Book of the Promises and Predictions of God 4.4–4.12

Of the devil bound and sent into the abyss. A prediction fulfilled. The prophet David says: “The dragon which you formed to mock him.” And again: “You crushed the heads of the dragons on the waters; you broke the head of the great dragon, and gave him as food to the peoples of Ethiopia.” And in the book of Job it is said: “This is the beginning of the Lord’s creation, which he made to be mocked by his angels.” The Evangelist confirms this, saying: “The demons begged Jesus not to send them into the abyss.” And elsewhere Jesus said to his disciples: “Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and they will not harm you.” Again the Lord says: “No one enters the house of the strong man to plunder the goods of his house unless he first binds the strong man.” Beyond these the Apocalypse of John testifies: “I saw,” it says, “an angel coming down from heaven, having a great chain in his hand; and he seized that great dragon, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and sent him into the abyss. And he shut and sealed it over him, that he should no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years are finished; after this he must be loosed for a short time.” Here he explained what is said in the same book, Gog and Magog, Hebrew words (which in Latin are said to mean “roof” and “uncovered”), so that we may take “roofed,” that the devil was sent into the abyss, shut and sealed over him; and “uncovered,” because he must be loosed and brought out for a short time. The thousand years are to be taken either as the whole from a part (as the apostle Peter says: “For one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”), or from the going out of the word, when the seventy weeks were fixed by Daniel to run until Christ the leader. For then the war took place in which Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the angel showed Daniel this, saying that he had been sent to fight with the prince of the kingdom of the Persians: “And there is no one,” he says, “who helps me except Michael your prince.” In that war the devil was conquered, thrown down, and bound, as was shown to that same prophet at the beginning, and to John at the end of time; so that those four hundred and ninety years, and these that run from the Savior’s coming until the same devil is loosed, make up the thousand years in which the devil is bound, that he may no longer deceive the nations which he had before possessed in idolatries. “But with what strength,” as Augustine of blessed memory says, “will the saints then be endowed who are to wrestle with the devil loosed, when we fight with such dangers against him bound?” For already, as Paul says, the mystery of iniquity is at work. But what its mysteries are, with the Lord’s help, will be contained in the chapters appended below.

How the devil works the mysteries of iniquity through all his own. A prediction fulfilled. The Apocalypse of John says: “The beast was seized, and with it the false prophet who had done the signs, by which signs he deceived those who received the mark of the beast on their forehead and on their hand.” The mark on the forehead and hand is this: not only to imitate the devil’s deeds, but also to glory in his evil works, so that under the figure of Christ they carry out the deeds of the Antichrist. These the Lord Jesus too testified of in the Gospel, saying: “Many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many; do not go after them.” And the apostle John: “You have heard,” he says, “that the Antichrist is coming; now many antichrists have arisen.” And he shows who they are: “They went out from us,” he says, “but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us.” He shows all heretics, and especially the Arians, whom we now see deceiving many, either by temporal power, or by the industry of a vain talent, or certainly by the abstinence of frugality, or by the deceit of any signs whatever; as the Apostle says: “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing, then, if his ministers transform themselves as ministers of justice; their end will be according to their works”; since the Lord will say to those boasting of themselves in wonders: “I do not know you. Depart from me, all who work iniquity.” Their iniquity is to tear unity, as the garment of Christ, as tearing the nets of the fishing apostles. From their fellowship all heretics are found estranged, who, abandoning the peace of the communion and of the bread of God and of the apostles, preach in their own, not churches, but caves, and do not communicate with their memorials; separated from the whole, they take to themselves the name of Catholic; though in Jerusalem itself James and Stephen the first martyr, John at Ephesus, Andrew and the others throughout all Asia, the apostles Peter and Paul in the city of Rome, handing down to posterity the Church of the nations (in which they taught the doctrine of Christ the Lord) peaceful and one, consecrated it with their blood and their memorials from the Lord’s passion. The Christian who communicates with this universal Church is Catholic. Separated from it, one is a heretic and an Antichrist; and when the Antichrist has been openly revealed, what greater signs he will work, what follows will show.

