Alcuin of York, on Rev 7:1

“After these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor on any tree.”

“And after these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor on any tree. It should be noted that he seems to have kept the order all the way from the first to the sixth seal, but, omitting the seventh, he comes back to the beginning of Christ's incarnation and briefly recapitulates with different allegorical symbols the things he had already related, and then he concludes these same two narrations with the seventh seal. Recapitulation is not always done in this way, but in various ways. So what do we understand to be symbolized by the four angels but the body of the old enemy? It is because of the four principal kingdoms of the world, namely that of the Assyrians, that of the Medes, that of the Persians or Macedonians, and that of the Romans, in which the Devil reigned through the cult of idolatry, that four angels are put into the reprobate category. This is why Nebuchadnezzar saw a statue whose head was of gold, but the breast and the arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass, and the legs of iron; [Dan. 2:32-33] for the kingdom of the Assyrians is symbolized by gold, that of the Medes by silver, that of the Persians or Macedonians by brass, and that of the Romans by iron. It is not surprising that bad people are symbolized by angels, since it was said about Judas, One of you is a devil. [John 6:71] One should also know that the four angels are the same as the four winds, according to the prophecy of Daniel, who says, Behold the four winds strove upon the great sea, and four beasts, different one from another, came down out of the sea. [Variant of Dan. 7:2-3] Indeed he indicates that the winds and the beasts are the same, that is the four aforesaid kingdoms. Therefore when the angels hold the winds, they necessarily hold themselves; and since all people of this kind are the Devil's body, he himself is also understood in them. So what does it mean that the four angels held the four winds of the earth that they should not blow, if not that the hidden enemy and his whole body united and bound themselves together, and blocked the mouth of everyone in such a way that no one dared to breathe out the word of truth against the cult of idolatry? By the earth is represented the diversity of provinces, and by the sea the numerousness of islands. The trees as well, since he has mentioned no genus, because of their diversity, symbolize the various offices of people. Now since they were being choked by the Devil, they were saved by the coming of their Lord. Whence it soon follows:”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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