly and rather to the demon possessing the serpent and speaking through it. Let us therefore accommodate to the demons each property of the locusts which St. John here attributes to them. He says therefore: Thus R. David, and from him Pagninus in the Lexicon, in the word arbe, and Arias Montanus and Christopher of Castro in Joel chapter i, verse 4. Moreover the demons, which the locusts signify, are rightly compared to scorpions. For the scorpion (of which kind we see many here in Rome) is a small creature of the class of insects, having horns in front like a crab, with which it grasps and squeezes its prey, then bends the sting which it carries in its tail, and with it stinging its enemy and prey, instills venom, by which it destroys and kills it. Whence Ovid in book IV of the Fasti: ..... Feared for the sharpness of its tail, the Scorpion. Pliny reports the following about it, lib. XI, cap. xxv. First, the scorpion is "an unwelcome plague of serpent venom, except that by a more severe punishment they finish off with slow death over three days"; therefore its venom is slow, but grave and deadly punishment. Second, "always lethal in its sting to virgins, and almost entirely so to women; but to men in the morning, coming out of their caves, before they have discharged their venom by some chance sting on an empty stomach." Third, it is of a nature exceedingly wrathful. Whence the adage σκόρπιον ὀκτάπουν ἐγείρεις, you stir up an eight-footed scorpion; and σκορπιόω, is the same as to irritate, to provoke to anger, so that it becomes angry like a scorpion. Hence fourth, as if raging, it always carries forth a drawn weapon, namely the sting of its tail, ready to wound and inflict a deadly blow. Other insects conceal their stings within: the scorpion alone extends its sting like a lance, which is not idle, but "always the tail is in the strike, and it does not cease to meditate for any moment, lest it should lack an opportunity." Moreover "it strikes with an oblique and bent blow"; it also walks with an oblique gait, so that it may strike unexpectedly. Fifth, "the venom is potent in all at midday, when heated by the sun's burning; likewise when they thirst, insatiable in drinking. Sixth, it is established that seven joints of the tail are more severe: for many have six. Seventh, this evil is of Africa, and the South winds also made it: they could not live within the region of Sicily's sky; yet they are sometimes seen in Italy, but harmless. Eighth, in Scythia they kill even swine, otherwise more vigorous against such venoms. Ninth, it is thought to be a remedy for a man struck if their own ashes are drunk in wine. Tenth, they think scorpions harm not at all those who have no blood. Eleventh, some also believe that the offspring are devoured by them; only one is left, most clever, and which by placing itself upon the loins of its own mother, becomes safe both from the tail and from the bite, in its place. This one is the avenger of the rest, which finally from above finishes off the parents. And they give birth to eleven." Thus far Pliny, which all these things plainly signify that this animal is one of remarkable malice, ferocity, vengeance and harm: such as the demon is in all respects. First therefore, at the end of the world these demons in the form of locusts, and like scorpions with tails, will be, and with the sting of their tail will prick men, so that they do not immediately kill men, but with slow punishment for five months, as is said in verse 10, will torment them. Second, they will rage more fiercely against those who burn with the lusts of women. Third, they will be full of wraths, cruelty and fury, and therefore will carry the sting of their tail always drawn forth to strike. Fourth, they will strike the unwary from an oblique angle. Fifth, burning with the fire of hell, and thirsting for the final slaughter of men, they will sharpen all their venom against them. Sixth, they will arm and strengthen their venomous sting with seven joints of the tail: which aptly and symbolically signify the deceits, frauds, machinations of demons, which they intertwine with one another like joints, so that if a man extricate himself from one, he is immediately entangled in another. Seventh, they will be winged: for they will have wings. Eighth, they will harm more those who, like themselves, have served their belly and stomach. Ninth, the remedy will be their own ashes, if namely sinners, mindful of ashes and death both their own and of the devil (who on account of pride from an angel has become as it were ashes, and in the second death, namely in hell, is perpetually burned, and is almost reduced to ashes), humble themselves, are moved to compunction, do penance and are reconciled to God. Tenth, they will harm none who are pious and spiritual, but only the impious, who wallow in flesh and blood, and who have shed the blood of the Saints. Eleventh, they will torment their own offspring, namely the wicked, and as it were kill them, and will be tormented by them in turn, while the reprobate curse them as it were as authors of their damnation, equally as torturers, and will hurl all dire curses upon them. Likewise in hell demons and the damned will mutually lacerate one another, and as it were snarl like dogs, and bite one another.
