Abstract
[1] And when he had opened the seventh seal, [2] there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. [3] And I saw seven angels [4] standing before God, [5] and to them were given seven trumpets. [6] And another angel came [7] and stood before the altar, [8] having a golden censer. [9] And much of odours was given unto him [10] that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar [11] which was before the seat. [12] And the smoke of the odours which came of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand. [13] And the angel took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar [14] and cast it into the earth. [15] And voices were made, and thunderings, and lightnings, [16] and great earthquake. [17] And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets [18] prepared themselves to blow.
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Notes
- 1.
In the 1545 text the image of God at the altar is placed here.
- 2.
Bale’s exegesis of the millennium changed in the course of the Image. See Introduction 15–17.
- 3.
See Isa 27.13.
- 4.
in one = in one voice.
- 5.
This relative clause modifies ‘they’ (i.e., the ones who believed were predestined to do so).
- 6.
Chapter 13.
- 7.
rabble] 1545, 1570; table 1548, Christmas.
- 8.
them = the Jews.
- 9.
As Bale’s marginal note indicates, this reference to the enemies of Moses is from 2 Tim 3.8, though the names Jannes and Jambres are not in Exodus but instead arise from Jewish tradition.
- 10.
See Chapter 6, 104. Bale equates the second seal-opening with the time following the apostles, so these examples actually pre-date this period. As is typical of Bale, he is more interested in showing the eternal struggle between the churches rather than remaining with a strick periodization.
- 11.
See Zech 4.
- 12.
asses] 1545, 1570; asshes 1548; ashes Christmas.
- 13.
them = the false disciples mentioned in #2 above.
- 14.
also] 1545; om. 1548.
- 15.
cresset = a vessel containing oil or wood, used for light (OED 1).
- 16.
See 104n.
- 17.
noisome = harmful, injurious, noxious (OED adj. 1, obsolete).
- 18.
The ‘pits of Abraham’ refers to the wells the patriarch had dug, which were later filled up by the envious Philistines (see Gen 26.15-22; cited in Bale’s margin).
- 19.
evomit = to vomit, throw out, eject the contents of the stomach (OED, citing a later passage from the Image, among others).
- 20.
This list is of late 3rd- and 4th-century desert fathers. Many are included in Eusebius (for information on everyone except for Theonas, see Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. Benedicta Ward). Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria c. 283–301, is mentioned in Eusebius (7.32). See also Appendix 3.
- 21.
These persons are all from the 7th-9th centuries. Bale’s sources are evident from the marginal note here, which lists Baptista of Mantua, John Trithemius, and Francis Lambert.
- 22.
St. Anastasius was a Persian magician who became a convert of the Holy Cross and was martyred c. 628. The inclusion of ‘Persia’ separates this Anastasius from the 12th-century pope of the same name. The 1548 and 1550 texts mistakenly put a comma between these words as if these are two separate people.
- 23.
Probably Fulgentius, Bishop of Ruspe (468–533), although Fulgentius of Cartagena (d. 630) fits the chronological list here slightly better.
- 24.
Alcuin, a scholar from York, was a leader in the revival of learning in the Carolingian court in the 780s and 790s.
- 25.
pox = syphilis. The complaint about the practise of offering prayers to Job for victims of venereal disease is common in 16th-century writings, such as Foxe, Tyndale, and elsewhere in Bale (e.g. King Johan). See Gordon Williams, A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature (Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Athlone P), 741.
- 26.
St. Roch was a 14th-century hermit who caught the plague and was fed by a dog in the woods; he ‘was also reputed to have miraculously cured sufferers from the plague’ (ODS).
- 27.
Probably Germanus of Paris (c. 500–76), who had a reputation for healing.
- 28.
Apollonia, a 3rd-century deaconess of Alexandria. She was tortured by having her teeth pulled out and leapt into a fire in order to avoid reciting blasphemous sayings.
- 29.
Perhaps St. Gratian of Dalmatia, who died c. 1509, though there is no apparent connection between him and ‘thrift-losing’. Bale mentions Gratian and lost thrift again on 288.
- 30.
St. Barbara is normally represented by a tower, because her father locked her in a tower where she secretly became a Christian. Her father ‘nearly killed her, but she was handed over to a judge who condemned her to death. Her father was struck by lightning and died. This was the basis of her patronage of those in danger of sudden death, first by lightning, and then by subsiding mines or cannon-balls’ (ODS).
- 31.
shadow = protect, shelter (OED v. 1a).
- 32.
All of these figures are from the 12th to 14th centuries who are associated with prophecies and warnings about the corruptions of the Church. Bale’s marginal references here cite Baptista of Mantua and Johannes Nauclerus.
- 33.
Joachim of Fiore.
- 34.
Cyril of Constantinople (d. c.1235), a general of the Carmelites and prior of the hermits on Mt. Carmel. See below, 422.
- 35.
Saint Angelus of Jerusalem (1185–1220), a martyr from the Holy Land.
- 36.
Telesphorus of Cusentia, a 14th-century writer in the Joachimite tradition.
- 37.
Perhaps the monk Reinhardus Mundrichigen.
- 38.
Peter John Olivi, a 13th-century Franciscan theologian whose extreme view of ecclesiastical poverty and other theological issues caused the Roman Catholic church to condemn his works.
- 39.
Robert of Usecio, a 13th-century Dominican who was influenced by Joachimism.
- 40.
Johannes de Rupecissa, also known as Jean de Roquetaillade, a 14th-century French alchemist who was known for denouncing ecclesiastical abuses.
- 41.
Arnaldus of Villanova (c. 1235–1311) was known, like Jean de Roquetaillade (see previous note), for incurring the enmity of the ecclesiastics.
- 42.
Hieronymus Savonarola, a 15th-century Italian Dominican who criticized the clergy and was executed in 1498.
- 43.
because of = because.
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Minton, G.E. (2013). The Eighth Chapter. In: Minton, G. (eds) John Bale’s 'The Image of Both Churches'. Studies in Early Modern Religious Tradition, Culture and Society, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7296-0_10
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