The harlot Babylon clothed with diuers ornaments, 6. and dranken of the bloud of Martyrs,
sitteth vpon a beast that hath seuen heads and ten hornes: 7. al which things the Angels
expoundeth.
1. AND there came one of the seuen Angels which had the seuen vials, & spake with me,
saying: Come, I wil shew thee
✟
The final damnation of the whole companie of the reprobate, called here the great whore.
the damnation of the great harlot, which sitteth vpon
✟
These many waters are many peoples. v. 15.
many waters.
2. with whom the Kings of the earth haue fornicated, & they which inhabit the earth
haue been drunke of the wine of her whoredom.
3. And he tooke me away in spirit into the desert. And I saw a woman sitting vpon a
scarlet coloured beast, ful of names of blasphemie, hauing seuen heads, and then hornes.
4. And the woman was clothed round about with purple and scarlet, and gilted with
gold, and pretious stone, and pearles, hauing a golden cup in her hand, ful of the abomination &
filthines of her fornication.
5. And in her forehead a name written, Mysterie: Babylon the great, mother of
the fornications and the abominations of the earth.
6. And I saw the woman drunken of the bloud of Saints, and of the blood of the Martyrs
of Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ. And I marueled when I had seen her, with great admiration.
7. And the Angel said to me: Why doest thou maruel? I wil tel thee the mysterie of the
woman, and of the beast that carieth her, which hath the seuen heads, and the ten hornes.
8. The beast which thou sawest,
✟
It signifieth the short reigne of Antichrist, who is the cheefe horne or head of the
beast.
was, and is not, and shal come vp out of the bottomles
depth, and goe into destruction: and the inhabitants on the earth (whose names are not written in
the booke of life from the making of the word) shal maruel, seeing the beast that was, and is not.
9. And here is vnderstanding, that hath wisedom. The seuen heads, are seuen hilles,
vpon which the woman sitteth, and they are seuen Kings.
10. Fiue are fallen, one is, and another is not yet come: and when he shal come, he
must tarie a short time.
11. And the beast which was, and is not: the same also is the eight, and is of the
seuen, & goeth into destruction.
12. And the ten hornes which thou sawest, are
✟
Some expound it of ten final Kingdoms, into which the Roman Empire shal be deuided, which
shal al serue Antichrist both in his life and a litle after.
ten Kings, which haue not yet receiued
Kingdom, but
✟
' doe
shal receiue power as Kings one houre after the beast.
13. These haue one counsel and force: and their power they shal deliuer to the beast.
14. These shal fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shal ouercome them, because
*
1. Tim. 6,15.
Apoc. 19,16.
he is
Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, and they that are with him, 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 hornes which thou sawest in the beast: these shal hate the harlot, and
shal make her desolate and naked, and shal eate her flesh, and her they shal burne with fire.
17. For
✟
Not forcing or mouing any to follow Antichrist, but by his iust iudgement, & for
punishment of their sinnes, permitting them to beleeue and consent to him.
God hath giuen into their harts, to doe that which pleaseth him: that they
giue their kingdom to the beast, til the words of God be consummate.
18. And the woman which thou sawest: is the great citie, which hath Kingdom ouer the
Kings of the earth.
ANNOTATIONS.
Cʜᴀᴘ. XVII.
5. Babylon.)
In the end of S. Peters first Epistle, where the Apostle dateth it at Babylon, which the
auncient writers (as we there noted) affirme to be meant of Rome: the Protestants wil not
in any wise haue it so, because they would not be driuen to confesse that Peter euer was at
Rome, but here for that they thinke it maketh for their opinion, that the Pope is Antichrist,
and Rome the seate and citie of Antichrist, they wil needes haue Rome to be this Babylon,
this great whore, and this purple harlot. for such fellowes, in the exposition of holy
Scripture, be ledde onely by their preiudicate opinions and heresies, to which they draw al
things without al indifferencie and sinceritie.
But S. Augustine, Aretas, and other writers, most commonly expound it, neither of Babylon itself a
citie of Chaldaea or Aegypt, not of Rome, or any one citie, which may be so called spiritually, as
Hierusalem before chap. 11 is named spiritual Sodom and Aegypt: but of the general socitie of the
impious, & of those that preferre the terrene kingdō and cōmoditie of the world, before God &
eternal felicitie. The author of the Commentaries vpon the Apocalypse set forth in S. Ambrose name,
writeth thus: This great whoore sometime signifieth Rome, specially which at that time when the
Apostle wrote this, did persecute the Church of God, but otherwise it signifieth the whole citie
of the Diul, that is, the vniuersal corps of the reprobate. Tertullian also taketh it for Rome,
thus, Babylon (saith he) in S. Iohn is a figure of the citie of Rome, being so great, so proud of
the Empire, and the destroier of the saincts. which is plainely spoken of that citie, when it was
heathen, the head of the terrene dominion of the world, the persecutor of the Apostles and their
successors, the seate of Nero, Bomitian, and the like, Christs special enemies, the sinke of
idolatrie, sinne, and false worship of the Pagan gods. Then was it Babylon, when S. Iohn wrote
this, and then was Nero and the rest figures of Antichrist, and that citie the resemblance of the
principal place (wheresoeuer it be) that Antichrist shal reigne in, about the later end of the
world.
Now to apply that to the Romane Church and Apostolike See, either now or then, which was spoken
onely of the terrene state of that citie, as it was the seate of Peter, when it did slea aboue 30
Popes Christs Vicars, one after an other, & endeuoured to destroy the whole Church: that is most
blasphemous and foolish.
