Alcuin of York

And I saw seven angels standing in the sight of God; and there were given to them seven trumpets. And another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer. In this place he upsets the order of the narration and interposes something; for, as the following will show, the angel with the censer came and stood before the altar before they received the seven trumpets. He interposes something because he introduced this angel with the censer in the middle before he had finished talking about the others. So, what do we understand by the seven angels but the holy Church in its preachers, who are the announcers of eternal life? It is also right for them to be said to be seven in number, because they are filled up with the sevenfold Spirit, or because they are put in charge of the totality of believers. They are said to be standing in the sight of God because they have trodden earthly desires underfoot and stick to divine contemplation. What is shown by their seven trumpets but the perfect preaching of the Old and of the New Testament? According to this: Lift up thy voice like a trumpet. [Is. 58:1] By the fact that it is the office of a priest to stand by the altar and burn incense prepared with spices, we realize that this angel is the Mediator between God and men, the Angel of the seven angels, and, so to speak, the Pontiff of the seven priests, he about whom the prophet said, angel of great counsel. [Is. 9:6 acc. to LXX, where the verse is number 5.] From this we clearly gather that he came before the seven angels received the trumpets. By the altar are represented the elect, in whom a spiritual sacrifice is being performed. So, the angel came by the flesh, and stood by the divinity. Also, what is represented by the censer but Christ's humanity? It is appropriate for it to be called golden, because the flesh assumed by the Word of God is, together with him, the wisdom about which it is said, Take wisdom as gold. [Variant of Prov. 16:16] The censer, in which spices are burned, may also symbolize the Church, which says every day, kindled by the fire of divine love, Let my prayer be directed as incense, etc. [Ps. 140:2] Then it is rightly said after that concerning Christ alone: And there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel. Just as smoke comes out of burned spices, so is the virtue of devotion produced by zeal for prayer. However, in order for the incense to become pleasing to God, it is given to the angel, which means that the zeal of prayers is entrusted to our Redeemer. The body is totally unable to speak to God but by the agency of the Head. The fact that the incense is offered on the golden altar shows that the sacrifice of prayers is accepted by him nowhere else but in the body of Christ, all of which shines with the wisdom of the divine Word. Note also that the throne and the altar before the throne do not signify two Churches, but one, just like Noah's ark and the eight souls in it. [Cf. Gen. 6; 1 Peter 3:20]

And the first angel sounded the trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mingled with blood, and it was cast on the earth, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. By hail is represented the wrath of God Almighty, according to this: The wrath of the Lord is like hail coming down. By fire is indicated jealousy or hatred, and it is right to say that it is mingled with blood, because, according to John's saying, Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. [1 John 3:15] The Lord promises through Isaiah that the Church cannot be burned by this fire, saying, When thou shalt walk through fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flame shall not burn in thee. [Is. 43:2] Moreover it should be noted that when he says the third part perished, we should not think that two parts consisting of the elect remained, which would contradict this: Many are called, but few are chosen. [Matt. 22:14] Indeed this number does not seem to pertain to literal quality, but to figurative quantity, and this is shown by the very change that says in one place that two thirds came into the lot of the reprobates, in another place that it was three thirds, and in a third place one third. What is more, above he divided the whole body of the Devil into four parts, now in two thirds, then in three, then in one; but one third is not smaller than two or three; for when he divides the Devil's body into four parts, he wants us to understand one part in the Church, consisting of false brothers, and three outside, namely the heretics, the Jews, and the pagans. When he divides the whole body into three thirds, we should understand one onefold part inside consisting of the wicked faithful, one twofold part outside consisting of the Jews and heretics, and also one onefold part outside, consisting of the Gentiles. When he symbolizes one part of the body by the same tripled number three, making two parts in all out of the three thirds, he wants us to understand there both hidden and overt heretics. There remains one third inside and outside, which retains in itself the symbols of all. When he divides the Devil's body into two thirds, he wants us to understand one onefold third inside consisting of bad Christians, and one threefold third outside consisting of the Jews, heretics, and pagans. One should also know that the earth is the same as the trees, that is the sum of the wicked encompassed in two thirds, one of which is onefold, and the other threefold: for sinners are the earth because they seek earthly things, and they are trees because they sway to and fro in their instability. About these it is said by Jude, These are trees of the autumn, unfruitful, plucked up by the roots, twice dead. [Jude 12] So two thirds are burned up by the sending of hail and fire with blood, and one is left unharmed by this, because, as the wrath of the heavenly Judge increases and the society of the old enemy is not gathered together by the preaching of the saints, this society is put on fire by the flames of its own hatred, whereas Christ's congregation is harassed by the hatred of the wicked, but it is not consumed by it. As for what is said after that, All green grass was burnt up, it seems to be a repetition of the same idea: all green grass was burned up in the two thirds; all green grass, that is the said part of the wicked, consumed by the flames of its own hatred. The greenness of grass indeed signifies here the enticements of the flesh, according to this: All flesh is grass; [Is. 40:6] whence, on the other hand, it is told that the crowds fed by the Lord sat upon green grass, [Mark 6:39] which means that they subdue the pleasures of the flesh by repressing them.