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Hence it is clear that these locusts will not be properly so called: for their food equally as their harm is in herbs; but they will be demons, who like scorpions will harm none except him who has blood, that is the impious man, as if to say: These locusts will not be like other herbivorous ones, but carnivorous. Moreover God will not permit them to exert all their force and venom: for thus they would kill all mortals; but only that they torment those who do not have the sign of God, of which cap. vii, verse 5, for five months. For if this plague lasted longer, men would despair, and would kill themselves. Whence he says in verse 6: "Men shall seek death, and shall not find it." For so great will be their torment, that they will desire death, and yet will not be able to die, as happens when someone has drunk a slow and not sufficiently effective venom, which does not kill immediately, but so torments, that a man can neither live nor die.
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Note: These demons will be similar, first, to great locusts as to wings and feet; second, to horses as to form, size, boldness and military use; indeed even a locust standing on its feet as if prepared to fly and to fly upon, has the appearance of an armed and armored horse (whence by the Italians locusts are called cavallette, that is, small horses, little horses): for it is clad in armor, and has wings in place of stings; and it flies by leaping, and leaps by flying. Thus Pineda on that passage of Job cap. xxxix, 20: "Wilt thou lift him up as a locust?" Third, to men as to breastplates; fourth, to women as to face, hair and golden crowns; fifth, to lions as to teeth; sixth, to scorpions as to tail and sting. What these things signify symbolically, I have said above from Viega and Ribera; for those things which they attribute to heretics and soldiers, in the same manner and with greater reason can and ought to be accommodated to demons.
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These demons will torment men in three ways: first, by stinging with the sting of the tail like a scorpion; second, by biting with teeth, like lions: for the bite of a lion's tooth is venomous. Whence, as Pliny says, lib. VIII, cap. xvi, speaking of the lion: "From every wound, whether from tooth, or from claw impressed, black blood flows forth." Third, by terrifying men and striking them down both by the sight of such horrible monsters, and by hearing, when they shall hear the sound of them, as of war-horses. Moreover, how voracious and harmful the teeth of locusts are, we see in Apulia near to us, which is wholly from time to time devoured by locusts, although otherwise it is most fertile.
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There is in India an animal which has a hide like a breastplate compacted together; wherefore by the Spanish it is called armadillo; and the rhinoceros has its own breastplate, and that a very hard one: thus also locusts appear to have their own breastplate, but these diabolical ones will have one far greater and harder.
By "sound" he calls the stridor which locusts produce by the beating of their wings, concerning which Pliny, lib. XI, cap. xxix: "Their voice," he says, "seems to proceed from the back of the head: in that place in the joint of the shoulder-blades they are thought to have as it were teeth, and by grinding these together they produce a stridor." He calls them teeth not properly so called in the mouth, as Alcazar explains, as if locusts make a stridor equally with the mouth as with the wings. For Pliny places these teeth not in the mouth of locusts, but in the shoulder-blades; therefore he calls them teeth the pointed and projecting fins like teeth; whence also John here says this sound to be of the wings, not of the mouth. Thus symbolically the lie, familiar to demons and heretics, always lies hidden in the back, never stands out in the open; for they say one thing and think another: whence to God and to men liars are hateful, says Nicholas Causinus, Parab. hist. lib. IX, cap. xlix. The voice of heretics therefore does not proceed from the heart and mouth, but as it were from the back of the head, equally as that of demons.
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"The locust," says Solomon, Proverb. xxx, 27, "hath no king, and goeth out all by bands"; but these infernal ones have, and will have as long as this world endures, and the life of men on earth, with whom they fight. For they know that every army without a leader and head is weak, and that from its head depends its force and strength; whence that military commander used to say: "An army of deer with a lion as leader is stronger than an army of lions with a deer as leader." Wherefore also soldiers, when they rebel against their prince and commonwealth without payment of their stipend, immediately choose a head and leader from their own ranks, the most vigorous, whom they call the Elected; otherwise they would be like a headless man, without a head, without a leader and director, and like a commonwealth lacking magistracy, in which one destroys another; and so the citizens themselves lose and destroy their own commonwealth. See here how necessary and how great is the good of order and obedience; and on the other hand how great is the evil of disorder and acephaly, inasmuch as the demons themselves, although most wicked and most proud, flee from and detest it. Again, see what great force a multitude has, what a multitude does, even of the smallest and most unwarlike things. For locusts, vile and tiny, by their numbers devour and lay waste entire provinces root and branch. Thus the Turks overcome and subdue all armies by the multitude of their forces. Thus demons, although weak, by their number afflict and torment the whole world. There exists on this matter a symbol in Nicholas Causinus, lib. IX Parab. hist., cap. xxxi: "A dragon consumed by ants," that is, a prince oppressed by the people. Thus Suetonius in Tiberius: There was, he says, in Tiberius's amusements a serpent dragon, which he was accustomed to feed with his own hand from habit, when he found it consumed by ants, he was warned to beware of the force of the multitude; for the dragon is the symbol of kings, ants of the people. Wisely therefore Ptolemy in the preface to the Almagest: "It is better," he says, "to govern the reins of the common people, than to have many soldiers." For a prince surrounded by the love of his subjects is safer and stronger than one surrounded by the arms of soldiers. On the other hand: "Terrible to many, fear many."
