Imagining the End: Visions of

Commentaria

, pp. 



–



).



. Bede, 

Explanatio Apocalypsis

, Bk 



 (PL 



:



BC).



. Melo, 

Commentaria

, p. 



: ‘Locus ergo iste totus de vero quodam Angelo, scilicet de

Michaele, vel alio intelligendus est, & de pace Ecclesiae, post mortem, & interitum Antichristi,

ut exponit Caelius…’ There follows a paraphrase of  passages from Coelius’s 

Collectanea

.



. See Robertus Bellarminus, 

Opera Omnia

, 



 vols (Venice, 



) Vol. 

,

 pp. 



–



.



. I will use a slighter later edition, 

Francisci Riberae Villacastinensis … In sacram Beati

Ioannis Apostoli, & Evangelistae Apocalypsin Commentarii

 (Lyons, 



). There were also editions

in 



 and 



.



. There is thus an odd resemblance between Ribeira’s exegesis and the apocalyptic exegesis

of  the ‘Dispensationalist’ Protestants, first advanced by John Nelson Darby (



–



). On

Ribeira, see Armogathe, ‘Interpretations of  the Revelation of  John: 



–



’, pp. 



–



;

‘Dall’escatologia alla storia’, pp. 



–



; and the unpublished paper of  my colleague, Michael

Murrin, ‘Francisco de Ribeira: Apocalypse as Science Fiction’.



. Bousset, 

Die Offenbarung Johannis

, p. 



.



. Ribeira, 

Commentarii

, pp. 



–



. Ribeira’s commentary on Apocalypse 



 makes up

about 



 per cent of  his entire work, while Melo’s remarks constitute only about 



 per cent of

his lengthy book.



. Augustine’s 

De civitate Dei

 is cited some twenty-nine times. Other major authorities are

Jerome (ten), Saints Ambrose and Eusebius (each five), and Gregory I (three).

Notes to Chapter 8

---

370



. Ribeira, 

Commentarii

, p. 



: ‘quod mille anni intelliguntur usque ad consummationem

saeculi, nec potest ullo modo dici sanctos illius extremi temporis mille annos esse regnaturos

usque ad finem eiusdem saeculi’.



. Ibid., p. 



: ‘Ex his profecto haud absurde colligi videtur multos annos restare usque

ad diem iudicii.’ Ribeira concludes his discussion with an argument for the heretical character

of  millenarianism (pp. 



–



).



. Reeves, 

The Influence of Prophecy

, pp. 



–



.



. Blasius Viegas, 

Commentarii Exegetici in Apocalypsim Ioannis Apostoli

 (Venice, 



).

This edition contains 



 pp. in double columns. Viegas’s commentary was printed no fewer

than eleven times between 



 and 



.



. See ibid., pp. 



–



, and the discussion of  Reeves,