Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
In chapter eleven he described the leaders of the war of the faithful against Antichrist, namely Elias and Enoch; here he describes the war itself. Therefore, under the figure of a woman and a dragon contending, the manifold battle of the Church and the devil at the end of the world, and the victory of the Church, is described. For first, the woman bears a male child; the dragon attempts to seize and devour Him; but He is caught up to God: the dragon pursues, that he may slander and accuse them in the judgment of God; but he is cast down by Michael, and he drags with him a third part of the stars: wherefore the heavenly ones glorify God. Then in verse 12, the dragon, cast down and gnashing, persecutes the woman: she, having received wings, flees into the desert; the dragon pursuing vomits from his mouth and sends out a river upon her, but the earth gaping absorbs it. Therefore the dragon, raging, in verse 17, persecutes the rest of her seed.
Vulgate Text: Apocalypse 12:1-18
1. And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: 2. And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. 3. And there was seen another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns: and on his heads seven diadems: 4. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he might devour her son. 5. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to His throne. 6. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God, that there they should feed her a thousand two hundred sixty days. 7. And there was a great battle in heaven, Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels: 8. And they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9. And that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, who seduceth the whole world; and he was cast unto the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night. 11. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. 12. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you that dwell therein. Woe to the earth, and to the sea, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time. 13. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman, who brought forth the man child: 14. And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert unto her place, where she is nourished for a time and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. 15. And the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman, water as it were a river; that he might cause her to be carried away by the river. 16. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17. And the dragon was angry against the woman: and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 18. And he stood upon the sand of the sea.
Verse 1: And a Great Sign Appeared in Heaven
"Sign," that is a portent, prodigy, an extraordinary vision and spectacle, and that "great," both in itself: for in this sign there appeared to St. John a great woman clothed with the sun, crowned with stars, treading on the moon, bringing forth a male child, and fighting with a dragon; and also in the matter shadowed and signified by this sign: for it was great and extraordinary, as I shall presently explain.
Some think there is an allusion here to the constellations of the Virgin and the Dragon which are in the sky, as if through a vision these were shown to John as a virgin and dragon fighting against each other. But granted he alludes to these constellations in name only, nevertheless it is certain that he did not see them, but truly the person of a virgin contending with a dragon.
Symbolically Viegas says: The Church is a "sign," that is a miracle, because the founding of the Church by Christ was prodigious, and her propagation and increase among so many enemies through the Apostles. Second, the "sign" is the standard of the cross set up in the Church. Third, "sign," that is target: for against the Church as against a target all tyrants and heretics aimed their darts, so that the Church can truly say with Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:12: "He has set me as a mark for the arrow, He has sent the daughters of His quiver into my reins."
In Heaven
Not the empyrean, nor the starry, but the airy: for from this the woman flew into the desert. For if we raise the woman to the starry heaven, so that the sun, moon, and stars remain each in their own places, and the stars crown her, the moon places itself beneath her feet, then she would have to be of immense stature and more than gigantic, says Alcazar. It is therefore symbolically represented here that the sun and stars are seen to descend from their places into the air, and there to clothe this woman, but the moon to put itself under her feet: in order that by this it may be signified that the Church (for this woman represents the Church) descended from heaven, because her life, customs, doctrine, author, language, affections, hope, and end — that is, her terminus and crown — are heavenly. Second, because the better and more powerful part of the Church is in heaven, namely the Saints and Blessed. Whence the Apostle, exhorting the other part of her, namely the still militant, says in Hebrews 12:22: "You have come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem." Third, because there is an allusion to the first battle of Lucifer with Michael, as I shall presently say, which was waged in heaven. Fourth, because the dragon, that is, the devil, persecutes the Church and the Saints even to heaven, and even to the throne and judgment of God, where he accuses them: for although judgment is carried out on earth or in the air, nevertheless because in it is the throne of God the judge, hence it is called by the name of heaven. For where God is and the throne of God, there also is heaven: just as where the King is, there is the royal court. And to this St. John especially looks, both because He is dealing with the elect who are caught up into heaven to God, and because in verse 9 he says that the devil, the accuser of the brethren, was cast down from heaven onto the earth. For otherwise this battle which is narrated in what follows was not waged in actual fact in heaven, but on earth, as is clear from verse 6, where it is said that the woman fled from this battle, and from the place of battle, into the wilderness.
A Woman
First, some understand by the woman the Synagogue of the Jews, which was great with child by Christ: so Aretas, Rupert, and besides them Sebastian Barradius, tome 1, book 10, chapter 12. Second, Alcazar takes all these things to refer to the primitive Church of Christ: for he thinks that from this chapter to the end of the book is described the victory of Christ and the Church over the Gentiles; just as from chapter 4 up to here His same victory over the Jews has been described. His reason is that in chapter 20, verse 2, Satan is said to be bound for a thousand years, and to be loosed at the end of the world. But those thousand years signify the time of the primitive Church, and onward up to the end of the world: therefore here it is being treated of; but John will only begin to treat of the end of the world in chapter 20. But I reply that chapter 20 is a hysterology (reversal of order), as I shall there show more fully; for hysterology is frequent in the Prophets. Therefore the things which are here clearly said of Antichrist and the end of the world, and which are so taken throughout by the Fathers and Interpreters, should not be wrenched elsewhere, especially to mystical or fictitious interpretations, on account of one passage, which, as I said, can readily be adapted to the common exposition of the Doctors by hysterology.
Wherefore I say with Ambrose, Tichonius, Primasius, Andreas of Caesarea, Haymo, Richard, Bede, and Methodius whom Aretas cites, that by this Woman is to be understood the Church, especially that which will exist toward the end of the world: for the discourse here is continuous about it, as I said in chapter 6, verse 12. That this is so is plain from what follows, especially verses 6, 10, 11, 14. For the Church, with St. Michael her protector and his Angels assisting her, struggles continually, and will most of all struggle at the end of the world with the dragon, that is, Lucifer and his demons. The Church is called woman, because she is the bride of Christ.
It must be noted however, with Aretas, that in this struggle of the Church with the devil there is alluded to, first, and as it were refreshed, the memory of the first battle of the Angels once waged in heaven, in which Lucifer with his followers was conquered and cast down into hell. Whence here he points to the two leaders of that battle on either side, and that in heaven, namely Michael and the dragon, that is Lucifer, and the Angels of each, and adds that the latter, conquered by the former, drew with him a third part of the stars, that is, of the illustrious Angels, whose natural place was heaven, as it is also of the stars; and that their place was no longer found in heaven, but Lucifer with his followers was cast down from there onto the earth. For these things, in a grammatical or historical sense, are clearer in that first battle of the Angels than in the battles of the Church against the demons, with which however they also agree symbolically, as I shall presently say. In a similar way Isaiah, chapter 14, describes the fall of the king of Babylon under the figure and parable of the fall of Lucifer; and Ezekiel, chapter 28, the riches and fall of the king of Tyre under the figure of the riches and fall of a certain Cherub. With a similar figure and parable St. John uses here, and He does this so that from that first victory of Michael over Lucifer the faithful may hope that they too will overcome the same enemy now, by the help and assistance of God and Michael and the holy Angels. For this signifies that Michael and the Angels fight ardently for us, as for their own clients and fellow citizens. Therefore rightly does the Christian Poet thus celebrate and invoke St. Michael the Archangel, the triumpher over demons:
Thou who from heaven by warfare didst drive the Stygian dragon, / By a like hand drive him from earth down to the Styx.
Second, there is alluded to here on the other side also the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, and the childbirth of the Blessed Virgin, and her offspring Christ. For this is the male child of whom verse 5 speaks, who is most hated by the devil: for on His account he conceived the greatest hatreds against the Church, because he saw that through Him men would succeed into his and his followers' place, from which they had been cast down. Wherefore raging with envy and malice, he wished to kill Christ when still a child through Herod, and when He escaped through flight and God's protection into Egypt, on His account he killed so many thousands of infants: but when He was taken up into heaven, he persecutes His Apostles, Martyrs, and all the faithful with deadly hatred and warfare, and will persecute them until the end of the world.
Therefore, whatever Erasmus and the Innovators may chant, these things can fittingly — like other things which elsewhere in the Canticles and Wisdom books are said of the Church in a literal sense — with Ambrose, Andreas, Ansbert, Haymo, Aretas, Pannonius, Gagneius, and others here, and with St. Augustine, book IV On the Creed to the Catechumens chapter 1, and St. Bernard, sermon On the Blessed Virgin, regarding this passage of the Apocalypse, also be received and appropriated to the Blessed Virgin, especially because, as Ambrose says, the Blessed Virgin is mother, indeed grandmother, of the Church: because she bore Him who is the head and parent of the Church. Whence Ansbert says: "It is no wonder if she should present the type of the Church, in whose blessed womb that same Church merited to be united to her Head. She it is who brought forth a male child, not effeminate, not torpid with sloth, but with a virile and robust head and body for vanquishing the airy powers."
Again, she is a part, citizen, and most chosen daughter of the Church, because she is the noblest member of the Church. Finally, because she strives and wondrously desires to bring forth Christ her Son spiritually still continually in the souls of all the faithful, and most of all toils to this end at the end of the world, both by herself and through the Angels and holy preachers. For she, being aflame with charity, is most zealous for the honor of God and her Son, equal to the salvation of souls. Whence our Blasius Viegas here explains this whole chapter copiously and learnedly concerning the Blessed Virgin. Hear St. Bernard in the place cited: The Virgin Mary, he says, "became all things to all, opens the bosom of mercy to all, that all may receive of her fullness: the captive redemption, the sick healing, the sorrowful consolation, the sinner pardon, the just grace, the Angel joy, finally the whole Trinity glory, the Person of the Son the substance of human flesh, that there be none who can hide himself from her warmth. Do you think she is the woman clothed with the sun? who has put on as it were another sun upon herself. In the sun there is both heat and stable splendor: in the moon only splendor, and that altogether changeable and uncertain, never remaining in the same state. Rightly therefore is Mary said to be clothed with the sun, who penetrated the deepest abyss of divine wisdom, beyond what can be believed. By that fire indeed the lips of the Prophets are purged, by that fire the Seraphim are kindled. But Mary merited far otherwise — not to be touched as it were summarily, but rather to be covered all around and surrounded, and as it were enclosed in the very fire. Truly most pure, but also most warm is the clothing of this woman, all whose things are known to be so excellently irradiated, that one may not suspect in her — I do not say anything dark, but obscure even, or less bright, nor even anything tepid or not most fervent." She therefore is a great sign, because, as St. Bonaventure says in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, chapter 8: "She is one greater than whom God could not make; God could make a greater world, God could make a greater heaven: a greater mother than the Mother of God God could not make." And D. Thomas, Part I, Question 25, article 8, asks whether God can make better things than those which He makes, and replies that He can. He nevertheless excepts three things, namely Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and our beatitude. For "the humanity of Christ," he says, "from the fact that it is united to God; and created beatitude, from the fact that it is the enjoyment of God; and the Blessed Virgin, from the fact that she is the Mother of God, have a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good, which is God; and on this side nothing better can be made for them, just as nothing can be better than God." So he himself in his reply to objection 4.
The first sense, concerning the struggle of the Church with the devil at the end of the world, is most properly and genuinely the meaning, being prophetic (for the Apocalypse is a prophecy, and indeed the only one of the New Testament), and therefore the one most intended by the Holy Spirit. The second sense, concerning the battle of Michael and Lucifer in heaven, is allusive and symbolic. The third, concerning the battle of the Virgin and the devil, is historical, and as it were original and fundamental: and to these latter two the first sense also alludes.