Of the signs of the Antichrist. A prediction fulfilled. In the book of Job it is said of the Antichrist: “His strength is in his loins, and his power above the navel of his belly.” And again: “There is no power on earth,” he says, “to be compared with him who was so made that he should fear no one. He sees every high thing; he is king over all the sons of pride.” And the apostle Paul says: “According to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders, and with every deception of iniquity for those who perish.” And the Lord in the Gospel: “False christs and false prophets will arise,” he says, “and will give great signs and wonders, by which, if it can be said, even the elect themselves may be deceived. Behold,” he says, “I have told you beforehand.” Although the apostle Paul silently mentions some who have their conscience seared, and others openly, like Hymenaeus and Philetus, Demas, Hermogenes, and Alexander the coppersmith, whose errors, various teachings, and many evils he recalls. Nor does he omit, after his departure, the fierce wolves, and him who even now works in the sons of disobedience, as he himself testifies. In our own times too, when Asper was consul at Carthage, what citizen of that country does not know this devilish and monstrous sign that happened there? A certain young woman, Arab by nation, wearing the habit of a handmaid of God, while she bathed in the baths, looked shamelessly at a certain statue of Venus and, likening herself to it, gave the devil a dwelling. At once that lion, who goes about seeking whom he may devour, found whom he sought. Seizing her throat, therefore, so that she swallowed no food and no drink for about seventy days and as many nights, the devil showed himself the master of the vessel he had seized and possessed. The girl’s parents, hoping this monster could be removed in so many days, when they could no longer endure the continual evil, brought themselves with their daughter to the bishop, faithfully telling what had happened. The girl declared only this, that a certain bird appeared in the middle of the night, which poured something or other into her mouth. Then amazement seized all at seeing the girl, after so long a fast, not disfigured, not wasted by any pallor or decay or weakness, but rather robust in the moisture of her flesh and the bulk of her limbs. And since what was said seemed incredible, the bishop, after taking counsel, commended the girl to the monastery in which the relics of Saint Stephen are placed, and to its superior. She declared that the bird had appeared there only on the first day, and that it had warned her that, compelled neither by hunger nor thirst, she should approach that place, which she was not allowed to come near. For two weeks she stayed in the monastery taking no food or drink. It happened that the fifteenth Lord’s day dawned. When the bishop went up with us, so that the morning sacrifice might be offered there as usual, the superior brought the girl to the altar, with that gait and look with which women usually come, flushed, from banquets and cups. But as she prostrated herself at the altar, with the cry of her weeping she moved all who stood by to groans and tears, with which the people present begged the Lord that so great an evil be taken away. For there was already a murmur growing among the people. When the sacrifice had been completed, and she, among the others, received a small portion of the Lord’s body dipped, from the bishop, though she chewed it, she could not swallow it, since he had not yet been driven out of whom the Apostle says: “What harmony has Christ with Belial?” And again: “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” So, while the bishop held up her face with his hand, lest she throw out the holy thing, it was suggested by a deacon that the bishop put the saving cup to her throat. As soon as this was done, the devil left that place which he had occupied, at the Savior’s command, and the girl cried out that she had swallowed the sacrament she carried in her mouth, with praise of the Redeemer. Then joy, then voices in God’s glory, because after eighty-five days, the devil driven out, the girl was rescued from the power of the enemy. So again an offering of thanksgiving was made for her, and, receiving a fixed part of the sacrifice, she was restored to her former habit. Then too, while these things were being done, the deacon of that same church, moved by the divine Spirit, took away that statue and broke it into dust, and the divine majesty overcame all the cunning of the plotter. We also know that a certain man came there in the appearance of a monk, who professed that he worked certain signs of healing. When he performed certain illusory tricks on the blind and lame, and anointed them with oil into which some dead man’s bone had been dipped, they thought their sight and walking were restored to them; but as they went away they remained in the infirmities by which they had been held before. But that deceiver, knowing himself betrayed in these things, fled. In Asia, either he himself or another did such things, as a certain devout and noble Christian related. In Italy too, when we were settled in Campania, while the venerable pope Leo, to be named with apostolic honor, was overthrowing the Manichaeans and crushing the Pelagians, and especially Julian, a certain man named Florus, seized by a spirit of seduction, claiming for himself the power and merit of the holy martyr Sosius, when not far from the city of Naples he promised and did certain unlawful things for the subversion of souls, was detained and restrained by the brother of the venerable bishop Nostrianus and by the presbyter Herius, together with the clergy of that church, and so was driven from the borders of that province. Indeed he who seeks companions of his perdition does many things through various lands. Therefore I thought a few of his deeds should be made known in this work, so that those who come after us may know by reading with what caution, God helping, they can overcome the enemy.

