Untitled treatise on Revelation (Section 1.6)

The second Trumpet.

The next Trumpet hath these two main characters that the wars to which it sounds, are to be a western wind that is in the regions westward of Rome: & that during this wind a great mountain burning with fire is to be cast into the sea, that is a great ^a[49] city ^{b [50]}consuming by war to be cast down & sink in the midst of that ^c[51] people signified by the sea, & by its fall to disturb the waters. And no doubt this City is Rome the metropolis of the western Empire. ffor it is this City which is every where in the Apocalyps called the great city, & this empire (as I shewed above) which is to be understood by the third part of the Sea which became bloody at the fall of this mountain or City.

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Now by the first of these characters we are directed to the first notable wars which break forth in the west; & these began in the year 407. For till that time the west continued in absolute peace. The Franks indeed immediatly after the death of Theod &c The Franks indeed immediatly after the death of Theodosius, began to threaten some troubles in Gallia, but they were suddenly checked by Stilico, & that without war, & all those regions established in firm peace as Claudian thus informs us

And a little after.

This was the serenity of the western regions while the east wind blew, but when that began to cease there brake forth a notable western wind. ffor in the beginning of the year 407 the Vandals Alans Burgundians & Alemans, with great multitudes of other barbarous nations out of Germany (invited as was supposed by Stilico as the Eastern Barbarians were before by Ruffin) all at once overflow Gallia wasting it with fire & sword & rapine: which desolations Saint Ierom in his eleventh Epistle hath thus partly expressed & partly hinted. - Verùm quid ago? fracta novi de mercibus disputo. Qui tenebat de medio fit et non intelligimus Antichristum appropinquare. Innumerabiles et ferocissimæ nationes universas Gallias occuparunt, quicquid inter Alpes et Pyrenæum est quod Oceano et Rheno includitur, Quadus, Vandalus, Sarmata, Alani, Gepides, Heruli, Saxones, Burgundiones, Alemanni et (O lugenda respublica) hostes Pannonij vastarunt. Magunciacum capta atque subversa est, et in Ecclesia multa hominum millia trucidata. Vangiones longa obsidione deleti, Rhenorum Vrbs præpotens, Ambiani, Attrebates, extremique hominum Morini, Tor <20r> nacus, Nemete, Argentoratus translati in Germaniam. Aquitaniæ novemque populorum Lugdunensis et Narbonensis Provinciæ præter paucas urbes populata sunt cuncta, quas et ipsas foris gladius intus vastat fames. Non possum absque lacrymis Tolosæ facere mentionem quæ ut hucusque non rueret sancti Episcopi Exuperij merita præstiterunt. Ipsæ Hispaniæ jam jamque petituræ quotidiè contremescunt recordantes irruptionis Cimbricæ, et quicquid alij semel pasi sunt illi semper timore patiuntur. Cætera taceo ne videar de Dei desperare clementia. And a little after Quis hoc credet? Quæ digno sermone historiæ comprehendent? Romam in gremio suo non pro gloria sed pro salute pugnare imo ne pugnare quidem sed auro et cunctâ supellectile vitam redimire?

After Gallia had been thus wasted for between two & three years, the Vandals & Suevians with a part of the Alans pass into Spain & overrun that country also with the like desolations, & at the same time the Franks break into Gallia Lugdunensis; & the Picts & Scots also a while after, that no part of the west might be free ^a[53] invade Brittain, forcing many of the inhabitants to fly into that part of ffrance which from them is to this day called Brittain.

And whilst this torrent overwhelmed the west, Alaric with his Goths, leaving Pannonia to the Huns, invade Italy & besiege Rome, & though at first bought off, yet renewing the siege after two yeares he takes it in the year 410 when it had been first so much wasted by famin & Pestilence that Saint Ierom in Epist 16 saith, Fame perit antequam gladio: et vix pauci qui caperentur inventi sunt. Ad nefandos cibos erupti esurientium rabies & sua invicem membra laniarunt: dum mater non parcit lactanti infanti et suo recipit utero quem paulo ante effuderat. Hence it became a proverb Pone pretium humanis carnibus as Zosimus relates who also adds: ^[54] Famem (ceu consentaneum erat) pestis comita batur omniaque plena cadaveribus erant. Cumque non possent extra urbem sepeliri cadavera quod omnem exitum hostes observarent urbs ipsa mortuorum sepulchrum erat: adeo quidem ut alioqui etiam solitudo in urbe foret, siquæ nulla fuisset alimentorum penuria, vel exhalans e cadaveribus <21r> odor ad inficienda corrumpendaque corpora suffecisset.

When the city was almost taken Alaric sets up Attalus a new Emperor at Rome reserving to himself the command of both armies, & sends him to besiege Honorius at Ravenna, whereupon Honoriius out of desperation began to think of flying to his Brother in the East: but Attalus behving himself foolishly Alaric degrades him again & restores Honorius. Quid de infelicissimo Attalo loquar, saith Orosius,^[55] cui occidi inter Tyrannos honor & more lucrum fuit? In hoc Alaricus Imperatore facto infecto refecto ac defecto, citius his omnibus actis pene quàm dictis, mimum risit et ludum spectavit Imperij.

After these things, the city being taken, Alaric lead his army into the furthest parts of Italy & attempted to sail into Afric with intention to have seated his nation there. But being shipwracked he made a league with Honorius & sooon after died & then Honorius that he might recover Italy granted Ataulphus his successor Aquitain a Province of Gallia to inhabit: which gave occasion to various fresh wars in Aquitain & Spain between the Goths Romans Vandals Sueves & Alans almost without intermission untill the year 427 when peace was concluded between the Goths & Romans, & the Vandals having that same year slain ^c[56] almost twenty thousand Romans in battel ^c[57] pass into Afric: the Kingdom of the ^d[58] Alans being ruined in those wars about ten years before.

The first ten years of these wars in Aquitain, recconed from the begining of the irruption, you may hear Prosper thus lamenting.

Having given you the history of these wars, which as you have heard, fulfill the two characters of this Trumpet, the one of being the first western wind, the other of being accompanied with the fall of the Imperial city: it remains now that I take notis of the other concomitans, which are these three.

1 That the third part of the sea became blood, or as is exprest in the second Vial, the (western) sea became as the blood of a dead man. By blood we are to understand the staining of the western waters chiefly by the effusion of much blood in these wars, & then by any other kind of violent deaths whatever. ffor blood is used figuratively to signify any kind of death as you may see in Ezek 14.19. & 3.18, 20, & 18.13, & thus it will comprehend the sad mortality by famin & pestilence which doutles at the sieges of Rome swept away many hundred thousands & raged not only there but in the whole western Empire & chiefly in Spain as Idatius in his chronicle thus relates. Anno 16^mo Imperij Honorij et Arcadij, debacchantibus per Hispanias Barbaris, pestilentiæ malo fames diva grassatur ut humanæ carnes ab humano genere fame fuerint devoratæ: matres quoque necatis et coctis natorum suorum visceribus sint pastæ, corporibus bestiæ occisorum. Gladio, fame, pestilentia, bestiarum infestatione interimebantur homines. His quatuor plagis ubique in toto orbe sævientibus prædicta a domino per Prophetas suas adimplebantur.

2 The second concomitant is that the third part of the creatures which were in the sea & life died, that is every living soul in the (western) sea as is exprest in the second vial. And here by death I understand not the naturall death of men, (for that was sufficiently exprest before by blood,) but their poiticall death. ffor death is used to signify the destruction of bodies politique as well as of naturall bodies, Amos 2.2. And that in these trumpets it is to be understood of bodies politique you may easily collect from <23r> the fift Trumpet where although without doubt multitudes of men were slain by the locusts yet becaus they destroyed not their Kingdom they are said not to kill them. Reason also will dictate the same: for no man I suppose can be so fond as to think that the intention of the second vial is that all the men in a whole Kingdom should really dy; but that they may all dy a political death is of no harsh conception. I suppose therefore that this death is the political death of the western Empire, as if it were slain by the invasion of its territories & the fall of its Metropolis like an animal beheaded & torn in pieces. For Pannonia was rent from it by the Huns, Brittain first by tyrants & then by the natives, the most of Gallia & Spain by the Franks, Burgundians Alemans Alans Vandals & Goths & the rest at some time or other overrun by them. Also ^d[60]Afric made a defection for a year or two under Heraclinus, & Italy laboured under the invasion of Alaric & the usurpation of a new Emperor, Honorius being reduced to so great straits that he began to think of quitting all & flying into the East. And to comprehend all at once, the whole Empire died for a time by cutting of that city whose dominion was the ratio formalis or life therof. For at the taking of that city, to use Saint Ierom's words written upon the news of it, Clarissimum terrarum omnium lumen extinctum est, imo Romani Imperij truncatum caput, & ut (verius dicam) una urbe totus orbis inter ijt. Hieron. Præf. in l 1. comment. in Ezek. In a word the siege of this city was the nick of time in which the Empire was slain as to its Monarchical form, & in its stead a body of ten new Kingdoms substituted of which we shall hereafter give you the catalogue.

