(3) But the (a) court which is without the temple (b) leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the (4) Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot (5) forty [and] two months.
(3) As if he should say, it is not your place to judge those who are outside, (1 Corinthians 5:12) who are innumerable: look to those of the household only, or to the house of the living God.
(a) He speaks of the outer court, which was called the peoples court, because all men might come into that.
(b) That is counted to be cast out, which in measuring is refused as profane. (4) To profane persons, wicked and unbelievers, adversaries to the Church. (5) Or a thousand, two hundred and sixty days, as is said in (Revelation 11:3): that is, a thousand two hundred and sixty years, a day for a year, as often in Ezekiel and Daniel, which I noted before See Revelation 2:10. The beginning of these thousand two hundred and sixty years, we account from the passion of Christ, by which (the partition wall being broken down) we were made from two into one (Ephesians 2:14). I say, one flock under one shepherd in (John 10:16) and the end of these years precisely falls into the reign of pope Boniface the eighth, who a little before the end of 1294, entered Rome in the feast of Saint Lucie (as Bergomensis says) having put in prison his predecessor Coelestinus, whom by fraud, under colour of Oracle, he deceived: for which cause it was well said of him, "Intravit ut vulpes, regnavit ut leo, mortuus est ut canis." That is, "He entered like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog." For if from 1294, you subtract the number of years Christ lived on the earth, you will find there remains just one thousand two hundred and sixty years, which are mentioned in this place and many others.