And the second angel sounded the trumpet: and as it were a great mountain, burning with fire, was cast into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood: and the third part of those creatures died in it, which had life, and the third part of the ships was destroyed. The Devil is called a great mountain, whether because he wanted to be like the one about which it is said, In the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared, [Is. 2:2] or because in the end he will exalt himself above all that is called, or worshipped as, God. [2 Thes. 2:4] He is called burning because he is tormented by his own evilness and envy, because, ejected from among the saints by the angel sounding the trumpet, that is by the Church preaching, he is cast into the sea, that is into the incredulous — not that he was not already in them before, but since he has been ejected from among the saints, he starts ruling over the incredulous all the more. It seems that by the third that was turned into blood is symbolized the kind of death by which the two other thirds die, so that in one third is denoted the death, and in two thirds the number of the dying. The water turned into blood is fleshly wisdom, which kills souls; whence the apostle: Being wise according to the flesh is death. [Variant of Rom. 8:6] This wisdom means both bad credulity and wrong work; for with regards to wrong doctrine it is said, The letter killeth, [2 Cor. 3:6] and with regards to wrong work, Deliver me from bloods. [Ps. 50:16]

And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars, so that the third part of them was darkened, and the day did not shine for a third part of it, and the night in like manner. By the sun, the moon, and the stars is symbolized the Church, and their darkness refers particularly to the perfidy of the heretics. Although two parts are made out of three thirds, namely one part belonging to the day with the sun, and another belonging to the night with the moon and the stars, the two nonetheless make one, or one is subdivided into two. He does this in order to indicate its overt error by the day, and its hidden error by the night, that is, respectively, the public conflicts of the heretics and their secret machinations. The reason why it is not said “the third part was smitten and darkened” but the third part was smitten so that it might be darkened (in due time), is that it is when they are openly separated from the Church that the heretics are truly darkened; for before that they are, as it were, hiddenly wounded. They are smitten out of the light of faith and the brightness of the divine Word. This destruction should not be ascribed to God, but understood in the same way as Pharaoh's heart being hardened. [Ex. 4:21; 7:3, 13, 22; 8:19; 9:12, 35; 10:1, 20, 27; 11:10; 14:4, 8]

And I beheld, and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth: by reason of the rest of the voices of the trumpets of the three angels, who were yet to sound the trumpet. John as well as the eagle and the angels bear the symbol of the Church. It is right for the Church to be called one eagle, because it is based on unity of faith and lifts itself up towards heavenly things after treading earthly pleasures underfoot. So in John it is the Church that sees itself; in the eagle it is the Church that flies; and in the three angels it is the Church that announces the evils to come in the last times. Note also that in a spiritual vision, seeing is the same as hearing. By the fact that the eagle is said to lament not because of the preceding voices but because of those of the following angels, it is shown that the Church laments and proclaims the future plagues of a different calamity at different times. It laments in the eagle and proclaims in the angels. Then it is said to fly through the midst of heaven because it possesses the world on either side, and its preaching is called a great voice because it has resounded in the whole world.

And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet, and I saw a star fall from heaven upon the earth, and there was given to him the key of the pit of the abyss. And he opened the pit of the abyss: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace. What is represented by the angel and the star has already been said. By the abyss are symbolized the hearts of the wicked, darkened by the darkness of errors. By the pit of the abyss, we should understand preachers of errors, for if the mouth of an abyss is a pit, it is right to symbolize by the pit those through whom the iniquity of the wicked pours out the venoms of its heart. By the key of the pit is represented temporal power, with which the old adversary unlocks the mouths of the reprobates so that they may speak wrong doctrines, and it is right for these doctrines to be compared to smoke because they turn the light of truth into darkness for themselves, and even seem to darken the brightness of faith in others. As for the great furnace, it is the Antichrist's persecution, out of which comes smoke, that is wrong doctrine, to turn the souls of those who perish into darkness. However, how can it be said that this smoke is similar to that of a great furnace whereas the Lord says concerning that tribulation, There shall be then great tribulation, etc.? [Matt. 24:21] One should know then that it is not on account of torments or false doctrines that that tribulation is said to be more terrible than all the others (among which is this “similar” one) but on account of miraculous signs through which it will deceive people more easily. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit. See, the fifth angel says that what the fourth had foretold would happen with the sun, the moon, and the stars, has already happened with the sun and the air.

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree: but only the men who have not the sign of God on their foreheads. This is repeating the same idea as above, where the angel ascending from the rising of the sun commanded the four angels, who are now understood in the locusts, not to hurt the earth and the sea or the trees: for by the grass, which is not the food of men but of animals, are represented the little ones in Christ, the kind of people about whom the apostle said, The sensual man perceiveth not those things that are of the Spirit of God. [1 Cor. 2:14] By green things, a great many of which are commonly used as food by men, are represented those who are progressing in faith and are in some way more fit to desire the green things of the paradise. By the trees are represented the strong who are rooted with some stability among the winds of temptations. Why are the locusts forbidden from hurting any green thing or any tree? By the whole we should understand a part, which is preserved from that hurting. Then the men who do not have the sign of God on their foreheads are those who are not strong in the faith that works through love.