Of the woman and the beast by which she is carried. A prediction to be fulfilled. In the Apocalypse John the apostle says: “One of the seven holy angels came and spoke with me, saying: Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. And he carried me away in the spirit, and I saw a woman sitting on a beast with seven heads and ten horns, holding a cup in her hand full of the abominations of uncleanness and of the fornication of the whole earth.” And a little later: “I saw that woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Christ Jesus.” This is that great Babylon, to be stripped of her trophies throughout the world; and wretched is her daughter, whoever imitates her deeds and pride. And do not think of her as a city in one place, for she is scattered through the whole world. Of her too the prophet David says: “Wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed,” he says, “is he who will repay you the repayment you repaid us.” And in the Apocalypse of John it is said: “Repay her as she herself has repaid you; in the cup in which she mixed for you, mix double for her. As much as she glorified herself and had power, so much give her torment and mourning. For she says: I sit as queen, and I am not a widow, and I shall not see mourning. Therefore in one hour her plagues have come, death, famine, and mourning. And she will be burned with fire, for strong is the Lord who will judge her.” Who does not understand what he means by her holding a cup full of the abominations of uncleanness and of the fornication of the whole earth? That she is called eternal, who is temporal, is surely a name of blasphemy; since mortals, even kings, are called gods in her, and suppliants say to them, “To your divinity, to your altars, to your eternity,” and the rest, which vanity, not truth, hands down, and which are abominable. For these are due to the eternal God. Indeed in her sacrilegious rites, and with effeminate priests then, inviting all nations to the fornication of idolatry, she defiled herself in her subjects. Of these the holy psalm sounds: “You have destroyed all who go whoring away from you.” Yet because there are in her citizens of the heavenly homeland, Jerusalem, who say, “But for me it is good to cling to God,” it is said to them: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins and be struck by her plagues.” For those come out who follow not her pride but the humble way, Christ; who love not robbery but mercy, and keep peace and holiness, without which no one will be able to see God; who groan and grieve over the iniquities done in their midst, and do not bear the yoke with unbelievers. These too the Lord exhorts in the Gospel with his address, saying among other things: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” And Paul testifies, saying: “Only he who now holds, let him hold, until he is taken out of the way; and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the brightness of his presence.”

Of the ten kings whom the Antichrist will find. A promise to be fulfilled. In the Apocalypse John says: “The angel said to me: Why are you amazed? I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast that carries her. The beast that you saw was and is not; but it will come up out of the abyss and go to destruction. Its seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits; and they are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes he must remain a short time. The beast that was and is not is itself the eighth, though it is of the seven, and it goes to destruction. And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive power as kings for one hour after the beast.” This was shown by Daniel: the fourth beast, which was greater than all the beasts, having so many horns. But whereas there he says that a smaller horn rose and drove out three horns before it, here he names seven kings, those three expelled; and he himself, the eighth, is the Antichrist, though he is of the seven. So, as far as conjecture is allowed, either he recalls the earlier kings who were more savage against the Christian religion, or that out of the ten, three being destroyed, there will be seven who themselves will rage against the Church. He means all the Arian heretics to be understood when he says: “These will fight against the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them.” For they fight by breathing out over and rebaptizing the members of the Lamb, which Christ had already consecrated with his blood. “But none has perished,” says the Lord, “except the son of perdition.” Some want the eighth king, whom he calls the Antichrist, to be understood as Nero, so that he himself is the beast that was and is not, and is to come again. But whether he takes the form and appearance of his body and appears in it (as, on the contrary, the holy angel in the book of Tobit took the appearance and likeness of Azarias, son of the great Ananias), or the Antichrist appears in the appearance of another, the prophet Daniel testifies that he will have the luxury, filth, and savagery of Nero’s ways, which are to be shown in the following chapter.

Of the ways of the Antichrist. A prediction to be fulfilled. The prophet Daniel says that the angel said to him: “The sons too of the transgressors of your people will be lifted up to fulfil the vision.” And a little later: “There will stand in the king’s place one most vile and unworthy of royal honor, and in a few days he will be crushed, not in fury nor in battle. And the king will do according to his will, and will be lifted up and magnified against every god, and against the God of gods he will speak great things, and he will prosper until the wrath is accomplished; for the decree has been carried out. And he will not regard the God of his fathers, and he will be in the lusts of women, and he will worship a god whom his fathers did not know, and he will set up the god Maozim in his place.” Here it is shown that the Antichrist will come from the Jews, of the tribe of Dan, which is in Persia to this day, according to the prophetic blessing of the patriarch Jacob, who says: “Dan will judge his people like the other tribes. Let Dan be a serpent on the way, a horned snake on the path, biting the horse’s hoofs, so that its rider falls backward.” And at once he shows that the true Christ the Lord will come, saying: “I will wait for your salvation, Lord.” This too the Lord testified in the Gospel, as we set down above, saying to the Jews: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you did not believe me; another will come in his own name, and him you will believe.” Paul, refuting these transgressors of the law, shows that they will believe the Antichrist: “Because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved, therefore God will send them the working of error, so that they believe the lie, and all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity.” It must be noted that all these things will come after the beast: that is, when the kingdom in which the woman sits, drunk with the blood of the saints, has been taken away; which we, believing, leave to our descendants to see.