A Woman Clothed with the Sun
The Arabic version: "clothed with the sun," that is, the Church surrounded with Christ her bridegroom: for Christ is the Sun of righteousness, Malachi chapter 4:2, just as the Apostles are stars which borrow their light from the sun, that is from Christ. Again, Christ like a robe and garment surrounds, clothes, and adorns the Church: whence so often the Apostle exhorts the faithful saying: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." Second, Christ so on every side protects and fortifies His Church that He seems to clothe her; and this is signified by the Greek phrase, περιβεβλημένη τὸν ἥλιον, that is, clothed-around with the sun. Third, because the Church is irradiated and surrounded on every side by Christ with the rays of faith, truth, grace, and virtues, and this will most of all happen at the end of the world, lest Antichrist obscure or overwhelm her.
John in this phrase alludes to Psalm 88, verse 38, where literally of the throne of David and Solomon, and antitypically of the throne of Christ, that is of the Church, it is said: "His throne is like the sun in My sight, and like the perfect moon forever." So St. Bernard in the place cited takes Christ for the sun, where applying these things to the Blessed Virgin: "In thee," he says, "He (the Sun, Christ) abides, and thou in Him; and thou dost clothe Him, and thou art clothed by Him. Thou dost clothe Him with the substance of flesh, and He clothes thee with the glory of His majesty. Thou dost clothe the Sun with a cloud, and thou art clothed with the Sun itself."
And the Moon Under Her Feet
Alcazar explains this thus: The moon, he says, is nobler than the stars, yet here it is placed under the feet, not to be trodden upon, but to support and sustain the woman, that is the Church. For the lower place in symbols is of greatest dignity, and signifies the base, foundation, and support. Hence it is attributed to the Church, and to the earth, which is mother and bearer of all things, just as Pythagoras said, "the moon is the mother of the stars." Thus he himself reckons that this woman is clothed with the sun, that is with God, crowned with twelve stars, that is with the twelve Apostles; and below as on a base and foundation she is supported and rests upon the moon, that is Christ. For she is set forth here as in childbirth, and so is represented as aided by the help and assistance of the mystic moon: for the Gentiles too, looking to the fertility of the moon, used to implore her in childbirth; and believing her to be a midwife, they called her Juno Lucina, whose temple is still extant at Rome, but with the name Juno changed to St. Lawrence: for it is called the church of St. Lawrence in Lucina. Happy therefore was the primitive Church, fostered by the help of Christ's birth, and so that this birth might be auspicious and favorable, the mystic Lucina was elegantly introduced, bringing help by her touch and power to the woman in labor, and sustaining her upon herself, lest she fail. So Alcazar, too subtly, and poetically rather than genuinely and solidly. He continues: Furthermore rightly is the Deity compared to the sun, the humanity of Christ to the moon. For first, just as the sun is the fount of light, parent of the other lights: so God the Father is the fount of all divinity, and Father of lights. And just as the moon borrows her light from the sun: so Christ's humanity receives its wisdom, grace, and glory from the Deity, and so "directs back every drawing of its light to the source whence it receives," as Pliny says of the moon, book 2, chapter 9. Second, God created the sun as the "greater luminary, to rule the day;" but the moon as the "lesser luminary, to rule the night," Genesis chapter 1:16. In the same way Christ's divinity is as the greater luminary, which presides over the day of beatitude in heaven; but the humanity is the lesser luminary, which presides over the night of this world, as St. Augustine says on Psalm 73:16.
Third, just as the moon at the full is great, whence by Jeremiah 7:18 she is called "Queen of heaven;" and by Horace in the Carmen Saeculare, "Queen of stars;" but gradually wanes and as it were vanishes: so Christ emptied Himself in the manger, and on the cross, so that there was no comeliness or beauty in Him, Isaiah 53; but soon, like the moon waxing again, by rising and ascending into heaven, He returned to His glory. Fourth, the moon is by nature smaller than the fixed stars, but greater in light: so Christ as to the nature of His humanity is less than the Angels (whence the Psalmist says of Him, Psalm 8:6: "Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels"), but in grace and glory He far surpasses them all. Fifth, great is the moon's influence upon things below the moon, so that the sun alone seems to produce nothing by itself, unless joined with the moon. Whence the moon was called by the ancient Romans the bearer of the world. See Pliny, book 2, chapters 41 and 49. The reason is that the sun's great power and heat joined with the moon's moisture and softness (for she effects and produces both qualities), like mother and father, cause and preserve the generation of natural things, which consists in suitable heat and moisture. In the same way spiritual generation, namely justification, and the increase of justice and grace, depends not only on God's power, but also on Christ's merits, kindness, and grace, so that God gives nothing of grace to men except through Christ and Christ's merits. Therefore, just as Pliny, book 2 chapter 99, said "the moon's star is the spirit of things:" so of Christ Jeremiah says in Lamentations 4:20: "The breath of our mouth, Christ the Lord." Sixth, just as the approach and recession of the moon causes the tide of the sea, namely that the sea daily grows for six hours and decreases for the following six: so that now these peoples come to the faith and Church of Christ, now those, this is done by Christ.
Again, just as the moon is the humanity of Christ, so the moon is also the Virgin Mother of God: for she is as it were the Lucina of the Church in childbirth, so that of her may be said that Virgilian saying:
Favor us, chaste Lucina, now thy Apollo reigns.
For Christ cannot be torn or separated from the Blessed Virgin, just as a son cannot be torn or separated from his mother. Therefore the Church applies in a secondary sense to the Blessed Virgin many things which in Scripture are said in a primary sense of Christ, such as that of Proverbs 8: "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything from the beginning: from eternity I was ordained," etc. So also the Canticle of Canticles, which is primarily the Epithalamium of Christ and the Church, is secondarily attributed to the Epithalamium of God and the Blessed Virgin. Whence Peter Damian, in his sermon On the Nativity of the Blessed Mary, explains that of Canticles chapter 6:9: "Beautiful as the moon," of the Blessed Virgin, saying: "Just as there is no star, except the sun, so beautiful as the moon: so the highest glory after God is to see the Virgin, to cling to her, and to abide in the defense of her protection." And in the sermon On the Assumption of the Virgin: "However much the other stars shine, yet the moon both in size eminent and in splendor surpasses. So the singular Virgin surpasses both natures, both in the immensity of grace and in the brilliance of virtues."
Second, just as "the moon above all things is pure and full of light," as Pliny says: so also the Blessed Virgin. The Poets feigned that Diana (that is, the moon), out of love of virginity, fled the company of men, and accompanied by virgins sought the woods. Whence Virgil calls her chaste. What is more chaste than the Blessed Virgin? Therefore St. Bernard, in his treatise On the Lord's Passion, chapter 31: "What chorus of the Saints," he says, "is better compared to the moon than the virgins?" — namely because of their whiteness and beauty. Whence he adds: "They will be honored above the rest, just as we see the moon eminent above the other stars." An ancient author said, "the moon seems to be the idea of pearls." What pearl is more pure and more beautiful than virginity and the Blessed Virgin?
Third, the moon joins fertility with purity: for she is the parent of things. Whence on the coins of Cornelia Augusta (as Pierius reports, Hieroglyphics 44) with the effigy of the moon, in some this inscription is added, fertility; in others, modesty. So in the Blessed Virgin are joined the highest virginity and the highest maternity and fertility. So that of Christ it can rightly be said:
Neither in thy mother nor in any fertility of parents has there been any one woman who has given by her own birth so many goods.
Fourth, just like the moon, so also the Blessed Virgin is and is called Queen of heaven.
Fifth, just as the moon here supports the woman, so the Blessed Virgin supports and sustains the Church by her prayers and merits, as it were a base and column.
Sixth, just as the moon by its benign influence quickens plants and animals; whence by Pliny, book 2, chapter 18, it is said, "the moon's color is gentle": so the Blessed Virgin benignly embraces the faithful — both the just and sinners, and even the infidels — who implore her aid; she obtains grace, advances them to salvation. For she herself is the Mother of mercy.
Seventh, just as the moon suffers eclipse and failure, when the earth interposes itself between the moon and the sun, and intercepts the rays of the sun, lest they reach the moon and illuminate her: so both the Blessed Virgin and the humanity of Christ in the Passion suffered eclipse and failure of strength and of life, when the earthly Jews interposed their malice between them and God, and set the cross for Christ. Whence Christ on the cross cried out: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" These things in summary, which Alcazar pursues at length, more elegantly, ingeniously, and mystically than literally and genuinely.
I therefore reply and say: Literally it is here said that the moon is under the feet of the woman, that is of the Church, because she despises all temporal things, and all the mutability of creatures, and tramples them with her feet, says St. Gregory, book 34 of the Morals, chapter 12, or according to another edition chapter 7.
Again, the moon always either waxes or wanes, and, as Pliny says in book 2 chapter 19: "Now bent into horns, now divided in equal portion, now bowed into a circle; spotted, and the same suddenly shining brightly, immense with the orb full, and suddenly nothing at all." For this cause the moon is the symbol, as well as cause, of inconstancy: for she causes the tides and reciprocations of the sea, and makes the sea so unstable that every six hours it now flows in, now flows out. From the moon also lunatics are named, on whom the moon acts, and, as Apuleius says, who suffer with the course of the moon: such are especially those who labor with the falling sickness, or madness, or some other kind of disease are afflicted and agitated at certain times of the moon. Therefore in Ecclesiasticus 27:12 it is said: "A holy man continues in wisdom as the sun; but a fool is changed as the moon." The Church however is constant in faith, doctrine, morals, persecutions, martyrdoms; hence she presses the moon under her feet. The moon therefore here is set forth not as supporting the woman (for how could it support what itself is most wandering, variable, errant, and unstable?), but as trodden underfoot by the woman. For this is what the phrase "and the moon under her feet" signifies, and so to the sun here, which is above, the moon placed below is opposed. The sun therefore is here taken in a good sense, but the moon in a bad sense, and it signifies sublunary things, variable, fleeting, and set in perpetual motion, flux and reflux. For the discourse here is about the war, indeed the duel of the Church with the dragon: but the dragon's weapons are earthly and sublunary — either enticements or plagues, which he either promises, or threatens and inflicts on the faithful; all these together with the moon most pure, most abundantly endowed with all virtues and graces, and Queen of Angels and of men.
And on Her Head a Crown of Twelve Stars
Namely the twelve Apostles, who shone forth like stars for the Church, and that on the head, that is, at the beginning of the Christian Church: thus the Fathers and Interpreters everywhere. The Arabic version renders it, and twelve stars a crown upon her head. Viegas notes here in section 7 that the twelve Apostles were prefigured, first, in the twelve Patriarchs and tribes of Israel; secondly, in the twelve pillars which Moses set up when ratifying the covenant between God and the people, Exodus xxiv, 4; thirdly, in the twelve fountains of Elim, Exodus xv, 27; fourthly, in the twelve gems which were on the Rational of the high priest, Exodus xxviii, 17; fifthly, in the twelve loaves of proposition, Leviticus xxiv, 5; sixthly, in the twelve spies whom Moses sent into Canaan, Numbers xiii, 3; seventhly, in the twelve stones which Joshua set up as a sign of the Jordan being crossed dry-shod, Joshua iv, 4; eighthly, in the twelve bronze oxen upon which Solomon placed the bronze sea, 1 Kings vii, 25; ninthly, in the twelve little lions surrounding Solomon's throne, 1 Kings x, 20; tenthly, in the twelve stars here, and in the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
Tropologically, Pannonius observes that the twelve stars are any prelates whatsoever, who are here admonished to outstanding wisdom and holiness. For they themselves are the crown of Christ and of the Church, so that just as a crown encircles and adorns the head, so they may adorn the head of the Church, that is Christ, by their words and conduct.