3 This overthrow of the Empire is further expressed by a shipwrack. The third part of the ships, (^[61]that is the towns & cities of the western Empire whose houses are analogous to <24r> ships) were destroyed in this tempest, sinking as it were (like the great Mountain) by being reduced into the power of the enemy.

The third Trumpet.

The third Trumpet.

The western empire being now rent into many kingdoms, & those pretty well setled under their new lords: there brake out A.C 427 a war in the southern quarter which is the quarter of the third wind. For Afric which had ^æ[62] hitherto flourished in peace & prosperity having had no other considerable molestation since the beginning of Theodosius's reign then that short one of Gilda which conspired with the wars of the first Trumpet & an invasion of Mauritania perhaps shorter then Gilda's eruption & belonging to the wars of the 2^d, began to be invaded & wasted with most vehement, tedious & universal desolations: & that after this manner. Vpon a ^a[63] discord between Ætius & Boniface governour of Afric, Ætius this year sent an army against him out of Italy & Boniface defeated it & to fortify himself for the future sailed streight into Spain contracted friendship with the Vandals by marriage & invited them into Afric. But whilst they were in their passage Afric was invaded also by the southern Barbarians: of which D. Augustin ^[64] in an epistle to Boniface written a year or two after makes this mention. Cùm te esse in continentiæ proposito gauderemus, navit gasti uxoremque duxisti, & hæresis eorum qui verum filium Dei negant tantum prævaluit in domo tua ut ab ipsis filia tua baptizaretur, &c. Vides tam multa contrita, ut vile aliquid quod rapiatur vix inveniatur. Quid autem dicam de vastatione Africæ quam faciunt Afri barbari resistente nullo, dum tu talis tuis necessitatibus occuparis, nec aliquid ordinas unde ista calamitas avertatur? Quis autem crederet quis timeret Boni facio domesticorum & Africæ comite in Africa constituto cum tam magno exercitu & potestate, qui tribunus cum paucis fœderatis omnes ipsas gentes expugnando & terrendo pacaverat, nunc tantum fuisse barbaros ausuros, tantum progressuros, tanta vastaturos, tanta rapturos, tanta loca quæ plena populis fuerant deserta facturos?

^[65]In the meane while the Vandals mixt with Alans & others invaded Mauritania, approached more & more into Afric wasted all places, & Boniface what he had done , they beat his Army besieged him in Hippo, & A.C. 431 after 14 months <26r> siege burnt the city: ✝ < insertion from f 25v > ✝ & then a^[66]new forces being sent both from Rome & Constantinople under Aspar, they beat those also, forcing Boniface to fly to Rome & Aspar to Constantinople. The first heat of these miseries Possidius Bishop of Calama who was present to them thus laments in his - < text from f 26r resumes > which Possidius Bishop of Calama^[67] who was present to these miseries, thus laments in his oration upon the death of D. Augustin. Brevi inquit consequenti tempore divina voluntate & potestate provenit, ut manus ingens diversis telis armata & bellis exercitata, immanium hostium Wandalorum & Alanorum commixtam secum habens Gothorum gentem, aliarumque diversarum gentium personas ex Hispaniæ partibus transmarinis navibus Africæ influxisset & irruisset: universaque per loca Mauritaniarum etiam ad alias nostras trajiciens provincias & regiones, omni sæviens crudelitate & atrocitate, cuncta quæ potuit expoliatione cædibus, diver sisque tormentis, incendijs, alijsque innumerabilibus & infandis malis depopulata est, nulli sexui, nulli parcens ætati, nec ipsis Dei sacerdotibus vel ministris, nec ipsis ecclesiarum ornamentis seu instrumentis vel ædificijs. Et hanc ferocissimam hostium grassationem & vastationem, ille homo Dei, & factam fuisse et fieri, non ut cæteri homines sen tiebat & cogitabat: sed altiùs & profundiùs ea considerans & in his animarum præcipuè vel pericula vel mortes prævidens, solito amplius fuerunt ei lacrymæ panes die ac nocte, amarissimamque et lugubrem præ cæteris suæ senectutis jam pæne extremam ducebat ac tolerabat vitam. Videbat enim ille homo Dei civitates excidio perditas pariter cum ædificijs, villarumque habitatores, alios hostili nece extinctos, alios effugatos atque dispersos: Ecclesias sacerdotibus ac ministris destitutas, virginesque sacras & quosque continentes ubique dissipatos: & in his alios defecisse tormentis, alios gladio interemptos esse, alios in captivitate perdita animi et corporis integritate ac fidei, malo more ac duro hostibus deservire. Cernebat etiam hymnos Dei & laudes de Ecclesijs deperisse, ædificia ecclesiarum quam plurimis in locis ignibus concremata esse, solennia quoque quæ Deo debentur de proprijs locis defecisse: sacrificia ac Sacramenta divina vel non quæri, vel quærenti qui tradat non facile reperiri: in ipsas montium sylvas et cavernas petrarum & speluncas confugientes, vel ad quascunque munitiones, alios fuisse expugnatos & interfectos, alios necessarijs sustentaculis evolutos atque privatos, ut fame contabescerent. ipsosque ecclesiarum præ positos & clericos qui forte Dei beneficio vel eos non incurrerant, vel incurrentes evaserant, rebus omnibus expoliatos atque <27r> nudatos egsutissimos mendicare, nec eis omnibus ad omnia quibus fulciendi essent subveniri posse. Vix tres superstites videbat ex innumerabilibus ecclesijs, hoc est Carthaginensem, Hipponensem et Cirtensem quæ dei beneficio excisæ non sunt, & earum permanent civitates & divino et humano fultæ præsidio; licet post ejus ^a[68] obitum urbs Hipponensis incolis destituta ab hostibus fuerit concremata. Within a few years they took Carthage too & what els remained: But let's heare how ^b[69] Victor in his history written so many years after laments the same desolations. Invenientes, saith he, pacatam quietamque Provinciam, speciositatem totius terræ florentis quaquaversum, impietatis agminibus impendebant, devastando depopulabantur incendio & homocidijs totum exterminantes. Sed nec arbustis fructiferis omninò parcebant: ne forte quos antra montium, aut prærupta terrarum, vel seclusa quæque occultaverant, post eorum transitum illis pabulis nutrirentur: et sic eadem atque iterum tali crudelitate furentibus ab eorum contagione nullus remansit locum immunis. ♀ < insertion from f 26v > ♀ immunis. Præsertim in ^a[70] Ecclesijs Basilicisque & cæmiterijs & monasterijs sceleratius sæviebant, & cum majoribus incendijs domus orationis magis quam urbes cunctaque oppida concremarent. - Quanti tunc ab eis præclari pontifices & nobiles sacerdotes diversis pœnarum generibus extincti sunt, ut haderent si quid auri vel argenti proprium vel ecclesiasticum haberent. Et dum hæc quæ erant urgentibus pœnis facilius proderentur iterum crudelibus tormentis oblatores urgebant, autum antes quandam partem non totum esse oblatum, & quanto plus dabant tanto amplius quempiam habere credebant. Alijs palorum vectibus ora reserantes fœtidum cænum ob confessionem pecuniæ faucibus ingerebant. Nonnullos in frontibus & tibijs nervis remugientibus torquendo cruciabant. Plerisque aquam marinam, alijs acetum, amurcam, liquamenque, & alia multaatque crudelia tanquam utribus imbutis ori impositis sine misericordia porrigebant. Non infirmior sexus non consideratio nobilitatis non reverentia sacerdotalis crudeles animos mitigabat: quin imò ibi exaggerabatur ira furoris ubi honorem conspexerant. Quantis sacerdotibus, quantisque illustribus onera ingentia ut camelis vel alijs generibus jumentorum imposuerint nequeo enarrare {illeg} quos stimulis ferreis ad ambulandum urgebant quorum nonnulli sub fascibus miserabiliter animas emisere. Senilis maturitas atque veneranda canities quæ cæsariem cajutis ut lanam candidam dealbarat: nullam sibi ab hospitibus misericordiam vendicabat sed etiam parvulos ab uberibus rapiens maternis barbarus furor insontem infantiam elidebat ad terram. Alij parvulum pedibus tenentes a meatu prorsus naturali usque ad arcem, capitis dissipabant, quando tunc forte Sion captiva cantabat: Dixit inimicus incendere fines meos interficere infantis meos & parvulos meos elisurum ad terram. In ædificijs nonnullis - < text from f 27r resumes > - In ædificijs nonnullis magnarum ædium vel domorum ubi ministerium ignis minùs valuerat, tectis admodum despicatis pulchritudinem parietum solo æquabant, ut nunc antiqua illa speciositas civitatum nec quia fuerit prorsus appareat. Sed et urbes quamplurimæ aut raris aut nullis habitatoribus incoluntur. Nam et hodiè siqua supersunt subinde desolantur. Vbi verò munitiones  aliquæ < insertion from f 26v >  aliquæ videbantur, quas hostilitas barbarici furoris oppugnare nequiret, congregatis in circuitu castrorum innumerabilibus turbis, gladijs feralibus, cruciabant, ut putrefactis cadaveribus, quos adire non poterant arcente murorum defensione, corporum liquescentium enecarent fœtore. Quanti & quam numerosi tunc ab eis cruciati sunt sacerdotes explicare quis poterit? Tunc enim nostræ civitatis venerabilis Papinianus antistes, candentis ferri laminis toto adeptus est corpore. Similiter et Mansuetus Vricitanus, in porta incensus est Formitana. &c. < text from f 27r resumes >

