And I saw one of his heads
Not the Capitoline mountain, or the Capitol, the temple of
Jupiter, built on that hill, which was burnt by lightning in the
times of Titus, and magnificently rebuilt by Domitian, which was
a thing past, and of no such moment as to be taken notice of
here; nor anyone of the Roman emperors particularly, as Julius
Caesar, at whose death the empire received a wound, upon its
first erection in him, but was healed by the settlement of
Augustus in it; nor Nero, at whose death the family of the
Caesars ceased, when the empire was threatened with ruin in the
following reigns, but was restored and reestablished in
Vespasian, for these were before the times of John: but this is
to be understood of the sixth head, or form of government, which
obtained in the empire; namely, that of emperors, and of the
destruction of Rome itself, the head of the empire, and which was
built on seven mountains, designed by the seven heads of this
beast: and this head was
as it were wounded to death;
when the Roman empire was like a burning mountain cast into the
sea; when Rome itself was taken, sacked, and burnt, more than
once, particularly by Totilas; when Augustulus, the last of the
emperors, was obliged to abdicate the throne; when Odoacer called
himself, not emperor of Rome, but king of Italy, and retired from
Rome to Ravenna; and when Adolphus, another Gothic king, thought
to have changed the name of Rome, and given it that of Gothia:
this seemed to be a deadly wound to Rome, to the empire and
emperors.
And his deadly wound was healed;
by the setting up of ten kingdoms in it, the kings of which gave
them to the beast, to antichrist, the pope of Rome, and so the
empire came to have an head again, a governor, though of another
kind: some choose to understand this of the wound which
antichrist received at the Reformation, by Luther, Calvin, and
others, which has since been healing, Popery recovering itself
again in some countries where it was driven out, and which, it is
thought, will be entirely healed before his destruction:
and all the world wondered after the beast;
which expresses the large extent of antichrist's dominion, which
reached to all the Roman empire, ( Luke 2:1 ) ; yea, to all
kindreds, tongues, and nations, ( Revelation
13:7 ) ; so that the universality the Papists boast of, as a
note of the true church, is manifestly a mark of the beast, or of
antichrist; and also the great esteem he is had in by his
followers, who admire his power and authority, his grandeur,
pomp, and riches, his signs and lying wonders, his pretended
infallibility and holiness, his stock of merits and unwritten
traditions, his skill to interpret Scripture, and his power to
forgive sins, and the like: they went after him, obeyed him,
embraced his doctrines, attended his religion and worship with
wonder and amazement.