Critical Apparatus for this Page
Commentary on the Text
Names and Places on this Page
Unavailable for this Edition
927 [927]

K. Henry. 7. Prophecies concerning the Turkes and Antichrist.

Prophetes be burned. He set garrisons of souldiours to ward the Idole. In the Citie of Hierusalem he caused the feastes and reuels of Bacchus to be kept, full of all filthe and wickednes. Old men, wemen, and virgines, such as would not leaue þe lawe of Moses, with cruel tormentes he murdered. The mothers that would not circumcise their children, he slue. The childrē that were circumcised, he hāged vp by the neckes. The tēple he spoyled and wasted. The aultar of God, and candlesticke of gold, with the other ornamētes and furniture of the temple, partlye he caste out, partlye he caried awaye. Contrarye to the lawe of God, he caused them to offer, and to eate swynes fleshe. Great murther and slaughter he made of the people, causing them either to leaue their lawe, or to lose their lyues. Among whom, besides many other, with cruell tormentes he put to death a godly mother with her vij. sonnes, sendyng his cruell proclamations through all the land, that who so euer kept the obseruancies of the Sabboth, and other rites of the law, and refused to condescend to his abhominations, should be executed. By reason wherof the Citie of Hierusalem was left voyde and desolate of all good men, but there was a greate number, that were contented to followe and obey his idolatrous procedyngs, and to flatter with the king, became enemies vnto their brethrē. Briefly no kynd of calamitie, nor face of misery could be shewed in any place, whiche was not there sene. Of the tyrannie of this Antiochus, it is historied at large in the boke of Machabees:  

Commentary   *   Close

1 Macchabees 1:43-67.

Marginalia1. Machab. cap. 1.And Daniel prophesyeng  
Commentary   *   Close

Daniel 9:4-27.

before of the same, declareth that the people of þe Iewes deserued no lesse, for their sinnes and transgressions.MarginaliaDaniel. 9.

[Back to Top]

MarginaliaAntiochus a figure of the Turkes.By consent of all writers, this Antiochus beareth a figure of the great Antichrist, whiche was to folow in the latter ende of þe world, and is already come, and worketh what he can against vs: Although as S. Iohn saith, there haue bene, and be many Antichristes,  

Commentary   *   Close

1 John 2:18. This is an excellent example of the tendency of Foxe and Protestant writers to see Antichrist as a spiritual force and not as an individual.

as partes and mēbers of the bodye of Antichrist, whiche are forerunners: MarginaliaEx Lyra in Glosa ordin. cap. 1. Macha.yet to speake of þe head & principall Antichrist, and great enemie of Christes church, he is to come in þe latter end of the world, at what tyme shall be such tribulation, as neuer was sene before: whereby is ment (no doubt) the Turke, prefigured by this Antiochus.  
Commentary   *   Close

Foxe cites the great fourteenth century theologian Nicholas of Lyra as his source for this passage but he is really drawing on a summary of Nicholas's views on Antichrist made by Mathias Flacius. The marginal motes made by Paul de Santa Maria, archbishop of Burgos, in a copy of the celebrated 'Postilla' of Nicholas of Lyra, which the arch-bishop sent to his so, were posthumously publuished. These amplifications of Nicholas's work were criticized and largely rejected by Matthias Döring, the provincial of the Franciscans in Saxony. Foxe is drawing this summary of the comments of the three on the identification from Matthias Flacius, Catalogus testium veritatis (Basel, 1562), p. 553.

[Back to Top]
MarginaliaThe name of Antichrist, what it conteyneth.By this Antichrist, I do also meane all such, which folowyng the same doctrine of þe Turkes, thinke to be saued by their workes and demerites, and not by their fayth onely in the sonne of God, of what title and profession els so euer they be: especially if they vse the lyke force and violence for the same, as he doth. &c.

[Back to Top]

Of the tyranny of this Antiochus aforesayd, and of the tribulations of the Churche in the latter tymes both of the Iewes Churche, and also of the Christian Church to come, let vs heare and consider the wordes of Daniel in xi. chap. and also in his vij. chapter propheecyng of the same, as foloweth.  

Commentary   *   Close

For what follows see Daniel 11:30-45.

MarginaliaDaniel. cap. 11.He shall returne and freat agaynst the holy couenaunt: so shall he do, hee shall euen returne and haue intelligence with thē that forsake the holy couenaunt. And armes shall stand on his part, & they shall pollute the Sāctuary of strēgth, and shall take away the dayly sacrifice, and they shall set vp the abominable desolatiō. And such as wickedly breake the couenaunt, shall flatter with him deceatfully: but the people that do know their God, shall preuaile and prosper. And they that vnderstād among the people, shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by sworde and by flame, by captiuitie and by spoyle many dayes.