How vast these desolations were you may further guess by the largeness of the Province, which by the incredible number of Bishoprics in it seems scarce less or not much less then Spain & Gallia together: ffor Baronius^[71] A.C. 411. computes out of D. Austin 625 episcopal seats at least in Afric. Also how severe & sharp they were may be further apprehended < insertion from f 26v > How severe & sharp these desolations were may be further apprehended by the fierce & cruel disposition of Genseric their King which sufficiently discovers it self by this one passage of Prosper: Dioscoro et Eudoxio Coss. In Geisericum de successu rerum etiam apud suos superbientem, quidam Optimates ipsius conspiraverunt sed molitione detecta multis ab eo supplicijs excruciati atque extincti sunt. Quumque idem audendum etiam ab alijs videretur, tam multis regis suspicio exitio fuit ut hac sui cura plus virium perderet quam si bello superaretur. Prosp. in Chron. If he did thus to his own people what would he not do to the Africans. But how vast desolations he made there you may still further guess by the largeness -

Nor was it Afric alone these barbarians infested; the Mediterranean Islands felt their fury too. ffor Marcelline saith A.C. 439 Theod 17 & Fausto Coss. Vandali Pyratæ multas insulas sed præcipue Siciliam vastavêre. And Salvian^[72] tells us Eversis Gallijs et Hispanijs, postremò nequa pars mundi exitialibus malis esset immunis, navigare per fluctus bella cœperunt: quæ vastatis urbibus mari clausis atque eversis Sardinia et Sicilia id est fiscalibus horreis, atque abscissis velut vitalibus venis Africam ipsam id est quasi <28r> animam captivarêre reipublicæ: That is completed its captivity by sacking Carthage & pervading the whole soon after they had taken Sicily & other Isles & thereby cut of supplies from Europe.

When they had thus by a tedious war with the Emperor's forces wasted & subdued Afric & Sicily, they from thence A.C 455 sailed into Italy & spoiled Rome & other cities there carrying into Afric the whole treasures thereof & consequently of the Empire which the abstemious Goths had spared, & captivating the flower of Italy. Post exitum Maximi confestim secuta est multis digna lachrymis Romana captivitas. Vrbem omni præsidio vacuam Geisericus obtinuit, - et per 14 dies continuos secura et libera scrutatione omnibus opibus suis Roma vacucta est, multaque millia captivorum prout quisque aut ætate aut arte placuerunt cum Regina et filiabus ejus Carthaginem abducti sunt. Prosper apud Euseb. l 1. Gensericus vacuam præsidio civitatem capit & occursu Leonis Papæ mitigatus ab incendio cædibus atque supplicijs urbem immanem servavit, omnibus tamen opibus ablatis multa inde captivorum millia cum Augusta Eudoxia & ejus filiabus Carthaginem revexit. Paul Diac. lib. 15. Exinde Regum multorum divitias cum populis captivavit. Quæ dum multitudo captivitatis Africanum attingeret littus dividentibus Vandalis et Mauris ingentem populi quantitatem, ut moris est Barbaris, mariti ab uxoribus, liberi a parentibus separabantur. Victor De Persec. Vand. l. 1. Gazam omnem Imperatoriam in navibus positam secum in Africam tulit: ac siqua erant Romæ decora, itemque Iovis capitolini tegularum ex ære auratarum partem dimidiam abripuit. Vnam verò ex his navibus ubi statuæ fuerant tempestate perijsse dicunt, cæteras incolumes in Africam delatas. Procop. de Bello Wand. l. 1. Amongst other things were the vessels of the Temple of Ierusalem which Titus had sent to Rome. Procop. ib. l 2. Niceph. l 15. c 11. And to these spoiles of Rome they added at the same time the prey of many other cities: Miles Genserici avidus prædæ in Campaniam incursat, Capuam evertit, Neapolin expugnat, Nolam obsidet, urbes reliquas diripit - onustus præda cum ingenti captivorum numero Africam repetit. Aventinus in Annal. Boi. & Pompon. Læt.

From this time the Vandals possessing themselves more & more of the mediterranean Isles continued to play the Pyrats & infest Europe with very frequent incursians. Post mortem Valentiniani, saith victor, ^[73] Gensericus totius Africæ ambitum ob- <29r> tinuit, nec non et insulas maximas Sardiniam Siciliam Corsicam Ebusum Majoricam Minoricam & alias multas superbia sibi consueta defendit. And Procopius:^[74] Post mortem Valentiniani, aliquot annos veris initio continuò longas fecit prædando et populando incursiones, nunc in Siciliam, nunc in Italiam, civitates insuper partim diripiendo partim solo æquando: ubi verò omnia delevit ad Orientis conversus Imperium Illyricum omne simul et Peloponnesum, hisque adjacentes insulas cum reliqua Græcia invadit. Ad Italiam rursum Siciliamque reversus quicquid erat reliqui diripuit. Verùm e quondam {cum} e Carthaginis portu passis velis soluturus esset, interrogatus a Nauclero, quo tendere populabundus vellet: respondisse quo Deus impulerit, adeò ut ex nulla causa in obvios quoscunque hostiliter ferebatur. So Sidonius in his Panegyric calld Anthemius, speaking of the short reign of the Emperors after Valentinian III, saith

Porrò ita formidabilis, inquit Baronius, ^[75] erat Gensericus piratica classe ut Alexandria etiam fuerit timore concussa. Etenim hæc habent ^d[76] acta Danielis Stylitæ. Quædam fama in omnes gentes manavit, Gensericum regem Wandalorum bellum gerere adversus ^*[77] Romanos magno apparatu & majori audacia, & quod magna manu pervenit Alexandriam, eam sibi volens belli facere præmium. Non parùm ergo animo angebatur magistratus et ipse Imperator &c. So troublesome were these violences, that for restraining them ^[78] Leo the Greek Emperor A.C. 468 set forth a navy of eleven hundred ships & an hundred thousand men, which at first prevailed, but landing a great part of their men in Afric, the Vandals set upon them afresh & burnt their ships & then beat the forces also which they had landed. Thus having baffled both Emperors they continued their pyratical incursions till about the year 500, when Theoderic king of the Ostrogoths having newly propagated his <32r> kingdom into Italy, made peace with them as Baronius in this year thus mentions: ^[79] Iam tutum, inquit, redditum erat commercium inter Africanos et Italos cum sanxivisset fœdus Rex Theodericus cum Wandalorum Rege, a quo hactenus frequentes fiebant in solum Italicum incursiones. Stabilita est enim inter eos pax fœdere nuptiarum, data ei [Sc. Trasamundo] in Matrimonium Amalafrida. De qua inita inter illos concordia hæc Ennodius in Panegyrico Theoderici: Quid castigatas Wandalorum ventis parentibus eloquar deprædationes, quibus pro annuâ pensione satis est amicitia tua? Evagari ultra possibilitatem nesciunt, Duce sapientia: affines esse meruerunt quia obedire non abnuunt.

