Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
John sees a purple-clad harlot, whose name is Babylon, sitting upon a beast having seven heads and ten horns; and at verse 7, he hears and learns from the Angel the explanation of each of these things.
Vulgate Text: Apocalypse 17:1-18
1. And there came one of the seven angels, who had the seven vials, and spoke with me, saying: Come, I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot, who sitteth upon many waters, 2. with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication; and they who inhabit the earth, have been made drunk with the wine of her whoredom. 3. And he took me away in spirit into the desert. And I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4. And the woman was clothed round about with purple and scarlet, and gilt with gold, and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication. 5. And on her forehead a name was written: A mystery; Babylon the great, the mother of the fornications, and the abominations of the earth. 6. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And I wondered, when I had seen her, with great admiration. 7. And the angel said to me: Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. 8. The beast, which thou sawest, was, and is not, and shall come up out of the bottomless pit, and go into destruction: and the inhabitants on the earth (whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world) shall wonder, seeing the beast that was, and is not. 9. And here is the understanding that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, upon which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings. 10. Five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come: and when he is come, he must remain a short time. 11. And the beast which was, and is not: the same also is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction. 12. And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but shall receive power as kings one hour after the beast. 13. These have one design: and their strength and power they shall deliver to the beast. 14. These shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because He is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they that are with Him are called, and elect, and faithful. 15. And he said to me: The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and nations, and tongues. 16. And the ten horns which thou sawest in the beast: these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire. 17. For God hath given into their hearts to do that which pleaseth Him: that they give their kingdom to the beast, till the words of God be fulfilled. 18. And the woman, which thou sawest, is the great city, which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth.
Verse 1: And There Came One of the Seven Angels
1. "And there came one of the seven angels, who had the seven vials." — Hence it is clear that this destruction of Babylon belongs to the seven angels, vials and last plagues spoken of in the preceding chapter. Therefore there is no hysterologia here, as Ribera contends, but a right series and order of things and of time; of which matter more at verse 16.
"Come, I will shew thee the condemnation of the great harlot," — namely Babylon, as he explains at verse 5. You will ask, what Babylon is here understood? First, many understand the assembly of all the impious, or the world, and the glory of the world, its riches, delights, and pomps, inasmuch as upon these is founded that city, or assembly of the impious upon seven mountains, that is, upon the multitude of all proud kings, in which the head is the devil; and accordingly this is the city of the devil, which opposes the city of God, just as Babylon opposed Zion, or Jerusalem, and self-love unto the contempt of God builds her up; concerning which St. Augustine wrote his books On the City of God. Thus Ambrose, Ticonius, Bede, Primasius, St. Thomas, Haymo, Rupert, Gagneius, St. Augustine in Psalm xxvi, exposition 2; Prosper in Dimidium Temporis, ch. 7. "This," says Prosper, "is that great Babylon throughout the world; her daughters are whatsoever imitate her deeds and her pride: nor must you reckon her a city in one place, which is scattered through the whole world." These, therefore, by Babylon understand the multitude of all the impious. To them are joined Joachim, Seraphinus, and Ubertinus, who by Babylon understand the company not indeed of all the wicked, but only of Christians.
But this seems mystical and too general; for John speaks of a definite city which has power over the kings of the earth, as He Himself says in the last verse, and which is to be overthrown and burned in the times of Antichrist by ten kings, as he says at verse 16. And how can it agree with the company of the impious what is said in chapter 18, verse 9, concerning the overthrown Babylon: "And the kings of the earth shall weep and bewail themselves over her, who have committed fornication with her, and lived in delicacies, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of her torments." For these kings will be of the company of the impious; how then will they look from afar upon the burning of Babylon and bewail it, if Babylon is the company of the impious, and consequently includes in herself these very kings? Again, how can what is said here, in verse 16, of equally impious kings, be said of the company of the impious: "These shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire"? For these kings will be from the company of the impious: how then can they hate, desolate, burn, and devour her?
Secondly, Aureolus by Babylon understands Saracenism, that is, the sect of Mohammed, which is most foul, teaches fornication and every kind of disgrace: hence it permits each man as many wives as he can support. By the beast he understands the Sultan of Egypt, who was despoiled by the Sultan of the Turks then residing in Persia, of his kingdom, namely Syria and Egypt. Babylon fell, that is, Saracenism in Syria, when the Christians in the year of Christ 1100, having defeated the Saracens, recovered the Holy Land.
Thirdly, Aretas and Caponsachius by Babylon understand Constantinople, because this is the metropolis of the Turks, the enemies of Christ and of the Church, and "sits upon many waters": for it lies upon the Thracian Bosphorus. But John here by waters does not understand the sea, but peoples: "The waters," he says at verse 15, "which thou sawest, are peoples."
Fourthly, some take Babylon here properly, that is the city which was the metropolis of the Chaldeans; for they reckon that Antichrist will arise from Babylon, and there will begin his reign. They prove this because there began to reign Nimrod, the first tyrant of the world, and afterwards Nabuchodonosor; and afterwards Antiochus Epiphanes ruled over the same place, who were types of Antichrist. Whence also Zacharias, in chapter 5, verse 11, saw a woman sitting in an amphora carried into Sennaar, that is, into Babylon, and adds: "This is impiety." Furthermore, that Antichrist will come from Babylon is the opinion of St. Jerome on Daniel ch. 11, D. Soto in book IV, dist. 49, Quaestio 1, art. 1; Pererius, book XIV on Daniel; and Suarez, tom. II, on III part., disp. 54, sect. 5, and others. But Babylon does not fit what John says here, as will soon be clear. I say the same of Jerusalem, which some (and Francisco Suarez hints as much in the place to be cited shortly) understand here by Babylon.
I say therefore: Babylon here and in the following chapter is Rome — not Christian Rome, as she now is, but the unbelieving and Pagan Rome, such as she was in the time of St. John, and such as she will again be in the time of Antichrist. This opinion is proved. First, because Heathen Rome is "the great city which has rule over the kings of the earth"; and that this woman, namely Babylon, is the same is what John says in the last verse: which has "seven mountains," as he says of her in verse 9; for this fits no other but Rome alone. Secondly, because John asserts that the name of Babylon here is to be taken not properly but mystically; for he says in verse 5: "A mystery: Babylon the great," etc. Therefore it signifies a most flourishing and most vicious city, which persecuted the Christians, as Babylon of old persecuted the Jews. Such is Heathen Rome. Thirdly, because Rome and the Roman Emperors most fiercely in the time of St. John, and afterwards for three hundred years, not only at Rome but throughout the whole world, attacked the Church to exterminate her. Whence to none other but Heathen Rome does this fit, in verse 6: "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus." And what is said in chapter 18, last verse: "And in her was found the blood of Prophets and of Saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth." Fourthly, because for this reason also by St. Peter, in his first epistle, ch. 5, v. 13, Rome is called Babylon, that is, the confusion of errors, vices, and tyrants. "The Church," he says, "which is at Babylon (that is, at Rome, says Bede, Œcumenius, St. Thomas, Eusebius, Hist. II.15, from Papias the disciple of St. John, St. Jerome in the Catalogue of Writers, in the Life of St. Mark, and others), elected together with you, saluteth you." For the same reason Rome and the Roman Emperors are called by St. Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:7, "the mystery of iniquity"; where he also adds that Rome and the Roman Empire will endure until Antichrist, and that the sign of the approaching, or rather present, Antichrist will be the ruin of the Roman Empire. Fifthly, St. John, having recently been cast by Domitian into a cauldron of boiling oil, and thence banished to Patmos (where he wrote these things), saw and wrote these things for the consolation and confirmation of himself and the faithful afflicted with him, namely, that, being so harassed by the Babylonians, that is, the Roman Emperors, they would see God their avenger, who would burn Babylon with fire: therefore Babylon here is Heathen Rome.
This is the opinion, first, of St. Jerome on that verse of Isaiah 14, The city of vanity is broken down: "It will be ground down," he says, "the city of vanity, or every city, or the spiritual Babylon, which sits clothed in purple upon seven mountains, whose punishments we read of in the Apocalypse of St. John. Beautifully has he called it the city of vanity. For if of heaven and earth, and all that is earthly, it is said: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity; how much more must this be said of one city, which is a small part of the whole world?" The same, in the Prologue to the books of Didymus on the Holy Spirit: "When," he says, "I dwelt in Babylon, and was an inhabitant of the purple-clad harlot, and lived under the law of the Quirites." The same, in epistle 151 to Algasia, Question XI: "According to the Apocalypse of John, on the forehead of the purple-clad harlot is written the name of blasphemy, that is, of eternal Rome." The same, in the proem to book XI of his Commentary on Isaiah: "But if," he says, "in expounding the statue, with its feet and toes, and the discord of iron and clay, I have interpreted these of the Roman Empire, which Scripture foretold to be perhaps strong at first, then weak, let them not impute it to me, but to the Prophet. For one ought not so to flatter princes that the truth of Holy Scripture is neglected, nor is general disputation an injury to a single person."
Secondly, Tertullian, in his book Against the Jews, ch. 9: "So also Babylon," he says, "in our John, bears the figure of the city of Rome, as great, proud in her kingdom, and warring against the Saints." The same he asserts in book III Against Marcion, near the beginning.
Thirdly, St. Augustine, in book XVIII On the City of God, ch. 2, says that Babylon is as it were the first Rome. "That it may appear," he says, "how Babylon was as it were the first Rome, when she ran her course as a stranger to the City of God in this world, etc. Where also Rome herself is as it were a second Babylon." And ch. 22: "Rome was founded as another Babylon, and as the daughter of the former Babylon." And ch. 28, he calls Rome the western Babylon. As his disciple, Paulus Orosius follows St. Augustine, in book II of his Histories, ch. 4, where he shows that in many things Rome is like to Babylon.
Fourthly, Andreas of Caesarea, Aretas, Ambrose, Victorinus, Œcumenius, Viegas and Ribera here, and at greater length on chapter 14, vv. 8 ff., Lindanus, book IV of the Panoplia, ch. 82; Sixtus of Siena, book II of the Bibliotheca, under the heading "Inscription of the Great Harlot"; Cardinal Bellarmine, book II On the Pontiff, ch. 2; Alcazar on Apocalypse 13, page 670, letter D, where for this opinion he also cites Cassiodorus, Apringius, Forerius, Gagneius, Salmeron, Pererius, Pradus, Hesselius, and others to the number of twenty. The same is held by Thomas Bozius, book XXIV On the Signs of the Church, ch. 6; Francisco Suarez, III part, tom. II, disp. 59, sect. 2. All these by Babylon here understand Rome unbelieving and heathen, such as she was in the time of John, and such as she will be again at the end of the world.
