The Seventh Seal and the First Four Trumpets
Book Four: On Chapters Eight and Nine — Of the Opening of the Seventh Seal, and of the Six First Angels Who Sounded the Trumpet
Section I: On Chapter 8 — Of the Four First Angels Who Sounded the Trumpet
§ 1. On the Opening of the Seventh Seal. Chapter 8, Verses 1–6
I. In the opening of the first six seals, we have seen the war of the Church against the Jews and the Gentiles. Now, at the opening of the seventh seal, there remains to be described the struggle of this same Church against the principal heresiarchs and their supporters, who are all included under this seventh seal until the consummation of the ages. It is also under this last seal that the persecution of Julian the Apostate and of his followers is designated — a persecution which was of short duration and which followed the reign of Constantine the Great.
VERSE 1. And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal. That is, when Our Lord Jesus Christ had revealed to Saint John the last persecutions which He would still permit against His Church until the end of the world.
There was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour. This silence announces a new affliction which the Church did in fact have to undergo from Julian the Apostate. But since this persecution lasted only a short time, and since this tyrant was soon carried away by death, the text says: There was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour. A kind of silence occurs among a people when everyone is under the impression of terror, fear, and astonishment at the approach of new calamities. This is what happened, in fact, to the Church of Jesus Christ in the time of the emperor Julian. There was silence in heaven — that is, in the Church.
Julian had professed the true faith for twenty years, although during the last ten years of his life the religion which he affected to profess outwardly was only an infamous hypocrisy, the fruit of the fear which Constantius inspired in him. Thus, scarcely had he ascended the throne when, delivered from this restraint, he solemnly denied the faith of Jesus Christ. Not content with this, he had himself consecrated sovereign pontiff by impure rites, as we see in a Roman hymn composed by the priest Prudentius.
He ordered the temples of the gods to be reopened in order that victims might be offered to them. He also became pontiff of the sacrifices of Eleusis. Finally, he made great efforts to rebuild, in favour of the Jews, the temple of Jerusalem which Titus had ruined during the siege of that city. On the other hand, Julian had the churches of the Christians closed and forbade them the public sacrifice of the Mass. It was in this way that there was silence for about half an hour in the Church.
But God did not long tolerate this infamous persecutor; for in the year of Jesus Christ 363, after a reign of a year and a half, Julian received a wound in the war against the Persians, from which he died. It is therefore very fittingly said in the text that this silence lasted only half an hour. For after his death, the churches of the Christians were reopened, the temples of the idols were closed again, and the religion of Jesus Christ once more began to enjoy its joy and rest under the emperors Jovian and Valentinian, his successors, and under the sovereign Pontiff Saint Damasus.
II. VERSE 2. And I saw seven angels standing before the face of God; and there were given to them seven trumpets. Mention will be made later of these seven angels and their trumpets.
VERSE 3. And another angel came, and stood before the altar. This other angel is Saint Damasus, who was elected pope. He is called another because he was the opposite of the preceding ones. He is announced among the other angels of whom there is question here, because, in fact, some of them preceded him; but the greater number came after him. They are all represented together before the throne, receiving trumpets there. But the angels who followed the one spoken of here — that is, Saint Damasus — followed him only in this sense: that they sounded their trumpets after him.
This is why this pope, or this angel, is first spoken of: And another angel came — Saint Damasus, who was elected pope, though he was not immediately accepted. And he stood before the altar. That is, after Saint Damasus had been elected pope, he was confirmed and established in his pontificate.
It must be known that at his election, which took place in the basilica of Licinius, he had as competitor the deacon Ursicinus; and that several persons of the two parties formed on this occasion were killed in that church, where men were not content to fight by votes, but even had recourse to armed force. Despite this disturbance, Damasus was confirmed by the consent of the clergy and the people, and Ursicinus was assigned to the Church of Naples.