[Back to Top]

Now when they shall fall, they shalbe holpen with a litle helpe: but many shall cleaue vnto them faynedly. And some of thē of vnderstāding shall fall to be tryed, & to be purged, and to make them white, till the tyme be out: for there is a tyme appointed. And the king shall do what him list: he shall exalte him selfe, and magnifie him selfe agaynst all that is God, and shall speake maueilous thynges agaynst the God of Gods, and shall prospere, till the wrath be accomplished: for the determination is made. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desires of women, nor care for any God: for he shall magnifie him selfe aboue all. But in his place shall hee honour theGod Mauzzim, and the God whom his fathers knew not, shall he honour with golde & with siluer, and with precious stones, and pleasaunt thinges.

[Back to Top]

Thus shall he do in the holdes of Mauzzim with a straunge God, whom he shall acknowledge: hee shall increase his glorie, and shall cause thē to rule ouer many, and shall diuide the land for gayne. And at the ende of tyme, shall the king of the South push at him, and the king of the North shall come agaynst hym lyke a whirle winde, with charets, and with horsemē, and with many shippes, and he shall enter into the countreys, and shall ouerflowe and passe through. He shall enter also into the pleasaunt land, and many countreys shalbe ouerthrowen: but these shall escape out of his hand, euen Edō and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his handes also vpon the countreis, and the land of Ægypt shall not escape. But he shall haue power ouer the treasures of gold and of siluer, and ouer all the precious thinges of Ægypt, and of the Lybiās, and of the blacke Mores where he shall passe. But the tydynges out of the East and the North, shall trouble him: therfore he shall go forth with great wrath to destroy and roote out many: And hee shall plant the tabernacles of his palace betwene the seas, in the glorious and holy mountaine, yet he shall come to his end, and none shall helpe hym.

[Back to Top]

To this place of Daniel aboue prefixed, might also be added the Prophesie of the said Daniel writen in the vij. chap.  

Commentary   *   Close

Daniel 7:7-18.

and much tendyng to the lyke effect: Where he intreatyng of his vision of iiij. beastes (whiche signifie the iiij. monarchies) and speakyng now of the fourth monarchie, hath these wordes.

[Back to Top]

MarginaliaDaniel. cap. 7.After this I sawe in the visions by night, and beholde, the iiij. beast was grimme and horrible, and maruelous stronge. It had great yron teeth: it deuoured, and brake in peeces, and stamped the residue vnder his fecte: and it was vnlike the other beastes that were before it, for it had tenne hornes. As I considered the hornes, behold there came vp among thē, an other litle horne, before whom there were iij. of the first hornes pluckt away. And behold, in this horne, were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking presumptuous thinges, and semed more stoute then the other. Whiche horne also (when I looked on) made battaile with the saintes, and preuailed agaynst them: vntill the olde aged came, and iudgement was geuen to the saintes of the highest, & till the appoynted tyme was come, that the saintes should haue the kingdome.

[Back to Top]

Thus haue ye heard the plaine wordes of Daniel. In the which, as he doth manifestly describe the commyng of Antiochus the great aduersary, toward the latter end of the Iewes: so by the same Antiochus is figured also to vs the great aduersary of Christ, whiche is the Turke.

MarginaliaVide Rodulphum Guali de Antichristo.Although some there bee notwithstandyng, whiche with great learnyng and iudgement, do apply this place of Daniel aboue recited, not to the Turke, but rather to the Pope, and that for vi. or vij. speciall causes herein touched and noted.  

Commentary   *   Close

These arguments are from the fourth homily of Rudolph Walther's De antichristo. See Rudolph Walther, Antichrist, trans. J[ohn] O[ld] (London, 1556), STC 25009, fos. 15r-147v.

MarginaliaThe first note.The first is this, that the wicked transgressors of the couenaunt shall ioyne with hym deceatfully and hypocritically, which shall pollute the tabernacle of strength, and take away the perpetuall sacrifice, and bryng in the abhomination of desolation.

MarginaliaThe second note.The second note is, that the Prophete declareth, how the learned among the people shall teache many, and that they shall fall into the sworde, into fire, and captiuitie, & shall be banished, wherby they shall be tried, chosen, & made bright & pure. &c. All which (say they) is not amōg þe Turkes to be sene, but onely in þe popes church: where the faythfull preachers & teachers of þe people, are slaine, and burned, & go to wracke. &c. Where likewise it foloweth, that they shall be holpē agaynst Antichrist, & that many false brethren shall ioyne vnto them dissemblyngly &c. MarginaliaHelpes of the Christians agaynst the pope.To thys they alleadge that the Christians haue no such helpe agaynst the Turke, wherunto such false brethren should ioyne them selues, as is and hath bene commonly sene among the Christians against the Pope, frō time to time, almost in all countreyes: as in Germany by þe Protestantes and free Cities: In England, in kyng Henryes tyme by the Lord Cromwell, and afterward by kyng Ed-

[Back to Top]
ward