And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Ver. 5. And to them it was given] This is often repeated in this book, to show that though Antichrist and his actuaries bandy and bend all their forces to destroy souls, yet they are bounded by God, and can do no more than is given them from above.
Five months] Locusts used to live no longer. See Pliny, lib. xi. cap. 29. There are those who interpret these five months of those 500 years, wherein the pope stood in his full pride and power. For, ab eo tempore quo per vos Papa Antichristus esse coepit (saith Bellarmine) non modo non crevit eius imperium, sed semper magis ac magis decrevit, Since you first began to call the pope Antichrist he hath lost a great part of his command and commodity. (De Pap. Rom., lib. iii. cap. 21.)
As the torment of a scorpion] Pliny testifieth that of all creeping things that are poisonous, the sting of a scorpion is most cruel and grievous.