To this is added the prophecy of St. Malachy, which Arnold Wion records in the Chronicles of the Order of St. Benedict, or in the Tree of Life, book II, ch. 40, at the end; for in it Malachy from his own age onward (he himself was a contemporary of St. Bernard; for this Bernard wrote Malachy's Life) depicts by symbols all the Roman Pontiffs to come down to the end of the world; and asserts that the last shall be Peter the Roman, of whom he thus prophesies: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there shall sit Peter the Roman, who shall feed the sheep in many tribulations; and when these are accomplished, the city of seven hills (Rome) shall be destroyed, and the dread Judge shall judge His people." These oracles of St. Malachy, applied appropriately to each of the Pontiffs down to Clement VIII, Alfonso Ciacconus has fitted, as may be seen in Wion in the place cited.
The heretics object: Rome is Babylon; therefore the Roman Church with her Pontiff is Babylon. I reply that the consequence is absurd as well as fallacious. For Rome the city is one thing, the Roman Church another. Again, Heathen Rome is one thing, Christian Rome another. St. John speaks of Heathen Rome, such as she was in his own time under Domitian the persecutor, but not of Christian Rome, much less of the Roman Church. Therefore under Domitian, Nero, Decius, and the like, Rome was powerful, but impious; the Roman Church, however, was pious and holy, indeed then she had the most illustrious Martyrs, virgins, priests, and Pontiffs. Far be it, then, that St. John meant to censure her, or St. Peter the Roman who was then Pontiff, who himself at Rome for the faith of Christ, of Peter, and of the Roman Church, suffered martyrdom in a cauldron of boiling oil before the Latin Gate. For the faithful Romans are "the Martyrs of Jesus," whose blood, as he says in verse 6, Babylon poured forth, that is, Heathen Rome, and the heathen Roman Emperors. This therefore is the Babylon, not the Roman Church, whose founder, head, and Pontiff was St. Peter. Wherefore the reproach here of Heathen Rome, her condemnation and ruin, is the praise, exaltation, triumph, and glory of Christian Rome and of the Roman Church. For the more impious Heathen Rome was, and the more she raged against Christians, the more constant, victorious, and glorious Christian Rome was, as is plain in her first three hundred years after Christ. The same will be at the end of the world: many, however, will be in her faithful and holy, as they once were, both public and hidden, and concealing themselves in crypts and hiding-places. Of these, then, as also of the Pontiff, virtue, praise, and glory was and shall be the greater, in that, amid impious magistrates and citizens, they persist constant in faith and piety even unto martyrdom, than if Rome were altogether faithful and pious. Truly the most illustrious Roman Martyrs bore all their honour in the persecution of the Roman Emperors, nor did the Roman faith ever flourish more than then.
There is therefore a manifest paralogism of the heretics, and a notable fraud and fallacy, when they twist what is said by St. John and St. Peter of ancient Pagan Rome to the Roman Church, or to Rome as she now is, namely faithful, and the seat and dominion of the Pontiff, who is the Vicar of Christ. Therefore Heathen Rome under Nero and the following Emperors down to Constantine, was Babylon: under Constantine, having become Christian and pious, she ceased to be Babylon, and began to be a holy city, a faithful city, Zion beloved of God, the column of faith, the mother of piety, the mistress of sanctity; toward the end of the world, deserting faith, piety, Christ, and the Pontiff, she shall again become Babylon. And God will permit this, in order that we may distinguish the city from the Church, Rome from the Chair of Peter; and that the Romans may attribute it not to the majesty of their city, nor to their own merits, but to the grace of Christ and Peter, that they hold the Pontifical See, and the metropolis of the Church. Cardinal Baronius astutely noted and observed this, tom. I, in the year of Christ 53. Paul, he says, charges the Romans with "easy compliance and pride, which (as Jerome notes) were peculiar vices of the Romans; which also Bernard reproaches, in book IV On Consideration to Eugenius, thus: It is the Roman people. I could not have spoken more briefly, nor more expressively, of what I think of your parishioners. What has been so well known to the ages as the insolence and pride of the Romans? A nation unaccustomed to peace, accustomed to tumult, a harsh and untractable people, and still ignorant of submission, except when it cannot resist." Baronius adds: "These things we have wished to recount, that each may understand that it is not by Roman virtue, if the Roman Church, ever most flourishing, has stood as head of all Churches, and, while the other Apostolic Sees have failed, she alone has remained unshaken; and that, as of old, so always, her unsullied faith should be preached throughout the whole Catholic world: but rather that it is the so excellent prerogative of the See of Peter, and the privilege divinely bestowed upon it. For it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should glory." Wherefore Tertullian, On Prescription: "Happy," he says, "is the (Roman) Church to which the Apostles poured forth their whole doctrine with their blood." St. Cyprian, book I, epistle 3, calls the Roman See the chair of Peter, and the principal Church, whence sacerdotal unity took its rise. And book IV, verse 8, he calls the same "the matrix and root of the Church." St. Jerome to Damasus: "I," he says, "am united in communion with Thy Beatitude, that is, with the chair of Peter; upon that rock I know the Church to be built; whosoever shall eat the lamb outside this house is profane: if any man be not in the ark of Noah, he shall perish when the deluge reigns." The like is found in St. Irenaeus, book III, ch. 3; Optatus, book II Against Parmenion; St. Augustine, epist. 162; St. Leo, epist. 87, and others.
The heretics press their point, and continually cry out that even now wickedness is not lacking at Rome, and that in particular harlots and the brothel are permitted: therefore she is even now the Babylonian harlot. Rome, they say, is Ruma. But where on earth are crimes lacking? Are all heretics indeed of upright life and pure of crime? How many noble and honourable Republics tolerate harlots and brothels, in order to safeguard the modesty of virgins and respectable women, and to avert graver crimes? The Church is holy, and yet how many impious are there in her?
Truly Rome is holy, and holier than all the Churches and cities of the world. Where are there so many Monasteries, so many Basilicas, so many shrines and martyria of Apostles, holy Pontiffs, martyrs, and virgins, so many hospitals, so many infirmaries, so many orphanages, as at Rome? where so many works of charity, so many sodalities of mercy, so many almsgivings, so many exercises of piety, as at Rome? where so many wise and upright prelates, so many honest and pious priests, so many holy religious, so many virgins consecrated to God, as at Rome? where the citizens and people so devout, so Christian, so ardent in zeal for God, as we see at Rome? But the heretics, blind with envy, turn their eyes from these things, and at Rome seek only harlots and hovels: they seek and they find; for thief recognises thief, wolf recognises she-wolf, pimp recognises bawd. For these things are far better known to foreigners than to citizens, as they are exposed to them; for at Rome there is a confluence of all the nations of the whole world: in the city is the world. What wonder that in so great a sink there are foul and incestuous men, to whom, unless you allow harlots, they would assail lambs?
Therefore to heretics as inquisitive, Rome is a chink (rima) and a rumour; to drinkers, she is a paunch (rumen); to the sick, she is rheum and ruin; to the effeminate, she is the udder (ruma) and the obstacle to salvation. But to the faithful as believers, Rome is rhêma and rhômê, that is, the oracle and bulwark of faith; to penitents, she is rhyma, that is, the cleansing and purification; to saints, she is ramah (in Hebrew), that is, the height and loftiness of virtue; to the pious and solitary, she is rhymê, that is, the village, desert, and solitude of clergy and religious; to the sound and robust, she is rhômê, that is, the strength and might of mind and body, as St. Jerome says. Indeed, several learned men reckon this to be the proper etymology of Rome, since the ancients (according to Solinus Polyhistor, ch. 2, Festus, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, book I of Roman Antiquities) hand down that she was formerly called Valentia by the Latins. Lastly, Rome is rhymos, that is, a pole for charioteers, and an oar for those sailing into heaven. By anastrophe, Rome is Amor — the love of God and of heaven; whence the verse running backward into itself:
Roma, tibi subito motibus ibit Amor.
(Rome, suddenly Amor [Love] shall come to thee with movements.)
But these things, although serviceable against heretics, are mere by-the-way matters for St. John, since he speaks not of Christian Rome, but of Heathen Rome, as I have shown a little before.
Furthermore, since the sealed book, namely the Apocalypse, is a prophecy of things to come at the end of the world under Antichrist, as I have taught in the proem and at chapter 5, hence it follows that these things are to be understood of the city of Rome, not as she is, or has been, but as she will be at the end of the world; and consequently that the city of Rome shall then return to her former glory, and likewise to idolatry and other vices, and shall be such as she was in the time of St. John under Domitian, Nero, Decius, etc. That is, from Christian she shall then again become Heathen, and shall cast out, persecute, and slay the Christian Pontiff and the faithful who cling to him, as is said in verse 6. Whence she is called a harlot, because, steeped in the worship of all the gods, in superstitions and vices, she shall sit as a harlot prostituted to all the nations and to the gods of the nations. For of her it is rightly said that she is "Babylon the great, mother of the fornications and of the abominations of the earth," that she is "drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus," and that God shall judge and avenge in her the slaughter of the Apostles: because, namely, at the end of the world, having herself again become Heathen, she shall imitate the persecutions of the Heathen Emperors against Christians; and so God shall punish in her both her own and the ancient unbelief of her fathers. But if any one prefers to understand by persecution heresy, and to say that Rome at the end of the world shall fall into heresy, or some similar vice, as we see new heresies arising in every age, and that she shall therefore persecute the Orthodox, even as the Heathens of old persecuted them, and so shall imitate and fulfill their sins, and on account of those, as well as her own, shall be punished and burned by God, I will not greatly oppose; although the context favours rather the former opinion, and more strongly hints that Rome shall return to Heathenism. However it be, it must be a grave crime which is to be avenged by so horrible a burning and ruin of the city, of which in the following chapter.
You will say: How shall Rome at the end of the world return to her former wealth and glory, and likewise to Heathenism? I reply that the manner in which this shall come about is hidden from us, and known beforehand to God alone. Yet it can come about in various ways, e.g. if some Heathen should seize the Roman Empire, and at Rome restore Heathen Senators and the former dignity, as Julian the Apostate did. Again, if many noble and powerful Heathens should migrate to Rome, who would gradually grow in number and strength, as Rome originally grew. Thirdly, if certain magicians or politicians should pervert the Roman nobility and incite them to the former glory of their fathers, and to restoring the worship of the gods, etc., if they invite them to the vices of the flesh and to every license of life, in order to lead them to atheism, as has been done in many places of old, and as we hear and see being done even now. For gluttony and lust unceasingly are the straight road to atheism. Thus we see Jerusalem to have been first Pagan under the Canaanites; secondly, faithful under the Jews; thirdly, Christian under the Apostles; fourthly, Pagan again under the Romans, especially under Hadrian and afterwards; fifthly, Saracen under the Turks. We see the like of Tyre, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, etc. In like manner in wealth and glory these cities, as well as Chaldean Babylon herself, have now grown, now decreased, now grown again, often: as Rome of old now grew, as under the Kings and Caesars; now decreased, as under Hannibal, and under the Gauls under Brennus, who occupied Rome so that the Romans held only the Capitol, until Camillus freed them, and slew the Gauls at the citadel and gate which from this is even now called Portugallo, that is, the Gallic Tombs (busta Gallica), as Marlianus testifies, in book III of his Topography of Rome, ch. 25. So she likewise declined under the Goths, Alans, Vandals, and Lombards, but a little after recovered her strength and as it were rose again. In like manner we see Venice, Antwerp, Paris, Bruges, and other cities now grow, now decline. Indeed, in nearly every age we see many kingdoms either grow, or decline, or be entirely changed. Such is the vicissitude of human affairs, such is the nature, lot, and condition of things fortuitous. From what has been said, it is plain that the opinion of a certain learned man is not probable, namely that this and the following chapter can be taken of the calamities and ruins inflicted upon Rome by Alaric, Genseric, Odoacer, and Totila: for those were not inflicted upon Rome by ten kings, but by single kings; nor were they so great as this shall be which is described in the following chapter, namely the final and unheard-of one. Again, Rome was then Christian, and consequently not then unbelieving, nor so proud and rich, that she could be called Babylon.