Furthermore, St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Blessed Virgin, on these words of the Apocalypse: "A great sign appeared," understands by these twelve stars the twelve prerogatives of graces by which the Blessed Virgin is crowned above all others. "For first," he says, "a singular splendor shines forth in Mary's generation; secondly, in the Angelic salutation; thirdly, in the descent of the Spirit; fourthly, in the ineffable conception of the Son of God; fifthly, that she is the foremost of virginity; sixthly, that she was fruitful without corruption; seventhly, that she was pregnant without burden; eighthly, that she gave birth without pain; ninthly, the gentleness of modesty; tenthly, the devotion of humility; eleventh, the magnanimity of belief; twelfth, the martyrdom of the heart:" which He then expounds at length.
From this passage some religious men devoted to the cult of the Blessed Virgin compose a crown, or Rosary, of twelve stars, and recite it in this manner. In honor of the Holy Trinity they read the Lord's Prayer interspersed three times, namely three Our Fathers; and in honor of the twelve stars, that is, of the twelve illustrious virtues of the Blessed Virgin, they read the same number of Hail Marys. With each one they ask her aid, that they may be able to imitate her in that virtue, and grow and perfect themselves in it. The first Our Father, then, they recite in honor of God the Father, asking from Him hyperdulia and signal reverence toward the Blessed Virgin, as the most pure mother of His Son, most abundantly endowed with all virtues and graces, and Queen of Angels and of men.
Then they recite four Hail Marys in honor of the four virtues concerning God in which the Blessed Virgin excelled. The first virtue is faith, by which she believed she would be both virgin and mother of God, and beneath the Cross she remained firm and steadfast in faith of the divinity, redemption, and resurrection of Christ. The second is hope, by which, beset in the conception, birth, flight into Egypt, passion and death of Christ, and other supreme straits, she wholly resigned and committed herself to divine providence. The third is charity: first, pure and free from all self-interest; secondly, fervent, laborious and never ceasing; thirdly, strong and constant beside the Cross; fourthly, liberal, communicating herself entirely along with her Son to us. The fourth is religion toward God and Christ, by serving Him, clothing Him, nursing Him, etc., keeping His words in her heart, observing circumcision, purification, and the other ceremonies of the Law and the Temple.
Then they recite the second Our Father to the Son, who is our hope, asking the gift of hope, that in all necessities with great confidence we may have recourse to the Blessed Virgin, who is the mother of mercy, our life, sweetness and hope. Then they recite four Hail Marys in honor of the four virtues of the Blessed Virgin by which she was perfect toward herself.
The first is humility, by which, first, having been greeted by the Angel and chosen mother of God, she called herself His handmaid; secondly, she visited Elizabeth and served her; thirdly, she concealed the mystery of the Incarnation, and, when praised, returned the praise to God, saying: "My soul doth magnify the Lord;" fourthly, she served St. Joseph, and took the last place both in the home and among the Apostles and faithful, and therefore is named in the last place in the Acts of the Apostles.
The second is virginity, by which, first, she was the first of all to vow virginity to God; secondly, she guarded it with the greatest zeal, saying: "How shall this be, since I know not man?" Thirdly, she remained at home; and therefore she is called an enclosed garden and a closed gate. Fourthly, by her gaze alone she dispelled the impure thoughts of others, as St. Ambrose, On Virgins, and other weighty authors testify. Moreover, the conception and birth of Christ did not violate the virginity of the Blessed Virgin, but consecrated it, and brought it about that, by a prodigy unheard of in ages, she was at once virgin and mother, and therefore Mother of God. Hear the Blessed Chrysologus, sermon 148: "What injury of modesty was there, where the Deity entered into fellowship with integrity ever a friend to Him, where the interpreter is an Angel, faith the bridesmaid, the betrothal chastity, the dowry virtue, the judge conscience, the cause God, the conception integrity, the birth virginity, the mother a virgin?"
The third is fortitude, which shone forth in the death of Christ, in which she stood beside the Cross; secondly, in enduring the injuries of the Jews; thirdly, in serving the Son and assisting all Christians.
The fourth is poverty, which was so great that there was no place for her in the inn, but she was forced to withdraw into a stable, and there to bring forth Christ, the Lord of the world.
Finally they recite the third Our Father in honor of the Holy Spirit, asking from Him a thankful disposition toward the Blessed Virgin, to whom as mother of the Redeemer and our mediatrix with God, as a most loving mother, we owe all that is ours.
Then they read four Hail Marys, meditating on the four outstanding virtues of the Blessed Virgin toward her neighbor.
The first is fraternal charity, by which she helped Elizabeth, and the spouses at the wedding of Cana of Galilee when they had no wine; and she earnestly desires and assists the salvation of all people.
The second is obedience, by which she obeyed both the pagan Caesar Augustus in paying the tax, and the law of Moses in purification, and Joseph her spouse, and saw to it that others obeyed the precepts of her Son, as when at the wedding she said to the servants: "Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye."
The third is mercy, by which she pours forth the bowels of her mercy upon anyone invoking her in any affliction; just as she mercifully and liberally bestowed upon us her Son for our redemption upon the Cross, and as food in the Eucharist.
The fourth is modesty, which was so great that St. Dionysius, in his epistle to St. Paul, which Christopher a Castro recites in his History of the Mother of God, xix, writes that he would have taken her for a goddess, had not faith taught him otherwise. Hence in speech she was sparing: each of her words was premeditated, pious, modest, humble, full of mercy, charity and the praise of God, as when, having conceived the Word of God and being greeted by Elizabeth as Mother of God, she responded: "My soul doth magnify the Lord." Finally, Father Antonius Spinellus, in his Mariale, p. 599 and 604, piously and beautifully adapts these twelve stars to the twelve mysteries of the life of the Blessed Virgin.
Verse 2: And Being with Child, She Cried Travailing in Birth
The Church at the end of the world, on account of most bitter persecutions and persecutors, with great sorrows and afflictions, as one in travail, will bring forth sons, that is the faithful, to Christ: so the Fathers and Interpreters everywhere. Historically, the Blessed Virgin too was tormented, not by the pain of birth, but by the desire of bringing forth and seeing Christ the Savior of the world. Again, she was tormented by the poverty and hardships of the journey, and by the lodging and food, in which she foresaw and grieved that she would bring forth and rear Christ. Thirdly, she is even still tormented (whence in Greek it is κρίνει, that is, she cries out) that she may bring forth Christ in others, in every age, and especially at the end of the world: for then, like Rachel, she will bring forth her last offspring, and as it were Benjamins to Christ. She is tormented, I say, in her instruments, namely in the Apostles and preachers, and others who are moved by zeal for souls. In herself also she is tormented by metalepsis, that is, she earnestly desires and labors for the bringing forth, life and salvation of the faithful, and would thereby be tormented, if torment could now befall her: just as God is said to grieve, to repent, to be saddened.
John alludes to Isaiah lxvi, 7: "Before she travailed, she brought forth: before her time came to be delivered, she brought forth a man child." And presently: "Who hath ever heard such a thing? and who hath seen the like to this? shall the earth bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be brought forth at once, because Zion hath been in labor, and hath brought forth her children." Where, when he says: "Before she travailed," he does not mean that this birth was without the pain of childbirth; but that both the pains and the birth flowed together, so that she brought forth and travailed at once; in a brief moment indeed, but with immense effort and torment.
Tropologically, let those who labor at converting souls learn here that souls are obtained by them with great labor and pain, namely as great, indeed greater, than that of women in childbirth; but for such and so great offspring let them bravely endure and overcome all things, and, if need be, lay down their soul and life for their Benjamins with Rachel. Thus did Paul; whence he says in Galatians iv, 19: "My little children, of whom I am in labor again." Christ Himself foretold the same to His own, John xvi, 21: "A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, etc. So also you now indeed have sorrow," etc. Wherefore St. Gregory, in book XXX of the Morals, chapters ix and x, explaining that passage of Job xxxix: "Knowest thou the time when the wild goats bring forth on the rocks, or hast thou observed the hinds when they fawn?" truly and aptly compares those who labor for the conversion of souls to deer and ibexes giving birth, whose birth is most difficult. Where among other things he notes the "hast thou observed": "Because it is granted to very few to weigh what labor lies in the preaching of fathers; with what sorrows, as with certain efforts, they bring forth souls in faith and conversion; with what cautious observation they look about, that they may be strong in precepts, compassionate in infirmities, terrible in threats, gentle in exhortations, humble in displaying authority, masterful in contempt of temporal things, rigid in enduring adversities, and yet, while not attributing their strength to themselves, infirm; how great is their grief over the falling, how great their fear over those standing, with what fervor they pursue some things to be obtained, with what dread they preserve other things already obtained." To these labors and sorrows are added the vexations and temptations which the demon is wont to stir up, both from anger and envy, and lest his prey, namely the soul subjected to sin, be snatched from him. For St. Teresa confesses that she experienced these as often as she led some sinner to a better life, and so by long experience learned that this is a sign of fruitful pious labor, namely a soul converted, or to be converted, if anyone perceives them; wherefore they are to be despised and bravely overcome. For if you firmly resist, the demon, who is most timid, will flee in confusion like a woman: but if you yield, the demon will rise up against you and rage like a lion.
Beautifully St. Gregory says in book V of the Morals, ch. xvi: "The devil is the myrmicoleon, that is, the lion of ants, or ant-lion: for the myrmicoleon is a very small animal hostile to ants, which hides itself beneath the dust, and kills ants carrying grain, and devours them when killed; it is therefore an ant to other animals, but to the ants themselves a lion. For these it devours like a lion, but by those it is devoured like an ant: so the devil is timid against the upright, but bold against the submissive."
Such a woman in travail was St. Monica, who brought forth to God both others and her son Augustine, both in the flesh and in the spirit, namely by many prayers, tears and labors; concerning whom St. Augustine, in book V of the Confessions, ch. ix: "I cannot sufficiently express what disposition she had toward me, and with how much greater solicitude she labored over me in spirit than she had borne me in the flesh." Whence she also heard from a certain Bishop: "It cannot be that the son of these tears should perish," as the same Augustine testifies, in book III of the Confessions, ch. xii. Who again, in book IX, ch. ix, describing her death: "She had nurtured her sons, bringing them forth as often as she saw them straying from Thee. Finally, Lord, for all of us who before her sleep lived united in Thee, she so cared as if she had borne us all; so served us, as if she had been borne by us all."
Verse 3: Another Sign in Heaven — A Great Red Dragon
Pliny, in book VIII, ch. xiv, records a serpent 120 feet long, which was attacked and overcome with siege engines as if it were a city. He adds that in India serpents are so large that they swallow whole bulls and stags.
Note: This dragon, that is the devil, appeared to St. John in heaven: first, because thence he fell; secondly, properly, because he holds dominion in this aerial heaven, and tempts men, and is worshipped by many in idols as a God, presiding over heaven. Whence by the Apostle, Ephesians ii, 2, he is called the prince of this air; and ch. vi, v. 12, he tells us that we wrestle "against the spiritual hosts of wickedness," that is against spiritual rascals, namely demons, who are "in the heavenly places." Thus also this woman, that is the Church Militant, was seen in the aerial heaven, not the starry one, as I said in v. 1. Thirdly, because he attacks and persecutes the Church, whose conversation is in the heavens, and her faithful, who are pure and luminous like stars. Alcazar adds fourthly that by heaven is symbolically signified the arrogance and confidence of the demon, by which with a certain hope he had devoured the primitive Church, since it was small, and against which both Jews and Gentiles, and almost the whole world, opposed themselves. For he hoped to dislodge from her grade and place her who is heavenly in her ways and dwells as it were in heaven, and to seize it for himself. He will hope the same at the end of the world. Thus of the same under the figure of the king of Babylon it is said in Isaiah xiv, 13: "I will ascend into heaven;" and of Antiochus the proud king and his kingdom it is said in Daniel viii, 10: "It was magnified even unto the strength of heaven;" and in 2 Maccabees ix, 10: "He thought he could touch the stars of heaven;" and in 1 Maccabees i, 4, of Alexander the Great it is said: "His heart was exalted and lifted up," namely above the earth, above men, even into heaven.
