The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VI. Viegas Supports Futuristic Scheme

BLASIUS VIEGAS (15541599), Portuguese Jesuit scholar, was born at Evora, and united with the Jesuit Society in 1569. He taught theology for twelve years at Coimbra and Evora, and wrote a scholarly and lengthy commentary on the book of Revelation. Viegas claimed the Jesuits to be the spiritual order anticipated by Joachim, and, like Ribera and Bellarmine, centered everything in a future three and a half years of time. He interpreted “taking away of the daily” (Daniel 8:13; 12:11) as the abrogation of the mass, but thought the 1335 were possibly year days, extending to the judgment. However, he disapproved of Ribera’s exposition of the ten kingdoms and the thousand years, and made Revelation 20 refer to the endless reign of the saints. ⁶⁰ As to Babylon, Viegas declared: PFF2 502.5

“From these words it appears that, by the Babylon of the Apocalypse, Jerome understood Rome. But the name of Babylon is to be applied, not to that Rome which, under the Popes, now professes the name of Christ, but to that Rome which, before she received Christianity, worshipped idols, and to that which will exist in the time of Antichrist, which John, in this and the next chapter, describes as about to fall away from the Pope, and there fore from the faith. I think, therefore, with Tertullian and Jerome, that throughout the Apocalypse, and especially in this chapter and the next, the name of Babylon and the Harlot do describe the city of Rome under that twofold state, and that this passage foretells the future calamity and destruction of the city about the time of Antichrist.... PFF2 503.1

“Now, as the angel here declares to John that the ten Kings will hate the Harlot, and will entirely desolate and burn her, it may be gathered plainly that, a little before Antichrist’s coming, or at least in the beginning of his reign, the city of Rome will be overthrown and burnt by those ten Kings: for, when Antichrist rules, there will be, not ten Kings, but seven.” ⁶¹ PFF2 503.2

In making these concessions to the requirements of prophecy, remarks Maitland, the Jesuits received no check from their superiors. Rome’s spokesmen may therefore be considered as acknowledging both past and future identity with Babylon. ⁶² PFF2 503.3