It is therefore deliberately that the Apostle expresses this circumstance in this way: And another angel came, and stood before the altar. That is, another pontiff came, who truly governed the Church of God, here perfectly represented by the altar. For it is upon the altar that Jesus Christ is immolated and offered each day in the holy sacrifice of the Mass — an unbloody and propitiatory sacrifice, accepted each day from the hand of the priest by the heavenly Father.
And another angel came... having a golden censer. That is, another pontiff of great piety, wisdom, and charity; for these three virtues are metaphorically represented by the golden censer, by the fire which is within it, and by the smoke which comes out of it. Now this pope excelled in these three virtues.
He was the first who confirmed by his authority the Holy Bible translated by Saint Jerome; and he caused the symbol of Constantinople to replace the Nicene Creed in the Mass. He established collegiate churches, built churches, and greatly beautified divine worship. Moreover, he ordered the chanting of the Psalms in two choirs in all the churches, and he caused the Gloria Patri, etc., to be placed at the end of each psalm.
And there was given to him much incense. There now follows the fruit of this pontiff's wisdom in divine worship, which he greatly enlarged, and in the religion which he caused to flourish throughout the whole Church. And there was given to him much incense. This incense is the increase and fervour of prayer which he spread among the servants of God. Psalm 140:2: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight." It is said that this incense was given to him so that he might use it, by his authority, to restore and propagate divine worship, which the impious Julian had destroyed, and to render homage to God by means of it.
That he should offer the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne of God. These words show the office of the sovereign Pontiff, which is to extend and preserve divine worship by himself and by all the inferior ministers, and to refer the devotion of the Christian people to the glory of God. That he should offer, etc., upon the golden altar — that is, upon the Humanity of Jesus Christ, or the Lamb who is in the presence of the throne. For it is in Him and through Him that all our prayers and merits are presented to God. Indeed, it is upon Jesus Christ that our prayers and merits are founded; it is through Jesus Christ that the Father accepts them as pleasing; and without Jesus Christ these merits and prayers would have no value for eternal life.
VERSE 4. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel. That is, this perfection of sacred worship pleased the Divine Majesty extraordinarily, because this worship was the fruit of the labour, industry, wisdom, and devotion of this holy Pontiff, who here represents the moral person of the universal Church.
VERSE 5. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it on the earth: and there were thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and a great earthquake. There follows another great and good work which was accomplished under this holy Pontiff: namely, the ecumenical Council of Constantinople, in which one hundred and fifty Fathers of the Church decreed the dogma of the divinity of the Holy Spirit against the impious Macedonius and his adherents, who denied it, as Arius had previously dared to deny it in the Second Person.
This is why the Apostle Saint John says here: And the angel took the censer. The angel — that is, Saint Damasus — took the censer of anathema in order to have the impious Macedonius condemned and delivered to Satan by the general Council of Constantinople, which was unanimous. This unanimity is represented by the censer, because all hearts and all minds were gathered there as into one vessel containing the fire of charity.
He filled it with the fire of the altar. That is, with the divinity of the Holy Spirit, which is designated by fire. It is said that this angel filled the censer with the fire of the altar because it was with the universal consent of the whole Church, represented by the altar, that this pope, as supreme head and judge of controversies in matters of faith, declared this truth of the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
And he cast it on the earth. That is, by defining from the height of the apostolic chair, and by publishing throughout the whole earth against Macedonius and his followers, that the Holy Spirit is God Himself.
And there were thunders. That is, excommunications. And voices. That is, declarations of faith concerning the Holy Spirit. And lightnings. That is, threats of excommunication against anyone who should dare, in the future, to teach or believe anything contrary to this dogma. And a great earthquake. That is, a great alteration and commotion of minds in these circumstances.
The angel cast the censer upon the earth — that is, against the Macedonians, earthly spirits whose souls knew how to conceive only servile thoughts concerning the Holy Spirit. And there were thunders. That is, holy preachings on this dogma of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. And voices. That is, divine voices or praises concerning His divinity. And lightnings. That is, brilliant miracles wrought by His power. And a great earthquake. For by this the hearts of men were moved and disposed to conceive just thoughts concerning the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
VERSE 6. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound the trumpet. We shall see, in the following paragraph, who these seven angels are with their trumpets.
