And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Ver. 9. Three days and a half] i.e. For a short time, till out of their ashes others should arise to stickle for Christ. The pope never rested, but had one or other faithful witness to oppose him; either to his face (as Joannes Sarisburiensis, Qui praesens praesentem Pontificem redarguit; and Mancinellus, who reproved Alexander VI in a sermon at Rome, and had therefore his hands cut off, and his tongue cut out, whereof he died), or else in some more remote part of his dominion, as Savonarola (whom Guicciardin and Mirandula highly commend), Petrarch, who writeth thus, Babylon altera, nempe propinquior, atque recentior, adhuc stat, cito itidem casura, si essetis viri; Babylon would soon down, would you but play the men; besides a cloud of other witnesses, that might here be called in. (Jac. Rev.)
Not suffer their dead bodies] So fulfilling that, Psalms 79:2. Some they would not suffer to be buried; others they dug up again after burial, as (besides many of our martyrs) they unburied and burned the bones of Hermannus Ferrariensis after they had sainted him, because he was said to have followed the doctrine of the Waldenses, those ancient Protestants. (Jac. Rev.) Cardinal Pole had a purpose, if he had lived, to have taken up King Henry VIII's body, and to have burned it. It was generally observed, that as Winchester and Bonner did always thirst after the blood of the living, so was Cardinal Pole's lightning (for the most part) kindled against the dead; and he reserved this charge only to himself.