The Hebrew אבד abad in the Qal signifies to perish: hence אבד ibbed in the Piel, active, signifies to lose, to destroy: hence Abaddon is the same as perdition, that is, one who destroys or a destroyer (for the Hebrews often put abstract nouns in place of concrete ones), in Greek ἀπολλύων, in Latin exterminans. Now exterminans is not in the Greek, as is evident; for John wrote in Greek, not in Latin. Valla takes offense that the Interpreter added this of his own to the text. But wrongly; for he added nothing of his own, but merely translated the Greek word into Latin (which is the duty of a translator), so that the Latins equally with the Greeks might understand what ἀπολλύων is. Therefore the Arabic version translated it wrongly: And there reigned over them an angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Machdom, and its interpretation in Ionic is Praising. St. Gregory notes, in homily 34 on the Gospel, that angels do not have names from themselves (for angels know and address one another not by name, but by their species and appearance), but receive them from the ministry which they perform among men. The same is true of evil angels.
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One woe (one plague, namely the fifth of the fifth angel, to wit of the locusts, of which I have already spoken) has passed, and behold two woes yet come,—namely two plagues of the sixth and seventh angel; whence he subjoins the plague of the sixth angel, saying:
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This golden altar is the altar of incense, which St. John saw in heaven (of which I spoke in chapter viii, verse 3), representing Christ. Hence this voice was seen by John to proceed, as if to say, From Christ and Christ's merits, and from the prayers of the Saints, who rest under this altar, as I said in chapter vi, verse 9, flowed forth this voice, commanding the wicked to be punished by the sixth plague of a great hostile army. For so great were the crimes of the wicked, that the very altar itself seemed to expostulate against the wicked, to cry out and to demand vengeance. You may ask, what, of what kind, and through whom will this plague come to pass? First, Alcazar holds that this plague is the angers, hatreds and furies by which God punished the Jews rejecting Christ. For since locusts symbolically signified their concupiscence, the order itself demands that the furious horses which follow should signify the furies of anger; for these are wont to follow from concupiscences when others are hindered, and are stirred up and inflamed by evil angels. Second, the cry from the four corners of the altar signifies the whole Christian religion (for the altar with fire in ancient coins is its symbol) complaining of the Jews, and demanding vengeance upon their whole nation. Therefore the altar cries out to the angel, as if to say: Such is the audacity and malice of the Jews that it can no longer be borne: do you therefore exercise your plague upon them. Third, the four angels who stir up these angers are "proper love, cupidity of riches, vain esteem of men and private judgment," which were bound in the Euphrates, that is in their prosperous success, when pleasures, honors and riches succeeded according to their wish. For the Euphrates flowing with full channel, gladdening Babylon and making it fertile and luxurious, aptly represents the pleasures and delights of the city hostile to God, and prosperous successes according to will. But when the Jews through Titus were deprived of these their desires, these four angels, that is the perverted loves already mentioned, hitherto lulled and as it were bound, were loosed and stirred up the Jews to angers and furies. Fourth, when he adds: "That they should kill the third part of men," it signifies that the angers of the Jews invaded not so much the enemies of the Jews, the Romans, as the Jews themselves and slew them. For anger rushes upon the angry one like an enemy, tearing and torturing him. Again, he understands the angers which the Jews vomited forth upon Christians, while they persecuted them. It is well known that many perished and were destroyed by their angers and furies. Whence he says in Ecclesiasticus, chapter 30, verse 26: "Zeal and anger shorten the days." And in Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 30: "The rottenness of the bones is envy." Fifth, they are said to be twenty thousand times ten thousand, because the army of angers, tumults and furies, since it arises from disordered affections of the mind, is innumerable. Whence from these arise innumerable quarrels, brawls and discords. Let angry men note these things; for when they do not resist anger but indulge it, what do they do but stir up and send against themselves infinite tumults of internal and raging enemy cohorts, and against their own peace and conscience? Sixth, the heads of horses being leonine represent the pride and cruelty of anger. Seventh, fire signifies the burning of anger and the angry one, smoke the darkness of disturbed reason, sulphur fury. For "anger is a brief madness." Eighth, the tails have serpents for bristles, because bristles cast into water and kept there easily turn into snakes. This signifies that anger, although at first while exercising the vengeance it desires it may seem pleasing and agreeable, nevertheless in the end leaves the sting of conscience, and bites and tears it like a serpent. Thus the Poets depict the Furies (whom they number as three, daughters of