§ 2. On the Two First Angels Who Sounded the Trumpet. Chapter 8, Verses 7–9
I. By the four angels sounding the trumpet, who form the subject of the two following paragraphs, are understood the heresiarchs who, after the defeat of the Jews and Gentiles, began a new war against the Church of Jesus Christ. They attacked the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity; the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit; the Humanity, Person, Nature, and Will of the Incarnate Word, and so forth. These four heresiarchs represent the universality of all the other heretics, nearly all of whom drew their origin from these four principal ones and founded their errors upon their false doctrine.
This number four is chosen deliberately, by similitude with the number of the living creatures, or of the four Evangelists. For just as truth had to be preached in the four parts of the world and sown like good seed by the four Evangelists, so God permitted error, or cockle, also to be spread by these four angels representing all heretics.
1. The devil, that ancient enemy of the human race, the father of heretics and liars, strives to imitate what Jesus Christ does for the salvation of men, by acts similar in outward form, but which in reality tend directly to the destruction of all truth and all good. 2. One sounds the trumpet when one wishes to make war and prepare for combat, or again when one wishes to promulgate a decree. Now the first of these acts belongs to the three last angels, and the second belongs to the heresiarchs who, swollen with pride, spread throughout the whole world, at different periods, their impure dogmas and their errors.
VERSE 7. The first angel sounded the trumpet. This first angel was Arius, priest of Alexandria, who, in the year of Jesus Christ 315, under Alexander, bishop of that city, and under the emperor Constantine the Great and Pope Saint Sylvester, dared to teach that Jesus Christ is similar to the Father only in name, but that He does not have the same substance as Him.
It was against this heresy that the first Council of Nicaea was convoked, one of the four principal councils of that time, to which 318 Catholic bishops subscribed. Arius, Photinus, and Sabellius were condemned there. Although Arius appeared before Julian the Apostate and Pope Saint Damasus, the text speaks of him in the second place because it was only after these that his doctrine spread and developed to such a degree that the Church groaned under it, and that the Roman Breviary, on the feast of Saint Damasus celebrated on 11 December, says that the universe was astonished to see itself Arian.
And there fell upon the earth hail and fire mingled with blood; and the third part of the earth and of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was consumed. Here follow the storms, struggles, and immense damage which Christianity had to suffer at the sound of this trumpet. There fell upon the earth hail. These words announce a very stormy tempest, which in ordinary language is called hail. This tempest did indeed ruin and divide the kingdom of Christ at that time.
We read in ecclesiastical history, Book 10: "By this tempest the face of the Church became livid and horrible. For she was no longer, as before, fought by foreign enemies; but she saw herself ravaged by wars and internal dissensions. The faithful anathematised one another, and all claimed to be in the bosom of truth."
The property of hail is to devastate harvests, vineyards, and the most flourishing fields, and to destroy flowers, trees, and fruits, leaving after it traces of ruin. Such was the terrible consequence of the heresy of Arius, which, in a certain sense, annihilated all the splendour that the great Constantine had given to the Church of Christ.
There fell upon the earth hail and fire mingled with blood. That is, the fire of jealousy and the hail of dissensions, which caused blood to flow, especially under the emperor Valens. For this emperor, having fallen into this frightful heresy, persecuted the Catholics: sometimes causing them to be burned, and sometimes massacring them by the sword or by other new kinds of torments. There fell upon the earth, etc., because almost the whole universe was infected by this poison, which penetrated everywhere and exercised its malignant influence all the longer because it pleased almost all men.
And the third part of the earth and of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was consumed. These words denote the general fall of Christians in that age, and the considerable decrease of the true Church. For Saint John speaks here of the third part of Christianity which defected: that is, the third part of the laity, or of the people, whom he designates by the word earth, because this portion of the kingdom of Christ was entirely absorbed in earthly and worldly things.