The Church in Rome was one thing, & Babylon in Rome an other thing. Peter sate in Rome, and Nero
sate in Rome, but Peter, as in the Church of Rome: Nero, as in the Babylon of Rome. Which
distinction the Heretikes might haue learned by S. Peter him self ep. 1. chap. 5. writing thus,
The Church saluteth you, that is in Babylon, coëlect, So that the Church and the very chosen Church
was in Rome, when Rome was Babylon, whereby it is plaine that, whether Babylon or the great
whoore do here signifie Rome or no, yet it can not signifie the Church of Rome: which is now,
and euer was, differing from the terrene Empire of the same. And if, as in the beginning of the
Church, Nero and the rest of the persecuting Emperours (which were figures of Antichrist) did
principally sit in Rome, so also the great Antichrist shal haue his seate there, as it may wel be
(though others thinke that Hierusalem rather shal be his principal citie:) yet euen then shal
neither the Church of Rome, nor the Pope of Rome be Antichrist, but shal be persecuted by
Antichrist, and driuen out of Rome, if it be possible. for, to Christs Vicar and the Romane Church
he wil beare as much good wil as the Protestants now doe, and he shal haue more power to
persecute him and the Church, then they haue.
S. Hierom epist. 17. c. 7. to Marcella, to draw her out of the citie of Rome to the holy land,
warning her of the manifold allurements to sinne and il life, that be in so great and populous a
citie, alludeth at length to these wordes of the Apocalypse, and maketh it to be Babylon, and the
purple whoore, but straight way, lest some naughtie person might thinke he meant that of the
Church of Rome, which he spake of the societie of the wicked only, he addeth: There is there
in deeds the holy Church, there are the triumphans monuments of the Apostles, and Martyrs, there is
the true confession of Christ, there is the faith praised, of the Apostle, and Gentilitie troden
vnder foote, the name of Christian daily aduancing it self on high. whereby you see that
whatsoeuer may be spoken or interpreted of Rome, out of this word Babylō, it is not meant of the
Church of Rome, but of the terrene state, in so much that the said holy Doctor (li. 2. aduers.
Iouinian. c. 19.) signifieth, that the holines of the Church there, hath wiped away the blasphemie
written in the forehead of her former iniquitie. But of the difference of the old state and
dominion of the Heathen there, for which it is resembled to Antichrist, and the Priestly state
which now it hath, reade a notable place in S. Leo serm. 1 in natali Petri & Pauli.
5. Mysterie.)
S. Paul calleth this secrete and close working of abomination, the mysterie of iniquitie. 2.
Thessal. 2. and it is called a litle after in this chapter vers. 7. the Sacrament (or mysterie) of
the woman, and it is also the marke of reprobation and damnation.
6. Drunken of the bloud.)
It is plaine that this woman signifieth the whole corps of al the persecutors that haue and shal
shede so much bloud of the iust: of the Prophets, Apostles, and other Martyrs from the beginning
of the world to the end. The Protestants folishly expound it of Rome, for that there they put
Heretikes to death, and allow of their punishment in other countries: but their bloud is not
called the bloud of saincts, no more then the bloud of theeues, mankillers, and other malefactors:
for the sheding of which by order of iustice, no Commonwealth shal answer.
9. Seuen hilles.)
The Angel him self here expoundeth these 7 hilles to be al one with the 7 heads and the 7 kings:
& yet the Heretikes blinded excedingly with malice against the Church of Rome, are so madde to
take them for the seuen hilles literally, vpon which in old time Rome did stand: that so they might
make the vnlearned beleeue that Rome is the seate of Antichrist, But if they had any consideration,
they might marke that the Prophets visions here are most of them by Seuens, whether he talke of
heads, hornes, candlestickes, Churches, kings, hilles, or other thinges: and that he alluded not to
the hilles, because they were iust seuen, but that Seuen is a mystical number, as sometimes Ten
is, signifying vniuersally al of that sort whereof he speaketh, as, that the seuen heads, hilles,
or kingdoms (which are here al one) should be al the kingdoms of the world that persecute the
Christians: being heads and mountaines for their height in dignitie aboue others. And some take
it, that there were seuen special Empires, kingdoms, or States, that were or shal be the greatest
persecutors of Gods people, as of Aegypt, (hanaan, Babylon, the Persians, and Greekes, which be
fiue-sixtly of the Romane Empire which once persecuted most of al other, and which (as the Apostle
here saith) yet is, or standeth. but the seuenth, then when S. Iohn wrote this, was not come,
neither is yet come in our daies: which is Antichrists state, which shal not come so long as
the Empire of Rome standeth, as S. Paul did Prophecie. 2 Thessa. 2.
13. The same is the eight.)
The beast it self being the congregation of al these wicked persecutors, though it consist of the
foresaid seuen, yet for that the malice of al is complete in it, may be called the eight. Or,
Antichrist him self, though he be one of the seuen, yet for his extraordinarie wickednes shal be
counted the odde persecutor, or the accomplishment of al other, & therfore is named the eight.
Some take this beast called the eight, to be the Diuel.
18. The great citie.)
If it be meant of any one citie, and not of the vniuersal societie of the reprobate (which is the
citie of the Diuel, as the Church & the vniuersal fellowship of the faithful is called the citie
of God) it is most like to be old Rome, as some of the Greekes expound it, from the time of the
first Emperours, til Constantines daies, who made an end of the persecution for by the authoritie
of the old Romane Empire, Christ was put to death first, and afterward the two cheefe Apostles,
& the Popes their successors, and infinite Catholike men through out the world, by lesser kings
which then were subiect to Rome. Al which Antichristian persecution ceased, when Constantine
reigned, and yelded vp the citie to the Pope, who holdeth not the kingdom or Empire ouet the
world, as the Heathen did, but the fatherhod and spiritual rule of the Church. Howbeit the more
probable sense is the other, of the citie of the Diuel, as the authr of the homiies vpon the
Apocalypse in S. Augustine, declareth.