Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Christ opens the seventh seal, and seven Angels come forth with trumpets. The first sounds, and there comes hail of fire, which burns up a third part of the earth and of the trees. The second sounds, verse 8, and a fiery mountain falling into the sea destroys a third part of the fishes and ships. The third, verse 10, sounds, and a star falling upon the rivers makes bitter a third part of them. The fourth, verse 12, sounds, and a third part of the sun, of the moon, and of the stars is darkened.
Vulgate Text: Apocalypse 8:1-13
1. And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour. 2. And I saw seven Angels standing in the presence of God; and there were given to them seven trumpets. 3. And another Angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God. 4. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel. 5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth, and there were thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and a great earthquake. 6. And the seven Angels, who had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound the trumpet. 7. And the first Angel sounded the trumpet: and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast on the earth, and the third part of the earth was burnt up, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. 8. And the second Angel sounded the trumpet: and as it were a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood. 9. And the third part of the creatures died which had life in the sea, and the third part of the ships perished. 10. And the third Angel sounded the trumpet: and there fell from heaven a great star, burning as it were a torch, and it fell on the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. 11. And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the waters. 12. And the fourth Angel sounded the trumpet: and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, so that the third part of them was darkened, and the day did not shine for a third part of it, and the night likewise. 13. And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth: from the rest of the voices of the three angels, who were yet to sound the trumpet.
Verse 1: The Half Hour Silence in Heaven
1. AND WHEN HE HAD OPENED THE SEVENTH SEAL, THERE WAS SILENCE IN HEAVEN, AS IT WERE FOR HALF AN HOUR. — First, Primasius and Victorinus: "Silence, they say, of half an hour shows the beginning of eternal rest: and John saw a part of the silence, because he was still going to see the same thing."
Secondly, Ambrose understands by this silence the nativity of Christ, in which throughout the whole world there was silence, that is peace, which Nero, by stirring up persecution against the Church, afterwards broke off. Again, Christ was born in silence, that is, at midnight, Wisdom 18:14: "While all things were in quiet silence, and night was in the midst of her course, Thy almighty word leaped down from heaven from Thy royal throne, etc., into the midst of the land."
Thirdly, Haymo and Ansbertus: By the silence, they say, of half an hour is signified the brevity of the rest in the contemplation of heavenly things, which God grants to the saints in this life, that they may foretaste and pre-savor future felicity. I say brevity: for immediately after it various tumults of thoughts thrust themselves in and obtrude upon the mind. Whence also a certain more recent doctor expounds this silence as referring to a certain act of divine love, which makes the mind grow faint, and forget all human things. But this is mystical and symbolic, as I shall say below. Such is that saying of Matthias of Sweden: "At the end of the world faith, virtue, and piety shall keep silence, because iniquity shall reign."
Fourthly, Lyranus and Aureolus, by this silence, as I said in chapter vi, understand the silent and brief persecution of Julian the Apostate, who imposed silence on Christians both in the Church and in the army, in academies, and in schools. But this persecution was signified by the second and third seals.
Fifthly, Rupertus: This silence, he says, signifies that no one on the day of judgment will dare to open his mouth against Christ the Judge. Again, it signifies the Saints' future rest after the day of judgment. But this rest will be eternal: how then does John, after this silence, bring in new plagues upon the world?
Sixthly, Alcazar: The mystery of the seventh seal, he says, is nothing else than the great severity by which God, through the seven plagues, takes vengeance on the Jews who repudiated Christ. The silence preceding the plagues signifies the remarkable tolerance of the Christians, with which they suffered silently and constantly the most savage persecution from the Jews, on account of which the plagues are prepared for the Jews in the seventh seal, when by now the patience of the Christians had reached the height of perfection. For although this persecution of the primitive Church lasted forty years, yet here it is called a half hour, just as by Paul, 2 Cor. 4:17, it is called "momentary and light tribulation of ours." For the hour signifies the whole time of persecution, which because God shortens, hence is called a half hour. He alludes to Tobit chapter 11, verse 14, where, when the younger Tobias had anointed the eyes of his blind father with the gall of a fish, it is added: "And he endured for almost half an hour; and the white film began to come out of his eyes, like the membrane of an egg; which Tobias took hold of and drew from his eyes, and immediately he received his sight." For just as the elder Tobias, by enduring for half an hour the bitterness of the gall, deserved to receive his sight: so the first Christians, by enduring the persecution of the Jews, deserved immense felicity, namely the increase and propagation of the Church through the Gentiles: when in turn God punished and destroyed the Jews through Titus. Furthermore, the half hour of Tobias's endurance, by which he received his sight, signifies symbolically and tropologically that the shortcut to the greatest light and knowledge of God is labor and tribulation. These things are fitting, but mystical and tropological. For literally it deals with the silence, not of those suffering on earth, but of the Blessed in heaven.
Seventhly, Pererius is of the opinion that the seventh seal consists precisely in this silence, and that the seven plagues, signified by the trumpets of the seven Angels which follow, are previous to this silence, but by hysterology are placed after it. Furthermore, by this silence are signified the 45 days of rest which will be given to the Church and to mankind after the death of Antichrist, so that those who fell in His persecution may repent, as Daniel foretold in chapter 12, verse 12. Thus also think Bede, Anselm, Richard, Thomas, Dionysius. To these is added Pannonius, who however also adds that the same rest of the Church after the death of Antichrist is signified by the thousand years which are said to be after the first resurrection, chapter 20, verses 4 and 6. For this period is here said to be brief, namely a half hour, but in chapter 20 long, namely a thousand years, lest anyone presume to define its length with certainty. During this time, Christians enjoying peace and ease, will again pour out into vices, so that, when the Son of Man comes, He will scarcely find faith, as He Himself foretold in Luke 12; and consequently men, indulging their natural disposition and vices, just as in the days of Noah, will be overwhelmed unexpectedly by God's vengeance and the last judgment of Christ. But there is too great a distance between half an hour and a thousand years. Again, those thousand years will not follow, but will end in the persecution of Antichrist, as will be evident in chapter 20.
Eighthly, Andreas of Caesarea and Aretas think that by the seventh seal is signified the end of the earthly kingdom, life, and conversation, to which the seven Angels are subservient, appointed for inflicting punishments on the wicked. Therefore the silence signifies the supreme reverence and shame of the Angels toward God, who has been offended and angered by so many sins of men. For so, when the king is angry, all the courtiers, even those who are innocent, gather and shrink themselves out of veneration and shame, and grow silent from fear. Or certainly this silence signifies ignorance of the day of Christ's coming for judgment: for the prudent are silent about what they do not know. The half hour signifies the brevity of time which will intervene between the last plagues to be brought upon the world, and the manifestation of Christ's kingdom and the day of judgment.
Ninthly, Viegas and Ribera most excellently judge that the seventh seal does not consist in this silence, but in the following seven trumpets, by which the Angels announce punishments and as it were summon them upon those who are not sealed in chapter 7, verse 3 and following, just as by the sixth seal is signified the felicity of those who are sealed. Whence in chapter 9 it is said: "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt, except only those men who have not the sign of God in their foreheads." Therefore this silence was a peristasis, or preliminary circumstance, or rather one accompanying the seven trumpets and plagues, and signifies the silent expectation and consideration of the seven trumpets and plagues, as of great, unusual, and stupendous things, and the consequent admiration and stupefaction even unto silence of the inhabitants of heaven, who are amazed and admiring both the glory of the sealed Saints, seen in the sixth seal, and the punishments of the wicked contained in the seventh seal. For now the seventh seal had been opened. For he says: "And when He had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour." And immediately he adds: "And I saw seven Angels standing in the presence of God, and there were given to them seven trumpets," by which, namely, they should proclaim the seven plagues and summon them upon the wicked. Although therefore the Blessed in the earth and in natural and earthly things, as being small, marvel at nothing: yet they marvel at divine and heavenly things, as supernatural, and especially the ineffable and incomprehensible rewards of the Saints and punishments of the wicked. For eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it ascended into the heart of man, the good which God has prepared for those who love Him, and the evil for those who hate Him. Secondly and rather, this brief silence signifies this glory prepared for the Saints, which John saw in the preceding chapter in the sixth seal, not to come upon the Saints immediately, but after a half hour, that is, after the prodigies and punishments of the wicked, contained in the seventh seal and the seven trumpets. For after these things full blessedness will come upon them, which St. John recounts in chapters 21 and 22. Therefore this silence of half an hour was at the same time when the seven Angels poured out the seven plagues: for then the inhabitants of heaven were silent, that by this silence they might signify that the Saints would likewise be silent on the earth, and not be carried up into heaven to hear and join in singing the Angelic hymns, which John heard in the sixth seal, in the preceding chapter, verse 12, until those plagues should be accomplished.
Tropologically, this silence denotes a kind of shame and modesty, and gratitude of the Saints; for it belongs to the Saints, when they see the punishment of the wicked, to remember their own vileness and their own offenses, and to feel shame and to be grateful to God, that they see themselves saved and elect, and those others rejected and damned. Again, silence is a sign of praise and a kind of modest approval, by which the Blessed silently approve and praise the integrity and equity of divine justice. To this pertains that of Psalm 64: "To Thee, O God, a hymn is fitting in Sion;" where the Hebrew has: To Thee silence, O God, in Sion; for by pious and reverent silence, equally as by voice and hymns, God is honored.