I have said these things in order to show that I deal with heterodox men in matters of faith candidly and liberally, that I do not shun difficulties, do not equivocate, am not led by passion, but by reason; nay rather, that I concede to them what can probably be conceded, that they may the more easily concede to me what right reason and faith teach must be conceded. Otherwise I might say that another secret mystery lies hidden in this prophecy, which God has willed to remain hidden from us, that He may reveal it at the opportune time when He fulfills these things in fact, as we know He did in the ancient oracles of the Prophets. I therefore concede to the heterodox that the city of Rome is here called Babylon; let them in like manner concede to me that it does not follow from this that the Roman Church is called Babylon, since she is the head of all the Churches, over whom presides the Supreme Pontiff, the successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ the Lord on earth. If they admit this, we shall give them the right hands of faith and fellowship, and, heresy being excluded, we shall all come together into one opinion and one Church, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd.
Less probable is what Alcazar holds, that here is literally described the vengeance which God took on Heathen Rome and on her, the slayer of so many Martyrs, when He abolished Heathenism in her, and brought in Christianity under Constantine. For then, he says, God as it were slew Heathen Rome, and changed her into Christian. Whence one, that is, the first, angel of the vials of which in the preceding chapter, verse 1, namely St. Paul, announced this divine vengeance upon Rome to John. For Paul was the doctor of the Gentiles and of the Romans, who first poured out his vial upon them, when he convicted and refuted them of their sins, as is plain from his epistle to the Romans. But the other glorious Angel, having great power, who in chapter 18, verse 1, cries out to John: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," is St. Peter, to whom Christ delivered the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and who, calling Rome Babylon in his First Epistle, ch. 5, verse 13, this her ruin will endure, but in the time of Antichrist she will be overthrown. The origin of the opinion concerning Rome's eternity arose from what Lucius Florus writes about Tarquinius Superbus: "From the spoils," he says, "of captured cities he erected a temple; and when it was being inaugurated, while the other gods yielded, Juventus and Terminus refused to budge. The seers were pleased with the obstinacy of these divinities, since they were promising that all things would be firm and eternal."
Hence Attalus the tyrant of the Empire under the Emperor Honorius struck a coin, on one face of which Rome was depicted with this title: "Unconquered Eternal Rome." Pierius, Hierogl. 43, has many similar coins. Hence too Virgil, in Aeneid I, sings thus from the mouth of Jove:
Romulus shall take up the people and found the warlike
Walls, and call the Romans by his own name;
For these I set no bounds in space or time,
I have given them empire without end.
Tertullian, Lactantius and others have similar things, whose words I shall report at the end of the chapter. Hence also St. Benedict foretold that she would never be overthrown by infidels, as St. Gregory reports, Dial. II, ch. 15. The same was once sung by Erinna of Lesbos, in the ode in Praise of Rome:
O offspring of Mars to me, Rome, hail,
Adorning thy golden crown with wars,
Who even on earth dost dwell in the stable
Citadels of Olympus.
This gift Fate has given to thee alone,
That thou bearest scepters never to be shaken,
Whose imperial power
Governs all things.
Thou thyself who rejoicest to lay all things low,
And antiquity transforming the affairs of men,
Fillest forever thy realms alone
With favorable winds.
I reply: St. Benedict only foretold that Rome would not be overthrown by Totila and in his own age; for thus run the words of St. Gregory: "The Bishop of the Church of Canusium, while conversing with the man of God (St. Benedict) about the entry of king Totila and the destruction of the city of Rome, said: Through this king that city will be destroyed, so that it will no longer be inhabited. To whom the man of the Lord replied: Rome will not be exterminated by the Gentiles, but worn out by flashing storms, whirlwinds, and earthquake, she will wither away in herself. The mysteries of which prophecy have already been made clearer than light to us, who in this city behold dismantled walls, overturned houses, churches destroyed by storm." Therefore St. Benedict spoke of his own times, not of the last days of the world.
Further, the proud name of eternity, and consequently of divinity, was given to Rome by Gentile writers, as flatterers, so that she was called Eternal Rome, Goddess Rome. I confess however that she can be called eternal in this sense, because until the end of the world she seems to have known and signified to John. For Peter and Paul are the authors and chiefs of the Roman faith and Church: hence God revealed to them this future change of Rome. For this concerned their state and rank. These two angels, namely Peter and Paul, were prefigured by the rider of the camel, that is Darius, and the rider of the ass, that is Cyrus, who in Isaiah 21:7 were seen overthrowing Babylon. For Peter was the rider of the camel, that is the teacher of the Jews; Paul the rider of the ass, that is the teacher of the Gentiles. These therefore desolated and burned up Pagan Rome, when they overthrew idolatry in her, and set her ablaze with the fire of the love of Christ.
But these things are not only mystical, but also literal (αυτολογα): for they convert the sad, dreadful and ruinous destruction and conflagration of Rome, which is graphically depicted in the following chapter, into a joyful, holy conflagration of faith, salvation and charity, to be desired with every prayer.
Alcazar objects that Rome will be eternal, and not be destroyed, as the ancients held: whence also St. Benedict foretold she would never be overthrown by infidels, as St. Gregory reports.
He objects secondly: In ch. 18, vv. 5, 6 and 20, Rome is said to be destroyed on account of the Prophets and Apostles slain by the Romans, namely by Nero, Decius, etc. But who would believe that God would defer this punishment of Rome through two thousand years? Who would believe that God would punish the cruelty of Nero and Decius upon the Romans who will be at the end of the world? Therefore He punished her, when He overthrew her, by converting the Romans to Christ, and subjecting them to Him. To this I shall answer in ch. 18, v. 20.
"Who sitteth upon many waters," — that is, presides over many peoples (for so John explains in v. 15), who like water flow away, and succeed one another. He alludes to the situation of ancient Babylon. For Babylon was situated at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, as it were mistress of both. So also maritime cities, like Tyre, Lisbon, Venice and others are rightly considered as mistresses of that sea over which they look out far and wide.
Verse 2: With Whom the Kings of the Earth Have Committed Fornication
2. "With whom" (spiritually, namely by worshiping idols, that they might be the mystical lovers and rivals of this great harlot) "the kings of the earth have committed fornication," — both the Roman Senators, who were as it were kings of the world; then the kings and princes proper of other provinces, who were subjects or confederates of the Romans. For thus the Prophets call idolatry fornication, because in it the soul, having abandoned God the spouse, falls away to idols as to adulterers.
"And they that dwell upon the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her prostitution," — namely with that wine by which she was alluring both kings and peoples to fornicate with herself, that is to commit idolatry. This wine was the riches and honors of the Romans, or the hope of profit, pleasure and dignity to be obtained from the Romans, if anyone flattered them and worshiped their gods. There exists an emblem: Cupid Κεραυνοφόρος, that is the lightning-bearer, with this apodosis: "Love conquers all." Thus Alcibiades on his golden shield had as a device a Cupid embracing a thunderbolt in his arms. For Cupid is more powerful than the thunderbolt's stroke. Hear Oppian, in the book on Cupid:
All things fear thee, and the wide heaven above,
And whatever is below the earth, and the sad assemblies
of the dead.
And soon after:
To thy fires even light yields,
Greatly fearing, and at the same time the thunderbolts of Jove yield.
There also exists among the European antiquities, Cupid in place of Jove the Thunderer hurling a thunderbolt into the sea, Neptune thereupon laying down his trident, and on bended knee revering the divinity of Love. For thus Love sings:
The sun is warm with my fire, Neptune burns in the waves.
Though he was free, I made the Thunderer serve;
Though he was free, I subdued Mars without war.
Otherwise Alcazar: This wine, he says, is the wrath and savage persecution against Christians. For other princes and peoples drank this in from the Romans, learned and practiced it, of which wine of cruelty he takes that of ch. 18, v. 3: "All the Gentiles have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." This sense is ingenious, but the former is plainer and more natural.
Verse 3: And I Saw a Woman Sitting Upon a Scarlet Beast
3. "And he took me in spirit into the desert." — This desert, says Alcazar, is the uncultivated and deserted gentile world, whose head was Rome, which John here saw in spirit through this mystical conflagration of the Holy Spirit, to be converted from a desert into the Paradise of God. But I say that John here, being placed in a mental rapture, seemed to be carried into the desert, both that the destruction of Babylon might be signified, because she is to be converted into a desert, and that it might be hinted that to a spiritual man, and to a divine Prophet, such as John was, all the pomp of the world is like a desert: that we may understand that innumerable crowd of Gentiles dwelling at Rome, the splendid structure of the city, the magnificence of the palaces, temples, and senate-house, the wondrous order of the commonwealth, the laws and polity, the splendor of the senate, and all the rest, are to a holy man intent on heavenly things like a desert and solitude, which is not the dwelling-place of men, but of wild and brute beasts: where no account is made of piety and true virtue, but only of pomp, ostentation and glory; in which not roses, but the thorns of every wickedness spring up. How Diogenes walking in a crowded city with a lantern was saying that "He was seeking a man, and could not find one."
"And I saw a woman" (this is Babylon, as is clear from v. 5) "sitting upon a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." — You will ask: What is this beast? First, Ribera, Viegas and others judge this beast to be different from the beast in ch. 13, v. 1: for that one was like a leopard, this is scarlet; that one signified Antichrist, this one the devil and his kingdom: whence it is called the beast which "was, and is not," because before Christ it was, but Christ took this kingdom from the devil; it is scarlet, because the devil is the red and bloodthirsty dragon, as was said in ch. 12, v. 3.
Secondly, Alcazar and Suarez, III part., tom. II, disp. LIX, art. 6, sect. 2, and others judge this beast to be the same as the one in ch. 13, v. 1: for the same beast there, just as here, and again in ch. 19, v. 19, is called the beast which signifies and represents Antichrist; whence also in ch. 13, just as here, it is said to have seven heads and ten horns. Antichrist is said to have seven heads, because he had seven preceding tyrants and forerunners, whom he himself follows in the last place as king and prince. He had them therefore, when he did not yet exist; he had them, I say, not as present, but as preceding, in the way that Christ had the Prophets as His forerunners, figures and types, in whom He typically existed. For there are various modes of having, says Aristotle in the Postpredicaments, just as of existing. For a thing is said to exist when its exemplar, image, type or figure exists.
Thirdly, others by the beast understand the assembly or congregation of the impious, namely of the enemies and persecutors of Christ and the Church.