Acheron and Night, which, as Servius says, are called Dirae in heaven, Furies on earth, Eumenides in the underworld, and are avengers of wicked mind and torments, as Cicero says in the oration for Roscius Amerinus) so that they give them serpents instead of hair on the head, burning torches in their hands, in which there is fire, smoke, sulphur. Ninth, they have hyacinthine breastplates, that is made of cloth of hyacinthine and violet color, which is ridiculous armor; because the angry put forward these breastplates for their anger, that is bald and ridiculous excuses, namely that they are justly angry, that they are moved by zeal for justice, that it is unworthy to suffer such things, that it is not permitted for a noble man to leave such things unavenged for the sake of honor, etc.: all of which are nothing other than anger and the nourishment of anger, that is fire and sulphur. Tenth, the rest, although seeing these plagues, did not repent, but continued to adore their idols, that is to strive to heap together gold and silver. For avarice is the servitude of idols, as the Apostle says. But these are mystical and tropological. Whoever therefore desires an ingenious moral symbol of anger, let him use this one. Secondly, Aureolus, Lyra and Antoninus, in the first part of the Chronicles, title VI, chapter 1, § 7, think that the fourth general schism of the Church, very harmful to it, is signified here, which was between Symmachus the Pope and Laurentius the Antipope, and their followers in the year of Christ 498, concerning which Nicephorus, book XVI, chapter xxxv. The voice from the altar was the voice of St. Paschasius the Cardinal, who together with others was the cause of the schism by electing Laurentius, and therefore after his death was punished in Purgatory, when he appeared to St. Germanus Bishop of Capua in the Baths of Puteoli, as St. Gregory relates, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter xl. At the same time Anastasius the Emperor, an Eutychian, ruled at Constantinople, and in Italy Theodoric the Arian king. When therefore Paschasius sounded the trumpet, that is, gave voice to Laurentius to become Pope, four angels were loosed, namely Symmachus, Laurentius, the Emperor Anastasius and King Theodoric, who were previously bound in the Euphrates, that is, in the Roman Empire, which is the fourth among kingdoms, just as the Euphrates is the fourth river of paradise, Genesis chapter ii. Then therefore on account of this schism many were slain on both sides. "That sedition," says Nicephorus, "lasted for three years not without slaughters, robberies, and other calamities. But Theodoric the king, who then held Rome, although he was an Arian, nevertheless convened a Synod of Bishops, and confirmed Symmachus in the Episcopate; but Laurentius being expelled, he assigned him the throne at Nocera." But Anastasius and Theodoric persecuted Christians. Whence Theodoric, by wasting John the Pope in prison, and Symmachus (as also Boethius) by the sword, killed them. Hence a certain holy man saw Theodoric at the hour when he died, being dragged between John and Symmachus, ungirt, barefoot and with bound hands, and cast into the cauldron of Vulcan, as St. Gregory relates, IV Dialogues, xl. Because therefore the Church was then divided among these four princes, each part fighting for its own prince, hence it is said that their army was twenty thousand times ten thousand, that is, an infinite multitude. From the mouth of Laurentius and Symmachus proceeds smoke of ambition and vanity; and therefore again they have hyacinthine breastplates, which designate hypocrisy and vain appearance; from the mouth of Theodoric proceeds the fire of Arian perfidy; from the mouth of Anastasius proceeds the sulphur of Eutychian heresy. They had power not only in the mouth, but also in the tails, because between Symmachus and Laurentius, and between Theodoric and Anastasius, matters were conducted not only by mouth, that is, by disagreements and threats, but also by tails, that is, by hidden frauds and simulations. Finally, when it is added: "The rest of the men who were not slain," etc., Lyra and Antoninus think that a certain slaughter of Pagans is signified, which took place in the time of Theodoric, the Saxons fighting against the Thuringians, where many were slain on both sides. But this explanation displeases Viegas and others, and that with good reason. For first, Symmachus was not ambitious, but mild, and of very pleasant manners; indeed he is even inscribed in the catalogue of Saints. Moreover it is false that Paschasius was the author of the schism, and sounded the trumpet for it. For its author was Festus, a Roman Patrician, who, in order to gain the favor of the Emperor Anastasius, after the creation of Symmachus, on the same day in the basilica of St. Mary, corrupting some with money, thrust in Laurentius. Paschasius therefore underwent purgatory, not because he created Laurentius Pope, but because he adhered to him until death, and favored his cause, as St. Gregory relates. Where what is said, until death, understand exclusively: for he repented when dying. For it is established among the orthodox that no one remaining in schism and dying in it is saved. For he who has separated himself from the earthly Church is not admitted into the heavenly Church. Wherefore schism is a mortal sin, and schismatics are not only cut off and severed from the grace of God, but also from the Church, unless their guilt is excused by ignorance, either