These three last opinions are probable, and among them the most probable is the last, of Ribera. For these seals, as I have often said, do not follow, but precede Antichrist; and the seven trumpets and plagues that follow plainly appear to be the mystery of the seventh seal, and not this bare and cold silence: especially since the silence must necessarily be referred to these plagues. For no one is silent for his own sake, but for the sake of something else, namely, on account of unusual plagues or rewards which he beholds. On which account some think that this silence lasted until the destruction of the wicked and of Babylon: for it is broken off when she is destroyed, in chapter 19, where it is said: "After these things I heard as it were the voice of many multitudes in heaven, saying: Alleluia, salvation, and glory, and power belong to our God, etc., who has judged the great harlot." For soon after the destruction of Babylon, as a kind of prelude, will follow a similar destruction of Antichrist and the Antichristians, by which the kingdom of impiety and of the wicked will be wholly overthrown, after which the felicity and glory seen in the sixth seal will come upon the Saints, and then with the silence broken they will sing eternal hymns to God with the Angels.
This opinion is proved first, because this silence is referred to the following plagues, and was made on their account: therefore it should not be torn away from them. Secondly, because those sealed in the sixth seal, in the preceding chapter, are sealed for this purpose, that they should not be touched by these plagues of the seventh seal: therefore these plagues follow the sixth seal, and pertain to the seventh. John Himself sufficiently signifies the same, when He joins the silence with the plagues, saying: "There was silence in heaven, and I saw seven Angels, and there were given to them seven trumpets."
Andreas, Aretas, Ribera, Viegas, Arias Montanus, Alcazar and others deny this, and assert that the seven plagues plainly and properly pertain to the seventh seal, but that the silence is only a circumstance of the seal and of the plagues; whence it follows that the seventh seal extends to the end of chapter 11. The very division of the chapters approved and received by the Church favors this. For in this chapter the seventh seal is opened, verse 1. And soon, verse 2 and following, the angels bringing in the plagues are enumerated. But if at verse 2 plainly new material begins, certainly chapter 8 ought to begin from there, and verse 1 should be remitted to the seventh chapter, and there end the seven seals.
Symbolically, St. Gregory, homily 14 on Ezekiel: "The heaven, he says, is the soul of the just man: when therefore the rest of the contemplative life is carried on in the mind, silence is made in heaven, because the noise of earthly actions ceases from thought, that it may apply the ear of the mind to the inmost secret; but it is as it were half an hour, because as soon as the mind has begun to lift itself up, and to be bathed in the light of inmost rest, with the noise of thoughts more quickly returning, it is confounded by itself, and being confounded is blinded." Following St. Gregory, St. Bernard, in his homily On the Two Disciples Going to Emmaus, teaches that in meditation a ray of contemplation and jubilation occasionally arises, but one which passes away immediately like a flash of lightning. "This, he says, is that most sweet ray of contemplation, by which the soul is lifted up by the lock of its head, when, with meditation kindling and prayer sparkling, there is born in the heart a certain jubilation, namely a honey-sweet laughter of the heart, which no one knows except him who feels it, nor even he himself who feels it, because it quickly passes away. A happy hour, but a brief stay, because there was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour." And he adds: "Those who have experienced know what I say, who have learned by this experience of inmost sweetness; because when to the fervor of prayer there is mingled the ardor of meditation, that ray of contemplation bursts forth from the midst of them as a kind of electrum, that is, from the midst of the fire. And as it were sparks of glowing bronze, namely the sighs of a jubilant conscience."
Morally, learn here how great is the virtue of silence, which even in heaven the Blessed observe, and commend to us: of which virtue I have said much on Isaiah chapter 30:15, and chapter 32, verse 17, and Lamentations 3:26. Wherefore "St. Mechtild had imposed such silence on herself, that you would believe her dumb: but if she did speak, you would think you were conversing with an Angel," says Engelhardus in her Life, chapter 5; who therefore, as the same author narrates, when on a certain occasion an idle word had inadvertently escaped from her, she chastised it for a long time with many tears and penances. Therefore angelic silence taught her and her like, and teaches them, to speak in an angelic manner.
Verse 2: The Seven Angels with Seven Trumpets
2. AND I SAW SEVEN ANGELS STANDING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. — These are the seven chief Angels in the heavenly court, and princes of the Church, to whom the care of men and of the Church has been committed by God, of whom I spoke in chapter 1, verse 4. Thus Andreas, Aretas, and Ribera. Others differ. For first, some think these Angels to be seven demons, because they bring the plagues. Others by Angels understand the plagues themselves, which God sends upon the wicked. For so the winds are called Angels in Psalm 103:4: "Who makes His Angels spirits," that is, winds. Thus Arias Montanus. Fourthly, Ticonius, Primasius, Bede, Anselm, by the seven Angels think that all the doctors and preachers of the Church are signified. So also nearly Ambrose. The first, he says, Angel designates the preachers who were before the law of Moses; the second, Moses and the doctors of the law; the third, the Prophets; the fourth, Christ and the Apostles; the fifth, the defenders of the faith; the sixth, the Martyrs; the seventh, Elias and Henoch, and other preachers at the end of the world. So nearly also Andreas and Joachim, except that Joachim thinks that those only are noted who will come from Christ through seven, as it were, ages and centuries of the Church, until the end of the world.
Finally, Alcazar judges that the seven trumpets are seven prophecies about the seven plagues to be brought upon the Jews, which the Angels, that is, the Prophets and preachers, brought back to the Jews in the primitive Church. But the first sense is literal and genuine. For it is said of these Angels that they were "standing in the presence of God:" therefore they were true Angels, and those good and first and chief. The same is confirmed from the Antiphon which the Church recites in the office of St. Michael at Vespers, in which is said: "While John was beholding the sacred mystery, Archangel Michael sounded the trumpet: Spare us, Lord our God." Therefore one of these seven Angels was Michael. Where I note in passing from Alcazar, that the "spare us, Lord," is not the trumpet, nor the voice of an Angel, namely Michael, but of the Church: which seeing St. Michael as it were sounding the war-trumpet to strike down the wicked, falls upon her knees, and interceding for them says: "Spare us, Lord."
AND THERE WERE GIVEN TO THEM SEVEN TRUMPETS. — Many take and explain these trumpets enigmatically, but violently, as can be seen in the explanation of Aureolus and Lyranus, recounted a little before. Our Alcazar judges that by these seven trumpets and their plagues are signified the gravest punishments by which God showed His severity against the rebellious Jews under the times of the primitive Church, namely in the first century of the Christian Church. Furthermore, the seven plagues are these: "Famine, war, pestilence, ignorance, concupiscence, wrath, hardening." But these are likewise enigmatic and mystical plagues, not literal ones. Add that here it is not a question of the plagues of the Jews already past, but of those of the whole world to come at its end. I say therefore, literally, that these seven Angels have seven trumpets, that by blowing and sounding them through preachers, they may foretell and as it were summon the gravest calamities and punishments of the world (toward its end, a little before Antichrist) upon men. Therefore this sound of the trumpets is not real, but symbolic. For John seemed to himself to see Angels sounding trumpets, not that they will really sound them at the end of the world, but that by this sound, as by a symbol, it might be signified that they will, through Prophets and preachers as through trumpets, proclaim, preach, and bring on these plagues in the world. Therefore this sound of the Angels will be the prophecy and the preaching of preachers, suggested to them by the Angels: which is called a trumpet, by allusion to the seven trumpets of the Hebrews sounding, by which the city of Jericho fell, Joshua 6:4, of which it is said in the same place: "Whose use is in the jubilee," by which, namely, the jubilee was proclaimed. Therefore just as God, by overthrowing the city of Jericho, and by handing over its citizens to the Hebrews for slaughter, gave the Hebrews victory over their enemies, triumph and as it were a jubilee: so at the end of the world God, by smiting the wicked through these trumpets and plagues, will by this very thing signify to the godly and saints that redemption and the perpetual jubilee in heaven are at hand, according to that of Luke 21:28: "But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand." Add: perhaps also the Angels themselves, with a perceptible instrument, like a trumpet, or with a trumpet-like voice, will proclaim these same plagues and actually effect and produce them. For so truly the Archangel summoning and calling the dead to judgment will sound the trumpet, 1 Cor. 15:52. For this seems most literal and plain, and thus seems to be explained in verses 6 and following. Therefore the sound of the trumpets is a kind of proclamation, and as it were a promulgation and beginning of war: whence the sound is soon followed by the plague, just as in chapter 16 the pouring out of the bowl is followed by the plague. Therefore just as a judge orders a sentence pronounced against an accused to be proclaimed by a herald, and immediately to be carried into execution: so also here God orders these plagues to be proclaimed by Angels, and to be actually inflicted.
