Alcuin of York — on Rev 11:6 (COMMENTARY ON REVELATION)

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy. What do we understand by heaven but the same thing as by the two witnesses, namely the holy preachers of the Church? When they shut heaven that it rain not, it is indubitably themselves that they shut. They shut themselves not so that they do not rain at all, but that they do not rain upon an earth that is thorny and very close to malediction. The limbs possess this power in the Head. And they have power over waters to turn them into blood. It is the sword of the letter, which the Church uses spiritually to pierce through the hearts of the elect to give their hearts life in the spirit, that makes this blood flow in the hearts of people who understand things wrongly. And to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they will. Every time they shut the divine mysteries to the faithful, they strike them with an incurable plague. On the other hand, every time they disclose God's mysteries to the faithful, they bring some to life, others to death. Note also that it is not said that they will have this power, but that they already have it, in order that we may understand that this is not said only about those two men but also about the present preachers.”