☞ Here insert. [Victor after he has been &c.

- quia obedire non abnuunt.

☞ ^[80]Victor after he has been very large in describing the extreme miseries of Afric by banishments, enslavement, various tortures or slaughters of the natives, adds this short hint of the sufferings of Europe also by the Pyratical incursions. Quæ verò, inquit, Gensericus in Hispania, Italia, Dalmatia, Calabria, Apulia, Sicilia, Sardinia, Brutijs, Lucania, Epiro, vel Hellada gesserit, melius ibi ipsi qui passi sunt miserabiliter lugenda narrabunt. So that scarce any thing not too remote from the sea, escapt their fury./ But besides these there were other great wars by which Europe was severely afflicted. For the ^a[81]Huns under Attila in the years 441 & 442, & again in the years 445, 446 & 447, miserably wasted Macedon, Thrace, Mœsia, Achaia. Greece & Epire & then & A.C. 451 with a greater army consisting of Ostrogoths, Gepides & many other Scythian & German nations to the ^b[82] number of 500000 ^o[83] invaded Gallia pretending to make war upon the VisiGoths only, but the rest of the Gallic Barbarian Kingdoms (the Franks Burgundians & Alans) being admonished by Ætius that his intention was to swallow them all singly, joyned with the Goths, & after he had ^c[84] wasted many cities & began to besiege Orleans, set upon him & with much difficulty beat him, there ^d[85] falling on both sides 162000 besides 90000 Gepides & Franks which fell the night before. And afterward he returning to invade the Alans, the ^e[86] Goths & Alans beat him in another battel of three days continuance almost as bloody as the first. Then he recruited his forces & led them into ^p[87] Venetia Histria, Incubria, Gallia {togata}, & ^f[88] rased divers of the chief cities there, Aquileia, Millain Ticinum Verona, & others: at which time many of the Italians fled for safety to the Adriatic Islands & built the city Venice there, so called from the region. But in the heat of his fury he was ^g[89] curbed by an army sent by the Greek Emperor Marcian. & forced to return home with dammage: & the next year (^k[90] A.C. 444) dying, his sons fell into civil dissentions about sharing his dominions: on which occasion the nations under them laying hold rebelled & subdued them, the Gepides in Mysia, the Ostrogoths in Pannonia & others in other places.

And now the Vandals having not only robd the Empire of what Salvian calls its vital veins & soule, but of its heart by spoiling Rome of it's wealth & captivating the flower of Italy & of its marrow too by continually invading & preying upon all places accesible: there remaind only a trunk which after a little feeble struggling died of its own accord, ^h[91] one party of the Italians calling from beyond the Danube into Italy against another Oddacer King of the Heruli who quickly pervaded it, almost without opposition, but yet not without spoiling some Cities & chiefly Ticinum.

Besides all these I might mention the wars by which the Ostrogoths threw the Heruli out of Italy & succeeded them there & those between the Visigoths & Suevians in Spain, & the Franks & other Barbarians in Gallia &c. But these, as they are much inferior to those of the Vandals & Huns so they were not against the Romans but between Barbarian nations & consequently not properly of the nature of the four winds which were to hurt the earth & the sea together, that is to be waged between Barbarians & Romans for the destruction of the Empire. On the same account also the wars of the Huns in Gallia are liable to exception, but yet becaus Ætius with an army of Romans was ingaged in them, they may be referred to the wars of this wind in a secondary order, recconning this wind to extend from the South to the regions on both sides Rome as the first wind did from the east to all sides but the west. Vnless ✝

✝ Vnless you had rather compare the Hunnic wars for thir shortness, fury & unconstant quarter to so many fits of a Hurricane i'th' midst of a great wind. ffor while they lasted they were the most violent of any wars, but yet the Vandalic was much more successful & fatal to the Empire, rending away together with the most flourishing part of it, more ground people & riches then perhaps they left to be seized by others, whereas the Hunnic war rent little or nothing away. Considering therefore that the Vandalic war conduced most to the fall of the Empire which the winds were to effect & that by its durableness & constancy it resembles a wind better then any other war or agggregate of wars contemporary to it, & also that it brake out in a new quarter & was the only great war in that Quarter: it ought to be accounted the cardinal wind & the rest referred to it as so many contemporary irregular blasts.

But besides the Quarter -

<31v>

But besides the Quarter, this Trumpet has another remarkable character, the fall of a great star from heaven burning as it were a Lamp; that is of some very great ^a[92] Prince from the heaven of his dignity, ^b[93] consuming by war. And this points at the fall of the western Cæsar, who from that time that the Vandals rent Afric & the Mediterranean Isles from the Empire & captivated Italy, retained almost nothing but the name of Emperor: insomuch that some historians make that time the end of this Empire. Yet it resisted absolute death for about twenty years longer under the titular Cæsars Aritus, Majoranus, Severus, Anthemius, Olybrius Glycerius & Nepos falling by the sword of one another, untill at last A.C. 476 it was (as to the Imperial dignity) utterly extinguished under the fatal name of ^*[94] Augustus or Augustinus by Odoacer King of Heruli who as was said being invited by some of the Italians translated his nation into Italy.

The reason why I interpret this star of no less dignity then that of the western Emperor is that it is described of the greatest magnitude, & while there are two Emperors in the Roman world it would be against nature to represent them by suns. Yet least you should doubt of this interpretation you may compare it with Isa 14.12 where the fall of as great a Monarch, the King of Babylon, because he had in like manner the King of the Medes for his fellow, is exprest by the <33r> like Parable of a falling star{. How} art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the Morning, saith the Prophet, how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations.

Now whereas this star is described to fall upon the third part of the rivers & fountains of waters, it is a figure, like that of casting the mountain into the sea, to express at once both the ruin of the star & the disturbance of the waters & embittring them by that burning which consumed the star. By rivers (their denoting ^d[95] the provinces of any kingdom) I still understand the people of the Empire, the same waters which were before called the sea, but are now compared to rivers becaus no longer in one intire mas but intermixed with the earth those many northern nations which in the last Trumpet & beginning of this by invading the sea ^a[96] dried up its waters & converted them as it were to disseminated rivers.  < insertion from f 31v >  Moreover by the third part of the rivers on which the star fell I understand so much of the Empire as the star reigned over at the beginning of this Trumpet that is Afric one sixt part, & Italy Dalmatia & Rhætia with some part of Spain & Gallia which being about half the European portion of the western Empire, amounts to another sixt part; the other half being occupied by barbarous nations. On these his dominions, & on the ^b[97] ruling cities < text from f 33r resumes > On these therefore & on the ^b[98] ruling cities (Rome Ravenna, Aquileia, Millain, Ticinum, Capua Naples, Carthage, Hippo, &c.) the heads or ffountains of these waters, the star fell burning as it were a lamp, & by its fall & burning (that is by the decay of the Emperors power which should have defended the Romans & by the ^c[99] wars in which he consumed) smote the waters & made them bitter as if they had been imbibed with so much wormwood, or, as is exprest in the third Vial, it turned them to blood: & many men died of their bitterness, that is a politic death by the dissolution of the the Empire which expired or (as it were) died with much bloodshed & bitter pain.