Symbolically and tropologically, St. Hildegard, in the year of the Lord 1146, abounding in divine light and revelation, so much so that Tauler writes about her in the book of Prophecy, page 671: "Blessed Hildegard expounded the ninth chapter of the Apocalypse more clearly than the light:" Hildegard, I say, in her epistle to the Abbess of St. Glodesind, pages 105 and 106, explains and names these seven plagues thus: "The first, she says, is vainglory; the second, the embracing of pleasure; the third, to live as one dead to God; the fourth, to excuse oneself from the aforesaid sins; the fifth, pride; the sixth, to seek consolation from a creature, and not from God; the seventh, the slavery of idolatry, which adores the devil." She then adds that these seven vices are overcome by the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 3: The Angel with the Golden Censer at the Altar
3. AND ANOTHER ANGEL CAME, AND STOOD BEFORE THE ALTAR (of incense) HAVING A GOLDEN CENSER. — Alcazar takes the censer, in Greek λιβανωτόν, improperly for an incense-box, or little chest of incense, which the sacristans call a navicula (because it has its shape), as if to say, when the Angel approached the altar, his navicula was filled with incense, that he might place it upon the altar, and there burn and offer it. For Alcazar judges that the incense was burned on the altar itself, and not in a censer or fire-pan placed upon the altar: for the altar itself was a fire-pan. But the contrary, as more becoming, is also more true. For the frankincense and incense are accustomed to be burned and offered, not immediately on the altar itself, but in a small fire-pan, or censer placed upon the altar; and so it is shown to have been done in Exodus 30:8. Properly, therefore, I take here the censer; for the Angel soon, in verse 5, filled it with fire; which is not accustomed to be cast into a navicula. Therefore the Angel had such a one, and filling it with incense, or with the perfume given to him, he placed it upon the altar, and there allowed it to give off and evaporate the smoke.
You will ask: Who was this Angel? First, Alcazar answers that it is Christian charity: for to charity here by prosopopoeia is given the name and person of an Angel. For it impelled the first Christians to pour out fervent prayers for the Jewish persecutors, by which they might avert from them the punishments of God, which they saw threatening them. It also cast the fire and the burning coals of its love upon the earth. Therefore it signifies that Christ waited, that the charity of the first Christians in the persecution of the Jews might be kindled, and so receive its fullness, before He poured out His wrath and vengeance upon the Jews.
Secondly, Aureolus, in keeping with the foregoing, judges that this Angel is St. Damasus the Pope, under whom the Church greatly flourished and grew, because he established that the psalms should be sung in the Church, and that at the end of them should be added: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit." Whence here much incense is said to have been given to him; and soon "there were voices," that is, at that time flourished the Doctors, who are as it were the mouth and voice of the Church, namely St. Jerome, Ambrose, Nazianzen, Augustine; and "lightnings," that is, fervent Saints, such as the Hermits leading a heavenly life, like St. Macarius, Moses and others throughout Egypt; and "thunders," that is, workers of miracles, such as was St. Martin and others, by whom there came a great movement in the Church, both of the earth and of souls.
Thirdly, Viegas judges that this Angel is Christ: for it belongs to Christ to offer to God the incense, that is, the prayers, of the universal Church; and He is the Angel of great counsel, who sent of the fire of His censer onto the earth, when at Pentecost He sent the Holy Spirit, and inflamed the Apostles with charity. Wherefore Christ here appears as it were a priest with a censer, because He is the mediator of God and men. Furthermore, Christ receives fire from the altar, namely of holocausts, that is, from the cross. For by the merit of His cross He obtained and sent to us the Holy Spirit, and soon began the lightnings, thunders, and earthquakes; because soon the Apostles began to thunder in various tongues, to lighten and flash with miracles, and to shake all men with the fear of God.
But although these things may seem plausible, yet they are mystical, and do not cohere sufficiently fittingly with the letter and the text. For Christ here in chapter 4, verses 5 and following, was seen by John as a Lamb (not as an Angel assisting Him who sits on the throne) and unsealing the seven seals of the sealed book; so that this Angel offered this incense of prayers both to the Lamb and to Him who sits on the throne.
I say therefore: this Angel was truly and properly an Angel, just as the other seven, who sound the trumpet and send in the plagues. Thus Aretas, Ribera, and others. Some think this Angel was Gabriel, or Raphael; yet Alcazar and others rather refer these among the Angels of the trumpets, as being chiefs standing in the presence of God, verse 2.
Furthermore, from this passage of the Apocalypse and from similar ones learned men gather that there is a particular Angel who assists the priest celebrating, helps and directs him, offers his prayers and victims to God, whether this angel is the guardian of the celebrant, or the guardian of the altar and of the temple, particularly deputed by God for this guardianship and for the offering of sacrifices, of which we read in the Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus, chapter 4, that Leontius the Abbot, going to the church on the Lord's day to the sacred mysteries, saw an Angel standing by the altar, and heard from him: "From the time that this altar was consecrated, I have been ordered to assist it perpetually." So in the Life of St. Chrysostom we read that soldiers sent by Eudoxia against Chrysostom to the temple, were driven back by an Angel standing before the doors of the vestibule, and brandishing a sword, and went home with their business unfinished. So Ado in his Chronicles, age 6, under the year 774, narrates that the Saxons, wishing to invade a church consecrated by St. Boniface, were put to flight by two youths (Angels of course) of wonderful clarity and splendor defending it. This Angel therefore is either the guardian of the altar, or the guardian of the priest, who assists the celebrant more attentively and effectively; or both. Whence concerning Him we read and pray daily in the canon of the Mass, saying: "We humbly beseech Thee, almighty God, command these things to be borne by the hands of Thy holy Angel to Thy sublime altar in the sight of Thy divine Majesty," etc. Thus St. Thomas, III part, Question 83, article 4, ad 9.
In a similar way to Zechariah offering incense, "there appeared an Angel of the Lord (Gabriel) standing on the right side of the altar of incense, and said: Fear not, Zechariah, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John," Luke 1:12. Thus the Angel appearing to Manoah, and promising her a son Samson, attended the offering of Manoah: "And when the flame of the altar went up to heaven, the Angel of the Lord likewise went up in the flame." Judges 13:20. So the Angel attended Gideon while sacrificing, and touching the victim with a rod drew forth fire from the rock, which set the victim ablaze and consumed it, Judges chapter 6, verse 21. So the Angel attended Abraham wishing to sacrifice Isaac, and held back his sword, and substituted a ram for Isaac, Genesis 22:11. So the Angels ascending and descending on the ladder, as if through it bearing Jacob's prayers up to heaven, and bearing down gifts from heaven to earth to him, appeared to Jacob; and so they dedicated the place to God, that it was called Bethel, that is, the house of God, Genesis 28:12. So the Angel appeared to David on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, by this very thing designating the place for the temple to be built there by Solomon. Whence David, by the command of the prophet Gad, raised an altar in the same place, and offered holocausts and peace-offerings, and so stayed and held back the plague of pestilence, 2 Samuel 24:16 and following. So the Angel attended and appeared to St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory and many others while celebrating. Father Ludovicus de Ponte recounts in the Life of Father Balthazar Alvarez, chapter 6, that an Angel was wont to attend and appear to him while celebrating, who would direct him, and disclose and suggest to him the needs of those for whom he was about to celebrate, that he might commend them to the Lord. For the proper office of the Angels is twofold: first, to praise and honor God; but the highest honor of God is sacrifice: therefore the Angels cooperate with that. The latter, to care for the salvation of men: but this salvation is by no means cared for save through sacrifices, by which grace is obtained from God for men. Therefore the Angels offer those sacrifices to God, that they may obtain and procure His grace for men. Wherefore the priest while celebrating should remember that an Angel stands by him; and let him venerate and invoke him, that he may direct, enlighten, and inflame him to sacrifice worthily. To this it pertains that we read in the Lives of the Saints, that some Angels administered the Holy Eucharist, namely to Mark the monk, as Sozomen testifies, book 9, chapter 29, and Palladius in the Lausiac, chapter 20, to St. Bonaventure, to St. Bertranda, as is contained in the Life of St. Elzear, chapter 17. To Onuphrius also on every Lord's day an Angel of the Lord brought down the Holy Eucharist by divine power. Thus it is contained in the Lives of the Fathers. That our Blessed Stanislaus Kostka received the Holy Eucharist from the hands of Angels, with St. Barbara assisting, and thence being visited by the Blessed Virgin, was miraculously cured of an incurable illness and recovered, his Life records. Therefore let the priest while celebrating say, let those assisting and communicating say with David, Psalm 137:2: "In the sight of the Angels I will sing to Thee." Let him hear St. Ephrem, in the treatise On Virginity, volume 1: "Be, he says, wholly during the time of prayer as it were a heavenly Angel: and so strive that your prayer may be holy, and pure, and immaculate, and irreprehensible, that when the heavenly gates see it ascending up, they may be opened to it with rejoicing further, that, as it were plucking it, all the Angels and Archangels rejoicing may meet it, and offer it before the holy and exalted throne of the immaculate God. So therefore at the hour of prayer always be united to God like the Cherubim and Seraphim."
It is remarkable what Damascene writes in the oration On Those Who Have Fallen Asleep with Faith, that St. Gregory I the Pontiff, "when He was performing the sacred rites, had a heavenly and divine Angel as a companion of His most sacred office." Nor is this surprising; for, as St. Ildefonsus of Toledo says, On Illustrious Men, "St. Gregory shone forth so sublime in the perfection of all merits, that, excluding comparisons with all illustrious men, antiquity has shown nothing like him. For he conquered Anthony in sanctity, Cyprian in eloquence, Augustine in wisdom."