Fourthly, others properly by the beast understand this world, or the age that commands and dominates — the world, I say, not so much physical as moral and theological, that is, the complex of worldly and vicious men, who from the vice of corrupt nature pursue the honors, delights, riches and pomps of the world, and therefore are proud, avaricious, luxurious, impious. This world therefore is the kingdom of unbelief, idolatry, pride, and of every sin. Upon this Babylon sits and presides, and to it she offers her wine from the golden cup. This too has seven heads and ten horns, as will soon appear. All three opinions tend to the same thing, and conspire into one and the same. For the sustainer of this world, and as it were the soul directing, moving and agitating it, is the devil, and consequently Antichrist, the vicar and prince of the devil. Again this world is nothing else than the assembly of the worldly, that is, of haughty and vicious men, who are the political body of the devil and Antichrist, as the commonwealth is the civil body of the king and prince. The beast therefore is the world, or the kingdom, pomp and pride of the world.
The Anglo-Calvinist objects: This Babylon is Rome; the beast on which she sits is Antichrist. But she does not sit upon a future beast: for this does not yet exist; but upon a present and existing one. Therefore Antichrist is already present, and actually exists: in vain therefore do the Papists expect him as future. But no other Antichrist already existing on whom Rome sits can be devised, than the Pope; therefore the Pope is Antichrist.
But by this argument one would equally conclude that St. Peter and the other early Pontiffs and Martyrs were Antichrists. For these too were Popes, on whom Rome and the Roman Church sat. Again Rome was Babylon in the time of St. John: therefore if the beast on which she sat will be Antichrist, and he is the Pope, it follows that St. Peter, Linus, Cletus, Clement, etc., who in St. John's time were Popes of Babylon, that is, of Rome, were Antichrists, which even they themselves shudder to say, indeed execrate.
I reply therefore that this beast is the assembly of the impious, as I have said; for upon this Pagan Rome sat and presided in the time of St. John, and again will sit and preside at the end of the world. But if you absolutely contend that this beast is the same as in ch. 13, and therefore is Antichrist, I reply that it is true in this sense, that Antichrist is the head and king of the impious, and consequently where the body of the impious is, there too is his head reckoned to be, namely Antichrist. For although Antichrist did not yet exist physically and personally in St. John's time, as even all the heretics admit, yet he existed politically and by moral denomination; because, namely, his political body, namely the assembly of the impious, existed, and because his vicars and forerunners, who presided over this body and ruled it, existed. These were Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Decius, etc., who bore the type and vicarious office of the Antichrist who was to be born; for they did and began that very thing which Antichrist will do and complete. Again it cannot be truly and properly said that Pagan Rome at the end of the world will sit upon Antichrist himself; for, as will be said at v. 16, Antichrist will persecute her with hatred, and through his ten kings will overthrow and burn Rome. So therefore it cannot be said in any other sense that Pagan Rome sits upon the beast, and that this beast is Antichrist, except in this, namely that Rome sits on the assembly of the impious, whose head will be Antichrist, who in St. John's time and even now is reckoned to be by mystical and moral denomination: as an absent king is said to be present, to command, to make laws, when the parliament which bears the vicarious office of the king is present, commands and makes laws. For it is clear from what was said in ch. 11, v. 8 that Antichrist will set the throne of His kingdom not at Rome, but at Jerusalem. As therefore the Roman Church cannot be called Babylon, so neither can the Pope presiding over her be called the beast, namely Antichrist; rather Calvin should be called Antichrist, and Babylon should the heretical Church be called, such as is now the Genevan and Anglican, in which there is a wondrous confusion of dogmas, states and all things. And, to be silent about other things, the first head of the deformed Anglican Church was Henry VIII, a layman king, and of six wives either husband or spouse. In this primacy of the Church there succeeded him a son, not a man, but the boy Edward. To the boy Edward there succeeded, not a male, but a female, namely his sister Elizabeth, etc. Is this not Babylon? Is this not the confusion of kingdom and Church? What age, what generation of posterity will not marvel at these disgraces of religion, these shames of the Church? Will not be astonished? Indeed, who will believe they ever existed in the world? Just art Thou, O Lord, and right is Thy judgment, that those who refused to acknowledge the head of the Church established by Thee, and tear it apart and rend it with unworthy titles, are headless, indeed blinded and senseless, setting up for themselves laymen, boys, women, etc., as heads of religion, of faith and of the Church, that they themselves may venerate and worship this idol of women, which they have fashioned for themselves. For Thou hast mingled in them a spirit of error and giddiness, that they should believe a lie, "because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved." But how long, O Lord, wilt Thou not have mercy on those who err, indeed who are deceived?
"Scarlet." — This beast is said to be scarlet, not the woman sitting upon it, as is clear from the neuter gender in the Greek: for it says καὶ εἶδον γυναῖκα καθημένην ἐπὶ θηρίον κόκκινον, because the beast, that is the world, triumphs in royal splendor and pride: for scarlet and purple are the garments of kings and princes. Otherwise Alcazar: Scarlet, he says, is a red garment, that is, bloodied with the blood of Martyrs. For this beast was leopard-colored, as I said XIII, 2; but here it is called scarlet, because sprinkled with the blood of Martyrs. Scarlet therefore here pertains not to luxury, nor to pomp, but is a token of the slaughter and massacre, which it had wrought upon the lambs of Christ. But the former exposition is truer. For although the beast was a leopard and of leopard color, yet here it is brought in as clothed and clad in scarlet, to signify its riches, luxury and pomp. For soon the woman sitting upon it is likewise said to be "clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold, and with precious stone, and with pearls, having a golden cup in her hand." All which pertain not to slaughter, but to pomp.
"Having seven heads, and ten horns." — What these are, he will tell at v. 9. Foolishly and impiously Kemnitius, in Examen of the Council of Trent, part II, pp. 18 and 50, hence contends to prove that there are not seven Sacraments in the Church of Christ, but that there are just as many in the Church of Antichrist. For the beast, he says, in Apocalypse 17, is called a Sacrament, which had seven heads: therefore the septenary number of Sacraments pertains to the beast, that is to Antichrist. But away with thee, blasphemer, who assertest that the Sacraments of Christ and the Church, and consequently Baptism and the Eucharist (which thou thyself confessest truly to be Sacraments, and which the Catholics place as the first and principal among the seven Sacraments) are the heads of the beast. Add: St. John does not say the seven heads are the seven Sacraments, but are one Sacrament of the beast: which agrees better with Luther, who posited only one Sacrament, and several Sacramental signs. Finally St. John interprets these seven heads to be seven kings, not seven Sacraments. The Sacrament therefore of the beast, here is the same as mystery, or the secret meaning of the beast, not however a Sacrament properly so called.
Verse 4: The Woman Clothed in Purple and Scarlet
4. "And the woman was clothed round about with purple and scarlet." — Here is described the worldly glory, luxury and riches in which Pagan Rome was haughty, like a harlot who, clothed with gold and gems, walks proudly. Wherefore unskillfully as well as petulantly Beza judges that under this name and garment are signified the Cardinals of the Christian Church, and against them the maledict hurls this venomous verse:
Whatever half-men Fathers thou seest with the radiant hat
And the long trains of the red toga;
Verily thou seest things red with the slaughter of holy men,
And they all drip drenched in innocent blood.
Or the garment that hides the crimes mindful of these,
For its lords with just shame touched, blushes red.
Thus the impure sycophant judges all to be like himself, attempts to rub his Candida and Audebertus on all. How false and unlearned these things are, is clear from what was said a little before.
"Gilded with gold." — So is it to be read with the Roman editions, although the Greek now has κεχρυσωμένη χρυσῷ, that is, gilded with gold; both tend to the same, but the Roman reading is more significant; for it signifies the falsity of this woman, as if to say: She was not clothed with true and solid gold, but only with the surface and external appearance of gold, that is, she was clothed with gold, i.e. with brass, or gilded copper. So Alcazar.
Or rather it seems this should be referred to luxury and pomp, as if to say: She was so splendidly clothed, that she was adorned not with simple, but with gilt gold, that is double: for goldsmiths in a magnificent matter are wont to cover common gold and gild it with surpassing and shining gold. The following words demand this, which teach that she was moreover girded around with gems and pearls, especially because women properly are not gilded, but their clothes are. Whence it is not rightly said that she herself is gilded with gold, but rather clothed with gilded gold: the city however is rightly called gilded with gold in 18:16.
"Having a golden cup in her hand, full of abomination and the filthiness of fornication." — The golden cup is worldly happiness, the majesty of empire, terror and splendor, and the abundance of riches and all things, under whose appearance, allurement and pomp Pagan Rome served up her idolatry and her vices to all the nations. He alludes to Jeremiah ch. 51, 7: "Babylon a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating the whole earth: the Gentiles have drunk of her wine, and therefore have they been moved." But there the cup signifies the punishment to be inflicted on the other nations through the Babylonians: hence it is in the hand of the Lord. But here it signifies guilt, namely the serving up of idolatry and crimes: hence it is in the hand of the harlot, namely Babylon. For thus harlots by their external appearance and pomp at banquets, by golden and jeweled cups, and by splendid and magnificent feasts, derange their lovers, as Cleopatra deranged Antony; about whose luxury and pomp at banquets one may see Pliny, bk. 9, v. 35, and Plutarch, in Antony, who among other things says of Cleopatra coming to Antony: "A rumor spread through all that Venus was coming to Bacchus to revel, for the salvation of Asia," and adds that Antony, invited by her, was astonished at the magnificence of the banquet, and laughed at the squalor and rusticity of his own dinner. Pliny indeed reports that she made a wager with Antony over the magnificence of the banquet, and on the appointed day produced two pearls handed down to her through the hands of the kings of the East, valued at sixty million sesterces, that is twelve hundred thousand Philippic coins, and absorbed one of them dissolved in vinegar, and as she was preparing to dissolve and absorb the second, was prevented by L. Plancus, who said she had already conquered Antony in magnificence. Augustus afterwards, when Cleopatra had been captured, divided this into two and hung them on the ears of Venus in the Pantheon at Rome. Concerning the luxury of these banquets and drinking-bouts, Seneca truly said:
We drink poison in gold.
And the Poet:
No aconite is drunk from earthenware:
Then fear that, when thou shalt take up cups
Jeweled, and Setine wine shall flame in broad gold.
Otherwise Jerome Prado on Ezekiel 23:31: The cup, he says, which the Babylonian harlot offered to others, is the cup of the damned, as if to say: She condemned them to death, because they refused to fornicate with her, that is, to worship idols. For thus in Jeremiah 25:17, Isaiah 51:17, and elsewhere the cup signifies damnation and vengeance. But from what has been said it is clear that the cup here is taken otherwise, namely for delights and faults, not for damnation and punishments.
"Full of abomination and filthiness." — He alludes to harlots and poisoners, who in a golden cup serve up their love-potions to their lovers. For the love-potions of poisoners are made from the ashes of toads, frogs, serpents, and other unclean and abominable things. Tropologically, heretics and the like are noted, who by their eloquence and the allurements of words serve up and instill their errors and impious morals into their hearers.