wholly or in part, so that it is not mortal. Secondly, because the Euphrates is far distant from Rome; nor can Rome be called the Euphrates, but rather Babylon: for this is adjacent to the Euphrates. Thirdly, the schism of Laurentius and Symmachus was not throughout all Italy, but only at Rome. Again, between Anastasius and Theodoric there was no war, but Theodoric alone by threats compelled Anastasius, who loved peace, to concede the Churches to the Arians. Fourthly, the Thuringians and Saxons have no connection with Anastasius and Theodoric, so that all things which are enumerated in this chapter have connection with each other. Third, Bede, Richard, Andrew, Rupert, Aretas and Viegas refer these things to the final times of the world. The angel therefore here, the sixth, will be some principal demon. He will loose four angels, that is, all demons bound in the Euphrates of Babylon, that is, in the congregation and confusion of the impious, who will harass the whole Church in the end of the world in every way. Whence they are said to be twenty thousand times ten thousand. Fourth and best, Ribera takes this plague properly, as the words sound, and thinks it will be an innumerable army of wild men and soldiers, who in the end of the world will punish and kill impious men, namely a third part of them. The angel therefore, a good one sounding the trumpet, will loose four angels. Which and what kind? Some among Andrew and Aretas think these four to be good angels, and to be Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, of whom mention is made in the fourth book of Esdras, chapter 4, verse 1, and chapter 5, verse 20. But it is clear that these four angels are evil, and are demons; for these alone are bound, not the good. These therefore are four principal demons, who as it were preside over four parts of the world; but they are bound in the passion of Christ, lest they harm men as much as before. These in the end of the world will again be loosed, that they may rage and punish the impious. Moreover these demons are bound in the Euphrates. For this place is suitable for this. First, because the Euphrates flows by Babylon; but Babylon is a type of the kingdom of the devil and of the impious. Second, because the Euphrates in another respect is a type of Baptism: for through the Euphrates Abraham passed into the promised land, and from this the Hebrew, that is, one passing over, or one beyond the river, was named. Perhaps also third, says Andrew, because the Antichrist is about to be born or to come forth from there. Moreover, although these arch-demons are bound, they nevertheless have their emissaries as it were, dogs everywhere, who tempt and harass men, as experience shows. In like manner Asmodaeus, the king of lusts, bound by Raphael in the desert of Egypt, Tobias chapter 8, verse 3, nevertheless sends forth his demons throughout the world as it were as servants, demons of lust and desires: just as also concerning drunken and wanton demons, Andron setting forth, Philostratus narrates in the Icon., as our Serarius rightly noted, writing on Tobias chapter 8: thus Lucifer bound again in hell has his emissaries everywhere; indeed he himself will be loosed in the time of the Antichrist, as will be clear from chapter 20, verses 2 and 3. You ask, how and by what bonds are demons bound? I answer that they are bound in a certain place, when in that place they are detained by divine or angelic decree and power, so that they cannot move from that place or depart from it. This, however, can happen in three ways: First, if God withdraws from them the divine concurrence, which is necessary for motion and departure, and at the same time always preserves them in their where, or state and manner of existing in that place to which He wishes to fix them. Second, morally, if He prevents them from departing, for example by threatening them with sharper punishments if they depart, and by punishing them if they depart, and by compelling them to return: thus a certain portion of the desert of Egypt, beyond which Asmodeus is not permitted to depart even a step, was designated and prescribed to him by Raphael. Third, physically, entirely and naturally, if He imprints upon them a mode or some quality detaining or uniting them to the place, for example a permanent impulse and force. For we see a similar force, but transient, impressed upon bodies, such as stones, by which they are lifted on high when they are thrown upward. Just as therefore a robust man can violently detain another less strong in a certain place by force impressed upon him, so also can an angel detain a demon. For a superior and more powerful spirit can impress a similar force, though not corporeal but spiritual, upon an inferior and less powerful spirit; and in fact angels do impress this force upon demons when they violently expel and thrust them out from a certain place, for example from the bodies of the possessed and demoniacs. Why indeed should not God be able to produce a similar force, not transient like that one, but remaining for a longer time? For He has imparted a more wonderful force to the fire of hell, by which it not only detains but also acts upon the souls of the damned, and the demons themselves, and burns and torments them. This is what St. Peter says, II epistle ii, 4: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes into tartarus, to be tormented." Where note from the Greek that the word drawn down does not refer to the detained ones. Twenty thousand: