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Eureka

AN EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE
Sixth Edition, 1915
By Dr. John Thomas (first edition written 1861)

 

 

Chapter 11

Section 2-3 Subsection 2

Rome Rejoices at their Slaughter


 
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The massacre with which they were overwhelmed at the outbreak of the war against them in 1572, and which was then supposed to have entirely ruined them, when known in Rome was a cause of great joy to their enemies in that city. When the letters of the Pope’s legate residing at the Court of Charles IX, were read in the assembly of the cardinals, by which he assured the Pope that all was transacted by the express will and command of the French king, it was immediately decreed that the pope should march with his cardinals to the church of St. Mark, and in the most solemn manner give thanks to God for so great a blessing conferred on the See of Rome and the "Christian World;" and that on the Monday after, solemn mass should be celebrated in the church of Minerva, at which Gregory XIII, and the cardinals were present; and that a jubilee should be published throughout the whole of "Christendom," and the cause of it declared to be, to return thanks to God for the extirpation of the enemies of the truth and the church in France. In the evening, the cannon of St. Angelo were fired to testify the public joy; the whole city illuminated with bonfires; and no one sign of rejoicing omitted that was usually made for the greatest victories obtained in favor of the Roman church. In addition to this medals were struck commemorative of the joyous event. A copy of it is before me in Elliott’s work, taken from Sir. W. Cockburn’s work on the Massacre. It is about two inches and five eighths diameter. On one face is the bust of the Roman deity, Gregory XIII; and on the obverse a winged angel with an uplifted cross in the left hand, and a drawn two edged sword in the right, symbolizing the papal destroyers of "the earth" in France. Men, women, and children are before the angel dead, dying, falling, and about to fall by his sword; while in the background is a woman, with uplifted arms supporting a mantle, and looking complacently upon the massacre, symbolizing the Catholic church. On the margin is the legend, "Ugonottorum Strages, 1572" -- The Massacre of the Hugonots, 1572. These medals were for free distribution to one another commemorative of the death blow inflicted upon the hitherto unconquered enemies of the catholic idolatry. Thus was fulfilled the tenth verse of this eleventh chapter, saying, "They that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them and make merry, and shall send gifts (of medals) one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt upon the earth."

The conquest and symbolic death of the witnessing prophets, then, was illustrated by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Oct. 23, A.D. 1685. This was the conviction of the whole anti-papal world at the time. The poor sufferers in France especially who survived, were of opinion that these unequalled persecutions were the slaying of the witnesses; and they were, therefore, in high expectation looking for the end of the "three days and a half," during which they were to continue politically dead, though not buried, or excluded from the observation of their merciless destroyers. Peter Jurieu, a Hugonot pastor, whose work, entitled, "The Accomplishment of the Scripture Prophecies," was published in English two years after the Revocation, 178 years ago, treating on the Resurrection of the Witnesses; the Fall of the Tenth of the City; and so forth, says: "It is a truth which must be held as certain (being one of the keys of the Revelation) that the City, the Great City, signifies, in this book, not Rome alone, but Rome in conjunction with its empire; the name of this great city is Babylon." "This being supposed and proved, that the city is the whole Babylonish and Antichristian empire, it must be remembered, that this empire of Antichrist is made up of Ten Kingdoms, and of ten kings, who must give their power to the beast. A tenth of the city fell, i.e., one of these ten kingdoms which make up the Great City, the Babylonish empire, shall forsake it." "Now, what is this tenth of the city which shall fall? In my opinion we cannot doubt that it is France." The "kings who yet remain under the empire of Rome must break with her, leave her solitary and desolate. But who must begin this last revolt? It is most probable that France shall." "Seeing the tenth of the city which must fall is France, this gives me some hopes that the death of the two witnesses hath a particular relation to this kingdom. It is the street, or place of this City, i.e., the most fair and eminent part of it. The witnesses must remain dead upon this street, and upon it they must be raised again. And as the death of the witnesses and their resurrection hath a relation to the kingdom of France, it may well fall out, that we may not be far distant from the time of the resurrection of the witnesses, seeing that the three years and a half of their death, are either begun, or will begin shortly.

"I lay not down the exact time of the resurrection of the witnesses. I do not say it shall be exactly in such a year; for I have declared, and do still declare, that I know not from what time God shall please to begin the reckoning of the three years and a half; not but I strongly hope that God intends to begin it at the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, but this does not arise to a full assurance."
 
 

 

 

 

 


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