Verse 5: A Mystery: Babylon the Great
5. "And on her forehead a name written: Mystery, Babylon the great, mother of the fornications and of the abominations of the earth." — The Arabic: And a name written upon her forehead, that is, mystery of Babylon mother of fornicators, and of the unclean of heart, who are of the earth. He alludes to the brothel and the arches, in which the cells of the harlots had names inscribed, as Tertullian teaches, in his book On Modesty: "Where," he says, "will be set forth that liberality under the very doors of lusts, under the very titles of lusts." And more clearly Seneca, Controversies 1: "Harlot," he says, "thou wast called, thou stoodst in a common place, the title was placed above thy cell." Further, if she was an utterly impudent or famous harlot, she bore the name and inscription written not only in the cell, but on her forehead. Seneca teaches this in the cited passage: "Thy name," he says, "hung on thy forehead, thou didst receive the prices of fornication, and the hand that was to give sacred things to the gods, bore captures." The same is taught from Martial, Tertullian and Juvenal by Durandus, bk. I Variarum, ch. II. Such is the Babylon here brought in by John, who has publicly fornicated, and gloried in her fornications, that is, idolatries.
This harlot therefore wears her mystical name on her forehead, as Aaron wore the name of God on his forehead, by which is signified that she publicly professes, and boasts of being a worshiper of Jupiter and the gods, and of pursuing and propagating their errors, as well as their vices and crimes, and therefore of persecuting Christ and Christians who oppose them, even unto death, as follows.
"Mystery." — This is not the name of the woman, as Pannonius thought, but is interjected by John as it were parenthetically, that he may rouse our attention, and that we may remember that the name of the woman that follows is not her own proper name, but figurative and to be expounded mystically. Whence, in v. 7, he calls it the Sacrament of the woman, that is, what the woman typically signifies. So also in ch. 11, v. 8, of Jerusalem he said: "Which spiritually is called Sodom."
"Babylon the great." — This is the name of the harlot, that is, of Pagan Rome; and that, first, because, as Babylon worshiped Bel or Baal, and propagated his worship to other nations, even to the Jews: so Pagan Rome did of old, and will do again at the end of the world.
Secondly, because, as Babylon was the receptacle and confusion of all the nations, and consequently of all idols and vices, so also was Pagan Rome. Hear St. Leo, in his sermon on the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, on Rome: "Although she dominated almost all the nations, she served the errors of all the nations; and she seemed to have assumed for herself a great religion, because she rejected no falsehood." Hence the temples of all the gods were at Rome, and, lest they should forget any, they finally built the Pantheon, that is, the temple of all the gods, which stands as the world's marvel as the only one of all the old Roman temples remaining, and has been consecrated to God in honor of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints. Rightly therefore is she called mother of fornications, that is, of errors and idols, because she fostered and propagated them as it were as a mother.
Thirdly, as Babylon was renowned in luxury, riches and glory, and mistress of the world, so also was Pagan Rome.
Fourthly, as Babylon persecuted and slew the Jews, so Pagan Rome persecuted and slew Christians, and again will persecute and slay them at the end of the world; for she will then be, as she once was, the head of idolatry and of every abomination. Whence follows: "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints." Beautifully St. Jerome, bk. II Against Jovinian, at the end: "To thee," he says, "will I speak, who hast wiped away the blasphemy written on thy forehead by the confession of Christ: powerful city, city mistress of the world, city praised by the voice of the Apostle. Interpret thy name; Rome is either a name of strength among the Greeks (from ῥώμη rhomē, that is, to be strong and robust), or of sublimity according to the Hebrews (for from the root רום rum, that is, was high, Rome is said, as if thou shouldst say, Height, sublimity, loftiness): preserve what thou art called. Let virtue make thee lofty, not pleasure low. The malediction which the Savior threatened thee in the Apocalypse, thou canst escape through penance, having the example of the Ninevites. Beware the name of Jovinianus, which is derived from an idol. The Capitol lies in squalor, the temples of Jove and the ceremonies have fallen, why should his name and vices flourish among thee? Still under the kings, and under Numa Pompilius thy ancestors more easily took up the continence of Pythagoras, than under the Consuls the luxury of Epicurus."
As therefore in Scripture often the figured thing takes the name of the figure, as when Christ is called David, Solomon, Zorobabel, etc., so here Rome is called Babylon, and this is what he said, mystery. I have recounted more analogies of Rome and Babylon from St. Augustine and Orosius at 1 Peter 5:13.
"Mother of fornications," — that is, of idolatry, superstitions and crimes. He alludes to the Babylonian virgins and brides, who, about to be married, first prostituted themselves, and offered the price collected thence to Venus, that by her aid they might enter on auspicious marriages, and obtain good husbands, and so by their fornication they worshiped, and as it were sacrificed to Venus, as I taught at Baruch 6:42.
Verse 6: Drunk with the Blood of the Saints
6. "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus." — For, as Prudentius sings in Peristephanon, hymn 2, on the immense blood of the Martyrs poured out at Rome:
Not content to dye the ground within the walls of lofty Rome
With the constant slaughter of the just:
When he beheld the Janiculum already wet, the forums, the rostra, the Suburra
Flowing with the deluge of blood.
The same will happen at the end of the world when Rome, returning to paganism, will persecute, expel or kill Christ and Christians, and especially the Pontiff, as is clear from this passage, etc. ch. 18, v. 20, and the last.
Yet faithful ones will remain at Rome, as they remained in the persecution of Decius and Diocletian; and consequently the Roman Church and the Roman Pontificate will remain: and the Pontiff will be Bishop of the city of Rome, though exiled and expelled. For the Gentiles will not be able to depose or deprive him of his episcopacy, much less of his pontificate. In like manner when the Pontiffs resided at Avignon in France for 70 years, they were nevertheless called and really were Bishops of the city of Rome. But whether the Pontiff with the consent of the Church can transfer the pontificate from Rome to another city, if the necessity of the Church demanded it, as Bellarmine, Suarez in the cited place, and others judge, is not the place to inquire here.
"And I wondered when I had seen her," — so frenzied, and so raging against Christians, and so drunk with the blood of the Saints. Again I wondered at the woman's attire, namely that she sat upon the seven-headed beast, and one having ten horns, with that pomp and title which I described a little before, not understanding what all these things signified and portended. Whence the angel explains these things to him, that he may cease to wonder.
Verse 7: I Will Tell Thee the Mystery of the Woman
7. "And the Angel said to me: Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the Sacrament of the woman, and of the beast which carrieth her, which hath seven heads and ten horns." — "Sacrament" is mystery, as I said at v. 5, as if to say: I will explain to thee this mystical vision of the woman, namely what this woman mystically signifies and represents.
Verse 8: The Beast Was, and Is Not
8. "The beast which thou sawest, was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss, and go into destruction." — I said at v. 3 that this beast is the kingdom of the world and of the devil, or the devil dominating in the world as in the kingdom of his impiety. Before Christ therefore this beast was, because in the world impiety and the devil were dominant. But Christ took away this kingdom, and bound the devil, as we shall hear in ch. 20, v. 3. This is what Christ says: "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out," John 12:31. But at the end of the world this beast again "is about to come up from the abyss." He alludes to what he said about this beast in ch. 13, v. 1, namely that it came forth from the abyss, or from the sea, as if to say: This beast is like a dragon or sea-monster, which now lifts up from the sea its head and back, now again submerges itself wholly into it, a third time again emerges and ascends. For thus the devil and his kingdom and power, namely the kingdom of unbelief and impiety, has in great part been taken away by Christ. For although he still dominates many, yet if his present power and dominion be compared with the past which he had before Christ, it will be reckoned little and as nothing; but at the end of the world it will again as it were ascend from the abyss, when Lucifer bound in hell will be loosed, and will receive the kingdom of the world, and will exert all his force and fury through Antichrist upon men. But he will have a brief time of his kingdom; for soon again with Antichrist he will be plunged into the abyss, "and into destruction," and into hell shall he go: so Ambrose, Bede, Arethas, Viegas, Ribera and others. Wherefore the Greek soon adds, καὶ πάρεστι, and is present. Whence Vatablus translates, the beast which was, and is not, and yet is, as if to say: This beast "was," that is, has been; but already "is not," that is, does not appear; "and yet," because submerged in the abyss it lives in hell; whence at the end of the world it will again come forth, and show itself. Wherefore the Royal Bible and Arethas, for πάρεστι, that is, is present, read παρέσται, that is, will be present. Alcazar judges that by this phrase, "was, and is not," allusion is made to Ezekiel 27:13, where for Greece in the Hebrew is יָוָן javan, which according to St. Jerome signifies "it is and it is not," by which the inconstancy of the Greeks seems to be noted, not only of their genius, but also of their pride and power. Again by this phrase, "was, and is not," is signified brevity of duration, says Maldonatus in his Notes.
"And (men) will wonder at the beast, which was, and is not," — seeing that, which seemed to be as it were submerged in the abyss and extinguished, suddenly to emerge again, and to ascend with such power, pride and pomp. For wonder, says Aristotle, arises from this, that there appears a new effect whose cause is not apparent. Thus earthly men wonder at the world's honors, riches and delights, because they do not know greater things which are in heaven; as boys wonder at nuts, apples and their toys, because they have not tasted the delights of men; and rustics wonder at their thatched cottages and their flocks, because they have not seen palaces, and temples, and city houses. On the contrary the learned and holy wonder at nothing on earth, because they see that all things are slight, weak, perishable, brief in comparison with heavenly, divine, immense and eternal things. Rightly Petrarch: "To the wise nothing is unforeseeable, to the fool all things are unmeditated." Thus Cyrus, says Xenophon, wondered at nothing, but despised all things beneath him as small and subjected, and was teaching princes to wonder at nothing. For they, since they have a lofty soul, and are placed as it were on the summit of things, judge all things small and common compared to themselves, and therefore unworthy that they should esteem them as great, or fix their mind and soul on them. Truly Horace:
To wonder at nothing is almost the one thing, Numicius,
And the only thing that can make and keep one blessed.
Dwelling in heaven with his mind, he despises this speck of earth, and says: "O how slight are the bounds of mortals! O how slight the souls of mortals!"
Verse 9: The Seven Heads Are Seven Mountains
9. "And here is the meaning that hath wisdom." — ὧδε ὁ νοῦς, ὁ ἔχων σοφίαν, that is, here lies hid the understanding which has wisdom, namely hidden and recondite wisdom, as if to say: This riddle of the beast and the woman is wise, and wisely devised by the Holy Spirit to signify hidden things: thus in it lies great wisdom and great mysteries. Others render it: Let the mind here attend, which has wisdom; for nous properly signifies mind; yet it also signifies sense or understanding, as when the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians xiv, 15: "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind," in Greek nooi, that is with sense, intelligence, that is, intelligibly, so that others may perceive and understand what I am singing.