Of the persecutions of the Antichrist. A prediction to be fulfilled. In the vision of Daniel it is said of the Antichrist: “His heart,” he says, “will be against the holy covenant.” Again in the same place: “Arms will rise from him, and they will pollute the sanctuary of strength, and take away the continual sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation, and the impious will deceitfully feign toward the covenant.” Here too he marks the Arians, forerunners of the Antichrist. “But the people,” he says, “that knows its God will prevail, and very many learned among the people. And they will be in sword, and in flame, and in captivity, and in plunder for days. And when they have fallen, they will be raised up by a little help, and very many will join them deceitfully. And some of the learned will fall, that they may be refined and chosen and made white, until the appointed time.” Again in the same place: “At that time,” it is said, “Michael the great prince will arise, who stands for the sons of your people; and there will come a time such as has not been from the beginning, since nations began to be, until that time. And at that time your people will be saved, everyone who is found written in the book of life.” The Lord confirms this in the Gospel: “When you see,” he says, “the devastation of desolation spoken of in the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand.” And again: “In those days there will be tribulation and distress such as has not been from the beginning. And unless God had shortened those days, no flesh would remain; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” John too testifies in the Apocalypse: “There was given to the beast,” he says, “power to speak great things; and it opened its mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle. And power was given it to make war with the saints and to conquer and kill them. And power was given it over every tribe and tongue and nation; and all will worship it who are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.” Here too the martyrdoms of Christ the Lord shine out, so that as his first coming filled thousands of infants, so his second will fill up the number of the elect.

Of the pride of the Antichrist. A prediction to be fulfilled. The prophet Ezekiel says: “Your heart was lifted up, and you said: I am God, and I sit in the seat of God in the heart of the sea; though you are a man and not God. And you set your heart as the heart of God.” And the apostle Paul says: “When the apostasy has come first, and the man of sin, the son of perdition, is revealed, who exalts himself above all that is called God or worshiped, so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God.” And the Lord in the Gospel: “When they say to you, Behold, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it.” And in the Apocalypse of John: “I saw,” he says, “a beast coming up out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb’s, and it spoke like a dragon.” And a little later: “And it did great signs, so that it made fire come down from heaven to earth before the eyes of men, and it deceived those who dwell on the earth by the signs which it was given to do.” Here let the curious fear, and especially the Jews. For the Jews ask for signs, as the Apostle says, and the Greeks seek wisdom. Hence some conjecture that the Antichrist will sit in the temple of Solomon, or will exalt himself by signs by which he may be believed to be Christ. For it has been shown that he will have heralds of his lie, since it was said he will have two horns like a lamb’s. John too says in the Apocalypse: “I saw,” he says, “coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, doing signs. They will go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for battle, for that great day of the Almighty.” What was said in Daniel, “Arms will rise from him,” is said here openly, that three unclean spirits go out as his heralds, as into the three parts of the world, that is, Asia, Europe, and Africa, to persuade by signs that the Antichrist himself is the Christ. But that he is not, what follows will show.

Of convicting the Antichrist that he is not the Christ. A prediction to be fulfilled. With what pride the Antichrist will come, what was said above declares. His coming, then, will not be humble, as every prophecy resounds of Christ, Isaiah saying: “In humility his judgment was taken away; but who will declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.” He will not be led like a sheep to the slaughter, that is, to the passion, as the Gospels and the prophecies testify that Christ was led. He will not give his cheek to the one who strikes him, nor will he receive spitting and blows in silence: things we believe were done in Christ just as all prophecy foretold them. He will not give his back to the scourges, nor be filled with reproaches: which the whole Gospel and prophecy proclaim that Christ fulfilled. His garments will not be divided, and no one will cast lots for his tunic: which the Gospels and prophecies testify was done with Christ’s clothing. He will not be crucified, nor will he receive gall and vinegar: which the Gospels and the prophecies say Christ received. His side will not receive a lance, and the wounds of the nails will not be in him: which the Gospels and prophecies testify were in Christ even after the resurrection. He will not redeem the world with his blood: which all prophecy proclaims of Christ. He will not die and rise on the third day: which the Gospels testify Christ did, and the apostolic letters and the prophecies too. He will not ascend into heaven, nor pour out the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire on disciples: which the whole Gospel and prophecy sound that Christ fulfilled. Beyond these the whole world itself is now a witness. So, these things having been examined and considered, let those who will come after us understand that the Antichrist is not the Christ. His end the Apocalypse itself shows. “An angel came,” it says, “and seized the dragon and the beast and the false prophets. These were sent alive together into the lake burning with fire and sulphur, and they will be tormented there for ever and ever.” This will be the end of the devil and his angels, and of those men who under his mark and sign passed into his company; of whose end the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel also testify. In what has been said, those who live then will do well to attend to the prophecy, as to a lamp in a dark place, until the day itself that is to come dawns in the hearts of believers. The other last signs that are to come, what follows will show.