ae urbes, eversa sunt castra,
depopulati agri, in solitudinem terra redacta est. Nullus in agris incola,
pene nullus in urbibus habitator remansit. Et tamen ipsae parvae generis
humani reliquiae adhuc quotidie & sine cessatione feriuntur, & finem non
habent flagella coelestis justitiae. Ipsa autem quae aliquando mundi Domina
esse videbatur, qualis remansit Roma conspicimus innumeris doloribus
multipliciter attrita, defolatione civium, impressione hostium, frequentia
ruinarum.--Ecce jam de illa omnes hujus faeculi potentes ablati sunt.--Ecce
populi defecerunt.--Ubi enim Senatus? Ubi jam populus? Contabuerunt ossa,
consumptae sunt carnes. Omnis enim saecularium dignitatum ordo extinctus est,
& tamen ipsos vos paucos qui remansimus, adhuc quotidie gladii, adhuc
quotidie innumerae tribulationes premunt.--Vacua jam ardet Roma. Quid autem
ista de hominibus dicimus? Cum ruinis crebrescentibus ipsa quoque destrui
aedificia videmus. Postquam defecerunt homines etiam parietes cadunt. Jam
ecce desolata, ecce contrita, ecce gemitibus oppressa est,_ &c. All this
was spoken by _Gregory_ to the people of _Rome_, who were witnesses of the
truth of it. Thus by _the plagues of the four winds_, the Empire of the
_Greeks_ was shaken, and the Empire of the _Latins_ fell; and _Rome_
remained nothing more than the capital of a poor dukedom, subordinate to
_Ravenna_, the seat of the Exarchs.

The fifth trumpet sounded to the wars, which the _King of the_ South, as he
is called by _Daniel_, made _in the time of the end_, in _pushing at the
King who did according to his will_. This plague began with the _opening of
the bottomless pit_, which denotes the letting out of a false religion: the
_smoke which came out of the pit_, signifying the multitude which embraced
that religion; and the _locusts which came out of the smoke_, the armies
which came out of that multitude. This pit was opened, to let out smoke and
locusts into the regions of the four monarchies, or some of them. _The King
of these locusts_ was the _Angel of the bottomless pit_, being chief
governor as well in religious as civil affairs, such as was the Caliph of
the _Saracens_. Swarms of locusts often arise in _Arabia faelix_, and from
thence infest the neighbouring nations: and so are a very fit type of the
numerous armies of _Arabians_ invading the _Romans_. They began to invade
them A.C. 634, and to reign at _Damascus_ A.C. 637. They built _Bagdad_
A.C. 766, and reigned over _Persia