"The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits, and there are seven kings." — As if to say: The seven heads signify, first, seven mountains; secondly, seven kings. By the seven mountains it is clear that Rome is denoted, of which Virgil sings in Georgics II, at the end:
Thus too has Rome been made the most beautiful of things,
Which alone has surrounded for itself with a wall seven citadels.
And the Sibyl, book II:
The great riches of Rome having seven peaks shall perish,
Drenched with much fire from the flame of Vulcan.
And Horace in the Carmen Saeculare:
Gods to whom the seven hills were pleasing.
And Ovid, Tristia book 1:
But she who from seven hills surveys the whole world,
The place of Empire, of Rome, and of the Gods.
And Tertullian, Apologeticus LIII: "I appeal," he says, "to the Quirites themselves, the very native populace of the seven hills." And Claudian in his Panegyric:
She who with seven crags imitates the zones of Olympus,
Mighty in arms and laws, who pours forth her empire
Upon all.
Furthermore, these are the seven hills of Rome: first, the Capitoline or Tarpeian; second, the Palatine, on which stand the ruins of Nero's great palace; third, the Caelian, on which is situated the Lateran basilica, which was and is the first of the whole world; whence on its front we read this verse inscribed in uncial letters:
It is granted by both Papal and Imperial favor,
That I am the mother and head of all Churches.
For here is the ancient seat of the Pope, who in this church receives possession of the Roman bishopric, and consequently of the pontificate of the whole world annexed to it. Fourth, the Esquiline, on which rises the temple of the Blessed Virgin Major, whose dedication is celebrated on the 5th of August under the name of the Blessed Virgin of the Snows, on account of the miracle of snow that designated the place for the temple under Pope Liberius. Fifth, the Viminal, on which stands the place of the martyrdom of St. Laurence, in his church called Panisperna. Sixth, the Quirinal, which today is called "Monte Cavallo" from the two huge marble statues of Alexander taming Bucephalus, one of which Phidias sculpted, the other Praxiteles. Seventh, the Aventine, on which are the temples of St. Sabina, St. Alexius, St. Sabas. For Romulus included in the circuit of the city of Rome only two hills, the Capitoline and the Palatine; Tullus, after Alba was destroyed, added the third, namely the Caelian, and enlarged the Esquiline (which is the fourth); Ancus Marcius added the fifth, namely the Aventine, for newcomers; Servius Tullius, the sixth king of the Romans, added the sixth and seventh, namely the Quirinal and Viminal. Indeed, afterwards they included three others in the circuit of the city, namely the Janiculum across the Tiber, on which St. Peter is said to have been crucified; the Vatican, on which St. Peter is buried in his Basilica which is the wonder of the world; and the Pincian, on which today stands the temple of the Holy Trinity, and the monastery of the Religious of St. Francis of Paola: so Bartholomew Marlianus in the Topography of the city of Rome, book I, chapter IV. Wherefore, although when John was writing this Rome embraced more than seven hills within her walls, nevertheless he calls her by her ancient name Septimontium: because under the kings there were only seven mountains or hills in the city, each one dedicated and consecrated to a single god, as now to a single Saint.
Note: These seven heads represent two things: first, the seven mountains of Rome already mentioned; secondly, the seven kings, of whom there follows mention. For these seven heads belong not to the woman, but to the beast, that is, to the world, the kingdom of impiety and of the devil, who is king in it and reigns through his ministers. Therefore the Arabic less correctly translates: "The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits; these are seven kings" — as if the seven heads and the seven mountains were nothing other than seven kings.
Verse 10: Five Are Fallen, One Is, and the Other Is Not Yet Come
10. "Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come: and when he comes, he must remain a short time." — First, Andreas of Caesarea: The seven heads and mountains, he says, are seven monarchies and kingdoms: the first, of the Assyrians at Nineveh; the second, of the Medes at Ecbatana under prince Arbaces; the third, of the Chaldeans at Babylon; the fourth, of Cyrus at Susa; the fifth, of Alexander in Macedonia; the sixth, of Augustus and the Emperors at ancient Rome; the seventh, of Constantine at new and Christian Rome. Consequently the seven kings are: first Ninus, second Arbaces, third Nebuchadnezzar, fourth Cyrus, fifth Alexander, sixth Augustus, seventh Constantine. But here he confuses the mountains with the kings, which must be distinguished, as I said. Furthermore, he places Constantine, who was faithful and a kind of nourisher of the Church, among the heads of the beast. Wherefore the same Andreas, following St. Irenaeus, computes these seven kings differently in the common way, in the manner I shall soon relate.
Secondly, Victorinus: The five kings, he says, who had fallen — that is, were dead — when John wrote this, are Vespasian, Titus, Galba, Otho, Vitellius; the sixth who now "is" and reigns is Domitian. The seventh who has not yet come is Nerva; for these reigned after Nero down to the time at which John wrote these things. But what have these to do with Antichrist, whose times St. John described by all and the whole of these heads?
I say therefore that these seven kings signify the collection of tyrants who reigned through seven ages or centuries in the world, or in the kingdom of impiety and the devil, and persecuted the faithful and the Church. So Richardus, Ambrose, Bede and others, and it is clear from what follows. For John says that five have passed away, the sixth still remains, the seventh is awaited and shall reign for a short time. The first king therefore is Cain with the giants and others like them, who persecuted the faithful and pious, in the first age of the world, which was from Adam to Noah and the flood. The second is Nimrod with the builders of the Tower of Babel, in the second age of the world which was from Noah to Abraham. The third are the kings of Sodom, and the Pharaohs of Egypt before Moses in the third age of the world, which was from Abraham to Moses. The fourth are the impious kings of Israel and Judah with others like them, who lived from the time of Moses to the Babylonian captivity, which was the fourth age of the world. The fifth are the kings of the Chaldeans, like Nebuchadnezzar; and of Asia and Syria, like Antiochus Epiphanes, and others from the Babylonian captivity to Christ, which was the fifth age of the world. The sixth are the Pagan Roman Emperors, likewise the Saracens, Turks and others who from Christ to Antichrist have been, are, and shall be. Whence it is said of him here: "One still is." The seventh is Antichrist, who is to come, and shall reign for a short time, namely three and a half years: so Gagnaeus, Ribera and Viegas, who asserts that this is the common exposition. Richardus also concurs with his followers, except that he assigns the fourth age from Moses to David, when there were Balaam, Balak, the Moabites, Idumeans, Philistines, and similar enemies of the people of God, namely Israel; and the fifth he assigns from David to Christ.
He alludes to the first kings of Babylon — that is, of Rome which sits upon the beast. For these were seven in number, namely Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius, Ancus Marcius, Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius Superbus.
Wrongly, therefore, does the Anglo-Calvinist take these seven kings as the seven governments of Rome; for first, he says, Kings ruled her; secondly, Consuls; thirdly, Dictators; fourthly, Decemvirs; fifthly, Tribunes; sixthly, Emperors in the time of St. John, of whom he says: "One is;" seventhly, the Pope, of whom he says: "He must remain a short time;" because a hundred years after Constantine Rome was overthrown by Genseric and the Vandals, and again by Totila. Whence concerning the same he adds: "But the beast which was, and is not," as if to say: That seventh king the Pope, who had come and "was" as to the rise and origin of his power for a hundred years from Constantine, "and is not," because in the opinion of men he seemed extinguished through the invasion of the Barbarians: This beast, he says, is the eighth, and of those seven, because after Genseric the Pope resumed the empire and papacy, and as it were revived.
But these things conflict both with history and with the text. For Dictators did not succeed Consuls as ordinary governors of Rome, but were added to them as extraordinary officials, to safeguard her in time of grave war and danger. Similar were the Decemvirs. The Tribunes of the plebs too were patrons, while the Consuls ruled the city. Secondly, although under Genseric Rome was laid waste, the pontificate was nevertheless not extinguished; nay, St. Leo remained Pontiff, and Genseric, in reverence for him, withheld his hand from the temples, and soon left Rome, and soon St. Leo so administered both the Republic and the Church that scarcely a greater and more glorious Pontiff has since arisen. Falsely, therefore, is it said of the papacy and the Pope: "He must remain a short time," since it has now remained for 1600 years; and that: "The beast that was, and is not." For always the papacy, however great the devastation of Genseric and Totila, has continued.
Thirdly, it is false that the ten kings of the beast, that is, of the Pope, will hate the harlot (that is, Rome), and overthrow her and burn her up; which is yet said of the ten kings of the beast in verse 16. For what Pope has ever caused Rome to be overthrown and burned by kings or princes? What Pope ever fought against the Lamb, that is, against Christ, and was conquered by Him? Fourthly, the heretic wrongly mingles the beast with the seven kings, since it is distinct and different from them, as is clear from the text, and will soon appear more clearly. Therefore, with these principles of his overthrown, his conjecture collapses, which he himself reckons to be a demonstration, and which is as follows: This seventh king is Antichrist; but this seventh king is the Pope: for the Pope succeeded the sixth king, that is, the Roman Emperors. Therefore the Pope is Antichrist. For the minor premise is false; for the Pope abides with the Roman Emperor, and both together shall abide until Antichrist: therefore the Pope did not succeed the Emperors in the Roman Empire, but coexists with them, as we now see His Serene Highness Ferdinand to be Emperor of the Roman Empire, and our Holy Lord Paul V to be Pontiff of the Roman Church.
Morally: just as God's name is Jehovah, that is, He who is, or, I am who I am, Exodus III, 14, and VI, 3: so the name of the creature and of man, especially of the impious, is: "He who is not." Secondly, God's name is: "He who was, and is;" the name of man and of the beast is: "He who was, and is not." Thirdly, God's name is: He was, He is, He will be; the name of man, of Babylon, and of time is: "It shall be no more," chapter X, verse 6. So too is it said of the Devil, Job XVIII, 15: "His companions who is not," that is, the companions of the devil, says St. Gregory, Moralia book XIV, chapter XI: "Who already is not, because he has departed from the highest essence, and as it were tends toward not-being, since he once fell from Him who truly is, because he lost well-being."
Verse 11: The Beast Is the Eighth, and Is of the Seven
11. "And the beast which was, and is not: and she is the eighth" (that is, she is the eighth head of the beast (for there was one beast, but it had seven heads); whence the Greek has, and he is the eighth, namely king: for these heads signify kings), "and is of the seven." — The sense is, as if to say: The devil, who is this beast, is distinct from the seven heads of the beast, that is, from the kings already named; and yet he is of the seven, because he in all seven, as in his members and subjects, rules and dominates, and fights against the Church and harasses her. The Arabic version supports this, which renders: And the beast which was, and is not, is also an angel of the seven; and goes to perdition.
Again, this beast is the world, or the kingdom of impiety and sin: for the demon presides over it as a monarch; this kingdom is the eighth, because it is distinct from each of the seven kings already mentioned; and yet it is of the seven, because it exists in all seven, as a whole in its parts by which it is composed and integrated.
Thirdly, Prosper in De Dimidio Temporis chapter VIII, and Haymo: The beast, they say, is Antichrist; he is one of the seven heads, that is, kings, as I have already said; and yet he is the eighth, because he will not only be a particular king like the others, but a prince, Emperor and as it were monarch of all the preceding, and, as Haymo says, will dominate and persecute the Church seven times more than all the rest of the previous tyrants who persecuted the Church at various times and in various ages.