therefore two myriads of myriads are twenty times a thousand ten thousands, that is two hundred times a thousand thousands, or two hundred millions. Immense and monstrous will be this army of horsemen, such as was never seen in the world. From which some conjecture that the foot army, which is accustomed to be joined to the cavalry and to far exceed it in number, will be far greater and as it were innumerable. But thus this army would be too excessive and almost immense, which no province could feed or sustain; namely, one which would embrace the greater part of men who are in the world, and consequently very many impious, whom God will wish to punish with this army. Since therefore this foot army is not mentioned, it seems it will be none or small; but the whole, or almost the whole army will be cavalry, such as that of the Tartars, Persians, Poles, etc. The multitude of the army of Xerxes is celebrated by all, who with five years of preparation led ten hundred thousand, that is a million men into battle against the Greeks. This number, as Valerius, and from him St. Jerome testify, he is said to have wept when looking down from a high tower, because from so great a multitude no one would survive after a hundred years. Therefore he himself joined the seas with bridges. He cut off Mount Athos from the continent, as Pliny testifies, lib. IV, cap. x. But what do these things have to do with these forces of the Apocalypse? Xerxes led out one million: here two hundred million men are said to be led out. Therefore Xerxes had only the two-hundredth part of this army, and yet Lucan sings of Xerxes, lib. II: Daring much with bridges, and bringing Europe and Asia together, and Sestos to Abydos, and he traversed the strait over the swift Hellespont. Wherefore to some this number seems incredible, since in the whole world there scarcely seem to be two hundred million men. But they are mistaken: for in the kingdom of China alone two hundred fifty million men are numbered, as our Father Nicholas Trigantius teaches, lib. De Expedit. Sinensi: of which a fifth part, namely fifty million, can be soldiers. Add as many from Ethiopia: for the offspring and abundance of Ethiopians is wonderful. Add as many from Tartary, and as many from India, you will have two hundred million. Then join that there will be very many men: for most will be carnal, and will be devoted to procreation. One might also suspect that a good part of this army would be demons, who, clothed in the appearance and form not of locusts, as those of the preceding trumpet in verse 3, but of men and horsemen, will afflict and punish the impious. For their leaders will be four Archdemons, as is evident from verse 14, who in verse 15 are said to kill, namely both by themselves and through their associates, namely demons, a third part of men. And concerning these it will be possible to verify literally what is said in verse 17: "The heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and sulphur"; and that in verse 19: "Their tails were like unto serpents, having heads: and with them they hurt." For demons can easily assume the form of serpents, lions and any animals whatsoever, or attach them to their horses, and join them by appearance. You will ask: in what manner are demons bound by God when sent forth? For what ropes would the Angels draw from heaven? But "to the voice he delivered," that is to say, God delivered them and consigned them to prison and to the fire of hell, and bound them there perpetually, and as it were with certain ropes, or as the Greek has it, σειραῖς ζόφου, that is, chains of darkness, bound them. Thus St. Jude explains it in his epistle, verse 6, saying: "The angels who kept not their principality, he reserved in eternal chains under darkness." Demons are bound in another manner, that is, they allow themselves to be bound by magicians, when they themselves by agreement and pact enclose them, either willingly or coerced by a superior demon, in rings, so that those who wear the rings have demons familiar and obedient to themselves. Thus St. Jerome in the Life of St. Hilarion relates that a demon sent by a lover into a girl whom he desired, when St. Hilarion expelled him, cried out: "O crosses, O torments which I suffer! You force me to depart, and I am held bound beneath the threshold. I will not go out unless the young man who holds me lets me go." Then the old man said: "Great is your strength, who are held bound by a thread and a thin plate." And indeed from this binding it is evident both the weakness and the baseness of demons. Whence Morally, St. Antony in Athanasius: "We ought not, he says, to fear the threats of the demon: for by the hook of the cross, like a dragon, he is caught by the Lord, 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." And St. Augustine, sermon 197 On the Seasons: "If the devil is bound, he says, why does he still prevail so much? But he rules over the lukewarm and negligent, and those who do not fear God in truth. He is bound like a dog bound with chains; and he cannot bite anyone except him who has joined himself to him by deadly security. Now it appears to you, brethren, how foolish is that man whom a dog placed in chains bites. Do not join yourself to him through the pleasures and desires of the world, and he will not presume to approach you: he can bark, he can solicit, he cannot bite at all except the willing. For he harms not by force, but by persuasion; nor does he extort consent from us, but he asks for it."
