The Roaring Lion: Prophetic Decision on the Bohemian War

...ness. The text continues from a discussion on the previous page regarding the validity or nature of authority. If we now wish to know who this Woman is, let us simply consider and clearly see who it is that sits upon the Beast and thus possesses, as it were, the entire supreme government—even more so than the Beast itself, just as a rider is greater than the horse. Now, it is indeed indisputable that the Pope in Rome has claimed all power and authority in the whole world; for he has not only appointed and invested Emperors and Kings with their lands, but has also ruled the whole world with his ban the power of excommunication and interdict, by which he subjugated everything.

This abomination of the Pope’s "harlotry" A biblical metaphor for spiritual corruption or idolatry began after the time when the external persecutions of the Christians ceased, and the internal spiritual abominations commenced—the "Son of Perdition" A title for the Antichrist from 2 Thessalonians 2:3 who seated himself in the Temple of God as a god of the Earth and the governor over all the world. This era began properly with the "abomination of desolation" A reference to Daniel 11:31 and Matthew 24:15 under Pope Sylvester, who received the "Donation" from Constantine The "Donation of Constantine" was a forged Roman imperial decree by which the 4th-century Emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome and the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope.; and it was precisely then that the "harlotry" truly began, when the whole world clung to the Pope, and was forced to cling to him, in both secular and spiritual matters, as no man can deny.

However, neither the Whore nor the Beast can be understood as referring to the Turk The Ottoman Empire, for he is also described with his own abomination and the destruction of the sanctuary in the 8th chapter of Daniel, as already mentioned. Furthermore, it can never be proven that the whole world committed "harlotry" with the Turk; rather, it was the Pope—or the whole world with the Pope—especially before the time that a Turkish Empire even existed on Earth. And what shall we say? The Papists will be able to neither deny nor contradict it, now or before: that the Turk should have greater power and might on Earth than the Pope, since they themselves exalt him [the Pope] above all others, and thus sufficiently betray themselves in this matter.

One may also consider that the seven heads and ten kings belong to the Roman Empire and the Pope, which truly did not belong to the Turk, much less belong to him now. Indeed, it does not require much proof, for all Papists confess with mouth and heart that the Pope is the head over all and the Vicar of Christ the representative of Christ on Earth, according to whom the whole world should regulate itself. I believe this is the "Mystery" written upon her forehead: namely, Great Babylon, the Mother of Harlotry and of all Abominations on Earth Quoting Revelation 17:5; since the Whore herself confesses that the whole world must allow itself to be reformed In this context, to be shaped or governed by her, and likewise that the Emperors and Kings must receive their fiefs from the Whore. I believe it is true that the Whore sits upon many waters...