Morally, note this "which was, and is not." For this is the epithet of the impious, and a periphrasis of their death and destruction. So God threatens the king of Tyre, Ezekiel XXVIII, 19: "Thou art brought to nothing, and thou shalt not be for ever." Whatever therefore a man may have been, if he was a man and has departed this life, he "was, and is not." But God, who is α and ω, alone possesses immortality, whose kingdom is the kingdom of all ages; accordingly His name is: "Who is, and who was, and who is to come," chapter I, verse 8.
Otherwise Alcazar, whose explanation I reviewed in chapter XIII.
Verse 12: The Ten Horns Are Ten Kings
12. "And the ten horns which thou sawest, are ten kings." — Alcazar takes by the ten kings the polyarchy, or the multitude of the Senators of Rome, who, in order that vengeance might be taken upon Rome the maker of so many Martyrs, by the just judgment of God being converted to Christ through SS. Peter, Paul, Alexander and other Pontiffs, condemned Paganism at Rome, and uprooted it according to their power, fell down in veneration before the relics of the Martyrs, nay offered themselves to martyrdom for the faith of Christ, and so at length set Rome ablaze and consumed her with the fire of Christ's charity. These things are pious and ingenious, but mystical.
Secondly, Ambrose, Ticonius, Bede and others everywhere, as I said on verse 1, take by Babylon this harlot the assembly of all the impious; by the ten horns they take all the kingdoms subject to impious kings, of whom it is said: "They shall hate the harlot;" because by fostering and helping the multitude of the impious against Christ, they will make her liable to eternal torments, which is in fact to hate, even if in their mind and affection there seems to be love and a loving. So Gagnaeus explains at length. But this sense is rather alien, improper and harsh; for who would say, e.g., that Decius and Diocletian hated Rome and the Roman Empire, and burned her up, and ate the flesh of the Romans, when they aided and championed the idolatry and impiety of the Romans?
Thirdly, plainly and genuinely Anselm, Ansbert, Haymo, Richardus, Ribera and Viegas take by the ten horns ten kings who shall be in the world toward the end of the world, as it were lords of the world, when Antichrist comes, who shall be subject to Rome and the Roman Empire, or at least proceed from it, and envying Rome such great wealth and glory, will shake off her yoke, and invade her, lay her waste, and burn her up. Of these three Antichrist will overcome in war, then the remaining seven will submit to him, and he will become the one king and monarch of all, as is clear from this verse and verse 16, joined with Daniel VII, 24. And this is the common sense and tradition of the Fathers and Interpreters, as St. Jerome says on Daniel VII.
Hence it is clear that these ten kings will be different from those seven, which were represented by the seven horns in verse 9; for those will precede Antichrist in time, but these ten will be in the time of Antichrist. Whence they are said not yet to have received their power, but to be about to receive it after the beast in one hour, that is, in a very brief time.
"After the beast." — The Interpreter reads in Greek ὀπίσω τοῦ θηρίου; others read μετὰ τοῦ θηρίου, that is, with the beast: both are true, namely after the beast, because they will follow her; with the beast, because they will obey her: so Ribera. What this beast is I have said on verse 3.
Verse 13: These Have One Design
13. "These have one design: and their strength and power they shall deliver to the beast." — They have one mind and will concerning the conquest of Rome, and shall hand over their power to the beast, that is, to Antichrist, in order to make war against the Lamb.
Verse 14: These Shall Fight with the Lamb
14. "These shall fight with the Lamb" (namely with the faithful and the Christian people, who are subjects of the Lamb, namely of Christ), "and the Lamb shall overcome them," — because together with the Antichrist whom they shall follow, they shall be cast down by Christ into hell.
Verse 15: The Waters Are Peoples, and Nations, and Tongues
15. "The waters which thou sawest where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and nations, and tongues," — as if to say: The waters which thou sawest signify all the nations and peoples over which Rome shall reign; which therefore shall walk on foot in obedience, vanity and idolatrous superstition to Rome alone, as their mistress and lady of the world.
Verse 16: These Shall Hate the Harlot
16. "These shall hate the harlot" (namely Babylon, that is Rome), "and shall eat her flesh." — It is a hyperbole, as if to say: With such fury shall they invade Rome and the Romans, that they will seem about to devour their flesh. Similar is Job XIX, 22: "Why do you persecute me, and are filled with my flesh?" And Psalm XXVI, verse 2: "Whilst the wicked draw near against me, to eat my flesh." Whence follows: "And they shall burn her with fire."
Verse 17: God Hath Given into Their Hearts
17. "For God hath put into their hearts, to give their kingdom to the beast," — that is to the devil, to Antichrist, to tyranny and impiety. "God hath given," not by infusion, but first by permission, namely by loosening the reins of their ambitious will, which without God's permission, indeed without His general concurrence, could not have passed into act. Secondly, objectively, namely by sending them the thought concerning Rome, that she is proud, rich, and worthy of conquest, and easily conquerable on account of her crimes, which God wishes to punish; and this for the purpose, "that they may do what is pleasing to Him," namely that they may carry out the judgment and vengeance to be exercised upon Babylon by God's decree and sentence: "Until the words of God be fulfilled," namely those which God foretold through me here, and through Daniel chapter VII and XI, concerning the consummation of the city and of the world, as if to say: Until the full destruction of the city and the world be accomplished.
Some Greek copies add: And that they may agree, or have one mind and will concerning the conquest of Rome. But this is sufficiently implied in what follows.
Note: From this passage, and from Daniel VII, 24, it is certain that there shall be ten kings in the world when Antichrist shall come, of whom He himself shall conquer three in battle; then the remaining seven, terrified, shall submit themselves to him. Again, it is certain that these ten kings shall overthrow and burn up Rome; but it is doubtful whether they shall do this before Antichrist, or under Antichrist, so that Antichrist shall overthrow Rome, and likewise the Roman Empire, through these kings.
First, Francisco Suarez, III part, vol. II., disputation LIX, article 6, section II, holds that it is uncertain whether the Roman Empire, and much more whether the city of Rome, are to be overthrown before Antichrist, or by Antichrist himself.
Secondly, Ribera and Viegas here judge that they are to be overthrown before Antichrist, and they think they prove this from the fact that Rome is here said to be overthrown by ten kings: therefore before Antichrist; for Antichrist when he comes will at once defeat three kings and slay them, so that only seven remain, who shall freely submit to him. Since therefore under Antichrist there will be only seven kings, it follows that Rome is not to be overthrown then, but before, when of course there will be ten kings in the world. This opinion is probable, and I followed it on II Thessalonians II, 9, and St. Jerome on Daniel VII seems to favor it.
But upon more exact consideration of the matter, and having surveyed the whole sequence of the Apocalypse and of Daniel, the contrary now seems to me more probable, namely that Rome and the Roman Empire are to be overthrown not before Antichrist, but by Antichrist through the ten kings already subject to him.
It is proved, first, because Daniel, chapter VII, recounting the series of monarchies, teaches that, just as the Chaldean monarchy was overthrown by the Persians, that of the Persians by the Greeks, that of the Greeks by the Romans, so the Roman Empire shall be overthrown by Antichrist himself.
Secondly, because the common opinion of the Doctors is that the Roman Empire is the last and shall endure until the end of the world: nor only that of more recent doctors, but also the common one of the Fathers; according to St. Jerome on chapter IX of Daniel, this is the tradition, and it is, as it seems, Apostolic: therefore it shall be overthrown not by ten kings, but by Antichrist at the end of the world. It is confirmed, because Daniel VII, 8 and 24, saw the little horn, which designates Antichrist, arise from among the ten horns, that is, the ten kings, out of the beast which designates the Roman Empire. Therefore Antichrist shall arise from the Roman Empire. It shall therefore stand until his coming, and shall be overthrown by him. Again, since in this passage the woman, that is Rome, is said to sit upon the same beast which has these ten horns, it follows that Rome shall hold dominion over the Roman Empire and the ten kings, until by the little horn, that is, by Antichrist arising from it, through the ten kings rebelling against her, she be overthrown and burned, as is said here in verse 16.
Thirdly, because the sequence of the Apocalypse demands it. For it is divided into two parts: the former, down to chapter eleven, contains and unfolds the seven seals of the sealed book; the latter, from chapter eleven to the end, contains the contents of the book itself. Now the seals contain those things which must precede the time of Antichrist, while the book contains those things which shall come to pass in the time of Antichrist. Therefore since these two chapters XVII and XVIII are contained within the sealed book itself, it follows that they pertain to Antichrist himself and to his time.
Ribera replies that it is a hysterologia, or disturbed order. For these two chapters, or this destruction of Babylon, that is of Rome, ought in proper order to be placed earlier, namely at chapter IX, verse 13, at the trumpet of the sixth angel. But this hysterologia is too harsh and preposterous: for it disturbs the entire order of the Apocalypse. Add that thus the very seals of the book would be far greater and fuller than the book itself: for take away these two chapters and others which pertain to the same subject, and you will leave but a meager substance for the book. Therefore, in order to avoid in the sequence of the Apocalypse this hysterologia, and these no small inconveniences, it must be said that these things, like the preceding ones from chapter eleven onwards, pertain to the sealed book itself, and consequently to the times of Antichrist. For thus the whole series of the Apocalypse becomes clear. It is confirmed, because one of the angels who in the preceding chapter were seen by John to have the vials and the last plagues, revealed these things concerning the destruction of Babylon to John: therefore this very matter pertains to the last plagues of the world.
Fourthly, because here, in verses 12 and 13, these ten kings are said to have received their power after the beast, and to have handed over their power to the beast, that is, to Antichrist; and then concerning the same it is added in verse 16: "These shall hate the harlot and shall burn her with fire," as if this were to come about later.
Fifthly, because in the preceding chapter, in the vial of the seventh angel, John says: "And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the indignation of His wrath." And in this chapter XVII he begins to relate this cup. Therefore he plainly signifies that after the seven vials and the last plagues, this destruction of Babylon shall come about. For this is fittingly reserved as it were for the last place: because it shall be general, and shall be as it were a plague of the whole world; for she will be the lady of the world, and therefore once she is cut off, the world will seem to be cut off. It is confirmed, because this will greatly accord with the disposition and purpose of Antichrist, namely that he himself, as king of Jerusalem and of the Jews, fighting against Christ, may overthrow the metropolis of His kingdom and Church, namely Rome. For this very thing he will desire with the highest vows, that he may seem to have destroyed the kingdom of Christ. Just therefore as Antichrist is opposed to Christ, the Jews to the Christians, Jerusalem to Rome: so Antichrist shall labor to abolish Christ, the Christians, Rome, and her pontificate, as already his forerunners the Calvinists and other heretics labor to do.