Note secondly: The demon is called serpent or dragon (for a dragon is the same as a larger and fiercer serpent; whence it is commonly said: "A serpent does not become a dragon unless it devours a serpent"), both because he originally deceived Eve under the form of a serpent, and thence perennial enmities and wars were stirred up between him and the woman and her offspring, Genesis iii: whence below he is called the ancient serpent; and because he imitates the wiles, cruelty and horror of the serpent and dragon. See what was said in Daniel ch. xiv, v. 22.
Note thirdly: Although Alcazar takes the dragon to mean the whole commonwealth of demons, on the grounds that he is said to have seven heads and ten horns, yet it is more accurate that by the dragon is understood Lucifer alone, the prince of demons. This appears, first, because he is opposed to Michael, as leader against leader; secondly, because the others are called his angels; for in v. 9, it is said: "That great dragon was cast out, etc., and his angels were thrown down with him;" thirdly, because in v. 4 it is said that with his tail he drew a third part of the stars, that is, of the Angels, who became demons.
Finally, Aureolus, following the order of his series of times and chronicles of the Church, by the dragon understands Chosroes, king of the Persians; by the woman, the Church; by the male child, the Emperor Heraclius, who by the help of God and the Angels routed Chosroes, and recovered the Cross of Christ that had been carried off by him. This sense is accommodative, not genuine and literal.
Red
Because he is a murderer, John viii, 44; for he was the cause of death to Adam and Eve, and all their posterity, through his temptation by the forbidden fruit; secondly, because through his ministers, namely unbelievers and heretics, he has subjected many of the faithful to martyrdom, and will subject many more by Antichrist at the end of the world; thirdly, the color red, say Viegas and Alcazar, signifies fraud and malice: for what is more fraudulent or more malicious than the demon? fourthly, Alcazar says, for red the Greek is πυρρός. It is well known that a serpent is found of a red color, which in Greek is called πυρρίας, and it is more cunning and deadly than the rest; and perhaps red is the same as fiery, as if πυρρός were derived from πῦρ, that is, fire, so that he alludes to the fiery serpents which were sent against the murmuring Jews, Numbers xxi, 6. Moreover, historians relate that dragons have sometimes been seen which vomited forth fire. Leslaeus in his History of Scotland, in the year 1558, reports that in March and Lothian a certain dragon vomited forth fires, with which it burned crops and produce, and the people therefore were compelled to keep watch, in order to extinguish these fires. Alcazar adds that, just as in the book of Job the demon has three names, namely Satan, ch. ii, v. 1, Leviathan, ch. xl, v. 20, and Behemoth, ch. xl, v. 10. So here the same number are given to him. For to the name Satan corresponds the name dragon; to the name Leviathan, that is whale or sea-monster, corresponds the beast of the sea, ch. xiii, v. 1; the beast of the earth, ch. xiii, v. 11, is Behemoth, that is the elephant. But concerning these beasts I shall speak in ch. xiii. Hear from the Fathers the disposition, cruelty, frauds, arts and weapons of this dragon.
Blessed Isidore, in book I On the Highest Good: "Demons are vigorous in a threefold acumen of foreknowledge, namely by the subtlety of their nature, the experience of the ages, and the revelation of the higher powers. The more closely the devil sees the end of the world, the more cruelly does he carry out persecutions, so that, seeing himself about to be condemned forthwith, he may multiply companions for himself, with whom he may be consigned to the fires of Gehenna."
St. Cyprian, treatise 3 On the Simplicity of Prelates: "The devil is called serpent, because when he secretly creeps in, when deceiving by the appearance of peace, he glides forward by hidden approaches (whence he received the name of serpent), such is his cunning, such his blind and lurking deceit in encompassing men, that he seems to assert night for day, poison for health, despair under the show of hope, perfidy under the pretext of faith, Antichrist under the name of Christ; so that, while he lies with semblances of truth, he frustrates the truth by his subtlety. For he transforms himself into an angel of light."
Basil, on certain passages of Scripture, compares the devil to the leopard, which is a chief enemy of man: whence hunters, in order to deceive the beast, show it the image of a man made of paper; the leopard at once, in fury, tears it to pieces and rends it. So too the devil persecutes the image of God appearing in man, when he cannot reach God Himself. Hence also his choice prey is so, as St. Gregory teaches from Job, in book XXXII of the Morals, ch. ii.
St. Martin, in Sulpicius, seeing kingfishers in the river catching and devouring fish: "This is the form of demons. They lie in wait for the unwary, they catch those who do not know, they devour those caught, they cannot be sated by what they have devoured."
St. Gregory, in book XXXIII of the Morals, ch. xiv: "The devil is called beast of burden, dragon, and bird. He tempts the human race with three vices, lust, malice, and pride. In those, then, whom he stirs up to lust, he is a beast of burden; in those whom he inflames to the malice of harming, he is a dragon; in those whom he raises up to pride, he is a bird; in those whom lust, malice and pride alike pollute, he exists at once as beast of burden, dragon, and bird."
St. Augustine in Common Sermons, sermon 4: "What is more depraved, what more malign, what more wicked than our adversary? who set war in heaven, deceit in paradise, hatred between the first brothers, and sowed cockle in every work of ours. For in eating he set gluttony, in generation lust, in exercise sloth, in conversation envy, in government avarice, in correction wrath, in prelacy or dominion pride, in the heart he placed evil thoughts, in the mouth false speech, in the limbs iniquitous operations; in waking he moves men to evil works, in sleeping to shameful dreams. The cheerful he moves to dissoluteness, but the sad to despair. But, to speak more briefly, all the evils of the world have been committed by his depravity."
St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on Isaiah: Just as empty ships do not fear pirates, but those laden with gold, silver, and precious stones: so too the devil does not readily persecute the sinner, but rather the just man, where there are many riches, that is, virtues and merits.
St. Salvian, in book VI On Providence: "Just as armies about to fight are said to block off, or to fix with stakes, or to infest with caltrops, those places through which they know the enemy troops will come; namely, so that even if someone does not fall into all the snares, none nevertheless may altogether escape them all: so too the demons set so many ambushes of allurements in this way for the human race, that even if anyone escapes very many of them, yet he is taken by some one of them."
St. Anselm in his Similitudes, ch. lxxx, compares the devil to an unjust litigant who, when his case is judged against him by a jurisconsult or judge, after some time, when he thinks the judgment buried in oblivion, again stirs up the suit, saying the previous sentence was unjust. So also the demon, when conquered, again suggests the same allurements, and tempts man's mind, which he knows to be unstable and inconstant. He suggests a remedy. But he, says Anselm, "who has once rightly overcome the world and the devil himself, does not heed what the devil fraudulently says; but firmly holds that whatever has once been rightly settled is not again to be destroyed; and what he has rightly determined ought to be abandoned, is not again to be sought. For thus, with God's help, he will easily be able to overcome the devil."
Having Seven Heads and Ten Horns, and on His Heads Seven Diadems
Only the chief head of the dragon had ten horns; but the others only had their own diadem, which the chief head also had. Hence Alcazar opines that this dragon shown to John in vision was a hydra: for this, by the Poets, is said, or rather feigned, to have been of many heads. Again, the hydra is a symbol of envy, as Pierius teaches, Hieroglyphics 16. Now as to the sense, Alcazar by the seven heads understands the seven nefarious spirits which the holy Fathers assign to the demon, namely the spirits of pride, avarice, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. And although Scripture does not describe these heads, it is nonetheless allowable to surmise that they were of these seven animals, namely the lion, the tiger, the bear, the viper, the wolf, the serpent, and the ass. For the demon, when he tempts, now shows us the head and face of the proud lion, now of the envious serpent, now of the angry viper, now of the slothful ass, now of the gluttonous wolf, now of the avaricious tiger, now of the lustful bear, of which Pliny, for thus it is said of the beast of the sea in the next chapter, verse 7: "It was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them." But I say with St. Gregory, in Moralia XXXII, ch. XIV, with Ribera and others, that just as the chief head of this dragon, so also the tail corresponding to it represents Antichrist. For he himself is the head of the dragon, because he shall be the chief leader of the devil, and the prince of all tyrants and the impious. He is likewise the tail, because he shall be the last part of the dragon, that is, of the body of the devil. He shall draw after him into his perfidy a third part of the stars, that is, of the illustrious Saints, who as leaders or teachers or as eminent above others, shone forth like stars to the rest. For from the common people he shall draw and pervert many more. "For the stars to fall from heaven," says St. Gregory, "is for some, having abandoned the hope of heavenly things, to gape under his leadership for worldly glory." Thus it is said of Antiochus Epiphanes in Daniel VIII, 10: "He cast down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them;" where he calls stars the Jews illustrious in doctrine, piety, or birth, whom Antiochus by his threats bent to apostasy and idolatry: so St. Jerome, Theodoret and others on the passage.
He alludes to the first sin of pride of Lucifer, as Victorinus teaches, by which Lucifer, rebelling against God, by his tail, that is after him, by persuading and soliciting drew a third part of the stars, that is, of the angels. Hence from this passage and several similar ones, many modern Scholastic Doctors, among whom is Francis Suarez, Part III, vol. II, disp. 31, sect. 4, § Ex his ergo, hold it probable that the ambition of Lucifer and his followers consisted in this: that having received from God a revelation of the future hypostatic union of the Word with human nature, he envied human nature this dignity; for he saw it preferred above himself and the angels. Wherefore he sought it for himself, and so willed to become God not by essence (for he knew this was impossible and involved a contradiction), but by hypostatic union. For this reason he persecuted the male child whom the woman bore, namely Christ, and on His account fought with Michael in heaven, as is said here, wishing to deliver Him to death, because he envied Him this union. For all his warfare is against this child, and the duel which he began with Him in heaven, that very same he continues without ceasing on earth.
Hence the Church has, as it seems, named these seven capital vices from these heads of the dragon; because to them as to heads all other vices are reduced, as St. Gregory teaches in Moralia XXXI, ch. XXXI, and Cassian in Conference V, ch. II. Furthermore, by the ten horns is denoted both the multitude of demons, and also the strength and power of each, that the war which they have waged, are waging, and shall wage against the Church and Christians may be signified as most fierce and equally most dangerous. Thus in Daniel VII, 7, the fourth beast signifying the Roman Empire has ten horns, which signify the polyarchy of the Romans, namely the Senators many in number and strong in power: for these once governed Rome and the Roman Empire, and they alone before Julius Caesar, but after him together with the Emperor. For the Senate was a most weighty assembly of princes, which sustained the Emperor and the Empire by number, virtue and counsel, so that, when the Emperor died, it itself did not die, but remained perpetually. But these things are mystical rather than literal. Hence Haymo and others everywhere mystically take by these seven heads the seven capital vices. Again Richard takes by the ten horns secular power, namely all the kings who attack the Decalogue, the law of God and His worship.