The Apostle also speaks of the third part of the clergy, whom he designates by trees, because priests ought to be higher than the simple faithful in the knowledge of Holy Scripture and in the practice of heavenly things. Moreover, ecclesiastics are like trees which ought to bear supernatural fruits in their season by their life and morals; and they ought to produce leaves and fruits by their good example. Now the third part of these trees perished, since, according to the report of Saint Hilary, 105 bishops were infected with the Arian error.
And all the grass was consumed. Saint John here specially designates the Goths, who may be considered as green grass, because, preparing to embrace Christianity, they asked priests from the emperor Valens to instruct them in the mysteries and sacraments of the Catholic faith. But this heretical prince, on the contrary, sent them Arian ministers who corrupted them — an infamous perfidy which undoubtedly deserves to be chastised with a very special fury by its own victims, in the avenging flames of eternity. This happened in the year of Christ 378.
II. VERSE 8. And the second angel sounded the trumpet. This second angel was Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, who caused his blasphemies against the Holy Spirit to resound, representing Him as a mere creature and as the servant of the Son. This occurred in the year of the Lord 360. It was against this new error that the ecumenical Council of Constantinople assembled, the second of the general councils of that time, to which 150 bishops subscribed, under Gratian and the emperor Theodosius, and under Pope Saint Damasus, in the year 381.
And there fell into the sea, as it were a great mountain burning with fire. This heresiarch is compared to a great burning mountain because of his pride, ambition, and abominable arrogance, applauding himself in his error. For unlike Arius, he did not deny the divinity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit together, but denied only the divinity of the Holy Spirit, saying that He is not consubstantial with the Father.
This impious man is represented as a burning fire because, having been rejected from his episcopal see, he sparkled and burned with envy, anger, and rage. And after being forced to retire as a private individual to a secret place called the Cloisters, near Constantinople, he did not cease to vomit from his impure mouth the fires of his blasphemies against the Holy Spirit.
And it fell into the sea. 1. Here, by the sea, is understood the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is impenetrable to the eyes of human intelligence, as the depths of the sea are to our eyes — and infinitely more so. Moreover, just as the waters which water the earth come out of the sea and return to it, so all natural and supernatural goods proceed from God, one in three Persons, and must return to that same principle from which they flow.
2. The sea here also represents the Holy Spirit Himself. For just as the sea gives life and prosperity to all the creatures that are found in it, and without which they could not subsist, so the Holy Spirit is that vivifying sea in which we have all received the life of the soul in Baptism. It is by Him that we live; for if we were not watered by His waters, the waters of grace, we would soon die.
3. By the sea one further understands the Church, because of Baptism, which may be considered as the sea; for just as the sea is the receptacle of all waters, so the Church receives and gathers all the faithful by Baptism. 4. The sea also represents the world, which is indeed like a sea, changeable and agitated by the waves of temptations and adversities, and which contains the good mingled with the wicked, as the sea contains good and bad fish. Now this comparison of the sea, in all the meanings and acceptations just cited, applies perfectly to this great burning mountain fallen into the sea of which Saint John speaks. It is enough to consider the matter attentively to be convinced of it.
And the third part of the sea became blood. 1. Blood here figuratively represents the upheaval which was manifested outwardly by this heresy concerning belief in the Holy Spirit and in the Holy Trinity, and concerning the Church. 2. This blood must also be understood in its proper meaning; for this heresy of Macedonius, like that of Arius, caused much blood to be shed in the world, as is seen from ecclesiastical history.
VERSE 9. And the third part of those creatures died which had life in the sea. That is, the third part of Christians lost the life of the soul which they had previously possessed by true faith and by charity in the Holy Spirit, when they still belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ, in which alone one can have life. Thus all those who abandoned the Church to adhere to the perfidy of this new heresy immediately perished. For as there are few fish which can live outside the sea, so there are few souls — and even far fewer — which can live and be saved outside the true Church of Jesus Christ. The third part is expressed here in a determined manner, but must be understood in an indeterminate sense. It signifies, in reality, a great and notable part of Christianity.