In the next place follows a declaration of God's justice in executing these judgments. ^[100]Iohn heard the Angel of the waters say Thou art righteous o Lord which wast & art & shalt be becaus thou hast judged thus: For they have shed the blood of saints & Prophets, & thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And another angel out of the Altar said: Even so Lord God Almighty true & righteous are thy judgments. And this affords a third character of these times worthy of yo special notice, namely that these wars followed upon a sanguinary persecution of the Church & were inflicted upon the persecutors as a righteous judgment to shed their blood who had shed the blood of saints & thereby a^[101] derived upon themselves the blood of <34r> all Prop{hets} & Martyrs since the world began. In the fift seal you had a conclusion to the Heathen persecutions exprest by the soules under the Altar calling for Vengeance, & the brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled: & here you have the beginning of the Christian or rather Antichristian persecutions, the killing of those their brethren noted by Angel of the waters & the voice of one from the same Altar of Martyrdom celebrating God's justice for giving the blood-shedders blood to drink: I say the beginning, becaus we shall find the beginnings of all the chief enormities of the Apostacy some where or other described in this Prophesy, & this is the earliest mention of their sanguinary persecution. We are therefore to seek for the beginning of the Antichristian sanguinary persecutions a little before this Vial. And there it is to be found. For Honorius, ^a[102] when Alaric ste up Attalus against him, fearing the laws he had formerly put forth for compelling the Donatists with the rest of the Africans to his religion might make them fall of to Attalus, permitted liberty of religion to all, but after Attalus's deposition, ^b[103] at the petition of a Counsel of the African Bishops revoked that edict by this

The fourth Trumpet

The last blast of the third wind, we may reccon to be that notable war wherein the Vandalic kingdom was overthrown by Bellisarius; which happened in the years 533 & 534. And this directs us to the fourth wind, that famous Ostrogothic war which began the next year. The main seat thereof was Venetia & Lombardy & the other regions between Rome & the Alps, besides some actions in Illyricum & perhaps in Now these regions were northward northward of Rome which is the proper quarter of this wind: And therefore this must be the war intended by this wind becaus the first & most signall durable war (between the Romans & Barbarians) whose main seat was in that quarter. ffor first this war continued for 18 years with the Goths & that with very notable violence; & then their kingdom being ruined, the Lombards invaded Italy & succeed both in the Gothic Dominions & quarrel, but become a more fierce & lasting enemy: the war with them from their first entrance ^a[119] lasting 36 years together almost without intermission. The history of these wars with their sad effects you may see at large in Procopius Iornandes de Regn. Sucess. Paulus Diaconus, Sigonius de Occidentali Imperio Annales Boiorum & others.

In the former Trumpet you had the fall of the Western Cæsar, but this proceeds yet higher even to the darkning of the sun Moon & Stars, that is to the utter extinction of the remaining light of the western Empire. ffor the understanding of which you are to know that the Empire was fundamentally seated, not in the dominion of the Emperor but in that of the city of Rome. It was an Empire before <46r> <48r> the race of Emperors began, & might have continued so long after their fall could the City but have recovered its pristine extent of dominion.

But though it could not recover that greatness yet it continued for some time after the fall of the Cæsars to shine considerably. The Consulship Odoacer indeed at first took away in anger, but after two years restored it & conserved it to the end of his reign; & then Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths being sent by Zenon the Greek Emperor against Odoacer & having conquered & slain him besides Dalmatia & Rhætia which were Odoacer's Provinces he added Sicily to his dominions & he freed Italy with the rest of his Kingdom from the incursions of the Vandals & setled it in peace ⓐ < insertion from f 45v > ⓐ So far was the dominion of Italy restored by his coming that Ennodius in his Panegyric to him saith: Interea ad limitem suum Romana Regna remearunt. He repaired also the Walls &c - < text from f 48r resumes > & ⓑ < insertion from f 45v > ⓑ Per Theudericum dignitas urbis Romæ non parva est restituta, muros enim ejus iste redintegravit, ob quam causam a Senatu instauratam statuam meruit. Isidorus in Chron. Patricio et Hypatio Coss: Rex Theodoricus Romam cunctorum votis expetitus advenit, et senatum suum mira affabilitate tractans, Romanæ plebis donavit annonas, atque admirandis manibus, deputata per annos singulos maxima pecuniæ quantitate, subvenit sub cujus felici Imperio plurimæ renovantur urbes, munitissima castella conduntur, consurgunt admiranda palatia; magnisque ejus operibus antiqua miracula superantur. Cassiodorus in Chron. < insertion from lower down f 45v > [ Erat Theodericus fama quidem Tyrannus, re tamen præ se veri specimen Imperatoris ferebat, ut qui vel eorum qui a principio ea in dignitate probatiores fuissent, nemini inferior fuerit: et Gothos item ac Italos pari quadam ac summa benevolentia suapte humanitate prosequebatur, ita ut omnes (quod utique difficillimum est) ejus Imperium oblectaret. Procop. De Bello Gottico lib 1. Idem Procopius Gothos et Belisarium sic inducit colloquentes. -] < text from higher up f 45v resumes > Idem Procopius Gothos et Belisarium sic inducit colloquentes. Gothi: Zenon Theodoricum Bizantium obsessurum suadebat, ut ex Odoacre pœnas ob injuriam Augustulo Imp. illotam exigeret, hunc igiter in modum nos Italiæ suscepto Imperio leges simul et Rempublicam salvas non minùs reddidimus quàm superiorum alius quisquam Imperatorum. - Romanorum sacraria eo in honore sunt apud nos habita ut a nullo nostratium hominum sit, qui ad ea confugerit, violatus. Omnibus præterea urbanis antehac magistratibus Romani perfungebantur, Gothus vir nemo eorum particeps factus: vel procedat in medium qui profari nos ista non vere existimet: addat et Consularem quispiam dignitatem, qua etsi Gothi ab Orientis Imperatore donati Romanis tamen perfungi liberè permiserunt. Ad hæc Belisarius: Zenon quidem Imperator in Italiam Theodoricum transmisit Odoacro ut bellum inferret non sibi ut hujus Imperium vindicaret, (quid enim a Tyranno Tyrannus differt) sed ut ea Provincia a se liberata Imperanti sibi subjiceretur. Procop de Bello Got. Lib 2. Theodericum magistrum militum & Consulem Romanum Zenon Imperatore Italia donavit, Senatum populumque Romanum ei commendans. Iornandes in Geticis & de Regn. Success. Evagrius Historicus Theodericum & Athalaricum vocat Administratores occiden talis Imperij. Alij Imperium Occidentale ad Gothos translatum dicunt. &c. De hic vide plura apud Sigonium aliosque. < text from f 48r resumes > repaired the walls of Rome & some other buildings with a great summ of money given for that purpose, & changed no custome but retained the Senate, Consuls, Patricij, Prætors, Quæstors, Præfect of the City, masters of the hors & foot & other offices which had been in the time of the Emperors, & assigned them only to those of the Roman nation, as did also the succeeding Ostrogothic Kings Athalaric & Theodatus. Thus Rome flourished under the Goths after the same manner as formerly under her own Emperors, as if she had changed nothing but the title of her Emperors to that of Kings And together with Rome Ravenna & divers other cities were repaired & restored to their pristine lustre, so that Italy seemed in a state as peacefull & prosperous as in the reign of some of their best Emperors:

In this degree the western light continued to shine till the sounding of the 4^th Trumpet, but then was quite put out. ffor Rome, being first seized by the Goths, was betrayed to Bellisarius, in the end of the 2^d year of the war, & from ffeb or March following for above a year together straitly beseiged by the Goths with an Army which at first consisted of whereby B which siege her dignities being reduced to titular shaddows the Consulship after five years more (viz. A.C. 542) expired < insertion from above the line > excepting that the Emperor ^b[122]Iustin <48v> , to please the Italians & declare his soveraignty over the west, took upon them the title of Consul for the two or three first years of his reign < text from f 48r resumes > < insertion from f 46v > - Consulship after 5 years more (viz A.C. 542 expired. Afterwards the city was again besieged & taken by Totila & for a time made destitute of all her inhabitants, & a third part of her walls demolished, & then recovered by Belisarius & again taken by Totila & retaken by Narses After this when Iustin came to the Empire, he to caress the Italians & together assert his dominion over them, took upon him the title of Consul for his two or three first years making a show as if he would restore the ruined dignities of Rome, but then the Lombards immediately invaded & wasted all Italy much more then the Goths had done, & again besieged Rome in the time of their 30 Tyrants A.C. 577. And partly by these desolations but {chiefly} by storms & fiery Meteors the City was so wasted that < text from f 48r resumes > After- <49r> this siege the City was again twice beseiged & taken as oft by Totila, & g^[123] the first there made destitute of all her inhabitants & a third part of the walls demolished. And after all these slaughters & desolations, being retaken by Narses, it was besieged again by the ^a[124] Lombards in the time of their 30 Tyrants, A.C. 577 . And partly by these destructions but chiefly by storms & fiery meteors the city was so wasted that ever since it hath scarce been the 10^th part of what it was before, & that too for the most part without the compass of its former foundation.