Sixthly, this is what the Fathers teach. Tertullian, in his book to Scapula, chapter II: "A Christian," he says, "is no one's enemy, much less the Emperor's, whom, knowing him to be appointed by his God, it is necessary that he should both love and reverence and honor him, and wish him safety together with the whole Roman Empire, as long as the world shall stand; for so long it shall stand." Theodoret on Daniel VII teaches that Antichrist shall come forth from the Roman Empire, and shall fight against it. St. Jerome on Daniel XI thus speaks of Antichrist: "And the arms of the fighting Roman people shall be vanquished by him and crushed." Lactantius, book VII, chapters XV and XXV, teaches that Antichrist shall overthrow the Roman Empire, and shall transfer it from the West to Asia: "By whose destruction," he says, "the world itself shall fall." Again: "The matter itself," he says, "declares that its fall and ruin shall shortly be, except that, while the city of Rome remains unharmed, nothing seems to be feared from those things."
"But truly, when that head of the world shall have fallen, and there shall have begun to be a parting of ways (which the Sibyls say will happen), who shall doubt that the end has come for human affairs and for the earth?" St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on II Thessalonians: "As," he says, "the kingdom of the Medes was destroyed by the Babylonians, that of the Babylonians by the Persians, that of the Persians by the Macedonians, that of the Macedonians by the Romans, so also the kingdom of the Romans shall be destroyed by Antichrist." Therefore Beza and the heretics err, but willingly and fraudulently, when they teach that the Roman Empire has failed, in order to prove from this that Antichrist has already come, and that he is the Roman Pontiff: which error I have more fully and effectively refuted on II Thessalonians II, 3. Into this opinion Alcazar too falls here, but inadvertently and on another basis. For he contends that the Roman Empire has failed, in order to prove from this that these things are not to be understood of Antichrist, nor of the destruction of Rome and the Roman Empire at the end of the world, but of the destruction of pagan Rome, or of Paganism through Christianity under Constantine; concerning which I have spoken more often already.
To Ribera's argument I reply: even if Antichrist shall defeat three kings, yet it is not certain whether he shall slay them. For Daniel says only that he shall humble them, that is, subjugate them. And even if he should kill them, he will hand over their kingdoms to others who are friendly or subject to him, so that after him, just as before, there shall be ten kings. This is clear from the fact that the beast, chapter XIII, verse 1, which signifies Antichrist, is said to have ten horns, that is, ten kingdoms and kings. Again, from the fact that here the ten kings are said to have received their power after the beast, that is, after Antichrist. Antichrist will therefore be the monarch and king of ten kingdoms and kings of the world, and through them as his vassals he shall invade and overthrow Rome. For it does not appear how ten kings dispersed throughout the whole world should conspire toward the destruction of Rome alone, unless because they shall be subject to one monarch, namely Antichrist, and shall be directed by him to the destruction of Rome which is hateful to him; and this John insinuates here, when, giving the cause of the destruction of Rome, he adds: "For God hath put into their hearts to give their kingdom to the beast;" therefore the destruction of Rome and the Roman Empire will be a sign not preceding, but simultaneous, not of the approach, but of the presence of Antichrist. I join Rome with the Roman Empire, because Rome in the end of the world shall be, as she was once, rich and powerful: whence at the end of the chapter John says: "The great city which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth;" therefore she shall then hold empire, especially because not only Gentiles, but also many Christians, like Tertullian, Lactantius in the words just cited, and others, considered Rome, just like the Roman Empire, to be eternal, that is, to endure until the end of the world, namely until Antichrist. For in the following chapter Antichrist shall be slain with his men, and soon in chapter II the day of judgment shall be brought in. Yet this empire of Rome, when the ten kings have been slain and subjugated by Antichrist, shall be greatly weakened and diminished.
Verse 18: The Woman Is the Great City
18. "And the woman which thou sawest, is the great city, which hath kingdom over the kings of the earth." — Here, then, seems to be the future order and sequence of the matter to be carried out. Antichrist, gradually growing in strength and number, shall defeat three of the ten kings who will then be in the world. Soon the remaining ten, and all the nations panic-struck, shall send embassies to him, and shall submit themselves to him, as they did to Alexander the Great after Darius was defeated; whence he immediately then became monarch. Antichrist then, exerting all his venom against Christ and Christians, and strengthening and propagating his empire, will see to the besieging and overthrow of Rome — both because she was and shall be the rival of the empire, and because she was the seat of the Pontiffs of Christ — and will entrust the matter to ten kings, that is, to several of those who shall be more powerful and nearer to Rome, while the others nevertheless lend their support, helping with money, supplies, and other means. For there will be no need to gather the armies of ten kings, that is, of the whole world, for the destruction of one city, nor will the time of Antichrist's reign (which will be three years and a half) admit such long delays, that from the extreme East, as is said in chapter XVI, verse 14, kings should come to him at Armageddon, then proceed to overthrow Rome, then return to Armageddon. For these things require many years. Some kings, therefore, who are nearer to Rome will overthrow and burn her. These he will then summon to Armageddon: as he had already summoned those from the East, chapter XVI, verse 14, and other nations from the four quarters of the earth together with Gog and Magog. All these therefore shall gather to Antichrist in Judea, to blot out the name of Christ and of Christians everywhere, and their army shall be innumerable. Soon Christ shall destroy all those gathered, and shall slay them with fire sent down from heaven upon them, as is said in chapter XX, 9. Antichrist Himself, and his pseudo-prophet, He shall cast alive into hell. That this is so will be clear, if one considers at once chapter XVI, verses 14 and 16, where the kings beyond the Euphrates from the rising of the sun are summoned to the great day of God at Armageddon, and chapter XVII, verse 14, where it is said of the ten kings that they shall hand over their power to the beast, that is, to Antichrist, and that they shall fight for him against Christ and Christians; but Christ shall conquer and destroy them: "These," he says, "shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them." And chapter XIX, verses 11 and 18, where Christ with His army of heavenly beings comes forth defeating and slaying them; for there among other things it is said to the birds of heaven: "Come, and be gathered together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of tribunes, and the flesh of mighty men," etc. And verse 19: "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth (namely the ten just mentioned), and their armies gathered together to make war with Him that sat upon the horse," that is, with Christ. Then he adds that the beast, that is Antichrist with his pseudo-prophet, was snatched into hell, but the rest were slain, namely in the manner which he describes in chapter XX, verses 7, 8 and 9, where concerning Satan loosed after a thousand years he says: "And he shall seduce the nations which are over the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they came up upon the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Jerusalem); and there came down fire from God out of heaven, and devoured them." Hence it is clear that there is no hysterologia in this destruction of Babylon, but that St. John arranged all these things properly, each in its own order.
From what has been said it is gathered that Rome is to be overthrown not at the beginning, but rather toward the end of Antichrist's reign. For he will first defeat the kings and princes subject to Rome and the Roman Empire, and subjugate them to himself, and so when the Roman Empire has already been weakened, he will attack Rome herself, who had been the head of the Empire, and will take and overthrow her: when she is overthrown, the Roman Empire will likewise fall and utterly collapse. Then will follow the battle of Gog and Magog, and the slaughter of them and of Antichrist. Then the day of judgment, and the resurrection and glory of the elect, which John recounts in order here, so that he may close the Apocalypse in the glory and happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem. For this is what the plain and ordered narrative of St. John seems to require, and thus we avoid many hysterologias, intricate, troublesome and ambiguous, and for that reason plainly uncertain and fictitious.
Furthermore, whether the Roman Pontiff, when Rome has been occupied and laid waste by Antichrist, will transfer his seat to another city and province, or whether he can transfer it, is a question. For many, from the fact that St. Peter transferred the chair and pontificate from Antioch to Rome, when there exists no decree of Christ for doing this, hold that the pontificate established by St. Peter at Rome is of human, not divine, right, and therefore that the Pontiff for grave cause (as if the Turk, which God forbid, should occupy Italy and Rome), with the consent of the Cardinals and Bishops, could transfer the pontificate from Rome to another city and province; so judges D. Soto in IV, dist. XXIV, Question II, art. 5, at the end; Antonio of Cordoba, Gaspar Casalius, Waldensis and others, whom Alfonso Mendoza cites and follows, Scholastic. controv., Question IV, conclusion 3. Although the contrary, namely that the Roman papacy is of divine right, on the ground that Christ commanded Peter to establish it there, and therefore cannot be transferred by the Pontiff, without divine revelation, to another city, is held by Johannes Driedo, book IV, chapter III, part III; Turrecremata in his gloss on the chapter Rogamus, XXIV, Question 1; Cardinal Jacobatius, book VIII On Councils, art. 6, where for this opinion he also cites the Archdeacon, Ockham, Alberic and others; St. Antoninus, III part Schol., tit. 22, chap. IV, §1; Alvarus Pelagius, book I On the Lament of the Church, art. 32. But whatever may be the case as to right and possibility, I judge that in fact this will never come about, as hitherto it has never come about that the pontificate has been transferred from Rome elsewhere (for even when the Pontiffs sat at Avignon for 70 years, they were and were called Roman Pontiffs, not Avignonese). First, because in the time of Antichrist there shall be in all cities and provinces a general persecution of the Pontiff and of the faithful, and therefore it would be useless to transfer the Roman See elsewhere, since the Pontiff would not escape persecution there, but would rather encounter it more. Secondly, because Saint Peter sat at Rome during the most burning persecution of Nero: the same thing all his successors constantly did for three hundred years through ten most grievous persecutions, until the times of Constantine. Thirdly, because the persecution of Antichrist will be brief, namely of three and a half years; and the day of judgment will be at hand: but for so short a time, it will not be worth the trouble to move the See. Fourthly, because the prophecy of Saint Malachy, which I cited at the beginning of the chapter, holds that the Roman Pontiff at the time of Antichrist will be Peter the Roman, and that the Last Judgment will succeed him. Yet the Pontiff, with persecution pressing and the destruction of the city, will be able to flee outside Rome, and to hide himself in other places and cities, as Saint Sylvester did on Mount Soracte, and many others after him. In agreement with this prophecy concerning the ten kings are those things which Saint Francis of Paola, founder of the Order of the Minims, foretold concerning almost the same number of kings. For he himself in various letters, which Father Lucas Montoya recounts word for word in his Chronicles of the same Order toward the end, [Saint Francis of Paola] himself prophesied this very thing, and specifically in one [letter] which he wrote in the year of Christ 1469, on August 13th, to Simon of Limena, Lord of Montalto, which is even now preserved there. He says thus: "From thee (O Simon) shall descend the founder of a new Religion, which shall have three parts: the first shall be of armed knights; the second, of priests; the third, of hospitallers. This shall be the last Religion of all; it shall bring great fruit to the Church, shall extinguish the cursed sect of Mahomet, and indeed all heresies, that there may be one fold and one Pastor. In the whole world there shall be only twelve kings, one Emperor and one Pontiff, and a few Princes, who shall all be holy." The same [Saint] in other letters calls this Order "of the Cross-bearers," because on their banners they shall display the image of the cross, or of Christ crucified, for which they shall fight, and to which they shall subject both Mahometans, and heretics, and wicked Christians. And he asserts that all these things were revealed to him by God, and shall certainly come to pass; similar prophecies of others are circulated, but they require examination.