It foloweth in þe Prophesie: Their power shalbe in their mouthes, and in their tayles. For their tayles be like serpentes hauyng heades, and with them they hurt.
Rev. 9:19
The lyke Prophesie also after the lyke woordes and sense, is to be sene and read in the. 16. chap. of the Apoc. MarginaliaApoc. cap. 16.Where S. Iohn entreatyng of seuen cuppes filled with the wrath of the lyuing God, geuen to the handes of vij. Augels, MarginaliaThe 4. beastes in the Apocalips meane the 4. monarchies.by one of þe foure beastes (that is in the time of one of the iiij. monarchies, which was the monarchie of Rome) speaketh lykewise of þe sixt aungell, which poured his viale of Gods wrath vpon the great ryuer Euphrates, and the waters therof dryed vp, that the waye of the kinges of the East should be prepared.
Rev. 16:12
By the sixte Aungell with the sixt viall, is ment as before, the last plage, saue one, that shall come vpō the Christians. MarginaliaThe kinges of the East.By the kinges of the East, are ment the Saracenes and xij. Ottoman Turkes. MarginaliaDrying vp of Euphrates.By dryeng vp of the riuer Euphrates, is signified the waye of these Turkes to be prepared by the Lordes appointment, to come out of the East to the West partes of the world, to molest and afflicte the Christians. It foloweth more in the text. And I saw iij. vncleane spirites lyke frogges, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false Prophet: for they are the spirites of deuils, doyng wonders, to goe vnto the kinges of the whole earth, to assemble and gather thē together to the battaile, agaynst the day of the great God omnipotent.
Rev. 16:13-14.
Rev. 16:17. Foxe quoting the angel as saying 'factum est' suggests that he was consulting the Vulgate.
MarginaliaApoc. cap. 16.Wherfore it is not for naught, that the holy spirite of God in the same place, a litle before þe vi. aungell do poure out his viall, doth exhort all the faithfull, saying: MarginaliaAn exhortatiō of the holy ghost, to the faythfull.Beholde I come like a theefe in the night: Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth hys garmentes, lest he walke naked, and men see his filthynes. &c.
Rev. 16:15.
MarginaliaApoc. cap. 13.Nicol. de Lyra, and Paulus Byshop of Burgens, and Mathias Dorinke, writyng vpō þe xiij. chap. of the Apoc. and expoundyng the mystery of the second beast rysing out of the earth, hauing the hornes of a lambe. &c. do apply the same to Mahumete and the Turkes, with a solemne declaration made vpon the same.
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 first reason.The first is, for þt thys beast is described to beare the hornes of a lambe. By the which lambe, no doubt, is mēt Christ. By þe hornes of the lambe is signified þe outwardshew or resemblance of Christ our Sauiour: which shew or resemblance can haue no relation to Mahumete, for that he taketh him self to be aboue Christ, & Christ as an excellent Prophet of God sitting at his feete. MarginaliaEx Bonif. 8. Extr. de Maiorit. et obediēt.Wherfore seyng Mahumete commeth neither as equall to Christ, nor as vicare vnder Christ, this Prophesie can not agree in him, but onely in hym whiche opēly in playne wordes protesteth, that all Christes lambes and shepe not singularly, but vniuersally through the whole world, are committed to hym, as vicare of Christ, and successour of Peter, and that all men must confesse the same of necessitie, or els they are none of Christes shepe. &c. Wherein it is easy to see where the pretensed hornes of the lambe doo growe.
Foxe is quoting the passage from Boniface VIII's 1248 collection of canon laws accurately, but he is implying that the pope was claiming secular, as well as spiritual, dominion and this is untrue.
MarginaliaThe second reasō.The second argument: And he spake lyke the dragon. &c.
Rev. 13:11.
MarginaliaThe thyrde reason.It foloweth moreouer in the same Prophecie of the Apocal, for the thyrde argument: And he doth all the power of the first beast, presently before his face, and causeth the earth and all the inhabitauntes therin, to honour the first beast, the stripe of whose deadly wounde was cured. &c.
Rev. 13:12.
MarginaliaThe two beastes in the. 13. cap. of the Apocal. expended.In this prophecie ij. thyngs are to be noted: first, what the first beast is, whose power the second beast doth execute. Secondly, what this second beast is whiche so doth exercise his power in his sight. The first of these beastes here in þe Apoc. described, hauyng vij. heades and tenne hornes, must nedes signifie the Citie of Rome, whiche may easely be proued by ij. demonstrations. MarginaliaA descriptiō of the Citie and monarchie of Rome.First by the exposition of þe xvij. chap. of the same Apocal. where is declared and described the sayd beast to stand of vij. hylles, and to conteyne x. kynges, hauyng the whole power of the dragon geuen: and also the same Citie to bee named the whore of Babylon dronken with þe bloud of sainctes. All whiche properties ioyned together, can agree in no wise but onely to the heathē Imperie of Rome: whiche Citie at the tyme of writing these prophesies, had the gouernement of the whole worlde. The second demonstration or euidence, may bee deducted out of the number of the monethes assigned to this beast Apocal. 13. for so it
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