BEFORE THE ALTAR — of incense, upon which incense was burned before God residing in the Holy of Holies, to which this altar facing in the Holy was clearly adjacent, Exodus 30:1.
By this altar Primasius, Bede, Ansbertus and others understand the Church, or the faithful themselves, in whom these incense-offerings, that is, prayers, are offered through our Lord Jesus Christ. The golden censer is Christ's humanity burning with charity, says St. Augustine, sermon 98 On the Times; whence pleasing to God and heard was this His incense-offering and intercession. This is what is added:
Verse 4: The Smoke of the Incense Ascending
4. AND THE SMOKE OF THE INCENSE OF THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS ASCENDED UP IN THE HAND OF THE ANGEL BEFORE GOD. — A man therefore excelling in sanctity is an altar of incense, because through the contemplation of heavenly things he despises earthly things, and burns holy desires and prayers to God on the altar of his heart: by which he becomes after the manner of an altar, made of stone and four-square, that is, fixed and immobile amid prosperity and adversity; he has four horns or most beautiful crown-pieces, namely prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance; on it incense is offered at morning and evening together, that is, at the same time as on the altar of holocausts the lamb, or perpetual sacrifice, was offered, because charity and prayer, or contemplation, ought to be joined to mortification.
But for the answer note that St. John here throughout alludes to the old tabernacle and temple (for in his time Christians had not yet temples such as now, but oratories), as is plain in chapter 6, verse 9, and chapter 7, verses 14, 15 and following. For the place of the Blessed in heaven is best represented by a temple, both because the temple was sacred to God and the throne of God; both because it was most august, most rich, and most beautiful, so that it was the wonder of the world; both because it was the place of the priests, who were holy and of Christ of God: for likewise in heaven the Blessed are priests of God, as I said in chapter 5, verse 10.
Note first: Two were the chief parts of the old temple, namely the Holy and the Holy of Holies, divided by a veil interposed. In the Holy was this altar of incense, stretched before and set opposite the Holy of Holies.
Note second: Allegorically the Holy of Holies signified the empyreal heaven of God and of His glorious divinity, in which God is and appears to the Angels and the Blessed in His glory and blessedness, as it were on the throne of His majesty. Therefore the ark made of incorruptible setim wood signified the body of Christ, no longer corruptible and mortal, but incorruptible and glorious after the resurrection. The propitiatory, which was above the ark and made of pure gold, signified the throne of divinity, as if seated upon and presiding over the humanity of Christ (which the propitiatory represented), to which the Cherubim and all the Angels stand by and minister on every side.
Note third: The Holy Place signified the Church of just men, which in this life serves God and tends toward God: likewise the things that are in it. Therefore the altar of incense, which was in the Holy Place, signified the place of prayers, thanksgivings and praise, inasmuch as these are offered to God upon Christ as upon an altar, and through Christ, His passion and death. The table of the loaves of proposition signified both the sacrament of the Eucharist and the works of charity and mercy; the candelabrum, the light and splendor of Christian doctrine.
Note fourth: Christ by His passion and death rent the intermediate veil dividing the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place, because by His death He opened up the Holy of Holies, that is, heaven, to men, Hebrews 9:12. Therefore St. John here means to say that the souls of the Saints, who in this life acted as spiritual priests and served God in the Holy Place, that is, in the Church, by prayers and praises, and by a pure and pious life, likewise also in heaven serve Him in the Holy Place as it were as perpetual and royal priests, and offer Him perpetual incense of prayers and praises. In the Holy Place, I say, not of earth, but of heaven, where now through Christ every veil being broken, this altar of incense (in which dwell the souls of the Saints, as said in chapter 6, verse 9, and serve God day and night, as said in chapter 7, verse 15) is joined to the ark, the propitiatory and the Holy of Holies, that is, to the throne of God: so that in heaven one and the same is the place of the Holy and of the Holy of Holies; and the blessed souls from their Holy Place and from the seat of their happiness, in the heavenly temple continually behold God in the Holy of Holies, or in the heaven of His divinity. See what I said on Exodus 26, 27 and 40.
The blessed souls therefore are said to be under the altar; because this altar was in the Holy Place, which was properly the place of the priests, such as these souls are in heaven; just as the Holy of Holies was properly the place and throne of God alone: whence into it only the high priest entered, and that only once in the year. But the high priest represented Christ, not the Saints.
Note fifth: When it says, "That he should give of the prayers of the Saints," the sense is, as if to say: That into his censer and its fire he should cast incense compounded of various prayers and desires of the Saints, who beg that the kingdom of sin be overthrown and the impious be punished; so that he might then place it upon the altar of incense itself, and there offer it to God by burning. For there was no other incense or thymiama here than the prayers of the Saints. Note: The Greek has ταῖς προσευχαῖς; which Beza translates, with the prayers, supplying the preposition syn. But wrongly: for this Angel did not offer to God anything else along with prayers, but the bare and sole prayers of the Saints. Therefore better is the rendering of our translator, and indeed of Erasmus and Vatablus, of the prayers of the Saints: for it is a Hebraism. For the Hebrews say העלה מתפלורת heela mittephillet, that is, he offered of the prayers; for the preposition מין min among the Hebrews is the indicator and mark of the ablative, just as de is among the Latins. St. John wished to express the same thing by the same case in Greek; but because the Greeks do not have a preposition which, signifying of or from, may aptly be construed with the ablative or dative, he therefore omitted it, supplied it implicitly, and used only the noun προσευχαῖς, that is, prayers. Furthermore, the Angels offer to God the prayers of men, of whom they are as it were the patrons, guardians and advocates of their clients; not that they may make them known to God, since nothing is hidden from Him, but that they themselves may at the same time pray to God on their behalf, and so render those prayers effective: so that they may obtain the desired effect and impetrate what they ask.
Note sixth: St. John saw in heaven an altar of incense, the censing, hymns, adoration, the Lamb slain as a victim and sacrifice — both because Christ's passion, death and bloody sacrifice, foreshadowed by all these things, persists in virtue and merit, and by its sight continually moves God to take pity on men; and because in actual reality, as regards the host, the same persists in the sacrifice of the Eucharist, in which daily, as St. Andrew said, we offer up Christ as it were as a Lamb to God, in such a way that after the immolation the Lamb always remains whole and alive.
Wherefore Christ Himself, now glorious in the heavens, has been repeatedly seen on earth repeating and performing this His sacrifice. Hear the memorable thing which Nauclerus relates concerning the year of the Lord 1011: "It is reported of Henry that, after his first night, upon entering the City he was always accustomed to remain in the church of St. Mary Major: but it happened once that, while he was praying alone, Christ appeared to him, vested in pontifical robes, going forth to celebrate Mass, whom St. Lawrence followed, and Vincent in the place of subdeacon: after these the Virgin Mother of God with a multitude of virgins and Angels; then John the Baptist with the Patriarchs and Prophets: after these Peter and John with the rest of the Apostles and Evangelists, St. Stephen with the Martyrs, St. Martin with the Confessors. The Angels began the introit: We have received, O God, Thy mercy; and while there was sung: Thy right hand is full of justice, all those imitating Christ and the Blessed Virgin extended their finger toward Henry. After the Gospel, with indescribable jubilation, the Angel presented the book, kissed by Christ, to the Blessed Mary, and after her to all in order to be kissed. At length the Blessed Virgin signaled to the Angel that he should hold out the book also to Henry to be kissed, saying: Give him the kiss of peace, whose virginity is pleasing to me; and when, ravished by excessive joy, he did not know how fully to attend, the Angel touched him on the sinew and said: This shall be to thee a sign of God's love because of thy chastity and justice, and from then on until his death he limped, from which event Henry was called the Lame."
Another almost twin to this happened to blessed Godric, who in the twelfth century after the Virgin's childbirth was a follower of the solitary life in England, a wondrous worker of prodigies, and was heard to be another Thaumaturgus of those times, uniquely venerated by St. Thomas of Canterbury, to whom he foretold both his exile, and his honorable restoration after seven years, and finally his glorious death in defense of the Church, long beforehand. Concerning him, among many other divinely granted favors, Nicholas Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury, also recounts this in the twelfth century of the History of the English Church, chapter 40: "Among other illustrious things, that the same Apostle Peter celebrated the mysteries of the holy Mass with him, after the Church's manner; and that, having heard his confession and exomologesis — which Godric, at his bidding, made most carefully concerning all his sins which he could call to memory — he gave him pardon for all offenses, and ministered to him the most holy Eucharist from the altar." Several similar things have happened in this century, and indeed in this year 1622, at the canonization of our St. Ignatius and Xavier at Douai, which are recounted in a little book published there on this subject. Thus Christ, surrounded by a multitude of Angels, visited St. Dionysius the Areopagite in prison, and offering to him the Holy Eucharist, animated him for imminent martyrdom. So Hilduin in the Life of St. Dionysius. The Breviary of Amiens also has it that St. Honoratus, the fourth bishop of Amiens, communicated from the hand of Christ, and thereafter remained unhurt by every defilement of the flesh. The Life of St. Catherine of Siena, written by Raymund of Capua, book II, chapter 32, has the same happening to her.