Thus was the Imperial City, which formerly shone gloriously with her Consuls Senate & other dignities reduced into darkness being made a heap of ruins & deprived of her magistracy, & from being Queen of the world degraded to I know not what ignoble Dukedome, & compel'd to serve under Ravenna which formerly served under her, & (O darkness!) even to pay tribute to the Exarchs presiding there. This was the conclusion of this great Empire. ✝ < insertion from f 48v > ✝ This was the conclusion of this great Empire: concerning which I cannot but note that it was accomplished by the direst desolations that (I believe) ever nation felt, God reserving his most grievous scourge for the fountain of Apostacy & the most grievous part of that scourge for the last place to try the utmost before he would give over an incorrigible insensible people. For all former desolations seem to be equald if not outdone by the Gothic (they & the Greeks both wasting Italy as the country of the enemy) & yet those desolations, & those were very manifestly outdone by the Lombardic.

A little before the Lombardic invasion there came a revelation to one Redemptus a Bishop in these words. Finis venit universæ carnis. Finis venit universæ carnis. Finis venit universæ carnis. which Gregory the great understanding of the end of the world made this comment upon it. Post illam Prophetiam ^d[125] mox illa terribilia in cœlum signa secuta sunt, ut hastæ atque acies igneæ ab Aquilonis parte viderentur. Mox effera Longobardorum gens de vagina suæ habitationis educta in nostram cervicem grassata est; atque humanum genus quod in hac terra præ nimiâ multitudine quasi spissæ segetis more surrexerat, ^a[126] succisum aruit. Nam depopulatæ urbes, eversa castra, concrematæ Ecclesiæ, destructa monasteria virorum & feminarum, desolata ab hominibus prædia atque ab omni cultore destituta in solitudine vacat terra, nullus hanc possessor inhabitat occuparunt bestiæ loca quæ prius multitudo hominum tenebat. Et quid in alijs mundi partibus agitur ignoro. Nam in hac terra in qua nos vivimus finem suum non nunciat sed ostendit. Vpon which place of Gregory Baronius writes thus ^e. ^[127]At nequis putet mendax fuisse Oraculum de fine universæ carne prædictum: sciant his verbis non seculi consummationem significatam sed gentis Italicæ cladem: sicut olim Deum per suum Prophetam comminatum fuisse constat ubi ait f ^[128] Hæc dicit dominus deus terræ Israel. Finis venit: Venit finis super quatuor plagas terræ: Nunc finis super te &c. Sicut ergo finem universæ carnis minitante Propheta non mundi est demonstratus interitus sed imminentes tantum clades præfiguratæ fuere, ita pariter eadem quæ prædicta sunt Redempto accipienda erunt. Certe quidem finis quodammodo tunc dici potuit advenisse Romani Occidentalis Imperij cum Longobardi Italiam invadentes rerum potiti sunt. Etenim post paucos Hexarchos Constantinopoli ab Imperatoribus in Italiam misos qui Ravennæ considere consuevere, ijsdem diu prævalentibus Longobardus, Occidentis Imperium penitus collapsum <49v> est neque usque ad Carolum magnum restitutum, ut tamen in Gallias fuerit ipsum translatum. Sane quidem quàm durissima foret Longobardorum adventu grassatio ejusmodi factis divinitus vaticinijs præsignata potest intelligi, quibus mundi ipsiu interritus fuit creditus significari. Quid autem passa sit Longobardis Italia vele hoc uno collige argumento: Si teste Procopio cùm ijdem amici essent Imperatoris & laboranti. Italiæ bello Gothico in auxilium Longobardi venitentes longe deteriora hostibus perpetrarunt, ut opus fuerit eos dimittere: quid ab ijsdem factum potest existimari cum jam hostes redditi hostili animo Italiam invaserunt Sane quidem adeò immensa ubique increbuere sub ipsis mala ut non leves quæque personæ sed ipse Gregorius Papa existimarit jam instare novissimum dicem quo universi orbis conflagrato immineret.

After this I know not what can be well said more: & yet out of the manifold lamentations of the same Gregory I shall trouble you with one more where speaking to the people he thus breaks forth. ^[129]Destructæ urbes, eversa sunt castra, depopulati agri in sollitudinem terra redacta est: Nullus in agris incola pene nullus in urbibus habitator remansit, & tamen ipsæ parvæ generis humani reliquiæ adhuc quotidie & sine cessatione feriuntur & finem non habent flagella cœlestis justitiæ. Ipsa autem quæ aliquando mundi domina esse videbatur qualis remansit Roma conspicimus, innumeris doloribus multipliciter attrita desolatione civium impressione hostium frequentia ruinarum. - Ecce jam de illa omnes hujus seculi potentes ablati sunt - Ecce populi defecerunt - Vbi enim Senatus? ubi jam populus? contabuerunt ossa consumptæ sunt carnes, omnis enim secularium dignitatum ordo extinctus est et tamen ipsos nos paucos qui remansimus adhuc quotidiè gladij adhuc quotidie innumeræ tribulationes premunt - Vacua jam ardet Roma. Quid autem iste de hominibus dicimus. Cum ruinis crebrescentibus ipsa quoque destrui ædificia videmus: postquedefecerunt homines etiam ^d[130] pariates cadunt. Iam ecce desolata, ecce contrita, ecce gemitibus oppressa est &c - Hanc autem quæ de Romanæ Vrbis contritione dicimus, in cunctis facta mundi civitatibus scimus, alia enim loca desolata sunt, alia gladio consumpta, alia fame cruciata, alia terræ hiatibus absorpta. Despiciamus ergo ex toto animo <47r> animo hoc præsens seculum vel extinctum. Greg. in Ezek. Hom 18.

Of the wars in other places which Gregory here touches upon, those made by the Huns invading Illyricumoccidentale & orientale & Thrace (regions situate to the North east of Rome as the seat of the Lombardic wars inclined to the northwest) were the most grievous & lasting. They continued from the year 539 to the yeare 558 & upward with notable violence, & soon after brake forth again. And these with what others there were at this time within the Roman world, may be in general referred to this Trumpet, but the first place must be allowed to the Lombardic as the direst wars & those by which the effect of this Trumpet, that is the extinction of the western Empire, was accomplished.

Now whereas this is exprest by darking the 3^d part of the sun moon & stars - < text from f 49r resumes > Now whereas this is exprest by the darkning of the third part of the sun Moon & Stars; by the Sun & Moon you may understand the Greek Emperor & Empress & by the third part of their light the third part of their dominions, that is the western Empire, the right of which by the ceasing of its own Emperors devolved upon the Greek Emperor & was accordingly claimed by him before & in his wars with the Vandals Goths & Lombards, & for a time recovered And so by the stars are to be understood the subordinate Magistrates in the whole Empire, & by the third part of them the magistrates of the third part, that is the Consuls Senators <50r> & other dignities of Rome by which as stars this Empire had irradiated & influenced the world. ✝ < insertion from f 47r > ✝ And lastly by the expression that the day shone not for a third part of it & the night likewise we are to understand the duration of the darkness of the third part of the Sun Moon & Stars that is of the obscure state or Eclips of the Western Empire: interpreting day & night of one & the same time of obscurity called day in respect of the Sun & night in respect of the Moon & Stars. For here the Sun moon & stars shine not alternatly, as in nature, to constitute successive days & nights, but shine altogether & are darkned altogether. Now of the western day & night wherof the darkness was a third part, the beginning must be at the beginning of the reign of the Beast that was & is not A.C. 395 because he is the eighth King or head, the subject of this Prophesy of the Trumpets, beginning & ending together with them; & tis his day & night that is darknes. Also the end of that day & night (so much of it as was darkned, so a third part) must be at the end of the darknes, not sooner becaus the darknes is a part of it (viz: the third part,), nor later becaus that is the latest time of which the Prophesy has hitherto taken a view, & if it should extend further it would be to us indefinite. The end of darknes I put in the ^a[131] year 607 when the Bishop of Rome obteined the universall Bishopric by the grant of the Emperor Phocas: Not sooner becaus the Lombardic wars continuing till the year 603 left Rome & Italy in the lowest <47v> degree of obscurity, nor later becaus Rome by that concession of Focas began again to be Empress of the world & to irradiate the whole west by that hermaphroditic Luminary the Pope & by those stars the Cardinalls with the rest of his Court, which from that time brake forth more & more out of the cloud till they outshone all other temporal potentates. Moreover the beginning of the darknes I reccon at the beginning of the siege of Rome which was in March in the third year of the Gothic war ^a[132] A.C. 537 for then the western dignities which after a few years more were annihilated began to be manifestly obscured. In the first year the war proceeded no farther then Dalmatia & Sicily, in the 2^d it entred Italy, but approached not Rome till & that siege began which continued a year & 9 days, & was so sharp that in the time thereof the Goths & Romans had no less then ^b[133] threescore & nine conflicts. besides several other less skirmishes.