And the third part of the ships was destroyed. That is, a considerable number of prelates and pastors of souls were infected with this heresy, although they should have guided the faithful into the secure harbour of salvation.
§ 3. On the Third and Fourth Angel. Chapter 8, Verses 10–13
I. VERSE 10. The third angel sounded the trumpet. This third angel was the heresiarch Pelagius, who had for his disciple and imitator his contemporary Celestius. Both of them were monks. They propagated their errors in the time of the emperors Honorius and Arcadius, and under the pontificate of Innocent I and of Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo. It was on this occasion that the Church celebrated the Council of Milan, which condemned them in the year of Jesus Christ 416. The general Council of Ephesus was also assembled at that time against Nestorius. Pelagius infected Syria and the British Isles, his homeland, with his heresy; and his followers acted in the same way in other countries.
Pelagius, supposing that free will must be placed before divine grace, taught: 1. That it is not by the mercy of God, because of Jesus Christ, and without merit on our part, that man is justified; but that it is by his own virtues and by his natural good works that he can procure for himself true and solid justice before God; and that it is not by the faith of Jesus Christ, but by our own strength, that we can obtain the remission of our sins. 2. That the death of Adam was not a punishment for sin, but a consequence of the conditions of nature. 3. That Baptism is not necessary for children, because he denied the existence of original sin. 4. That the just are exempt from sins already in this world, because man, once he has become just, can no longer sin. 5. That once man has received the grace of Baptism, he can no longer abuse his free will and can no longer commit sin. 6. Finally, that the prayers of the Church for the conversion of unbelievers and sinners, or for the perseverance of the just, are useless, and that free will is sufficient for all things.
Now it is of this heresiarch that the Apostle says in his Apocalypse: The third angel sounded the trumpet. That is, Pelagius began in this way to promulgate his abominable errors.
And a great star, burning like a torch, fell from heaven. This star was Celestius, his disciple and imitator, who, at the sound of his master's trumpet, fell from the Church militant into heresy. He is called a great star because he was a learned man and a religious, two qualities which gave his doctrine an appearance of truth. This is why the Apostle says of this star that it was burning like a torch.
By these words he expresses the power of this heresiarch. For by the brilliance of his learning, and under the habit of a religious, he knew how to give to his false doctrine such an appearance of truth and holiness that he infected and seduced a great number of men. He is called burning because he was a fierce enemy and a formidable adversary of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
And it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters. The rivers and fountains are a metaphor which Saint John uses to express Baptism and the graces which the Holy Spirit grants to the just in this life. Now these are rivers and fountains of grace, of which this heresiarch poisoned the third part, by drying up these sources for a considerable number of the faithful who ceased to believe in them and to draw from them.
VERSE 11. And the name of the star was Wormwood. These words express the property of this heresy, which consisted in making the grace of the Holy Spirit bitter, odious, and insipid to men. For just as sweet water is pleasant and desirable to those who thirst, so the grace of the Holy Spirit and Baptism are desirable to sinners when they have faith in Jesus Christ. But this demon cast the wormwood of his infamous heresy upon these waters, and made them bitter to men, whom he filled with presumption in their own strength and in their own free will; whereas without the grace of God, the practice of good works is by its nature bitter as wormwood, especially since original sin.
And the third part of the waters was changed into wormwood. That is, a great and notable part of the believers was infected and corrupted by this impiety. And many men died because of the waters, because they were made bitter. By men, the Apostle designates the prudent and the wise of the age, who died the death of the soul because of the waters — that is, because of these perverse doctrines concerning grace and Baptism. For these waters were bitter in appearance and in the esteem and false belief of men who considered them so; whereas, on the contrary, they were filled with the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, who gives life to the thirsty soul of the sinner by the waters of His grace.
