The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Flacius-Books Markedly Mold Protestant Interpretation

MATTHIAS FLACIUS (Vlacich) (1520-1575), of Illyria, was one of the great scholars of his time and compiler of the epochal Magdeburg Centuries, the first Protestant church history. He studied in Venice, and being fervently inclined toward religion and service for the church, he approached one of his relatives, who was a provincial of the Minorites, requesting that he be accepted into the order. But this man, Lupetinus by name, observing Flacius’ great zeal for truth, advised him to go to Germany. He went first to Basel, and was received with paternal love by Grynaus, from there in 1540 to Tubingen, and in the following year to Wittenberg. About 1544 he received a permanent position as professor of Old Testament at the University of Wittenberg. PFF2 315.1

However, serious trouble soon arose through the acceptance of the Leipzig Interim in 1548, which upheld the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith, yet conceded the so-called “Adiaphora,” or things neither forbidden nor enjoined by Scripture, and even reinstituted in the Protestant church such elements as extreme unction, the mass, lights, vestments, vessels, images, the old festivals of Mary, and fast days. Flacius, seeing the pure teaching of Protestantism in danger, but being unable to stop the trend, went to Magdeburg (1549), a city which had not accepted the Interim, and from there he began to fight against the Interim by word and pen, calling the Saxon theologians “Lovers of the Babylonish harlot, secret papists,” et cetera. PFF2 315.2

There in Magdeburg he worked on the Catalogus Testium Veritatis (Catalog of Witnesses for the Truth), and began also his comprehensive thirteen-volume Ecclesiastica Historia (Church History) better known as the Magdeburg Centuries, which became the Protestant arsenal of source material, possessing high permanent value. After a number of years, in 1557, he was called by Duke Johann Friedrich to the professorship of theology at Jena, which became the citadel of the Flacianists, with Wittenberg that of the Philippists. But because of a controversy with the duke about church polity, he was dismissed in 1561. Wandering to Regensburg and to Antwerp (where he was pastor of the Lutheran community), he had continuous breaks with church and civil authorities. He was finally expelled from the city council of Strassburg in 1573, because of his controversy with the clergy, and went to Frankfurt am Main, where he died two years later. He was a passionate defender of Luther, taking issue with the followers of Melanchthon, and published numerous controversial works. ²⁰ PFF2 316.1

His Magdeburg Centuries was a work of “colossal industry,” a landmark in church history, although somewhat biased, and was called by the Catholics a “pestilentissimum opus,” ²¹ a for it revealed facts they did not desire to have come to light. Yet modern Catholic commentaries, like Buchberger (1932), admit that, although full of hatred against the Catholic Church, it was exemplary in its extensive use of source material, and was superseded later only by the Annales Ecclesiastici of Cardinal Caesare Baronius (1538-1607), who had direct approach to the archives of the Vatican. ²² PFF2 316.2

1. REIGN OF ANTICHRIST TO BE 1260 YEARS

Flacius’ Catalogus Testium Veritatis, first issued at Basel in 1556, and citing four hundred witnesses, urges the study and following of the prophecies, which make possible the detection of Antichrist’s teachings. The year-day principle is applied to the 1260 days. PFF2 316.3

In Revelation, John has given the time of his reign-1260 days, which are literal years, for in the Scriptures a day often stands for a year. He also describes the powers which will again, at least in part, establish the declining Empire of Rome. (Revelation 13.) This the Papacy has already accomplished. The place is also mentioned, Babylon, and the papists themselves understand the Babylon of the New Testament to be Rome. PFF2 317.1

Ambrose, of the fourth century, is also cited as commenting on Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2, whose coming would follow upon the passing of the empire. ²³ PFF2 317.2

2. “CENTURIES” IDENTIFIES ANTICHRIST AND LOCATES REIGN.

In the Magdeburg Centuries, Flacius defends the Apocalypse, and applies 2 Thessalonians 2 explicitly to the Roman bishop. He endorses the year-day principle, as recognized by Joachim, Cusa, and De Lyra, and contends for the 1260 years of papalspiritual rule from 606 (Phocas and Gregory), in contrast to666 years of worldly supremacy. In fact, Flacius applied the term Antichrist to both the Pope and Mohammed-the one inside the church, and the other outside. The first he dated from606; the second, a few years later. ²⁴ PFF2 317.3

3. CHRISTIANS SHOULD SEVER CONNECTIONS WITH ANTICHRIST

In 1570 Flacius also wrote a tractate on the Antichrist, warning all honest Christians to separate from the system of Antichrist-the prophecies forming the basis of separation: PFF2 317.4

“The sixth and last reason for our separation from the pope and his followers be this: By many writings of our church, by the Divinely Inspired Word, by prophecies concerning the future and by the special characteristics of the papacy, it has been profusely and thoroughly proved that the pope with his prelates and clergy is the real true great Antichrist, that his kingdom is the real Babylon, a never ceasing fountain and a mother of all abominable idolatry.” ²⁵ PFF2 317.5

4. EXERCISES MOLDING INFLUENCE ON PROTESTANT EXPOSITION

In the same year Flacius published an edition of Erasmus’ New Testament with his own Glossa Compendiaria (Short Notes), in which the following prophetic interpretations are found: 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4 refers to an apostasy in the church after the spread of the gospel, or about A.D. 500 to 600, most particularly to Antichrist’s rule in the church-not that of a single man-extending from apostolic times to the last day; the Man of Sin is the author of many sins, such as false doctrine, various idols and abominations, oppression of the saints, the power of dispensation, impure celibacy, simony, scandals, and the like. ²⁶ Verse 4 refers, not to Mohammed, but to the assumption by the Roman Antichrist of authority over the Word of God. ²⁷ The time of Antichrist is the same as the 42 months, 1260 days, and time, times, and a half-possibly from Constantine to the then present revelation of Antichrist, although certainty on the time is not necessary-and the Two Witnesses are the Old and the New Testament. ²⁸ PFF2 318.1

Irenaeus’ third-century allusion to the 666 of Antichrist, as being Lateinos, is presented for the beast of Revelation 13, and is expressly applied by Flacius to the pope, head of the Latin church. ²⁹ PFF2 318.2

Flacius’ Latin works were translated into different languages, and many editions were printed, molding Protestant exposition of prophecy to a marked degree. PFF2 318.3