9:15
Not the sealed, as is evident from what has been said in chapter VII, verse 3, and chapter IX, verse 4, namely the impious and reprobate. The same is evident from the fact that if these killed were the pious and just, then no just would remain in the world. For the rest who are not killed will be idolaters, as is said. Therefore he speaks here only of the unsealed and impious (whose are these vengeances and punishments), of whom he says a third part is to be killed; but the rest will remain in their idolatry and crimes.
9:16
In Greek δύο μυριάδες μυριάδων: thus our Aretas reads it and others (although the Complutensian edition does not have τὸ δύο), that is, two myriads of myriads, that is, twice a hundred thousand thousands. For a myriad is ten thousand in gehenna prepared and impending. Thus Virgil, Aeneid XII, sings of Turnus: Himself thereafter with gold and white orichalcum He girds the corselet about his shoulders. And Livy, book V of the Macedonian War, speaking of horsemen: "Some, he says, were clad in mail, whom they call cataphracts; some used arrows from horseback." St. John alludes to Jeremiah LI, 27, where, urging the fierce horses and horsemen of the Persians to the destruction of Babylon, he says: "Bring up the horse like the locust with a sting"; for the locust is a kind of grasshopper. Moreover, that the horses of the Persians were so fierce as to seem to have stings of their own, nor to need spurs, Oppian teaches, when he says: Who dwell as citizens by the green waves of the Euphrates, Use magnanimous horses in wars like lions. Their eyes gleam pale, and great strength in the breast Bears forth bold spirits to fierce battles. There is added the swiftness of running, and that they can Intrepidly endure the face of a lion. Such will be also these horses of St. John at the end of the world.
9:17
And the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths proceeded fire, and smoke, and brimstone. — By horses also understand the horsemen themselves by metonymy. He signifies by hyperbole that the horses and horsemen will be formidable like lions, so that they breathe out smoke from their nostrils, and appear to breathe forth fires, brimstone and flames. Again the horsemen will breathe fire, smoke and brimstone, that is, conflagrations, and will bring complete devastation to the world by their threatening words and commands, encouraging one another and crying out fuego, fuego, as we remember happening in our age in the plundering and destruction of Antwerp (which they themselves call the fury), when the greater and more noble part of that city and of that once most celebrated emporium was horribly consumed by Spanish fire. Third, here are properly signified the cannons of soldiers, and the fire of sulphurous powder. For when soldiers discharge them, they so apply the instrument to the mouth that they appear to emit fire and sulphurous smoke from the mouth. And in this manner these things were presented to the mind of St. John in the vision. Thus Fr. Lessius, book XIII On Divine Perfections, chapter XVIII. Add, if a good part of this army be demons, concerning them these things can be understood literally, as they sound, as I said a little before. The same I say concerning the tails of serpents, concerning which he adds saying: Ribera thinks this army to be those ten kings who will overthrow Babylon before the Antichrist, as John describes, chapter XVIII; therefore this chapter XVIII he places by hysterology in that place, when by right order it should be placed here. Whence some infer this number of soldiers to be, not at once, but successively; for the battles of these kings will last through many years. But that this is less probable I will show at chapter XVII, verse 16. It could more plausibly be said that this army will prepare the way for the Antichrist, and will be that of the Antichrist already beginning and growing strong, so that by it he may subdue peoples to himself, and finally become king and monarch of the world. For soon we shall hear concerning his kingdom, monarchy and the war which he himself will then wage against Christians, chapter XI, in the very book sealed, whose last seal is here opened, so that after these things the reading of the sealed book, which treats of the monarchy of the Antichrist, appears to follow immediately. And thus (as I now say) I saw horses in the vision, — namely having heads as it were of lions, breastplates hyacinthine, etc., as follows.