Literally therefore the ten horns of the dragon, that is of Lucifer, are ten kings (for the horn is the symbol of strength and of kingship, as I have shown in Daniel VII) who shall rule in the world when Antichrist comes, of whom Antichrist shall slay three; whence the remaining seven, struck with fear, shall of themselves submit, and with him as the instrument of the demon, shall strive to destroy and overthrow Christians and the Church. That this is so is plain from Daniel VII, 24, and chapter XI. See what is said there. Likewise the seven heads are seven other kings, of whom one, and that the chief, shall be Antichrist: the other six shall be his precursors, and shall precede him, some by many, some by fewer centuries; for thus shall it be explained in John XVII, 9 and 12, where I shall expound who these kings are. Wherefore only the chief head of the dragon had the ten horns, that is, ten kings subject to it; but the other lateral and lesser heads of it lacked these horns, and had only individual diadems, as Alcazar rightly notes and has expressed in the image of the woman and the dragon on p. 614; because Antichrist alone shall subject to himself the ten kings of the world, not the other six. Symbolically Peter Galatinus here judges that by the seven heads of the dragon are signified the seven persecutions of the Church, succeeding one another in order, which he himself recounts.
Verse 4: His Tail Drew the Third Part of the Stars
That is, the demon slew many of the Apostles and of the first faithful and heralds of the Gospel, says Alcazar. For instead of "was drawing" the Greek has ἔβαλεν, which signifies to roll down by the strokes and coilings of the tail, and thence to cast to the earth, that they may be dashed and slain by the fall.
Furthermore, that in this allusion (for the literal sense primarily intended is different, as I have already said) it is said that Lucifer drew after him a third part of the stars, that is of the angels, is to be taken not arithmetically, but in the common sense, namely a third, that is a great part. For it does not seem that he drew precisely a third; for from this it would follow that there are more men than there are angels and demons taken together. That this would follow is plain, because only the men to be beatified, namely the elect, fill up this third part of the fallen angels, and complete their ruins. But now the men to be beatified are not a third part, indeed not even a tenth of all men. For far more men are damned than are saved, namely scarcely one in ten, indeed if we believe St. Chrysostom scarcely one in a hundred is saved. Therefore the men to be beatified are scarcely a tenth, and according to Chrysostom scarcely a hundredth part of mankind. Wherefore if the men to be beatified fill up the number of the third part of the angels which fell, those to be damned will fill up not only the other two parts of the angels which remained steadfast, but in addition seven such, and according to St. Chrysostom 97 such other parts. But this does not seem to be true. For St. Dionysius in the book On the Celestial Hierarchy teaches that the angels are very great in number and almost innumerable, and surpass the number of bodily things: therefore also of men. Either then it must be said that a third part of the angels did not precisely fall; or if precisely a third fell, that there do not succeed into it precisely as many men to be beatified as the angels who fell; the latter of which is very probable.
For when it is said that men succeed into the place of the fallen angels, that they may repair their ruins, this is to be understood generically and indefinitely, not singly and definitely, namely that the company of the elect from among men shall succeed into the company of the fallen angels, even though it be smaller and does not equal it in number: not however that individual men succeed individual angels, and consequently that there are as many men to be saved as the falling angels were made demons. That this is so will be clearly evident to one who reads what I said in Apocalypse III, 11, on the words: "Hold fast what you have, that no man take your crown." For just as men succeed men, so too they are substituted for the falling angels, but with a secondary purpose. For primarily God created, destined and called all men, equally with the angels, to His own end, namely salvation and eternal life; and He would have created, destined and called them, even if no angels had fallen: for primarily God willed to found this universe and its inhabitants, namely the angels and men, not for another's sake but for His own; nay rather, He willed to found this universe for the sake of men: for He decreed and appointed man as the end and goal of the universe; and consequently He created the empyrean heaven, that there might be a bodily place of the blessedness and glory of men, who consist of body equally with soul. For the angels, since they are incorporeal, do not need a bodily place.
Tropologically, Origen, tract 30 on Matthew: "The faithful one who ought to hear: 'After the Lord thy God shalt thou walk,' and 'Come after me'; and to these things stops his ears, but follows sin, is drawn by the tail of the dragon, going after him. But if it happen that he who has so lived hears: 'You are the light of the world,' and that his good works once shone, this man, at one time set as a star and having his conversation in heaven, if he be torn away by the dragon to the earth, will be a star drawn by the tail of the dragon, and cast to the earth."
And the Dragon Stood Before the Woman Who Was About to Be Delivered, That, When She Should Be Delivered, He Might Devour Her Son
Pliny relates in book VIII, ch. XIV, that under the Emperor Claudius at Rome in the Vatican there was killed a serpent of those that are called Boas, and in its belly was found a whole infant. Hence also Hercules, who is said to have been born for the subduing of the most foul monsters which infested the world, is said or feigned, while still an infant in his cradle, to have been attacked by two serpents which sought to devour him. Thus Herod the infanticide, to whom this passage alludes, who likewise wished to slay the boy Christ, is rightly called a dragon; nay rather, as Arias Montanus says in his Apparatus, Herodes in Syriac is the same as fiery dragon: for Herodes is compounded from ירוד ierud, that is dragon, and אש esh, that is fire. But who this offspring and son is, I shall now say.
Verse 5: She Brought Forth a Male Child
First, because according to the historical allusion the Blessed Virgin, and consequently the ancient Church, brought forth Christ, who is male, both in sex and in strength, who is Lord and ruler of all nations. For to Him it was said in Psalm II: "Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron." Hence also the dragon willed to devour Him through Herod: so Barradius in book X, ch. XII, where he teaches this to be the proper sense of this passage; but it is more truly to be taken as allusive: so Aretas and others.
Secondly, properly and genuinely, the male son is the faithful and holy people, whom the Church bears unto Christ. For he alludes to Isaiah LXVI, verse 7, where it is said that the woman, that is the Church, brings forth a male son, that is the Christian people. In a similar way the people of Israel is called a son, and the first-born of God, as Hosea ch. XI, verse 1: "Israel was a child, and I loved him; and out of Egypt I have called my son." The sense therefore is, as if to say: The Church gives birth, and especially at the end of the world (for of that he is here properly speaking) shall give birth unto Christ to males, that is, faithful and holy ones, who shall be of a male, strong and unconquered spirit, and therefore shall undergo martyrdom under Antichrist. Or, what comes to the same thing, as if to say: The Church gives birth, and shall give birth at the end of the world to Christ in the souls of those who firmly believe and strongly love God. For what follows: "And He shall rule the Gentiles with a rod of iron," properly and perfectly belongs to Christ alone, but in a participative way also belongs to the other Saints, as St. John said in chapter II, 27. There is therefore one male, says Ambrose, whom the Blessed Virgin bore, and whom the Church brings forth: because Christ with all His members, namely the faithful, is one body, and as it were one person, as the Apostle says in I Cor. XII, verses 12 and 27. See what is said there: so also Richard, Primasius and others here.
Note: That the faithful may be dear to Christ and His true sons, they must be males, that they may strongly command their lusts, and steadfastly bear whatever adversities. For females, that is, the voluptuous, the soft, the timid and the inconstant, are rejected by Him as spurious. See what is said in Exodus I, 16, and Numbers ch. XXXVI, verses 2 and 11. In male believers therefore there abides the name and glory of Christ, as of a parent. For male in Hebrew is called זכר zakhar, from zekher, that is memory, because in him the name and memory of the father endure after death, according to that saying in Ecclesiasticus ch. XXX, verse 4: "His father is dead, and he is as if he were not dead: for he hath left one behind him that is like himself." Conversely females in Hebrew are called נשים nashim, from נשה nasha, that is, has been forgotten, because in females the name of the father perishes, and the memory is given over to oblivion.
Alcazar in his usual manner refers these things to the primitive Church: hence by the male son he takes the Roman Church, as if to say: The primitive Church bore and founded the Roman Church, before she flew from the Jews to the desert of the Gentiles. For to the Roman Pontiff was given by Christ the rod of iron, with which he should rule all Gentiles subject to Christianity.
And Her Son Was Caught Up to God, and to His Throne
He touches upon the ascension of Christ into heaven; but literally, as I have said, it signifies Christians, as if to say: The Christians who in the end of the world shall be holy, strong and elect of God, shall be caught up by death or by martyrdom into heaven, that they may enjoy God, and so escape the mouth and hands of the dragon. So Ambrose and Ribera. He alludes to the rapture of the boy Joash, whom his aunt Jehosheba carried off in secret, lest he be killed with the other royal sons by Athaliah, and hid him in the house of the Lord, that is in the court of the temple, as is said in IV Kings XI, 2. Note this passage. Aptly Joash in Hebrew signifies the fire of God, as if to say: Athaliah wished to extinguish the fire, that is the lamp, of David, lest any of his posterity should reign: so also the dragon shall wish to extinguish the lamp of Christ, but it shall be preserved in the house of the Lord under the wings and protection of God; for, as is said in Psalm XC: "He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven." As therefore God preserves His lamp in the temple burning on the candlestick, so He preserved Joash also, as it were a spark of the lamp of David and of His own, and much more shall He preserve sparks, that is the faithful, in the end of the world, nor shall He permit to be extinguished the lamp, that is the faith, religion and worship of His Christ.
Verse 6: And the Woman Fled into the Wilderness
As if to say: When the male child, that is, those strong heroes, shall be caught up by martyrdom to the throne of God, then the woman, that is the faithful people, namely the rest of the Christians and the weaker Saints in the time of Antichrist, shall flee to the deserts and hiding-places; that is, at that time when Elijah and Enoch, and their noble followers, shall openly and intrepidly contend hand-to-hand with Antichrist. Here, however, is hysterology, or occupation and anticipation. For this flight shall happen after the dragon is cast down, as is narrated in verse 14. Note: He alludes to the flight of the Blessed Virgin and Christ into Egypt. Again, to the flight of Christians into the solitudes and caves in the time of Decius (under whom St. Paul the First Hermit fled, as St. Jerome attests) and of other persecutors.
Thus the poets relate, or rather feign, that Latona, about to bear a son to Jove, having suffered a fierce pursuit from the serpent Python, fled to the island of Delos, and there gave birth to Apollo and Diana in a single delivery.
Mystically, the solitude is solitary rest from earthly things, and the contemplation of divine things and heavenly joys, into which, as into an asylum, one must flee from the tumult and persecution of the world, says Primasius. Thither David fled in Psalm LIV, 7: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I shall fly and be at rest? Behold, I have gone afar off flying, and I abode in the wilderness;" and Job ch. XXIX, verse 18: "I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall I multiply my days;" and the Bride in Canticles III, 1: "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth;" which expounding, St. Gregory in Moralia VIII, XVII says: "In bed and by night the beloved is sought, because the form of the invisible Creator, every image of bodily vision being suppressed, is found in the chamber of the heart." Whence in Psalm CXLIX, it is said: "The saints shall rejoice in glory, they shall be joyful in their beds; because, namely, when they flee evils from things without, they exult secure within the secret recesses of their minds;" and Isaiah ch. XXX, verse 15: "In silence and in hope shall be your strength;" and Jeremiah, Lamentations III, verse 28: "It is good for a man when he hath borne the yoke from his youth. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace, because he hath taken it up upon himself."
And St. Ambrose in book III Of the Offices, 1: "Scipio was not the first to know that he was not alone when he was alone: Moses knew it before him, who, while he was silent, was crying out; while he stood at leisure, was fighting. So at leisure, that the hands of others held up his hands: and no less busy than the rest, who with idle hands was conquering the enemy, whom those who fought could not vanquish. And whose works are greater than the leisure of this man, who, set forty days on the mountain, embraced the whole Law? When therefore is the just man alone, who is always with God? when is he solitary, who is never separated from Christ?"
