of Babylon is distinct from and anterior to its destruction, and
must correspond with the fall of the woman from her position on the
beast;--she is no longer to be the director of, and to be sustained by, the
civil power. The cry of the angel, announcing her fall, as Mr. Elliot
remarks, seems to be anticipative, and not retrospective. The
denunciations of the Papacy by the reformers were of a character to fulfil
this symbolization.

The year 1300, during the pontificate of Boniface VIII., may be regarded
as marking the highest eminence to which the Papal power ever attained.
From this period the dominion of the Roman Pontiffs appeared to be
gradually undermined. Twenty-four years after this date, John Wickliffe
was born, who, together with his followers, made more vigorous attacks
upon Babylon itself. Some of these declared Rome to be mystical Babylon,
and the Pope and church there to be Antichrist. These heralds announced
the fall of mystical Babylon, as the ancient prophets had done that of
literal Babylon, long before the event.--Jer. 51:7, 8. Antichrist and
Babylon are identified in prophecy. In 1518, Luther first suspected their
application to the Papacy; and, writing to his friend Link, on sending him
a copy of the acts just published of the conference at Augsburg, he says:
"My pen is ready to give birth to things much greater. _I know not myself
whence these thoughts come to me._ I will send you what I write, that you
may see if I have well conjectured in believing that the _Antichrist_ of
whom St. Paul speaks now reigns in the court of Rome."

At first, Luther and his companions sought only the reformation of that
church. They had no idea of dissolving their own connection with it. But
when the thunders of the Vatican were hurled at them, and they found
themselves excommunicated as heretics, they came to the conclusion that
the church of Rome was _the Babylon of the Apocalypse_. Immediately upon
this conviction, they began to cry, "Babylon is fallen!"

In 1520 appeared a famous book, by Luther, on the "_Babylonish Captivity
of the Church_," in which he attacked Rome with great skill and courage.
In Switzerland and England the reformers considered themselves as
fulfilling this message of the Apocalyptic angel. Elliot says, "They
_seized on this very prophecy for application; and, for the first time_,
upon grounds of evidence sound and tenable, concluded on the fact of
progress having been made up to it, in the