Furthermore, that these prayers of the Saints implore vengeance, not pardon, is evident first, because immediately upon these prayers there follow not pardon but punishments — namely thunders, trumpets, and plagues. Secondly, because in chapter 6, verse 9, the souls under the altar cried out demanding vengeance: "How long, O Lord, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood?" Thirdly, because in chapter 9, verse 13, this voice issues forth from the horns of the altar: "Loose the four Angels," who being loosed inflicted grievous punishments on the impious. Fourthly, because allusion is made to Ezekiel 10:2, where one Angel commands another to take coals of fire from the altar and pour them out upon Jerusalem, that he may devastate and burn it up by means of the Chaldeans. For he says: "Fill thy hand with the coals of fire which are between the Cherubim, and pour them out upon the city," etc. See what is said there; for as in chapter 9 there, the servants of God are first sealed, lest they be injured in the destruction of the city: so here in the preceding chapter the servants of God are first sealed, lest they be touched by the Angels who effect the following plagues. Therefore, just as that fire of Ezekiel was for the vengeance and conflagration of Jerusalem, so this fire will be for the vengeance and destruction of the world.
Alcazar held the contrary opinion, namely that these prayers of the Saints sought pardon, not vengeance. For this is the spirit of the Saints of the New Testament, namely to love their enemies and to pray for them: the Angel therefore cast upon the earth a fire not of vengeance, but of charity and religion, concerning which Christ says in Luke chapter 12, verse 49: "I am come to cast fire upon the earth"; because although by these prayers of theirs they could not impetrate the conversion of the rebellious and unbelieving Jews, nor avert from them the punishments of the seven trumpets, nevertheless they mitigated God's wrath and vengeance, and impetrated that many of the Jews — for instance, Paul, Stephen, Ananias, Gamaliel, etc. — should be converted to Christ, and that God should restrict not a few of the punishments of the seven trumpets to a third part, as is signified in chapter 11, verse 13, where it is said: "A tenth part fell." For God willed that the patience, charity, prayer and zeal of the Christians should arrive as it were at the summit of perfection, before He sent plagues upon the perfidious Jews and dispersed them. But these things look not to the Jews, nor to the primitive Church, but to the end of the world, when God will rain down plagues and every kind of punishment upon the impious, as I have said and taught many times.
Verse 5: The Censer Filled with Fire and Cast to the Earth
5. AND THE ANGEL TOOK THE CENSER (after the burning and evaporation of the incense, and at the same time after the consumption and reduction to ashes of the fire), AND FILLED IT WITH THE FIRE OF THE ALTAR, — namely with fire which was in other censers by which incense was burned and consumed to God on the same altar. For there was no fire on the altar of incense itself: for the priest who was about to burn incense took fire and a censer from the altar of holocausts, and placing the incense upon it, carried and placed the censer on the altar of incense, and there burned it, as I said on Exodus chapter 30, verses 7 and 8.
AND HE CAST IT UPON THE EARTH, — not the censer, but the fire, or the coals of the censer: and this so that by it as by a symbol he might signify that through the prayers of the Saints (for these were the incense of the censer) demanding vengeance upon the impious and their persecutors, and through the charity of Christ, with which He pursues His faithful and saints, the fire of vengeance, that is, the thunders, lightnings, and plagues following from the seven Angels and trumpets, were sent down upon the impious. For this fire brings thunders and plagues; therefore it is an avenger. Fire is a symbol of charity, just as the altar signifies Christ: for charity zealously upholds God's honor, and therefore is the avenger of the impious enemies of God. Wherefore Haymo aptly says: "The censer signifies the body of Christ, which in His passion was opened by many wounds as by windows or lattices in the manner of a censer. And because through Christ's passion charity and the spirit of prayer are given to us, hence fire and incense are fittingly placed in the censer."
Again, because Christ shows His wounds to the Father for the Saints laboring on earth, and His charity toward them, and thence the Father is moved to punish the impious enemies of the Saints, hence the censer is filled from the fire of the altar and cast to the earth: for charity, as it were a fire, procured this vengeance; that is, the fire of Christ's charity went forth from God, and sent down to the earth the fire of vengeance upon the impious, the persecutors and murderers of the godly.
Note: All these things were an imaginary vision, exhibited to John to signify the things I have said. For in heaven there is no altar of incense, nor censer, nor fire. Concerning fire, however, it is credible that at the end of the world an Angel will really send down fire upon the earth, as it were the sign and beginning of the plagues to follow; whence follows:
AND THERE WERE THUNDERS. — All these are heralds of the immense calamities which God will send upon the impious at the end of the world. Hence then before those calamities He will indeed send first frequent thunders, lightnings, and earthquakes, as Christ foretold in Luke 21. So Ribera and others. Otherwise Alcazar, who, consistently with his own exposition, judges that here by thunders, lightnings and earthquakes is signified the admirable preaching of the primitive Church, joined with the splendor of holiness and the efficacy of the word, and a great change of life (for this is what the earthquake represents) in the souls of those who submitted themselves to that heavenly preaching.
Verse 6: The Seven Angels Prepare to Sound
6. THEY PREPARED THEMSELVES (taking their trumpets, and bringing them to their mouths), TO SOUND THE TRUMPET.
Verse 7: The First Trumpet — Hail and Fire Mingled with Blood
7. AND THE FIRST ANGEL SOUNDED THE TRUMPET, AND THERE WAS HAIL AND FIRE, MINGLED WITH BLOOD. — The word mixta is neuter plural; whence it refers both to hail and to fire, as is clear from the Greek μεμιγμένα.
You ask: Who are these seven Angels, and what are their trumpets and plagues, especially this first one? First, Alcazar, according to what was said in verse 2, takes this plague to be the famine sent upon the Jews at the time of their destruction by Titus. For it is usual for tender crops, fruits and plants to be beaten down by hail, and afflicted by fire breaking out, and putrefied by blood; whence follows famine. See Psalm 104:32. The blood denotes the cruelty of the famine, which was so great that, according to Josephus, a mother cooked and devoured her own son. But these things are mystical and enigmatic, and rather accommodative than literal.
Secondly, Lyranus and Aureolus take these seven Angels to be four celebrated heresiarchs, and three leaders who, following their heresies, greatly disturbed the Church in the times of Constantine and Julian the Apostate, whom they themselves think is signified by the silence of verse 1. The heresiarchs were Arius, Macedonius, Eutyches, and Pelagius, against whom (namely, against the first three, not against Pelagius) the first four ecumenical Councils were convened, namely, the Nicene, the Constantinopolitan, the Ephesine, and the Chalcedonian. The first Angel therefore is Arius, whom the Arian Emperor Valens fostered and promoted; he sounded the trumpet of his heresy and persecution, and thence arose hail of animosity and schism among the Bishops, and fire of rivalry and zeal, which were mingled with blood, because they raged against Catholics even to the point of deaths and martyrdoms. Hence a third part of the earth, that is, of the common faithful and the simple people, and a third part of the trees, that is, of the Bishops, blasted by the fire of Arianism, was prostrated and burned. Then also the green grass, that is, a new race coming forth and as it were being born — namely the Goths, who were petitioning the Emperor Valens for Christian Bishops to teach them, baptize them, and make them Christians — when the Arian Bishops were sent by Valens, instead of becoming Catholics, became Arians.
Thirdly, Ansbertus, Haymo, Richard, Pannonius and Viegas take the seven Angels, or messengers, to be seven different ranks of preachers of the Catholic faith in the Church, who at various times sounded the trumpet of their preaching to the world. But because Jews and Gentile unbelievers resisted them, and fought against the Church, hence various plagues were sent and inflicted on them by God: thence also tumults and seditions arose, which are here signified by earthquakes, just as the plagues are signified by hail, fire and blood. The first Angel therefore signifies the first order of preachers, namely the Apostles; the hail and fire mingled with blood signify God's wrath against the unbelievers, and their eternal damnation. So Haymo, Ambrose, Ansbertus. For the unbelievers and impious are here called earth, because they are earthly; and trees, because they are agitated by every wind; and grass, because every glory of the world vanishes like grass. Again, Pannonius takes the hail and fire with blood to be the wrath and fury, not of God, but of the Gentiles and unbelievers against the Apostles and the Church: from which a third part of the earth and of the trees, that is, many of the faithful both common and noble and chief men, fell away from the faith.
But I say, with Irenaeus, book IV, chapter 50, and Lactantius, book VII, chapter 15, Aretas and Ribera, that all these things are to be taken according to the letter, as they sound. For these signs and these plagues will literally come first, at least inchoately — that is, they will begin and start to occur before the judgment and before Antichrist (for they are contained in the seventh seal, whose unsealing and explanation precedes the unsealing and explanation of the sealed book, which contains things future under Antichrist and onward up to the judgment and end of the world) — and this for the purpose that God by these plagues may terrify and punish the impious persecutors of the faithful. And this is what Christ foretold in Luke 21:11: "And there shall be terrors from heaven, and great signs." For those signs which Christ was about to fulfill briefly and in general terms, St. John here explains and narrates in particular and in order.
