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at what hour, on what day, in what month, in what year, and even more than this, they were born. However the time of the beast’s birth is sufficiently plain. For the apostasy and mystery of iniquity has increased in various ways from its earliest threads, and does still increase, until he comes forth 6 avrixslfj,svog xa/' vyrspoupoiusvog, who opposetli and exalteth himself: 2 Thess. ii. 3, etc. Tha trumpet of the seventh angel in the Apocalypse divides the whole duration into two parts. Before that trumpet, either from other passages of the Apocalypse or from the Apostolic writings, the adversary is presup- posed in mystery : under the trumpet of the seventh angel, at a short interval after its beginning, the beast is opposed to Christ in his open kingdom , which is a consideration of far greater weight. The times of the former steps, on this very account, because they are varied and concealed, are not precisely defined in the New Testa- ment, wherefore it is of no consequence to notice them particularly in their accomplishment : but with regard to the kingdom and its flourishing state, which is treated of, Ap. xiii., the times are at once precisely defined, and John , as Bellarmine, 1. iii. de Bom. Pont. ch. 3, says, has even added minutiae; and we show that these very minutiae have reference to the times. It is plain from this, what answer ought truly to be given to Bellarmine, who, 1. iii. de Bom. Pont. ch. 3, at the end, thus refutes the sentiment, which he attributes to W. Musculus, respecting the beginning of Antichrist at the time of Bernard : There were pontiffs incomparably worse from the year 900 to 1000, than there were from, 1100 to 1200; if therefore they were not antichrists , how shall these be ? But in truth it is not their pecu- liar wickedness which ought to be considered (though this in no slight degree promoted the public opinion which prevailed respecting the approach of Antichrist, and certainly entered into the beginning of the third woe), but rather that worst form of a new kingdom established by Gregory VII., which is most opposed to the kingdom of Christ, and most deadly to the Church.
Prop. 8. The year 1077 properly contains the beginning of the Papacy of Hildebrand. — The subject of this year itself is treated of in Proposition 7 : the part of the year, in Proposition 9.
Prop. 9. In the year 1077, the month of September deserves con- sideration■, and the first day of that month . — The Indiction accompanies the Epoch of the Totality of Hildebrand, which was then commencing with the month of September, and that the first Indiction. The letters to the Corsicans, exhibited in Proposition 7, are distinguished by the beginning of the first Indiction.