Suppsoing therefore the desolation of Rome between the fall of the Temporal & rise of the Spiritual Empire to be the time of darkness, & the ascention of the beast out of the bottomless pit to be the begining of day & night: the length of the whole day & night will be more then 212 & less then 213 years & the third part thereof less then 71 years, & the length of darkness will be 70 years complete & some part perhaps of the next. The day & night therefore shone not for the third part thereof as was to be explained.

And this makes good also the prophesy of the 70 ears desolation of Tyre, which as we proved in < text from f 50r resumes > proved in Posit       was to be a 70 year's desolation of the Imperial City between the fall of the temporall & rise of the Spiritual Empire, & to happen in the time of the 4^th Trumpet & be about the length thereof: all which being here so punctually fulfilled & applicable to no other time, is a most certain character of the right application of this Trumpet. And thus much concerning this Trumpet-

And thus much concerning this Trumpet: the application of which is notably confirmed by the correspondent Vial. The tenour of this is that it was poured upon the Sun & power was given him to scorch men with fire & men were scorched with great heat & blasphemed God &c, that is,^[135] that the pouring out of this Vial was an incitement of the supreme terrestrial potentate to torment men with war & men were tormented with vehement war & blasphemed God. And thus it happened. ffor the Greek Emperor (the supreme terrestrial potentate) was the cause of the wars of this Trumpet by sending his armies into Italy in pursuance of his claim to those regions. The ^a[136] Gothic King laboured by all means for peace, causing the Senate to mediate for it & the Bishop of Rome himself to go Embassador to the Emperor on the same account & promising to acknowledg his ^a[137] crown held of the Emperor, & that in his dominions the Emperor should have equall honour with himself, as by ^c[138] stamping both their images together on his coyn & by the people's naming the Emperor always together with him & before him in public acclamations &c. But nothing would satisfy but the extirpation of the Gothic Kingdom & for that end the imbroyling Italy in these wars.^[139]

And thus much concerning ----- in these wars

I have now done with the wars of the 4 first Trumpets, the winds which blew upon the Empire till they had consumed it & together with frequent pestilences, famins, Earthquakes Tempests fiery meteors & other calamities were one continuall consumption of men & cities for above two hundred years together, leaving the Roman world barbarous & thin which they found flourishing in learning & so thick peopled that the northern nations were forced to disburthen themselves upon their neighbours for want of room. These 4 Trumpets relating therefore to the same subject were not unfitly connected with one another & distinguisht from the next which introduces a new scene of things.

a. Phocas Imp. cœpit Novemb 23 A.C. 602 ut Petavius in Rationario Temp. & notis ad Nicephori Breviarium, ex Chron: Alexandr. Theophane, Paulo Diac. Zonara, Cedreno alijsque probavit. Et Gregorius magnus obijt anno secundo Phocatis (P. Diac. Anastasius, Regino, Marianus Scotus, Hermannus Contractus, Vincentius in spec Histr. Cameracenas &c.) Mart 12 (Anastas. Marian: Scot. Platina, a^[140] Martinus chron M.S. Onufrius &c) & vacat sedes mens 5 dies 18 (Anastas: Platina, Martinus Onuphrius.) Tunc sedet Sabinianus An 1. mens 5, dies 9 (Anastasius, Hermannus, Platina, Author ffasciculi Temp. Onuphrius) vel An 1 mens 10 adjuncta præcedente vacatione (Marian. Scot.) Obit autem Feb. 22 (Anastasius,) vel 11 Cal. Mart: hoc est Feb 18 (Marian Scot) vel Feb 24 Indic 10 (Cameracenas.) & vacat sedes mens. 11 dies 26 (Anastas. Platina, Onuphrius) Dein Bonifacius 3 electus anno quinto Phocatis (Marian. Onufr.) sedet menses 8 dies 28 (Anastasius, Hermannus, Martinus Fascic: Temp. Platina) & obit Novemb 12 (Anastas.) vel 3 Id. Decemb (Marian: Sc. Cameracenas.) Patet igiter totum Papatum Bonifacij incidisse in annum 607 inter Feb 18 & Novemb 12 circiter.

Tempus obitus Gregorij, Baronius e veteribus monumentis stabilivit, cæterisque hic allatis numeris, (præsretim Anastasianis) assensum præbuit, nisi quod posuit Sabinianum sedisse tantum menses quinque & dies novem, asserens omnes tam Græcos quàm Latinos scriptores referre initium & finem ejus ad eundem annum. Sed hallucinatus est et forte per oscitantiam transtulit ad Sabinianum quæ de Bonifacio observârat.

year was almost spent when they entro the Emp. so they could not proceed far before the next spring but only send bef the a rumour of their coming.

The irruption of the Ausurians In the next year A.C. 396 began the incursion of the Ausurians into Lybia for Synesius in the inscription to his Catastasis puts it, Ηγεμ Γενναδwhen Gennadius was Augustal Præfect, Ἡγεμονεύοντος , & this happend A.C. 396 as is manifest out of 14 Cod. Theodos: Tit 27 lex 1 de Alexandr. pleb. Primat. Synesius also in his 130^th Ep. , laments much the invasion newly broke forth, which Epistle (as Got. well conjectures) was written to Symplicius when M^r of the hors; that is AC 396 as is manifest out of 8 Cod. Theod. Tit 5. Lex 56 De cursu publico & 6 Cod. Theod. Tit 4 L 28 de Prætoribus. Hence it is manifest that the desolation of Pentapolis so much lamented by Synesius in his Catastasis happened AC 402: & the intermediate actions which he describes between the Barbarians & Roman soldiers agree well to an edict of Arcadius dated Theodoro V.C. Cons. 1 i.e. A.C. 399 which begins thus Saturianorum

The commotion of Gildo in Afric as Claudin informs us began in Autumn Arcad 4 & Honor 3 Coss (i.e. A.C. {396}) & ended in spring A.C. 398. Quen veincus indoxit hicus Ver perculit hostem. Clad in Bello Gild. See also Marcellines Chronicle.

The commotion of Tribigildus & G was began in the year 398 Honor 4 & Eutich Coss, as Gothofred (in Chron Cod Th collects out of divers constitutions of Arcad put out this year; & in the end of the year 400 it ended, Gainas being slain in the beginning of the next year. See Marceline Chron & Chron Alexandr.

The invasion of the east by the Isauri began whilst Tribigildus was harassing Asia as is manifest out of the Place of Phil. cited above; & that in the year 399 or before: for Claudian speaking of the eastern expedition of Eutropius in his consulship this year, thus described their outrages done at that same time.

The next Tr. hath these 3 main characters, 1 that the wars to which it sounds are to be the next great ones which break out after those of the former Tr. & consequently the first notable war in 2^nd They are to be a western wind, that is in the regions westward of Rome . 3^rd during these wars a great mountain - City.

After the year 405 the wars in the regions eastward of Rome began to cease insomuch that within a year or two or at furthest A.C. 408 the Eastern empire was reduced to an universal serenity. ffor of Theod. jun. so soon as he came to the Empire |  at his first coming to the EmpireSozom. writes Thus Bella quæcunque - pepigere. And a little after: Orientis itaque - oppugnat &c Its manifest therefore that the wars of the 1^st Tr. ended about the year 406 or 407, & this leads us to the beginning of the next Trumpet: namely the wars here mentioned by Sozom which at the same time or immediately after brak forth in the west. ffor the 2^d Tr. hathe these 3 main characters City.

This was the serenity of the western regions in the time of the east wind till in the beginning of the year 407 [it was interrupted by that great & fatal invasion of Gallia by the northern nations which soon overspread the whole west.] the Vandalls - rapine. And therefore with this invasion we must begin the [2^d Tr. or] west wind, or 2^d Tr.