And Ansbertus here: "The solitude to which the woman fleeing finds a place prepared by God, is the rest of the mind, which casting out the disordered motions of desires from the secret of the heart, finds consolation in God. For holy men, because elsewhere they cannot escape the snares of the dragon, make themselves a desert of rest, that they may have whither to flee for salvation. For first they reject from the heart with the hand of consideration the motions of earthly desires, and afterwards they find in that very solitude a place of rest where they may hide. For because they despise all transitory things, they do not endure the insolences of thoughts arising from them. For they desire the eternal homeland alone, and because they love nothing of this world, they enjoy great tranquility of mind. To this place of refuge the Psalmist longed to fly, when he said: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. For fleeing from the throng of earthly desires, namely to the great solitude (i.e. to himself), where he might behold nothing strange, by which he might love nothing, from the tumult of bodily things he had sought a certain great secret, a quiet mind, in which he might more purely behold God, the more he found Him alone with himself alone."
Finally Caelius Pannonius treats the same matter more copiously and more particularly thus: "The mind, separated from the tumults of the world is rightly a solitude, which desires nothing in the world, but pants only after heavenly things, as it is written: 'He shall sit solitary, and shall hold his peace, and shall lift himself up above himself,' Lamentations III. And in the mystical Psalms the spiritual man speaks: 'Behold, I have gone afar off,' that is, I have removed myself far from the desirable things of the world, fleeing, 'and I abode in the solitude;' and adds: 'I waited for Him who saved me from the faintheartedness of spirit and from the storm,' Psalm LIV. In which words the prophet David gives us to understand whither one must withdraw from the turmoil of this world, and what is to be done afterwards. First then one must withdraw far, nor stop in the borderlands. For it is not lawful for the just man to abide anywhere in any region around the sinful cities; but to hasten into the mount, unless he prefers to perish. Secondly, that one go not hesitantly, not timidly, not slothfully, not as if reluctantly, but vigorously, and (so to speak) like a gladiator, but in haste. The slothful man wills and wills not. The kingdom of heaven falls not to the yawning, but plainly to those who do violence; and the violent bear it away. Let no affection of dear ones delay him hastening thither, let no allurements of the world recall him, let no domestic cares hold him back. The chain of secular affairs must be cut once for all, since otherwise man cannot disentangle himself from it. The Prophet cries out that we should flee from the midst of Babylon: the going out of Egypt is called a flight. And this woman is recorded to have fled to the solitude, not gradually to have departed. But you may see most men putting it off, and contriving the flight from vices by counsels far too slow. 'When I shall have extricated myself from these cares,' they say, 'when I shall have completed this and that piece of business.' Not knowing how very useful precipitation is in this matter. Business is sown from business, vice is invited by vice. Reckon not what or how much you leave; be certain that Christ alone shall be enough for you for all things. Dare only to commit yourself to Him with all your heart; dare to entrust your whole care to Him: He shall receive you, He shall nourish you. 'The Lord ruleth me,' says the Prophet, 'and I shall want nothing.' Thirdly, that with a fixed resolve you forsake the world, that you slip not back, nor look back. Thus must Egypt be forsaken, lest you ever return in mind to the fleshpots. It is not lawful to look back. The woman looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt. Do not wish to divide yourself between two, the world and Christ. You cannot serve two masters. There is no fellowship of God with the execrable Belial. He bears not those who limp on both knees on two sides. He vomits forth those who are neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm. God, the lover of souls, is exceedingly jealous. He wishes to possess alone and the whole. He suffers no fellowship of the devil, whom once He vanquished by His death. There are only two ways: one, which by indulgence of the affections leads to destruction; the other, which by the mortification of the flesh leads to life. What do you doubt? There is no third: one of these two, willing or unwilling, you must enter. But this narrow one must rather be entered by you, if you wish to be saved, which Christ Himself also trod."
He then adds the four things which must be observed in this solitude, saying: "Now indeed what is to be done in solitude the Prophet explains, saying: 'He shall sit solitary, and shall hold his peace, and shall lift himself up above himself.' And David: 'I waited for Him who saved me, etc.,' where four things are taught: first, that he be solitary, that is, free from the desires of the world, with the denial of his own and that same noxious will. For to desire nothing in this world is the faithful and tranquil solitude of mind, in which the Church has a place prepared by God; secondly, His eternal purpose: in which whosoever dwells, dwells in the help of the Most High God, and shall abide in His protection. Hence at once silence is taught, according to what is written: 'In silence and in hope shall be your strength,' Isaiah XXX. Now silence of the soul is rest from the noise of vain and superfluous thoughts: in which whosoever is placed, shall take up strength for what follows; thirdly, that by contemplation he raise himself up unto God, considering His great miracles, that He is good, that He is merciful, just and holy; fourthly there follows upon these, namely a certain expectation of the majesty of God, who alone saves from a pusillanimous spirit and from the tempest of temptations: such a place God has prepared and is preparing for His faithful, to whom, fleeing to Him, He promises rest and refreshment, saying: 'Come unto Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you,' Matthew XI." Thus far Caelius, nay rather Caelicus (the Heavenly).
That There They Should Feed Her (namely the Bishops, Pastors, Religious, and Other Ministers of the Word of God Set Under Elijah and Enoch) for a Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Days
For so many days shall Elijah and Enoch preach, as was said in verse 3.
Verse 7: And There Was a Great Battle in Heaven
(In the air, namely in the Church here on earth contending and warring with the aerial powers, and by a heavenly life tending toward heaven): Michael and His Angels Were Fighting with the Dragon.
Alcazar takes by Michael Christ; by His angels, the Apostles and preachers, who cast out the dragon, that is, the devil and his worship and idolatry, from among the Gentiles. For Michael in Hebrew signifies "Who is like God?" Thus Christ was most humble and most zealous of the glory of God. Whence He says: "I seek not My own glory." Hence again He says in John ch. XII, verse 31: "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." Let preachers therefore know that they have fellowship with the angels, and are wonderfully helped by them, nay rather, that they themselves are angels on earth. Conversely the dragon and his angels are Nero, Simon Magus, Apollonius of Tyana and other tyrants, the unbelieving and impious, through whom the demon fought and assailed Christ and the Church. But just as formerly he was cast out by Michael from the empyrean heaven, so now by Christ he is cast out from the earthly heaven, that is from the Church, and deprived of the possession of the whole earth and world. For to be cast down from heaven is the same as to lose one's cause, and to lay aside and reject the confidence conceived in mind of supplanting Christ and the Church.
Again, just as Mattathias is called Michael in Daniel XII, 1, because he opposed himself to Antiochus Epiphanes, just as Michael did to Lucifer: so here, although the name of Michael is primarily attributed to Christ, secondarily it is attributed to St. Peter: for he opposed himself to Simon Magus, and raised the standard of Christ against the dragon and his worship and idolatry at Rome in the metropolis of the Empire. Peter's angels are the preachers, Bishops and Religious, who throughout the world uproot unbelief, heresies and the other seeds of the dragon. For these say with Paul: "But we preach Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," I Cor. ch. I, 23. So he himself notes 6, fittingly for his own principles; but not for the sequence of the last times, which John here weaves.
I say historically that here is alluded the battle of Lucifer with his own, fought with Michael and his followers in heaven: for that is here most clearly touched upon. For then Lucifer with his own, cast down from heaven, was made from an angel into a devil. Hence Rupert here notes that the strong undertaking of that fight of Michael and the angels against Lucifer, and the happy obtaining of that victory, are signified to be attributed not so much to angelic virtue as to the power of that most holy birth divine. Whence also David speaks not of an angel, but of God Himself: "Thou hast broken the heads of the dragon," Psalm LXXIII, verse 14. Moreover the angels themselves as victors and triumphant: "Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ." But by this battle is symbolically signified the war which Lucifer wages day by day against the faithful in the Church, and their guardian angels; but prophetically and genuinely according to the letter, is signified the most fierce and final battle which he shall wage at the end of the world against the Saints. For this is properly here intended. For this is a continuous prophecy of the end of the world: so Bede, Haymo, Aretas, Viegas, Ribera here, and St. Gregory in homily 34 on the Gospel and Moralia XXXII, XII: "For the stars to fall from heaven," says he, "is for some, having abandoned the hope of heavenly things, to gape under his leadership for worldly glory." And that this is so is plain from Daniel XII, 1. Then therefore Michael shall fight with his angels against Lucifer and his demons, by aiding, comforting and emboldening the stronger and more steadfast Christians, that with Elijah and Enoch they may openly and nobly oppose Antichrist, with whom and for whom Lucifer shall fight by smooth speech, cunning, frauds, feigned miracles, hypocrisy, threats, torments, and the other arts and weapons which he himself shall suggest to Antichrist. Again then Michael shall fight by defending these his faithful in the judgment of God, especially after their death, against the accuser, the devil. For thither, namely to the throne of God, the male son had been caught up, as was said in verse 5, whom the devil persecuted even there, willing by his accusations to tear him thence and snatch him with himself into hell; but the angels defending him, that accuser of the brethren was repelled and cast down, as shall be said in verse 9.
From this passage the Doctors gather that St. Michael was and is the prince of all the angels who persisted in obedience to God, and consequently in heaven: just as Lucifer was prince of all the falling. Wherefore St. Michael was once president of the Synagogue of the Jews, just as he is now the president and prince of the Church of Christians. Whence by the Church, in the office of St. Michael, he is called "Chief of the heavenly host, victor and trampler upon the devil, prince of the heavenly army, set over Paradise;" and St. Basil in the homily On the Angels: "To Thee, O Michael, leader of the supreme spirits, who in dignity and honors art preferred to all the rest of the supreme spirits: to Thee, I say, I make supplication." Hence also St. Michael is called by Nicetas Choniates, book III, fol. 208, "Chief commander of the divine armies:" so Ribera, Viegas, Bellarmine and others, whom Nicholas Serarius cites and follows in chapter V of Joshua, Question XLV. See the prerogatives of St. Michael which I reviewed in Daniel XII, 1.
Verse 8: Neither Was Their Place Found Any More in Heaven
This is a Hebrew hypallage. For the sense is: they themselves were not found in heaven, that is, among the saints and elect caught up to heaven, that they might tempt, slay and accuse them; because, conquered by them, they were cast down to the earth, that is, they betook themselves to earthly men, the demons cast down and conquered by the male and heroic Saints. For He treats of these literally, as is plain from what has been said; but He alludes nevertheless to the first fall of Lucifer from heaven: for then they were properly thrust out of their own place, namely heaven. There is also a metonymy: for the container is put for the contained, namely the place for the thing placed; for because the place has a relative reference to that which is placed, hence the place is said not to be found for the thing placed, when the thing placed leaves its place and is no longer found in it. Thus St. Augustine in tract 68 on John, explaining that text: "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you," speaks thus: "He prepares mansions, by preparing dwellers for the mansions. For what is the house of God, but the temple of God? Now the temple of God is holy, which you are," I Corinthians III.
Verse 9: That Great Dragon Was Cast Out
Note: Here are given six epithets of Lucifer and his demons. First, that he is "a great dragon," for the cause given in verse 3; secondly, that he is "the ancient serpent," because, namely, of old in paradise he deceived, perverted and slew Adam and Eve, our first parents, speaking and tempting through the serpent: for he then assumed the serpent, and as it were put it on, not by himself and of his own accord, as Diodorus would have it, but because God did not permit him to assume and enter another animal, as Bar-Cepha teaches in book On Paradise, ch. XXVII. And this for the purpose that by the serpent his serpentine cunning, fraud and malice, and his cupidity for harming man, equal to his slipperiness, might be declared, as St. Gregory noted in Moralia XVII, XX, when he says: "For because if his suggestion is not resisted at the first, suddenly he glides wholly into the inward parts of the heart, while he is not perceived; he addressed words to man through a slippery animal."