II. VERSE 12. And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet. This fourth angel was the heresiarch Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who appeared under Theodosius the Younger and Pope Celestine, in the year of Christ 428. On this occasion the general Council of Ephesus was convoked, the third of the four principal councils of that time, which condemned Nestorius for having taught, against the truth of the Catholic faith, that Jesus Christ, Son of God, was not born of the Blessed Virgin Mary as God, but only as man; and that, consequently, Mary ought not to be called the Mother of God, but only the Mother of Christ.
He also said that there were two persons in Jesus Christ, as there are two natures: that is, the divine person and the human person. Eutyches himself combated this heresy in an admirable manner at the time of the council. But because he allowed himself to be carried away by hatred against the false doctrine of Nestorius, he forgot himself to such a point that he denied not only the two persons in Jesus Christ — which was just — but also the two natures. Thus he accused of being tainted with Nestorianism those who confessed two natures in Jesus Christ, natures nevertheless truly distinct from one another.
This new heresiarch fell into such madness that he taught that Christ was not born of the Virgin Mary according to the flesh, but that His body, like a ray of sunlight, descended from heaven into her womb; and that, at the instant of His Incarnation, His flesh was changed into the Divinity. It is in this way that the first of these heresies became the occasion of the second, in the year 448. Against this latter heresy the Council of Chalcedon was convoked, the last of the four principal councils of that time, under the emperor Marcian and the sovereign Pontiff Leo I, in the year 451.
It is on this occasion that Saint John says in the text: The fourth angel sounded the trumpet. That is, Nestorius sounded the trumpet by preaching this heresy. And the third part of the sun was struck, and the third part of the moon. The sun is here understood of the Divinity, and the moon of the Humanity of Christ, which is, as it were, the footstool of God. The sun also signifies Jesus Christ, and the moon the Blessed Virgin Mary, or again the Catholic Church. All of these were struck or attacked, both by the heresy of Nestorius and by that of Eutyches — not intrinsically, since in themselves they are invulnerable, but in relation to the faithful believers who were seduced and struck with blindness by the darkness of these errors.
And the third part of the stars, etc. The stars are the bishops, prelates, and doctors who, having allowed themselves to be enveloped and blinded by the night of these errors, went astray and departed from the true Church of Christ. And these heresiarchs blasphemed against the New and Old Testament, and against the Gospel and the Prophets.
This is why Saint John immediately adds: So that their third part was darkened, and the day lost the third part of its light, and the night likewise. That is, the principal testimonies of the New Testament, expressed by the day, and those of the Old, designated by the night, concerning the true Humanity of Christ, His Incarnation in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the unity of His divine Person, were so obscured in the minds of the faithful by the perfidy of these two heresiarchs that these testimonies completely ceased to shine before the eyes of the faithful in all their truth. Now these four heresies spoken of here were like the gateway of all the heresies that followed, and even of those that preceded them, since the latter were their forerunners, and the former their consequences.
III. VERSE 13. And I saw, and I heard the voice of an eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the three angels who are yet to sound the trumpet. In this verse, Saint John announces the immense evils and tribulations that will happen throughout the whole world at the voice of the last three angels. One part of these calamities was caused by the preceding heresies, and the other part will be produced by the errors which we shall describe in the following chapters.
And I saw, and I heard the voice of an eagle flying through the midst of heaven, etc. This eagle is Saint John the Evangelist himself, who rose into the high regions of heaven by the revelation that was made to him. He saw in spirit all the events which, with time, had to be accomplished in the Church until the consummation of the ages. And because the horrors of these later events were to surpass even those of the preceding ones, he takes care to inform all Christendom of them, so that the faithful of good will who witness them may not be scandalised by them, may not fall, and may not allow themselves to be led into error; for blows that have been foreseen are ordinarily less harmful.
I heard the voice of an eagle, etc., saying with a loud voice — as though to make the greatness of the tribulations to come be felt in advance: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the three angels who are yet to sound the trumpet. By the inhabitants of the earth one understands the whole human race, including both the good and the wicked; for all will be victims of these events, as we shall see later.