Ver. 1. And there came] This and the following chapters are set for the explanation of the dark and difficult passages in the former, in the three last vials especially. One of the seven] Probably the seventh. And talked with me] ελαλησε λαλια, familiarly as the Samaritess with her countrymen, John 4:42, or as the master with his scholar. I will show unto thee] Thou shalt not only be an ear but an eye witness. “ Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures, Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus.” Horat. The judgment] The damnation of her; the destruction is reserved to the next chapter. Of the great whore] The whore of Babylon, more infamous and notorious than any Thais, Lais, Phryne, Messalina, Orestilla (cuius praeter formam nihil unquam bonus laudavit, Sallust), or Pope Joan, of whom Funccius the chronologer speaketh thus; Ego Funccius non dubito quin divinitus ita sit permissum ut femina fieret Pontifex eadem meretrix, &c.; I doubt not but that God therefore permitted a notorious harlot to be advanced to the popedom (and this about the very time when the popes were most busy in subjecting the kings of the earth, and making them their vassals), that he might point out to men this whore here mentioned, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication.
Ver. 2. With whom the kings] As submitting their sceptres to his keys; and becoming his feudatories. And the inhabiters of the earth] So that she is not a noble whore only, but a common strumpet, prostituting herself to the meanest for their money, as in the pardon office. Have been made drunk] Hence it is so difficult to convert idolaters: there is no dealing with a man that is drunk. “Whoredom and wine take away the heart,” Hosea 4:11. Of her fornication] Both spiritual and corporal. Sixtus Quintus lupanar utriusque Veneris Romae condidit (saith Agrippa) et decessit tabidus voluptate.
Ver. 3. Into the wilderness] Whither the true Church fled, Re. xii., of which they must be (saith one) that can learn to know the Romish Church to be a whore, condemned of God. I saw a woman] [See Trapp on “Re 17:1”] Sit upon] Not going afoot, as Christ and the apostles did, but magnificently mounted, as the pope is ever, either upon a stately palfrey (emperors holding his stirrup) or upon men’s shoulders. England was once called the pope’s ass, for bearing his intolerable exactions. This ass he held by the ears instead of a bridle. Upon a scarlet coloured beast] The proper colour of the court of Rome; and it well serves to set forth their pomp and their hypocrisy. Innocent IV gave a red hat to his cardinals, to show them (as he said) that they should be ready to shed their blood for the truth. But that painter was nearer the point, who being blamed by a cardinal for colouring the visages of Peter and Paul too red, tartly replied, that he painted them so as blushing at the stateliness and sinfulness of his successors. Full of names of blasphemy] His head only before was busked with the blasphemy, Revelation 13:1, now his whole body. Thus evil men and seducers grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, 2 Timothy 3:13.
Ver. 4. In purple and scarlet] Clothing for kings and nobles, over whom this whore domineers much more than the concubines did over the kings of Persia. And decked with gold] Gr. κεχρυσωμενη, gilded with gold, to note her hypocrisy and outsideness, gold without, copper within. The pope styles himself the servant of God’s servants, but yet stamps in his coin, “The nation and country that will not serve thee shall be rooted out.” At the absolution of King John of England, 8000 marks of silver were presently delivered to Pandoffus the pope’s envoy, who trampled it under his feet as condemning that base matter, but yet received it and sent it away to Rome. (Daniel’s Hist.) And precious stones and pearls] Besides the rich stones that are in the pope’s triple crown of inestimable price and value, he carries in his pantofle (which he holds out to be kissed) the picture of the cross, set in pearls and precious stones, Ut plenis faucibus crucem Christi derideat, saith Hiedfeld. Pope Sixtus quintus five was wont to give to Tiresa, his harlot, pantofles covered with pearls. He spent two hundred and threescore thousand crowns upon a conduit, which he built for his pleasure; and yet he brought in fifty hundred thousand crowns into the new treasury built by himself in the castle of St Angelo. At the coronation of Pope Leo X, a million crowns are said to have been spent in one day. Pope Paul II was wont to sleep all day, and spend whole nights in weighing monies and beholding jewels and precious pictures, uno eo die 1,000,000 aureorum expendit. (Jac. Rev. 261.) A golden cup full of abominations] Gold, if it be right, they say discovers and expels poison. Put poison into a cup of gold, and it will hiss and send up certain circles like rainbows. Hereby is signified (saith an author) that God threateneth judgment and fire to those that pour poison into divine doctrine, as the pope doth with his mad mixtures. He that argued from the letters of Papa, P. Poculum, A. Aureum, P. Plenum, A. Abominationum, argued no less wittily than that other, who of Roma made Radix omnium malorum, the base of all evils. A slipper; formerly applied very variously, app., at one time or another, to every sort of in-door slippers or loose shoes; esp. to the high-heeled cork-soled chopins; also to out-door overshoes or goloshes; and to all manner of Oriental and non-European slippers, sandals, and the like. (In Scottish use from 15th c.; in common Eng. use from c 1570 to c 165060; after that chiefly an alien or historical word.) ŒD