Thirdly, that he is "the devil," that is, accuser. For "diabolus" in Greek is derived ἀπὸ τοῦ διαβάλλειν, that is, from accusing and slandering; the Syriac however translates: casting forth, or turning aside; fourthly, in Hebrew he is called שטן Satan, that is, adversary, because he opposes God, the Angels, the Saints and all good things, and sets himself up as it were as an antagonist; fifthly, "who deceives," that is, strives to deceive, and contrives with all his might to deceive "the whole world," namely the men inhabiting the whole world; sixthly, that "he was cast into the earth," in the sense which I gave a little before. He alludes to the punishment intended by God for the serpent, because it had deceived Eve, in Genesis III, 14: "Upon thy breast shalt thou go," that is, thou shalt creep upon the earth. By which is signified first, that the demon shall be conquered and laid low by the strong and steadfast Saints at the end of the world; secondly, that with all his cunning he shall never be able to raise himself up from the earth, that is, that he shall always remain in his abjection, vileness and misery, as happens to the wise men of this world, who always gape and cling to earthly goods; thirdly, that being excluded by men who seek heavenly things, he betakes himself to those who seek earthly things, and increases and inflames in them their thirst for earthly things. Alcazar adds that the devil was cast down by Christ from the honor of divinity, which in the heavens he had vainly aspired to, and on earth had unjustly usurped, by leading men to his own worship and adoration in idols; for Christ and the Apostles eliminated idolatry and idols from the world. But this is mystical.
Whence, why and how the devil is called and is a "serpent," St. Cyprian graphically describes in the tract On the Unity of the Church: "More to be guarded against and feared is the enemy when he creeps in stealthily, when by an image of peace deceiving us he glides in by hidden approaches, whence too he received the name of serpent. This is always his cunning, this is the blind and lurking fallacy of circumventing man." And more clearly in the tract On Jealousy and Envy, citing that text from I Peter ch. V, "Be sober and watch, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, desiring to devour something, goes about": "He goes about, about each one of us, and as an enemy besieging those shut in, he explores the walls, and tries whether there is any part of the walls less stable and less faithful, by entrance through which he may penetrate to the interior. He sets before the eyes alluring forms and easy pleasures, that by sight he may destroy chastity. He tempts the ears through tuneful music, that by the hearing of a sweeter sound he may dissolve and soften Christian vigor. He provokes the tongue with reviling, he incites the hand by exasperating injuries to the wantonness of slaughter; that he may make a defrauder, he sets forth unjust gains; that he may capture the soul by money, he obtrudes pernicious shortcuts; he promises earthly honors, that he may take away heavenly ones; he displays false things, that he may steal the true; and when he cannot deceive secretly, he openly and undisguisedly threatens: subtle in peace, violent in persecution. Wherefore, beloved brethren, against all the deceitful snares or open threats of the devil, the mind must stand instructed and armed, ever as ready to fight back as the enemy is ever ready to attack."
Furthermore, why the devil is called "the ancient serpent," the same Cyprian admirably explains in his tract On the Exhortation to Martyrdom to Fortunatus, near the beginning: "The adversary is old, and the enemy ancient, with whom we wage battle. Six thousand years are now nearly completed, since the devil has been attacking man. By the very practice of his antiquity he has learned every kind of tempting, and arts and snares for casting down. If he find a soldier of Christ unprepared, untrained, not solicitous and watching with the whole heart, he circumvents the unaware, deceives the incautious, dupes the inexpert. But if any one, keeping the Lord's precepts and strongly adhering to Christ, stand against him, he must necessarily be conquered; because Christ, whom we confess, is unconquered."
Verse 10: Now Is Come Salvation, and Strength, and the Kingdom of Our God
"And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: Now is come salvation, and strength (in Greek δύναμις, that is strength, power), and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ." — This is the chant of the Angels and the Blessed, or the acclamation and congratulation of those rejoicing over the prostrated and routed demon, and over the victory which the Saints contending with Antichrist and the devil shall obtain. For they refer this as accepted to God and to Christ, inasmuch as He bestowed on them salvation, that is, redemption, grace and strength in the contest to conquer the dragon, and after the contest and victory, the kingdom and the power, that is, the heavenly and everlasting empire; see what is said on chapter XI, verse 15.
Because the Accuser Was Cast Down
In Greek κατήγορος, that is, gainsayer, slanderer, detractor, accuser, who by slanders and false accusations was accusing the Saints before God, as of old he accused St. Job in chapter XVIII.
Verse 11: They Overcame Him by the Blood of the Lamb
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb" (for by the merit of the blood and passion of Christ they received strength, fortitude and steadfastness to resist and to conquer), "and by the word of their testimony," — because, namely, steadfastly and by preaching, and by dying for their faith and their preaching, they bore witness to Christ against Antichrist.
And They Loved Not Their Lives Unto Death
As if to say: Because they bravely exposed their soul, that is their life, to death for the faith. This is meiosis, or litotes: for less is said, and more is signified, as if to say: They did not love their life, that is, their soul, to such an extent that they even exposed it for Christ, neglected it and as it were hated it. They preferred to die rather than to deny Christ, choosing rather to be despoiled of life than of Christ and the confession of Christ. Wrongly therefore do some theologians gather from this passage that the angels received grace and victory, and consequently glory and crown, from the blood and merits of Christ. For John speaks of men, not of angels.
Excellently does St. Augustine say in Sentences, sent. 374: "Whoever loves himself and not God does not love himself. And whoever loves God and not himself does indeed love himself. For since he cannot live of himself, by loving himself he certainly dies. When therefore He is loved by whom one lives, by not loving oneself one loves oneself the more, for one does not love oneself for this reason: that one may love Him by whom one lives." Whoever therefore loves both God and himself must be lavish with his own life and self. This is what Christ says in Luke IX, 24: "Whoever would save his soul shall lose it; for whoever loses his soul for My sake shall save it." Whoever therefore desires to save himself and to love God, and in turn to be loved and made blessed by Him, let him reckon himself lost for God's sake, and give himself as prey to labors, racks, crosses, and deaths, even as Christ gave Himself as prey for the same. This the nobility of God, of charity, of blessedness, and of the eternal reward demands.
Verse 12: Therefore Rejoice, O Heavens — Woe to the Earth and the Sea
As if to say: Both the universal Church which is in the heavens rejoices, and the individual faithful within her, says Alcazar. For to the blessed Church belongs this attribute proper to the sun alone: "To all and to each." For just as the sun illuminates, gladdens, and warms all and each one; and so all as each, and each as all: so too the felicity and joy, as well as the glory of the Church Triumphant, belongs to each and to all: for all goods and joys there, being among friends, indeed among the dearest of friends, are common to all and to each. Secondly, more simply, by personification the heavens are here invited to rejoice, in order to signify that this joy will be so great, so ample, and so universal, that the heavens themselves will seem to exult. See the comments at chapter V, verse 13.
Woe to the Earth and the Sea
(It alludes to sea dragons and land dragons, which are wont to infest both seas and lands), for the devil has descended to you, having great wrath, — that is, "woe to those dwelling on the earth and to those dwelling in the sea!" as some Greek codices read. The sense is, as if to say: The devil, seeing himself conquered and laid low by the Heroes and Martyrs, and by Elijah and Enoch, and as it were cast down from heaven, will be enraged, and will vomit out his wrath upon the rest of mankind, who dwell on the earth or in the islands, so that he seems to breathe out smoke and flames upon them.
Knowing That He Has but a Short Time
Namely three and a half years, as will be evident from verse 14. From this it is clear that these things look to the end of the world and to the times of Antichrist. Thus they say that the hawks in Norway swoop down upon their prey most swiftly, because they have only three hours of daylight in which they can fly and seize prey: they hasten therefore, because they sense the day growing old. The same will the devil do, who is the hawk of the north, at the end of the world.
To this point pertains what we read in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chap. 25: "A certain brother sought out Abbot Sisoes, saying: Do you think, Abba, that the devil now persecutes us as he did the ancients? He answered: He persecutes men of our age more, because the kinds of punishments are drawing near, where he with his legions is constrained. Since he knows the lake where he is to burn in fire and sulphur, therefore he assails men. Yet he does not deign to attack the weak, whom he can quickly overthrow whenever he wishes; but he sets himself more to supplant the strong and the great by various precipices. In the same place Abbot Abraham said skillfully: Demons do not fight with us, because we do their wills; but our own wills have become demons to us, and they trouble us." And Abbot Achilles, when asked how the demons could prevail against us, answered: "Through our own wills. And he added, saying: The trees of Lebanon said: How great and tall we are, and yet we are cut down by the smallest iron tool! Let us therefore give nothing of ourselves to it, and it will not be able to cut us. So men came, and made the handle of the axe out of those very trees, and thus cut them down. The trees therefore are souls; the axe, the devil; the handle, our will. By our evil wills therefore we are cut down."
Verse 13: The Dragon Persecuted the Woman
Alcazar thinks that here is signified the first persecution of the Church, which Nero waged against the woman, that is, the Roman Church. But here it concerns the last times, and the persecution that Antichrist will stir up.
Verse 14: Two Wings of a Great Eagle Were Given to the Woman
First, Primasius: The eagle, he says, is a symbol of wisdom; hence its two wings are the two Testaments, New and Old, which raise us up by teaching us to wisdom. Hence again, properly the two wings are the two principal effects of Sacred Scripture and of wisdom, namely fear of guilt and damnation, and love of God and of salvation. For this fear and this love will spur the faithful to flee the persecution of Antichrist, and to hide themselves in the deserts. From this fear and love will issue two other acts of wisdom as if two wings, namely contempt of temporal things, and esteem and desire for divine and eternal things. For by these wings spiritual men, withdrawn from contagion with earthly things, are borne aloft, leave behind in persecution and lavish all their wealth, flee the dangers of sins, seek hiding-places, and seek true consolation in God alone. For it is the act and effect of wisdom to esteem each thing for what it truly is, namely to esteem small things as small, great things as great, temporal things as temporal, eternal things as eternal. Hence again Victorinus and Ticonius say: The two wings will be preachers of wisdom and truth, especially Elijah and Enoch. So in Exodus chapter 19, verse 4, by the wings of eagles many understand the Prophets and preachers, especially Moses and Aaron: so Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Hilary, Basil, and others. For these preachers will persuade and inspirit the faithful to flee into the deserts and caves. This sense is very apt: for by these actions as if by wings, we are lifted up above the dragon who pursues us on earth, and we escape to God.
Secondly, Richard: The two wings, he says, are the active and contemplative life.
Thirdly, Aretas: The two wings, he says, are the love of God and the love of neighbor.
Fourthly, Ribera: The two wings are the desire for the glory of God, and zeal for innocence and a holy life.
Fifthly, Alcazar: Just as the twelve stars on the woman's head are the twelve Apostles: so the two wings are Paul and Barnabas, with whom the primitive Church was adorned and equipped, that she might boldly bear herself into the desert of Gentility, and that by the command and leading of the Holy Spirit, as is said in Acts xiii, 2 and 46. But that this is rather rhetorical than literal he himself notes at the end, which Alcazar himself finally admits.
Furthermore these wings are like the wings of an eagle: first, because not by compulsion, nor from fear, but spontaneously and willingly, like the eagle, and out of love of God, does the Church fly; secondly, because like the eagle she gazes upon the Sun of Justice, that is God, with the unaverted eyes of her mind; thirdly, because by her converse she is lifted on high, and is not cast down by any persecution; fourthly, because as the flight of the eagle is the loftiest, so it is also the swiftest: such too is the flight of the Church; fifthly, because of the Church it is said in Psalm 102:5: "Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's;" and in Isaiah xL, 31: "They that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take wings like eagles;" see what is said there.
