spoiled the harlot of her riches. They have eaten her flesh, i.e. seized on her benefices, and revenues, which she had in their countries. This must go on and be finished as it is begun. The Kings who yet remain under the empire of Rome must break with her, leave her solitary and desolate. But who must begin this last revolt? it is most probable that France shall. Not Spain, which as yet is plunged in superstition and is as much under the tyranny of the clergy as ever. Not the Emperor, who in temporal matters is subject to the Pope and permits that in his states the Archbishop of Strigonium should teach that the Pope can take away the Imperial crown from him. It cannot be any country but France, which a long time ago hath begun to shake off the yoke of Rome. ’Tis well known how solemnly and openly war hath been declared against the Pope by a declaration of the King (ratified in all the parliaments) by the decisions of the assembly of the French Clergy, by a disputation against the authority of the Pope, managed in the Sorbonne, solemnly and by order of the court. And to heighten the affront the theses were posted up even upon the gates of his Nuncio. Nothing of this kind had hitherto happened at least in a time of peace and unless the Pope had given occasion by his insolence. Besides this superstition and idolatry lose their credit much in France.—There is a secret party, though well enough known, which greatly despiseth the popular devotions, images, worship of saints, and is convinced that these are human inventions: God is beforehand preparing for his great work. To this it may be objected that for the last hundred and fifty years the Pope’s empire hath not been made up of ten Kings, because the Kings of England, Sweden, Denmark, etc., have thrown off his government; and consequently, France is not at this day the tenth part of the Babylonian empire; for it is more than a tenth part of it. But this is no difficulty; for we must know, that things retain the names which they bore in their original (without regarding the alterations which time does bring along.) Though at this day there are not ten kingdoms under the Babylonian empire, it is, notwithstanding, certain, that each kingdom was called, and ought to be called in this prophecy, the tenth part, because the prophet having described this empire in its beginning, by its ten horns, or ten kings, it is necessary for our clear understanding, that every one of these Kings and kingdoms, should be called one of the ten Kings, or of ten kingdoms, with respect to the original constitution of the Antichristian empire.