Again by the 2^d Character we are to begin the 2^d Tr with those g^t wars which next succeed the wars of the first. Now the wars of the first began to cease immediately after the y^r 405 insomuch - 406 or 407 at about the same time or immediately before the wars brake forth in the west, & consequently these wars as well because they are next after the wars of the former Trumpet as becaus they are in the western quarter & after the time of silence the first notable wars in that quarter after the time of silence, must be the wars of the 2^d Trumpet.

Now the manner of these wars was this: first in the beginning of the year 407 & its casting down the first sacking of it for - & the first sacking of this city which is it most eminent casting down yea & the only casting down from the height of its greatnes, the following sackings being only plungings of it deeper in the sea into which it was cast before.

The same is also firmly established by the 3^d character for the first saking of Rome happened in years 309 & 310 by Alaric as is famous in history. And having thus determined the time of this Tr being thus determined let us now take a view of the wars to which it sounds.

First then/ And this is confirmed by the 2^d character. ffor at the breaking forth of these wars those of the first Trumpet ceased. The end of those wars we may suppose to be at the overthrow of Radagaisus & expulsion of the {Isau} A.C. 405 or at furthest at the flight of Huldin which most probably was the next year

<4v> et in 6 Cons Honorij. Anno proxima verno tempore vincitur ad Pollentiam χόλαζα κατε᾽ρρ῾άγη Sozom l 8. c 27.

Bella quæcunque adversus illum [Theodos: nouum Imp. conflata erant sua sponte discutiebantur. Etenim per id tempus Persæ cum ad bellum prorupissent, centum annorum inducias cum Romanis pepigere. Stilico vero - occiditur. Sozom l 9. c 4

Cum Honorius iter arrepturus esset [Constantinopolim paulo post obitum Arcadij, &c persuasit ei Stilico ut in Italia remaneret propterea quod Constantinus quidam {illeg} te Tyrannidem paulo antea invasisset.

Heu juventutem male a nobis amissam! Heu frugum a nobis frustra speratos proventus! Hostilibus flammis agros consevimus. Plærisque nostrum divitiæ in pecore erant, in arnicutis Camelorum in gregalibus Equis: periere omnia, omnia abacta. Sentio me præ dolore non esse mei compotem virum agnosce quæso: mœnibus enim septus sum, {&} obsessus hæc scribo. - Equorum ungulis pulsantur omnia omnemque late regionem hostes obtinent. Synesius Epist 130 ad Simplicium.

Vide Prudentij lib 2 adversus Symmachum.

Scribit Olympiodorus apud Photium: Alaricum vivente etiamnum Stilicone, militiæ mercedem centenarios quadraginta accepisse.          Gothorum qui cum Rodogaiso erant primarios viros [οι κεφαλαιαιται] Optimatos appeallatos ait duodecim ferè millium numero. [Vide Cassiodorum & S. August l 5 c 23 de Civ. Dei].

Before we proceed further it will not be amis to examin the chronology of these wars that we may see how far they are included within this Trumpet |  be assured of their coming within the times of this Trumpet As for Those wars described by Philost. in his 8^th chapter newly cited, the accurate chronologer Gothofredus in his comment on that place comprehends them all within the 10 years immediatly succeding the death of Theo The exact chronologer Goth. in his com. on the newly cited place of Philostorgius comprehends those there mentioned within the 10 years next after the d. of Theod.

But let us run over the particulars.

When the Isauri had long wasted the East they advanced |  overflowedinto Asia also, the news of which was brought to Const when the Emperor was consulting about repairing the ruins of the City made by fire at the banishment of Chrysostom (Zosim supra) A.C. 404 But the next year they were repulsed by Nabarnacius & forced to return home. (         )

The incursion of Huldin into Thrace A.C. 404 circiter

The expeditions of Alaric into Italy A.C. 402 Autumno & of Radagaisus into Italy a.c. 405 vel 405

The times of the incursions of Huldin into Thrace & of Al & Radag. into Italy is was from Rome & the regions on both sides of it to the utmost bounds of the east, at once as it were at the sounding of an alarm - destructive & continued in this deplorable state for 10 or 11 years together, the invaders proceeding not like generous conquero{rs} but setting themselves malitiously to lay wast all places & do what misc{hief} they could, like furies sent in by Heaven to scourge the Romans. And this fulfills the 2 first conditions of this Trumpet, viz. the type of sounding a Trumpet, & of an east wind: It remains that wee show in the next place that the

Wth this grassation of the Isauri Freculphus conjoyns another great execution done upon an army of Goths, perhaps those which Gainas invited into the Empire but more or another hand of them which invaded the empire soon after.

The event of Guildo's commotion was to be totally overthrown & that in the first battel, by his brother Mascezel, whose army consisted but of 5 Th. as Marcelline relates it. But Zosimus makes his brother's army much greater. Stilico, inquit, amplis

The army of Alaric was often beaten. As in Arcadia, which Cl. 1. v.

Afterwards there was a whole great Army of Barbarians consumed in Thrace not by a metaphoricall but real storm, as Freculphus informs us, conjoyning it with the grassations of the Isauri. Gainæ oppress. inquit Is.

Before the end of these Emperors therefore we cannot account the 6^t Seale fully accomplished. But in the beginning of the next Emperors Grat & Theod we may: ffor first Gratian (who began A.C. 375) set himself to restraine the heathen worship from the beginning of his reign as is manifest by the demolishing of Idols even at Rome it selfe by Gracchas in time of his Vrbane Præfectio A.C 376 & 377 which Ierome in epist. 7 thus mentions: Ante annos - insignia sunt. So Prudentius adversus Symmachum lib 1 Iam quid - regendos.

And as Gratian did in the west so did Theodosius soon after in the east. For in the 3^d year of his reign he put forth this edict: Siquis se - implis one or more former edicts of the same kind. And Zosimus describing the actions of Theod in the last year of the trienniall Gothic war (AC 380) adds |  subjoyns: Deum quoque - presently. This acting of Theodosius therefore happened in the year 380, & we may most probably suppose that it commenced with the time of his sickness at Thessalonica, for till then he was so much taken up in the Gothic war that he had little or no time to turn himself to any other buisines.

The year 380 we may therefore - ffor now & not till now the revenues - & Gratian (& after his example I suppose Theodosius also) rejected the very title of P.M. which it was the custome of the heathen Priests to present the Emperors with in the beginning of their reign & all former Emperors, even Constantine & his son Constantius had accepted of & retained.

The beginning of this Trumpet is also

There is a third argument of the beginning of this Seale, taken from the universall change of religion in the end of the year 380, which of all changes that ever were wrought on a sudden in the christian Religion was the greatest both in regard of the universality, it being wrought over all the Empire, & in regard of the nature of the thing, it being the foundation of all following Apostacy. To those that understand the religion of the ancient Christians this will prove a most evident & certain Demonstration of the beginning of this seal (Prop    ) but I shall not here prosecute it becaus I would not now ingage my selfe in a dispute about religion. I proceed therefore to the contents of this Seale.

Besides this there was something to do with the Alemans, ffor they were not so far conquered by Gratian as to submit but kept themselves in a posture ready for further action, which made Gratian watch them continually with his sword in his hand. What further attempts they made in the time of Gratian I know not. I read not of any. But soon after his death taking advantage I suppose of his diversion by Maximus the Iugunthians (one sort of the Alemans) made an inrode into Rhætia, but were soon diverted not by the Roman Legions but by the Huns whom Valentinian hired to set upon them in their own country: which proved such a firm restraint to this wind for the future that it did not so much as breath any more upon the Empire for untill the generall irruptions hereafter to be described the [Ambrose Epist.    ] And as for the present inrode, though that may be compared to a blast of wind, yet being only upon the skirts of them & in so inconsiderably small a portion thereof & so short a time & proceeding only to pillaging the country without any battel within the Empire consequent thereupon that I read of, it may in comparison of the wars before & after be accounted as very gentle breathing to a fierce wind, & to loud noise a soft murmuring or whispering such as you may {imagine} to be made by the prayers of the saints in this time of silence. The end of this time {illeg} becaus this time is to end in thundrings & lightnings & a shaking, that is

Vrbem Romam ire mox pergit Vitiges, equitum peditumque ad centum & quinquaginta millia ductans, quorum pars maxima armis munita, vel equos ipsos armatos habebat. Procop de bello Got. l 1.