the land of Gog and Magog, to assemble them to battaile: whose number is lyke to the sandes of the sea. And they went vp vpon the latitude or breadth of the earth, and compassed about the tentes of the sainctes, and the welbeloued Citie. &c.

MarginaliaThe byndyng and loosing out of Sathan, examined.
Three thinges to be noted in this prophesie.To the perfect vnderstandyng of this prophecie, three thyngs are necessary to be knowen. First what is ment by byndyng vp, and loosyng out of Satanas the olde dragon. Secondly, at what tyme & yere first he was cheyned vp & sealed for a 1000. yeares. Thirdly, at what yeare and tyme these thousand yeares did ende, when as he should bee loosed out agayne for a litle season. Whiche three pointes beyng well examined and marked, the prophesie may easely be vnderstād directly to be ment of the Turke. Albeit anagogically some part therof may also be referred not vnproperly vnto the Pope, as is aboue notified.  

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MarginaliaWhat is ment by bynding vp of Sathan.First, by byndyng and loosyng of Satanas, seemeth to be mente the ceasyng and staying of the cruell and horrible persecution of the heathen Emperours of Rome, agaynst the true Christians, as is to be sene in the x. first persecutions in the primitiue Churche aboue described in the former part of these Actes and Monumentes: in the whiche moste bloudye persecutions, Satanas the deuill then raged without all measure, till tyme it pleased almyghty God to stoppe this old serpent, and to tye him shorter. And thus haue you to vnderstād what is ment by the byndyng vp of Satan for a thousand yeres: wherby is signified that þ^e persecutiō against the Christians styrred vp by the beast (that is, in the Empire of Rome, through the instigation of Satan) shal not alwaies continue, but shall breake vppe, after a certaine tyme, and shall cease for a thousand yeares. &c.

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MarginaliaThe tyme of the bynding vp of Sathan.
Apoc. 11. 13.Now, at what tyme and yeare this persecution, that is, the fury and rage of Satan should cease, is also declared in the Apoc. before: where, in the chap. 11. &. 13.  

we read that the beast afore mencioned, Marginalia42. monethes in the Apocal. declared.shall haue power to worke his malice & mischiefe, the space of 42. monethes & no more, & then that Sathan should bee locked vp for a thousand yeares. The computation of whiche monethes being counted by Sabbates of yeares (after the example of the. 69. weekes of Daniel. cap. 11.)   it doth bring vs to the iust yeare and time, when that terrible persecution in the primitiue Church should end, and so it did. MarginaliaSupputation of yeares betwene the beginning and ceasing the persecutions in the primitiue church.For geue to euery moneth a Sabbate of yeares, þ^t is, recken euery moneth for. vij. yeares, and that maketh. 294. yeares. whiche was the full tyme betwene the. 18. yeare of Tiberius, (vnder whom Christ suffered) and the death of Maxentius the last persecutour of the primitiue Church in Europe, subdued by Constantinus, as may appeare by calculating the yeares, monethes, and daies, betwene the sayd yeare of the reigne of Tiberius, and the latter end of Maxentius: and so haue ye the supputation of the yeare and tyme, when Satan was first bounde vp, after he had raged in the primitiue Churche. 42. monethes. MarginaliaVid. supra. pag. 493.Whiche monethes, as is sayd, beyng counted by Sabbates of yeares, after the vsuall maner of the Scripture, mounteth to. 294. yeares:   & so much was þ^e full tyme betwene the Passion of our Lord, whiche was in the. 18. yeare of Tiberius, vnto the last yeare of Maxentius.

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And here by the way commeth a note to be obserued: that forasmuch as, by the number of these 42. monethes specified in the Apocal. the Empire of Rome must necessarily be confessed to be the first beast: MarginaliaThe pope proued to be the second beast mentioned in the Apocal. cap. 13.therfore it must by like necessitie folow, the byshop of Rome to be the second beast, with. the ij. hornes of the lambe, for that he onely hath and doth cause the sayd Empire of Rome to reuiue and to be magnified, and so doth not the Turke, but rather laboureth to the contrarie. Wherfore let euery Christen man be wise and beware betime, how he taketh the marke of that beast, lest peraduenture it folow vpon him, that he drinke of that terrible cup of wrath mēcioned MarginaliaEt hic bibet de vino iræ dei Apoc. 14.Apocal. chap. 14.  