And they that sat upon them had breastplates of fire, and of hyacinth, and of brimstone, — Namely some horsemen had fiery breastplates, that is, shining and radiant, and flaming, and therefore terrible like fire; others had hyacinthine breastplates, that is, of violet or heavenly color, so that they might appear to be sent from heaven by God; others sulphurous, that is, red and saffron-colored like brimstone. For these colors, or certainly tunics of such colors, these horsemen will put on over their breastplates, both for ornament and for the sake of terror, so as to strike the enemy, as our horsemen do, whom therefore the Belgians call rote rocken, blauwe rocken, geele rocken; and the French, equally as the Italians and Spanish, casaque rouge, casaque bleue, casaque jaune. These last therefore will have breastplates, or tunics of breastplates saffron-colored, or sulphurous, so that through them God may signify the vengeance which he has determined to exercise through these horsemen upon lusts, and foul sins and sinners, and so that through them he may prognostically indicate the infernal brimstone, which awaits the impious
9:19
For their tails were like unto serpents, having heads: and in these they hurt. — It is clear that this must be understood not literally, but symbolically, just as also the heads of lions and fire and brimstone going forth from their mouths. For no horses have tails of serpents, or heads in their tails. These tailed tails therefore signify military swords, which stand out behind like tails, and have hilts like a head: for he describes their arms, namely bombards, by fire, smoke and brimstone, and swords by tailed tails. Or certainly by tails understand the followers and servants of soldiers, who are usually most wicked, and like serpents secretly harm by fires, thefts, poisons and other ways. Thus Fr. Lessius in the place already cited. Moreover these tails signify their final dominion, which now seemed peaceful and quiet, because by their tyranny they had suppressed all enemies, or subdued them; yet it will be equally dreadful as their beginning, namely because at the end they will return to their heads, that is to their first cruelty, and to their dire and harsh dominions, so that again they may seem to breathe forth and exhale fire, smoke and brimstone. Again, because they will be venomous and deceitful like serpents. Whence Richard of St. Victor, asking why their tails end in the heads of serpents, answers: Because the wicked, when they cannot harm by open persecution, through hidden and fraudulent simulation of harming take their beginning. And Joachim: "Because," he says, "when they are thought to cease from inflicting evils, then from an unexpected quarter they commit worse evils; and thus their tails, that is, the end of preceding evils, end in heads, that is, in the beginnings of future evils." Symbolically St. Gregory, book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter XXVIII, or according to another edition XXIII, attributes these to heretics: "Because," he says, "what is said by them in flattering words, this is commanded by their leaders and supporters with wounding swords. Whence their power is in the mouth and in the tails. For in the mouth the knowledge of teachers is figured, but in the tail the power of the secular is figured. For by the tail which is behind, the temporality of this world to be set aside is designated. For all that passes is behind, but all that comes and remains is before. To these horses therefore, that is, to most wicked preachers running everywhere by the impulse of the carnal, there is power in the mouth and in the tail; because they themselves indeed preach by persuading perversely, but supported by temporal powers, by those things which are behind they exalt themselves." Note here in passing in what place, according to St. Gregory, all temporal things are to be held, and the very empires of the world; for by the tail they are here designated, so that they are understood to be set aside as to justice and virtue, and equally as to the Church.
9:20
"Neither," that is not, or not even then, as if to say, The rest of men, when they saw so many slaughters and deaths, not even then were they moved to come to their senses, nor did they repent at such great plagues of their companions. It is clear from the Greek. Marvelous therefore will be the hardness of men then, who, having seen so many signs and plagues, nevertheless persist in their crimes and idolatry. Similar was the hardness of Pharaoh, Exodus VII and following, who, having seen so many portents and scourges of Moses, was hardened by them all the more, and resisted God and Moses more strongly. Its causes will be various. First, the habit of sinning, and thence a great force of concupiscence: on account of which we see drunkards not abstaining from wine, the lustful not abstaining from lust, even if they see an immediate and certain destruction, indeed death itself threatening them. Second, infidelity, because they will not believe these plagues to be inflicted by God; but to happen by fate, or some disease of the world, and as it were a vice of old age, as the Stoics felt, and now the Politicians. Third, because then the devil will be loosed, who will exert all and his ultimate powers: whence he will as it were possess the souls and bodies of the impious. Fourth, because these plagues will stir up in them, as impious, bile and impatience, whence they will blaspheme God, or the author of the plagues, because he inflicts so many and such great ones upon them, as St. John says chapter XVI, verse 9.
Hence it is clear that at the end of the world idolatry will be reborn, but the Antichrist coming afterwards will overturn it: for he will wish to be worshipped alone as God, as Daniel predicted, chapter XI, verses 36 and following.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
9:1
… 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; …
Lk. 10:18 and Apoc. 9:1-11 (the L. that plunges into the abyss is Abaddon [v.]) seem to allude to the fall of L. expressed in Is. 14:12. Some (G. Eatio, A. Calmet, etc.) see in Phil. 2:6-11 a contrast with …
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"). …
… Iud., III, 8, 5). In the New Testament the f. is called ᾱᾱᾱ, whose dominion is not over the earth (cf. Wis. 1:14), 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 …
9:11
ABADDON. - Hebrew term (perdition, from abhad "to perish"), which occurs in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament (6 times) and in Rev. 9:11.
In the New Testament the d. or Satan is the head of the fallen angels or demons (v.), who stirs up evil and perdition (Mt. 25:41; 2 Cor. 12:7; 2 Pt. 2:4; Jude 6; Rev. 9:11; 12:7-9).
9:14
… Among the cities once bathed by it, Charcamia (cf. Jer. 46, 2) and Babylon (cf. Apoc. 9, 14; 16, 12) were famous. …
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.