And these same things the Sibyl predicted, in book II of her Oracles, where she sings among other things: "Έσται κόσμος ἄκοσμος ἀπολλυμένων ἀνθρώπων," the world will be unadorned, that is, without ornament and beauty, with men perishing as well as plants by hail, fire, blood, etc. And the Wise Man in Wisdom 5:18: "He will arm creation for vengeance on His enemies, and the orb of the world shall fight with Him against the foolish." According to the letter therefore the hail and fire are thunderbolts and fiery exhalations, and stones of hail. With these will be mingled blood, or a bloody rain; for Pliny, book II, chapter 26, narrates that this has happened many times. Furthermore, a rain of blood has always been a sign of celestial wrath, and a herald of imminent vengeance, as it is here: for a third part of the sprouts and trees is laid low and burned. Again, by blood are punished the slaughters of the impious, by which they shed the blood of the godly and of the Martyrs, as will be evident in chapter 16, verse 6. He alludes to the seventh plague of Egypt, of which it is said in Exodus 9:24: "There was hail and fire mixed with it being borne together." See what is said there. In a similar way, the darkness of the fourth plague corresponds and alludes to the ninth plague of Egypt, which was likewise of densest darkness. And the fifth plague of locusts in chapter 9, verse 3, corresponds to the eighth plague of Egypt, which was likewise of locusts, Exodus 10:4. And the third plague of bitter and undrinkable waters corresponds to the first plague of Egypt, which was the conversion of the waters of Egypt into blood, Exodus 7:17. For those plagues of Egypt were a type and prelude of these last plagues of the whole world, as St. Irenaeus teaches and affirms in book IV, chapter 50, and Lactantius in book VII, chapter 15.
AND IT WAS CAST (this whole aggregate, namely the hail, fire and blood mixed together among themselves, so as to make as it were one composite thing) UPON THE EARTH.
AND A THIRD PART OF THE EARTH WAS BURNED UP. — Take this third part of the earth, of the trees and of the sprouts not as joined together and at the same time and continuously in the same place, but mixedly and scattered — that is, that some in Spain, others in Italy, others in other places and provinces were burned and devastated, namely those things and in those places where the worst inhabitants and the greatest persecutors of the faithful were (for these are their plagues, not of the faithful and the just): so namely that, all things being reckoned which have been devastated here and there, a third part of the earth, of the trees, and of the sprouts which will then be in the whole world, may be destroyed and burned up by this first plague and slaughter.
Furthermore, the hail struck only a third part, not the whole and all, because God did not wish by this first plague to destroy the earth and its human inhabitants, but rather through it to chastise them and admonish them to repent, and so to escape the other plagues already prepared; but if, admonished by so great a plague, they refuse to come to their senses and repent, He reserves for them six more atrocious plagues, which He will gradually call forth and produce, greater and greater, through the six following Angels.
AND ALL GREEN GRASS, — every herb, every sprouting and green-growing germ: for this is what the Greek χόρτος signifies, as is clear from Mark 4:28: "The earth," he says, "brings forth fruit first the herb (in Greek χόρτον), then the ear, then the full grain in the ear." For he alludes to the sixth plague of Egypt, of which it is said in Exodus 9:25: "And the hail struck every herb of the field." And verse 31: "The flax therefore and the barley were hurt, because the barley was green, etc.; but the wheat and the spelt were not hurt, because they were late." Where note that this slaughter of the Apocalypse will be greater, both because in it neither wheat nor spelt is excepted, and because in it is added that a third part of the trees was also laid low by this hail. The herb therefore is called faenum (hay) by metonymy, because by this plague it dried up and was made hay. Just as conversely the rod of Moses, already turned into a serpent, is still called a rod, because it had been a rod, Exodus 7:12, when it is said: "The rod of Aaron devoured their rods," that is, the serpent of Aaron, produced from his rod, devoured the serpents of the Magicians, produced from their rods.
Verse 8: The Second Trumpet — The Burning Mountain into the Sea
First, Alcazar takes this plague to be the war which Titus waged against the Jews, by which he destroyed and consumed them: for the blood signifies the slaughter and massacre of the Jews; "the third part of the sea" signifies that a great part of the Roman empire was sprinkled with the blood of the Jews in that war, yet so that many of them, escaping by flight, evaded death. Hence "the third part of the creatures which had souls in the sea died," that is, of seafaring men, namely Jews, not fish. For seafarers are said "to have their souls in the sea," because they entrust their soul, that is, their life, to the sea with great peril, according to Wisdom 14:5: "Men commit their souls to a small piece of wood." For fish are sons of the water. But seafarers are sons of the earth, who have their souls in the sea, because they wander through the sea for the sake of profit, of which the Jews are most greedy. Therefore by catachresis seafarers are called Jews, because they are traders and profiteers; consequently when it is said: "And the third part of the ships perished," by ships are understood the cities and towns of the Jews themselves; for in the war and destruction by Titus a third part of the cities of Judea easily perished. For that a ship is a symbol of a city is clear from Ezekiel 27, and from the allegories of the Poets.
Secondly Aureolus: This, he says, second Angel was Macedonius the heresiarch, who taught that the Holy Spirit is a creature and a servant of the Son, against whom the second General Synod of Constantinople was gathered. Then therefore the great mountain burning with fire, that is, the great and swelling heresy, was sent into the sea, that is, into the Church, which is called sea on account of the waters of baptism and on account of the multitude of all the nations it contains. This was made blood, because it was disfigured by Macedonius and infected with blood, that is, with heresy; and a third part of the fish, that is, of the faithful, died through the heresy; and the ships perished, because many Bishops who, like ships and pilots, ought to have borne and governed others, and directed them to the safe station of faith and salvation, became Macedonians, and dragged their own with them and submerged them into the abyss. To these add that on account of the heresy concerning the Holy Spirit — namely, that the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Son, but only from the Father — the Greeks, divided from the Latins by schism, were punished with fire and blood, especially when Constantinople was taken by force and, together with the Eastern Empire, was overthrown by Mohammed, king of the Turks, on the very feast of the Holy Spirit, namely on Pentecost in the year of the Lord 1453. For then the great mountain burning with fire, that is, the immense army of the Turks burning with fury, was sent into the sea, that is, into Greece and Constantinople which lies on the sea, namely on the Bosphorus; and the blood of a third part — that is, a great part — of the inhabitants was poured out, and indeed Constantine Palaeologus, the Emperor — himself born of a mother named Helena (as also the first Constantine, founder of the city and the empire) — beheaded, made an end at once of his kingdom and his life, and likewise of the Eastern Empire.
Thirdly, Viegas and others cited at the first plague, verse 7: The second Angel, they say, is the second order of preachers, in the time of the ten persecutions under the ten Emperors in the primitive Church. The great mountain is the proud devil burning with envy, who through tyrants, as it were a mountain, wished to overwhelm the sea, that is, the Church, which then was made bloody on account of frequent martyrdoms. Then many fish, that is, the faithful, and even the ships, that is, the Prelates and great men, who ought to have carried others to the harbor of salvation, made shipwreck of their faith out of fear. For Prelates are rightly called ships, just as chariots. Whence is that saying of Elisha to Elijah, when he was being snatched into heaven: "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof," 2 Kings 2.
Fourthly, most plainly and simply Ribera takes the fiery mountain to be a huge burning and fiery globe, which the Angel will cast into the sea, and by it will scorch and burn up both ships and fish, namely a third part of ships and fish. For not seafaring men, but fish are the creatures and animals that have their souls in the sea; for in Greek it is καὶ ἀπέθανε τὸ τρίτον τῶν κτισμάτων ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ τὰ ἔχοντα ψυχάς, that is, the third part died of the creatures in the sea having souls, which properly belongs to fish. And this is what the Sibyl sings:
And all the trembling fish shall die in the sea,
Nor shall a ship laden with weight any more furrow the waters.
Alcazar suggests that this mountain will be on land and earthly, namely so that it may signify great disturbances of the commonwealth, according to Psalm 45, verse 3: "While the earth shall be troubled, and the mountains shall be transferred into the heart of the sea." This mountain therefore, like Aetna, kindled by the angel, will burn and be consumed, and will be cast into the sea, and by its fire and heat will kill the fish, and turn the waters of the sea into blood, not so much by its natural power, as by the supernatural might and power of God commanding. It seems truer, however, that this mountain will be aerial — namely, many and great exhalations gathered together, which when ignited will appear to be a fiery mountain — both because he says, "As it were a great mountain"; for the word as it were suggests that it will not be a true mountain, but the likeness of a mountain; and because these plagues are heavenly, and are summoned from heaven by angels, and rain down upon the earth as weapons hurled by God from heaven against the impious. This burning mountain therefore will be a huge mass of fatty material concreted and ignited in the air, which like a burning mountain will rush down into the sea: whence it will come about that a third part of the sea is turned into blood, and a third part of the fish dies, and a third part of the ships perishes. It is likely that this mass will first appear in the heights and at the beginning of its fall, like a burning mountain, jointly to the eyes of men; then in its progress will be scattered into various parts, so that it may infect the sea in various places. Similar was the rain of sulphurous fire by which Sodom and the Pentapolis were burned up, Genesis 19. Wherefore as that, so also this burning mountain will be formidable, and will strike great terror and dread into men, especially when they shall behold and feel its effects, damages and slaughters. Now that through this plague the third part of the sea was made blood, looks both to the slaughter of the fish: for these cannot live outside their element, namely outside water, in blood; and to the horror to be struck into the impious, while they shall see both the earth bloodied by the first plague, and the sea by this second plague, so that earth and sea seem to represent both the guilt of the impious, especially the homicides and slaughter of Martyrs, and the punishment, while by their blood they suggest that the killing of the impious will be so great that the streams of their blood will bloody the earth and sea, and convert these — at least as to the surface — into blood. Thus blood signifies the great slaughter of enemies to be performed by Christ, Isaiah 63:1, 2 and 3: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosrah?" And: "Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress? I have trodden them in my fury, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel." And Psalm 109:7: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way, therefore shall He lift up His head." Psalm 57, verse 11: "The just shall rejoice when he shall see the vengeance: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner." Furthermore, blood is the symbol of soul and life. Whence concerning one grievously wounded and dying the Poet says: "He vomits forth his purple soul," that is, he vomits forth the blood in which, as in a vehicle, life and soul reside. And indeed certain ancient Philosophers, as Aristotle witnesses in book I On the Soul, judged that blood is the very soul of the animal. Wherefore by the effusion of so much blood is signified the pouring out of many souls and lives, and the slaughter of many men. This is what Ezekiel says, chapter 38, verse 22: "I will judge him with pestilence and blood."