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MarginaliaThe iii. part of the prophesie for the loosing out of Satan.Thirdly it remaineth to bee discussed touchyng the thyrd pointe in this foresayd prophesie, that as we haue found out (through the helpe of Christ) the yeare & tymeof Satans byndyng: so we searche out likewise the tyme and season of his loosing out: whiche by the testimonie of Scripture, was appointed to be a thousand yeares after his byndyng vp, and so rightly accordyng to the tyme appoynted, it came to passe. For if we number well by the Scripture the yeare of hys byndyng vp, whiche was frō the Passion of our Lord. 294. yeares, and adde therto a thousand yeares, it amounteth to. 1294. MarginaliaThe beginning of the Turkes progenye.whiche was the very yeare when Ottomannus þ^e first Turke begāne his reigne: whiche was the first spryng and welhead of all these wofull calamities that the Churche of Christ hath felt both in Asia, Africa, and Europa, almost these iij. hundreth yeares past. For so we finde in Chronicles, that the kyngdome of the Turkes being first diuided into iiij. families, an. 1280. at length the familie of Ottomans preuailed, and therupon came these, whom now we call Turkes: whiche was about the same time, whē Pope Boniface the viij. was Byshop of Rome.  

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MarginaliaThe tyme of Trāsubstantiatiō.Where, by the way this is agayne to be noted, that after the decree of Transubstantiation was enacted in the Councell of Laterane by Pope Innocēt the iij. the yeare of our Lord. 1215. MarginaliaThe tyme of the Turkes.not long after, about the yeare of our Lord. 1260. was styrred vp the power and armes of the Oguzians, and of Orthogules father of Ottomannus: Who about the yeare of our Lord. 1294. began first to vexe the Christians about Pontus and Bithynia: and so beginning his kyngdome, an. 1300. reigned. 28. yeares, MarginaliaEx Laonico Chalcondyla. lib. 1.as is afore mencioned.  

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MarginaliaThe prophesie of Ezechiel cap. 38.Mention was made before of Ezechiel prophecyeng agaynst Gog, whose woordes diuers expositours do apply against the Turke, and are these:  

Thou shall come from thy place, out of the North partes, thou and much people with thee, all rydyng vpon horses, a great and a mighty armie, and thou shalt come vp agaynst my people of Israell as a cloude, to couer the land: Thou shalt be in the later dayes, and I will bryng thee vpon my land, that the heathen may know me whē I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Thus sayth the Lord God: Art not thou he, of whom I haue spokē in the old time, by the hand of my seruauntes, the Prophetes of Israell, that prophesied in those daies & yeres, that I would bring thee vpon thē? At the same tyme also, whē Gog shall come agaynst the land of Israell, saith the Lord God, my wrath shall aryse in myne anger. For in my indignation, and in the fire of my wrath haue I spoken it: Surely at that tyme there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israell: So that the fishes of the sea, the foules of the heauē, the beastes of the field, & all that moue & creepe vpō the earth, & all the mē that are vpon the earth, shall trēble at my presence: the moūtaines shalbe ouerthrown: the starres shall fall, & euery wall shall fall to the ground. &c.

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MarginaliaMethodius prophecies.VNto these testimonies aboue excerped out of the holy Scriptures, let vs adde also the propheticall reuelatiōs of Methodius, Hildegardis, Sybilla, and other.  

This Methodius is thought of some to be þ^e same Methodius, of whō Hierome, & Suidas make mentiō: which was Bsihop first of Olympus in Lycia, thē of Tyrus, & suffered martyrdome in the last persecutiō of þ^e primitiue Church, vnder Diocletian. Vnto whom also Trithemius attributeth the booke, intitled: De Quatuor nouissimis temporibus. MarginaliaThe boke of Methodius mistaken.But that can not be, for asmuch as the sayd Methodius doth cite and alleadge the Maister of Sentence, namely in hys 2. booke & 6. dist. which Maister of Sentēce folowed more then a thousād yeare after Christ: besides certaine other fabulous matter cōteined in þ^e same booke.   Albeit because he speaketh there of many thynges concernyng the state of the Church vnder Antichrist, and the reformation of Religion, as semeth rightly to come to passe, and more is lyke to folow: I thought not to defraude the reader therof, leauyng the credite of the author, to his arbitrement, to esteme and iudge of him as he seeth cause.   Amōg dyuers other places of Methodius, prophesieng of the latter tyme, these wordes doe followe:   After that the children of Ismaell

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