Epiphanius disputes, in Heresies 78, whether the Blessed Virgin truly died, or whether she was rather translated by rapture into heaven like Elijah and Enoch, and brings forward testimonies of Sacred Scripture for both sides. For the affirmative side, that Simeon foretold a sword would pierce her soul: for the negative, that here she is said to have been given wings, by which she fled into the desert. But Epiphanius does not resolutely interpose his own judgment here, knowing well that from both Scripture passages nothing can be defined in this question. Now it is certain that she did die, and that a little later, raised up, she ascended into heaven: for this the Church professes and celebrates in the Feast of her Assumption.
Where She Is Nourished (Drawn Out and Far Removed) from the Face of the Serpent
Otherwise Ribera: for he thinks there is here a hyperbaton. For the phrase "from the face of the serpent" should be connected with "that she might fly," not with "she is nourished," and so the sentence should be ordered thus: "To the woman were given two wings, that she might fly from the face of the serpent into the desert, into her place, where she is nourished," etc.
Where She Is Nourished for a Time, and Times, and Half a Time
That is, for a year, for two years, and a half year, namely for three and a half years, or for 42 months, as he said in chapter xi, verse 2; or for 1260 days, as he said in chapter xi, verse 3. Thus "time" is put for "year" in Daniel iv, 20 and 29, and Daniel vii, 25, to which place John here alludes: see what is said there.
Therefore at the end of the world the Church, that is the assembly of the faithful, will be nourished in the wilderness by the Pastors with the word of God throughout the entire time of Antichrist, and of Elijah and Enoch contending against him. In a similar way the Synagogue was nourished by Mattathias and the Maccabees in the desert, fleeing the persecution of Antiochus, 1 Maccabees 2:29. Less correctly therefore do Ambrose, Primasius, and certain others take "a time and times and half a time" as the whole time which flows from Christ to the end of the world.
Mystically, Haymo, and from him Pannonius: "The desert place, they say, are the hearts of the Saints far removed from these earthly desires; for first they cast down within themselves the disordered motions of desires, and, having put to flight every kind of delight, they make themselves a desert of quietude. For this is what the desert is: the flight from delights and from every bodily pleasure. In which sense the just man speaks in the Prophet, saying: In a desert and waterless land, so in holiness have I appeared to Thee, that I might see Thy power and Thy glory, Psalm lxii. A desert and waterless land is where not even the necessities of life are at hand: expressing that the life of the Saints in this world will be so straitened, that not even the necessities of life are at hand for them: who put away from themselves all the delights of the flesh, that they may become as the desert, where nothing is found which would even relieve necessity. And he who is of this sort, and so orders his life, desires continually to behold the power of God and His glory. Which alone is his refuge and protection in all the persecutions of the world. There is also great consolation to the just man, because while he does not love the evils of this world, but desires only the eternal homeland, he enjoys great tranquility of mind: in which solitude he holds the place which is found by those who seek in the desert of mind; to whom it is said by the Psalmist: Be Thou unto me a God my protector, and a place of refuge, that Thou mayest save me. The desert therefore is the renunciation of worldly pleasure, by which Christ wills His soldier to be at leisure. Hence you have it, that the place proper to the Church is solitude, namely so that she may be far from the knowledge of the world, and from the solicitude of secular cares, the Lord saying: Be not solicitous for your soul what you shall eat, nor for your body what you shall put on, Matthew vi. And Peter says: Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you, 1 Peter v, 7."
Morally, John here teaches that the faithful in persecution ought to be steadfast and long-suffering. For many have overcome the sharpness of persecution, but have been overcome by its duration. Excellently Theodore the Studite in the Catechetical Address to the dispersed brethren, which is recited by Cardinal Baronius, in the year of Christ 818, exhorts them to constancy in the persecution of Leo the Armenian, the Iconoclast Emperor, which had already lasted four years, just as this persecution of Antichrist will likewise last, thus: "Let not the duration of the persecution disturb you in the least; we have not endured many years, as the ancient Confessors did. That seed of Abraham, to whom the inheritance of the Holy Land had been promised by God's blessing, God permitted to serve in slavery under the hand of Pharaoh for 430 years. The Church of Christ, from the preaching of the Apostles up to Constantine, the first Christian king, suffered fervent persecution for over three hundred years. Those that followed, though slacker, yet endured a longer time, except under Julian the Apostate. And do you faint within the space of five years? Clement (the Ancyran Martyr with Agathangelus) was a man of many contests, in perpetual martyrdom for twenty-eight years. And you fail within a few years? Have you not heard the patience of Job? Was he not vexed with a grievous ulcer for fifteen years and more, besides the other mournful misfortunes that were added? and this, although he was conscious of no wicked deed, but rather of very many praiseworthy ones. What does the oracle answer him? That you may appear just, it says. Let us still bear up, O valiant soldiers of Christ. The days pass like a shadow." So too the Blessed Thomas More, to his wife when she tempted him to approve the king's unlawful marriage: "What are twenty years of royal favor, or of hatred and persecution, compared to the eternity of the joys of heaven, and the torments of hell?"
Verse 15: The Serpent Cast Water as a River After the Woman
The Arabic: a river of water. Parabolically it alludes to whales and other fish, which spew up masses and as it were mountains of water: such above all others is that one which is called "quonimo," that is, the blower, which by blowing emits so great an abundance of water that it even sinks the keels of those sailing, as Rondeletius testifies, book XVIII, chap. 14. Furthermore Ribera probably judges that these waters which the dragon spewed out were like a wave that would roll up the woman and draw her to the dragon. For the dragon wished to draw the woman to himself and devour her; this seems to be signified when it is said: "That he might cause her to be dragged by the river." For thus the whale spews out waters, and with them rolls up other fish and draws them to itself, that it may devour them. Yet others more simply judge that the dragon emitted this river after the woman, in order to submerge her in it (for this is signified by "water as a river," since rivers on land do not stir up such waves as to draw distant persons), and thus "he might cause her to be dragged," that is, swallowed up, "by the river." For in Greek it is elegantly said in one word, ἵνα ποταμοφόρητον ποιήσῃ, that is, that he might cause her to be carried off and snatched away by the river, as Vatablus, Erasmus and others render it; for it was sufficient for the dragon, in his rage and envy, to drown and destroy the woman, whether it were done by himself or by his river.
Now by this parable of the water and the river is signified the throng and violence of the persecutors, namely the army which Antichrist will send out, that the faithful who had fled to the mountains and solitudes should there be searched out, pursued, and either captured or slain. Thus elsewhere often the inundation of waters signifies sharp tribulation and persecution, as in Psalm 68, verse 2: "Save me, O God, for the waters have come in even unto my soul. I am stuck fast in the mire of the deep, and there is no sure standing; I am come into the depth of the sea, and a tempest hath overwhelmed me." And Psalm 123, verse 4: "Perhaps the water had swallowed us up." So Ticonius, Andreas, Bede, Primasius, Ansbertus, and Haymo.
Otherwise Alcazar: for by this river he understands Nero, who stirred up the first and most savage persecution against the Christians; but with God protecting them, soon Nero was slain, and as it were swallowed up by the earth. For Nero was a magician, and therefore took delight in Simon Magus and others like him, so much so that Pliny writes of him, book XXX, chap. 2: "He was the greatest of all sorcerers who ever existed, who consulted demons about any suspicion whatsoever;" he himself therefore was the instrument and river of the dragon. But these things look not to the times of Nero, but to the last times of the world.
Verse 16: The Earth Helped the Woman and Swallowed Up the River
As if to say: God and the angels guarding the woman, that is the Church, brought it about that the earth opened itself by a chasm, and swallowed up the persecutors sent by Antichrist, as of old it opened itself and swallowed up Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers xvi, 31. Truly St. Hilary says: "This the Church has as proper to herself: that while she suffers persecution, she flourishes; while she is oppressed, she grows; while she is despised, she persists; while she is wounded, she lives; while she is reproved, she understands. Then she stands, when she seems to be overcome."
Verse 17: The Dragon Made War with the Rest of Her Seed
"And the dragon was angry at the woman, and went to make war with the rest of her seed," — with the rest, namely, who had not fled, nor hidden themselves in the solitudes, either because they were further removed from the royal seat and from the proper dominion of Antichrist, so that they thought his fury would not reach them; or because they were more steadfast and more spirited, or had become such by the example of others, especially of the Martyrs, and therefore had not fled, but had remained, so as to resist Antichrist, and to embrace martyrdom if it were offered. Furthermore this battle is that very one which he stirred up by the beast of the sea and the beast of the earth, of which the next chapter speaks. For this reason it is presently added that the dragon stood upon the sand of the sea, that is, on the seashore between sea and land, in order to stir up this war both on sea and on land: so Alcazar.
And They Have the Testimony of Jesus Christ
That is, those who believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth faith in Jesus Christ, as the Redeemer and Savior of the world: for by this profession of faith they bear testimony to Christ.
Secondly, others by "the testimony of Christ" understand the Christian life: for that life testified that Christ, its author, was a just, holy, and divine man, indeed God.
Thirdly, Alcazar: "The testimony of Christ is the manifest approbation of Christ through the greatest benefits with which Christ favored the early Christians, when He supplied them with strength and vigor, and wrought wonderful works through them. He will favor His own with the same things, and so will, as it were, approve and adorn them as His own at the end of the world."
Verse 18: And He Stood Upon the Sand of the Sea
For "he stood" some read "I stood;" so the Complutensian Bible, Andreas, Aretas, and Rupert, whom Ribera and Viegas follow, as if to say: I, John, stood upon the sand of the sea and saw the beast, of which it follows, coming up out of the sea, and another coming up out of the earth, so that these matters pertain to the next chapter, and that chapter begins here.
But all the other codices besides the Complutensian, including the Royal manuscripts and the Interpreters, including even Erasmus, Vatablus, and Arias, read "he stood." Therefore in the Greek for ἐστάθην, that is "I stood," they read ἐστάθη, or certainly took ἐστάθην for ἐστάθη, so that the letter ν is paragogic, not an indicator of the first person. Now the dragon stood on the shore of the sea, because by one beast about to come from the sea, and another from the land, he stirs up war both on land and on sea against the faithful; for the beast of the sea is as it were the leader of naval war, as the beast of the earth of land war. Therefore the dragon, stirring up both, fittingly stations himself in the midst of both, that is, between land and sea. Furthermore the beast of the sea is Antichrist; the beast of the earth will be his precursor and pseudo-prophet, of whom the next chapter speaks. Alcazar adds that serpents and dragons are nearly amphibious, and therefore pertain both to sea and to land.
Symbolically it is signified that the demon prevails, and will prevail at the end of the world over earthly, voluptuous, and unstable men, who are tossed like the bitter sea, and are blown about by the wind like sands. Whence St. Jerome on Daniel chapter vii: "The sea signifies this world and the present age, abounding with false and bitter waves, as the Lord interprets in the parable of the net cast into the sea."
Furthermore the unstable and the impious are rightly compared to the sand of the sea, first, on account of their infinite, that is, foolish, number: for the sand is innumerable; secondly, on account of its hardness; thirdly, on account of its lack of unity: for the impious do not cohere among themselves, do not agree, but are like sand without lime; fourthly, on account of its sterility: for sand is plainly sterile, and this sterility is increased by the salt sea surging into it. Wherefore Origen, Augustine, and Hesychius note that by the symbol of sand are denoted impious men, as being sterile and earthly. In these therefore the demon takes his stand and hides himself, that through the beast of the sea, that is, through the pride and arrogance of the world, and through the beast of the earth, that is, through carnal wisdom and sense, he may assault the Church and the faithful. For these are the three perpetual enemies and antagonists of the faithful, namely the dragon, the beast of the sea, and the beast of the earth, that is the devil, the world, and the flesh, who continually descend into the arena and contend with the Saints. The devil stands in the middle between the two, because he himself is the leader of the war, and rules and stirs up the world and the flesh to wage war against the faithful: so Alcazar.