Mystically Rupertus: "This mountain," he says, "is Pharaoh, the exemplar of diabolical pride." For just as Pharaoh, by Moses' prayer, was cast down into the Red Sea: so Christ the Lord, the Angel of great counsel, preaching in the world, the devil fell from his dominion, hurled down into the abyss of miseries. He fell and gave way with such speed that, although by his bulk — or rather by his malice — he was a great mountain, nevertheless by his velocity he became a kind of slippery and rolling serpent, and by antonomasia was called the fugitive, according to that text: "The Lord shall visit upon Leviathan the bar serpent," Isaiah chapter 27, verse 1. Or, as the Septuagint has: "Upon Leviathan the fleeing serpent." For that serpent, who as victor invaded the first Adam, easily conquered by the second, is put to flight as a timid serpent.
Verse 9: A Third Part of the Creatures and Ships Perish
The verse boundary at "And the third part of the creatures died which had life in the sea, and the third part of the ships perished" is treated together with verse 8 above. See the explanations of Alcazar (slaughter of the Jews and shipwreck of their cities), Aureolus (Macedonian heresy and Bishops as ships of the Church), Viegas (faithful as fish and Prelates as ships), and Ribera (literal burning of fish and destruction of vessels) given there.
Verse 10: The Third Trumpet — The Great Star Falls
First, Alcazar takes this third plague to be the pestilence by which God punished the Jews: for after the famine endured in the siege of Jerusalem, pestilence in the customary way followed and raged among them, as Josephus, Book VII of the War, chapter 17, and Eusebius, book II, chapter 6, and book III, chapter 3, attest. It is a catachresis: for by the bitter waters is signified pestilence, as if the waters were thoroughly imbued with poison. Furthermore, the phrase "a great star fell from heaven" does not signify a star truly and properly fallen from heaven, but its influx or influence, by which it created the pestilence.
Secondly, Aureolus and Lyranus: The star falling from heaven, they say, is Pelagius the monk and heresiarch, who made the waters of grace and of baptism bitter. For he taught that without grace, by the powers of nature alone, we can live rightly and be saved. Again, that the waters of baptism do not benefit infants, since they are born without original sin (for he himself denied this, asserting that man is born in pure naturals): and therefore for many who believed him these waters became insipid, bitter, indeed deadly. But less correctly: for by the fourth Angel who follows, they themselves take Eutyches, who was prior and earlier than Pelagius.
Thirdly, Viegas: "The third Angel," he says, "is the third order of preachers, whom Arius and the heretics resisted, just as emperors and tyrants resisted the second Angel. The great and burning star are the heresiarchs themselves. These therefore are wormwood, because most bitter and deadly: for they kill souls. This star fell upon the fountains, that is, upon the Sacred Scriptures; and upon the rivers, that is, upon the writings and books of the holy Fathers: for these the heretics deprave, either by corrupting them, or by twisting and perversely explaining them. But just as wormwood, although bitter, sharpens the eyes, so the heretics increased the study and knowledge of the Church, says Aretas."
Fourthly and properly, this star will not be celestial, but aerial — namely a comet, a falling star; or a similar meteor, which will fall from the sky, and bursting apart in its fall, broken in pieces, will be divided into many sparks or exhalations, which falling into various fountains and rivers will infect them. It is called wormwood, because it will embitter the waters, and that as a punishment for wicked pleasure, and especially for the gluttony and drunkenness of the impious — so that those who drank the sweetest and most savory wines, and gorged their bellies with them, may now drink wormwood, and by it be tortured and put to death.
10. THERE FELL FROM HEAVEN A GREAT STAR. — Physicians teach that the body and life of man depend on the influence of the air and the sky, and so that pestilence sometimes arises from contagion, sometimes from the influence of the sky and the stars, sometimes from the infection of the air; nay more, they call unexpected and unknown diseases and deaths siderations.
Verse 11: The Name of the Star is Wormwood
11. AND THE NAME OF THE STAR IS CALLED WORMWOOD. — So also the Syriac; but the Arabic translates: And the name of the star is called absenymum; and the third part of the waters became bitter as wormwood. It seems therefore that absenymum has crept in through the carelessness of the scribe instead of absinthium. For both the Syriac and the Greek and the Latin have: And the name of the star is called "that wormwood," by antonomasia, as if outstandingly and most bitter. In Greek ἀψίντος in the abstract, as if to say: Wormwood-bitterness itself, bitterness itself. The exceeding bitterness of the herb called wormwood is well-known, concerning which Pliny, book 27, chapter 7, and Dioscorides, book III, chapter 25, and Ovid, book III From Pontus:
Bitter wormwoods spring forth from the misshapen fields,
And the earth by its fruit teaches how bitter it is.
Wherefore it is called ἀψίντος, from ἀψεσθαι, that is, to touch, by antiphrasis, because no animal touches this herb on account of its supreme bitterness. The ancient Greek comic poets called the same plant by the kindred word Apinthion, that is, undrinkable, because no one can drink it down on account of its remarkable bitterness. Allusion is made here to these waters, which on account of the wormwood became apinthion, that is, undrinkable.
Again, just as wormwood sharpens the eyes of the body, so this wormwood of the waters will open the eyes of the heart of men at the end of the world to repentance, says Aretas. Thus the place in which St. Bernard first built the monastery of his Order was called the Valley of Wormwood, both on account of the abundance of wormwood sprouting in it, and on account of the bitterness of those who fell in it slain by robbers; for it was a valley of robbers. But St. Bernard transformed the Valley of Wormwood into Clairvaux (the Clear Valley), in name and in reality.
AND MANY OF THE MEN DIED. — Hence it is plain that this bitterness was excessive, and therefore poisonous and deadly; otherwise moderate bitterness is healthy, and preserves the body from rotting, as is clear in absinthite — that is, in beer or absinth wine. There is an Italian saying: Il vino amaro te sia caro ("may the bitter wine be dear to thee"). Finally, an axiom of physicians: "All sweet things are enemies to the stomach; bitter ones therefore are friends." This bitterness, then, will be extreme, and therefore venomous, such as is in coloquintidas, of which that disciple of Elisha rightly said: "Death is in the pot." So too the herb called wormwood is of such bitterness that, if it be distilled or taken in great quantity, it is like poison. So these waters, in the end of the world, affected and infected with extreme bitterness by the star, will be deadly, so that very many who drink of them (for the drinking of water cannot be avoided) will die. For, as Galen teaches, Book I of the Epidemics, comment 1, in the proem: "Sometimes a draught of infected water can produce a universal disease, which indeed is recorded to have happened in military camps." For if poisoned water is drunk, because it is liquid and penetrating, it passes at once to the liver and heart, which are the vital parts, and infects and kills them, by its excessive heat or cold, or other distemper. Wherefore Aristotle, in Book VII of the Politics, chapter 11, says that, for a city to be set in a convenient and healthy place, first the site must be considered. "For cities turned toward the rising sun, and to the winds that blow from there, are healthier; in the second place, those that are situated toward the North: for these are better suited for winters." And below: "The second is in the use of healthful waters; for those things which we use most and most frequently for the body bring most to its health: now the power of waters and winds has such a nature. Wherefore in cities which are wisely governed, the use of waters must be distinguished, if not all are equal, nor is there abundance of these waters, so that some waters apart may be assigned for food and drink, others for some other need." Such indeed is the force of water, equally with the air which constantly surrounds the body, and indeed is drawn within by drink or breath, and which penetrates and pervades, as Cicero teaches in his book On Fate, where among other things he says: "At Athens the air is thin, whence the Athenians also are thought sharper of wit; thick at Thebes, and so the Thebans are fat and strong."
Verse 12: The Fourth Trumpet — Sun, Moon, and Stars Darkened
First, Alcazar by this plague of the darkening of the heavenly bodies understands the ignorance and blindness with which God struck the Jews, because they refused to look upon and receive the light of the world, that is, Christ. Blinded therefore they did not see the sun, that is, they did not recognize God three and one; nor the moon, that is, the humanity of Christ; nor the stars, that is, the Apostles and their Evangelical doctrine and holiness. Furthermore, the third part of the heavenly bodies is said to be darkened, because they were not entirely blind. For there remained in them the knowledge of one God, of Moses and of the Prophets; nay, they even saw the miracles of Christ and of the apostles; but this light and knowledge turned for them into a graver sin and into greater blindness and damnation. For from these things they could and ought to have recognized Christ and the way of salvation. Of them is what Christ says of them, John IX, 41: "If you were blind, you would have no sin." Again, the knowledge of God is acquired in three ways: first, through His admirable works, which are done by His power, which is attributed to the Father; secondly, through doctrine, which is attributed to the Son; thirdly, through internal illumination, which is attributed to the Holy Spirit. The Jews had the first two, but the third was lacking to them, and therefore the third part of the sun and stars is said to be darkened for them.
Secondly, Aureolus and Lyranus take this Angel to be Eutyches and Nestorius, the heresiarchs. For the former placed in Christ only one nature, fused from divinity and humanity; the latter placed in Him two persons, whence he denied that Christ as man was God, and that the Blessed Virgin was Mother of God. By these, through heresy, the third part of the sun was struck, that is, the excellence and dignity of Christ: for they were injurious to either His person or His nature; and of the moon, that is, the Church; and of the stars, that is, the Bishops, whom they infected with their heresy, among whom was Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria.
Thirdly, Viegas takes this fourth Angel as the fourth order of preachers, who sounded the trumpet of the Word of God against the enemies of the fourth Church, namely the hypocrites. For the hypocrites, transforming themselves into angels of light, secretly scattered new and false doctrines, as though they were oracles of God. From this the third part of the sun, the moon, and the stars, that is, of the faithful both noble and ignoble, was darkened.
Fourthly, most plainly Ribera takes these things literally, as they sound; for truly at the end of the world the sun, moon, and stars will be darkened, as we heard in chapter VI, verse 12. Thus a third part of them does not shine for the day, that is, the day, equally with the night, becomes darker than usual by a third part; not, however, that during a third part of time, namely of the day and night, the sun, moon, and stars will be wholly darkened, and shine only during the remaining two parts of time, as some imagine.
He alludes to the ninth plague of Egypt, which was of the densest darkness, of which it is said in Exodus X, 22: "Horrible darkness fell upon all the land of Egypt for three days. No one saw his brother, nor moved from the place in which he was." And Wisdom XVII, 2: "They were bound with the chains of darkness and of a long night. And neither could the force of fire give them light, nor could the bright flames of the stars illumine that horrid night." See what is said there.
Verse 13: The Eagle Crying Woe, Woe, Woe
13. AND I SAW (the eagle which follows) AND I HEARD. — The Syriac adds something: "And I saw," he says, "and I heard one eagle flying, having blood in the middle of its tail, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to them that dwell upon the earth!"
First, Alcazar holds that this eagle is the doctrine of Evangelical wisdom (for the eagle is its symbol): it flies through the midst of heaven, that is, of the Church; it cries out woe three times to the Jews, to signify that the three following plagues of the three Angels — namely concupiscence, wraths, and obduracy — to be inflicted on the Jews, would be greater and more formidable than the four already enumerated, namely famine, war, pestilence, and ignorance.
Secondly, Lyranus, Aureolus, and Viegas think this eagle was St. John himself. For God could conveniently and fittingly show an imaginary eagle by vision to St. John, crying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe — that by it He might signify that John himself would yet behold three prodigious plagues, would announce them to the world, and would describe them in this book.
Thirdly, Abbot Joachim takes this eagle to be St. Gregory the Great, the Pope, who flourished in the year of the Lord 590, and composed many moral works for the correction of the people of God, in which he often exclaims that woe is at hand, that is, bitter times, and the horrible ravages of the Lombards, and that therefore the end of the world is approaching.
Fourthly and genuinely, Bede, Arethas, and Tichonius take the eagle, or, as many Greek codices have it, the Angel, to be the preachers, who at the end of the world will announce the imminent plagues, the outstretched hand of God the avenger, and the drawn sword. Wherefore most fittingly Ribera understands by this eagle some holy and heavenly Prophet, whom God will raise up at the end of the world, that he may foretell to the men existing throughout the world the following three plagues, and the coming of Antichrist as imminent. Whence he will fly through the midst of heaven, that is, will run most swiftly through the midst of the earth, to preach that graver punishments are at hand for the impious, unless they change their life and habits. He cries out three times "woe," to signify that three most grievous plagues of three Angels will follow next, and weigh upon the impious. Finally, if anyone should take the eagle to be an Angel, who, having taken the form of an eagle, will fly through the world and proclaim these things everywhere, I will not oppose it.
Tropologically, such an eagle was St. Paul, says St. Gregory on that text of St. Job chapter XXXIX, verse 27: "Will the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?" Of these things also Isaiah says, chapter XL, verse 31: "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall take wings as eagles." See what is said there, to which add:
First, eagles despise the noisy chattering of crows. For crows provoke eagles, but the eagles, scorning them, fly upward, says Aelian, Book V, chapter 22. So learned men, illustrious in virtue, despise the envious and the rivals; the more they are provoked by them, the higher they soar, and laugh at the noisy little crows flying below them, saying: "Let them follow with virtue alone."
Secondly, the gall of the eagle tempered with Attic honey, smeared on dimmed eyes, makes the sight most keen, says Aelian, Book I On Animals, chapter 42. So the rebuke of a wise man, seasoned with sweetness, teaches the voluptuous to be wise and recalls them to fruitfulness. "Force lurks under bland command," says Ausonius to Theodosius.
Thirdly, a certain eagle in the North exposes its eggs in a fox-skin to the sun, warms and cherishes them, says Albertus Magnus: so the wise man adds shrewdness to strength.
Fourthly, the eagle as it grows old renews itself with feathers: so the wise speak and teach that of the Psalmist: "My youth shall be renewed like the eagle's."
Fifthly, the Author of the Geoponics, Book I, writes that the chalazite stone, or the right wing of an eagle fixed in the middle of a field, is of much avail to avert the danger of hail: so the wise heralds of God, by their sermons and prayers, avert the storms of God's wrath.
Sixthly, at the funerals of Emperors a huge pyre was made, on the summit of which sat an eagle, which, when all things below were burning, flew up to heaven, so that it might seem to bear the Emperor's soul to heaven, says Herodian on Severus, and Xiphilinus on Augustus. So the world will burn up like a pyre: the wise alone, like eagles on the summit, deride the flames and lift themselves to heaven. So the Emperor Maximilian II had for his emblem an eagle flying among the clouds.
Seventhly, although eagles feed on the wild beasts they catch, yet one which is called Jove's eagle feeds on grass alone, says Aelian, Book IX, chapter 10. So the religious teachers consecrated to God devote themselves to abstinence, that they may more purely contemplate heavenly things. "For abstinence is proper to purer minds," says Isidore Pelusiota, Epistle 52.
Eighthly, Pythagoras used to say that he had received in his bosom a white eagle as it flew to him, by which he asserted that he had been made a divine man and had known many things beyond mortal grasp, says Aelian, Book IV, chapter 17. Such are and shall be in the end of the world those who will receive the voices of eagles, that is, of heavenly teachers.
Ninthly, an eagle suddenly flying in from time to time has snatched away those destined to the sword and to slaughter, as Tilgamus, who afterward was made king of Babylon. So also Achaemenes the Persian, from whom descended the noble line of the Achaemenids, was the foster-child of an eagle, says Aelian, Book XII On Animals, chapter 21. So also Valeria Luperca, when she was to be sacrificed to Juno to avert a plague, an eagle snatched away, and fixed the sacrificial knife in a heifer feeding near the temple, says Aristides, Book IX of the Italica. So heavenly men and heralds, by converting sinners, free them from death and hell, and are to them as it were a god from the machine, as the common saying is.
Note here the clemency of God, by which, although gravely offended by men, and angry and indignant with them, He nevertheless sends Prophets, who may lead them to the recognition of their sins and to repentance, lest He be compelled to punish them.
WOE TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH! — Woe to men who are inhabitants of the earth! Mystically, woe to the earthly and worldly, who in heart and affection dwell on the earth, indeed are entirely fixed to it! "For the saint is not an inhabitant of the earth, but a stranger and pilgrim, and he says: I am a stranger and a pilgrim, like all my fathers. Wherefore Abraham too the Hebrew, that is περάτης, is mentioned as a pilgrim and one who passes through," says St. Jerome on Ezekiel VII. And St. Ambrose, Book II On Abraham, chapter 7, citing this passage: "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth!" and explaining, adds: "It does not include all men who shall then complete the course of this life (for there are also some placed on earth whose conversation is in heaven), but those whom the affection of earthly conversation and the favor of this world will have overcome. Therefore we are not inhabitants but sojourners of this earth. For the sojourner cherishes the hope of a temporary lodging; but the inhabitant seems to place all his hope and the use of his substance there, where he has thought he must dwell. Thus he who is a sojourner of earth is an inhabitant of heaven; but he who is an inhabitant of earth is a possessor of death."