"The territory on the right bank of the Tiber between Monte Mario and Gianicolo (Janiculum) was known to antiquity as the Ager Vaticanus, and, owing to its marshy character, the low-lying portion of this district enjoyed an ill repute. The origin of the name Vaticanus is uncertain; some claim that the name comes from a vanished Etruscan town called Vaticum." [Ager in Latin means land]

Research the word Vatican in many Latin - English / English - Latin dictionaries, or encyclopedias, and you will likely find that Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica of the Roman Catholic Church were built upon what was called in Latin vaticanus mons or vaticanus collis. The words mons and collis mean hill or mountain. You will also find in the dictionaries that the words vatic / vates / vatis all relate to prophecy as shown here:

Source: The New College Latin and English Dictionary, revised and enlarged, by John C. Traupman, Ph.D., published and copyrighted by Bantam Books, 1995, ISBN 0-553-57301-2, page 437.

Note that there are five words listed above containing vatic, and all relate to prophecy. The word vatic and its association to prophecy can even be found in a standard English dictionary:

   

Source:  Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary, Home and Office Edition, published in 1995 by Longmeadow Press, Copyright 1988 by Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-681-20227-0, page 458.

 Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online

And here is what you would find in a Latin - English dictionary for the suffix -anus:

Source: The New College Latin and English Dictionary, revised and enlarged, by John C. Traupman, Ph.D., published and copyrighted by Bantam Books, 1995,   ISBN 0-553-57301-2,  page 60.

Vaticanus then is a combination of Vatic + anus, just as Romanus is a combination of Rome + anus. Therefore, vaticanus collis or vaticanus mons mean "the prophetic hill or mountain", which can be rephrased as the hill or mountain of prophecy. The word Vatican is just a shortened form of the word Vaticanus, just like Claudian is a shortened form of Claudianus, as shown above. This association of the Vatican with prophecy is even confirmed by Catholics:

Where does the word "Vatican" come from and what does it mean?

The word derives from the Latin vates, which means "tellers of the future." This name was the name given to a hillside on the west bank of the Tiber River in Rome because daily lineups of fortunetellers used to hawk their "wares" there to passersby on the street. In the fourteenth century, when the papacy was returned to Rome from Avignon (France), the present-day Vatican became the residence of the popes, and the word came to refer to the enclave in the middle of Rome that had become the seat of the Roman Catholic Church.

Source: Incredible Book of Vatican Facts and Papal Curiosities, by Nino Lo Bello, Liguori Publications, Copyright 1998, ISBN 0-7648-0171-6, page 135.

 Here is a verse from the Latin Vulgate Bible and King James as an example of the use of vatic (emphasis is mine):

12 et intellexi quod Deus non misisset eum sed quasi vaticinans locutus esset ad me et Tobia et Sanaballat conduxissent eum

Neh 6:12 And, lo, I perceived that God had not sent him; but that he pronounced this prophecy against me: for Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.

Now, note the following coins minted in Vatican City from 1955 to 1965 under three Popes.. The inscription on the reverse side of the coin reads in Italian "CITTÁ DEL VATICANO", which as we can now see, means City of Prophecy.

CITTÁ DEL VATICANO - CITY OF PROPHECY

Pope Pius the 12th - 1958

Pope John the 23rd - 1959

Pope Paul the 6th - 1963

To get a closer look at a coin, click on it.

Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

There is also a woman on the reverse side, and at her feet is her title, FIDES, which means faith. This woman is symbolic of the Roman Catholic faith, or Roman Catholic Church.

Here on the left is a statue portraying the same symbolism of the Catholic Church or Catholic faith. This statue decorates the monument to Pope Clement IX (1667-69), which was placed in the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1671.  Interestingly, the word anus in Latin also means "old woman", so Vaticanus is a combination two words that also result in The Old Woman of Prophecy, this woman being symbolic of the Catholic Church.

From a photo by   Gabinetto Fotographico Nazionale

It is important to note that in the symbolic woman's hand, is a cup, as illustrated above on the coins, and just barely visible with the statue above and at right. The depiction of the Catholic faith (FIDES) as a woman holding a cup appears to be quite common, and yet is apparently unique to the Catholic Church.  There is a remarkable and direct correlation to these depictions of the Catholic faith as a woman, and the woman described in Revelation 17, as will be demonstrated.

Fides in stucco,   Santa Maria Vallicella, Rome.

  The Apostate Church

In scripture a woman is used symbolically to depict the church, and the faithful church of saints is described as the bride of Christ:

2 Cor 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

However, the woman described in Revelation 17 represents an apostate church, the direct opposite of the true and faithful church represented by the woman described in Revelation 12. While the Roman Catholic Church readily and willingly identifies itself as the woman of Revelation 12, the bride of Christ, it is precisely and graphically described in Revelation 17, as we shall see.

Rev 17:1 ... Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

Church and State

Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

The woman of Revelation 17 rides a symbolic beast. A beast in scripture is symbolic of an empire or state. Example of this are explained in Daniel 7, where a lion represented Babylon, a bear represented Medo-Persia, and a leopard represented Greece. Therefore, the woman of Revelation 17 riding a beast is symbolic of the combining of the ecclesiastical power of church (the woman) and political power of the state (the beast), i.e., a church in control of state power.

Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The Vatican City is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, and since the Lateran Concordat of 1929 it is also an independent country, the epitome of Church and State combined. Their full title in Italian is STATO DELLA CITTÁ DEL VATICANO, as shown on the coin below from the pontificate of Pope Pius the 12th, which means:

The City-State of Prophecy

 

A woman (church) dressed in scarlet and purple.

Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: Here you see the Pope wearing scarlet and an Archbishop wearing reddish-purple.
	Photo by Arturo Mari.

Pope John Paul II celebrated mass in the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem on Sunday, March 26th 2000, dressed in a purple Lenten robe and a miter trimmed with scarlet red. For more photos, see this page at the Franciscan Cyberspot.

On the12th of March 2000, during the Papal Apology Mass, the pope and other members of the Roman Catholic priesthood wore various shades of violet/purple because it also occurred during the Catholic festival of Lent, when the penitential color of purple is traditionally worn.

© 2000 by CTV

Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, also participated in the unprecedented event at the Vatican, during which Pope John Paul II asked for forgiveness for the various persecution sins committed by Roman Catholics over the last two millennium. Cardinal Cassidy and other prominent Cardinals wore both prophesied colors of scarlet and purple!
	© 2000 by CTV

Below are photos from the October 31st, 1999 signing of the Joint Declaration on Justification by Faith between the Roman Catholic and Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Churches in Augsburg Germany. The Roman Catholics were boldly wearing the prophesied colors of scarlet and purple.

	Dressed in scarlet red is Cardinal Edward Cassidy, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. On the right wearing purple is Bishop Walter Kasper, secretary, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Seated on the left in black is Rev. Christian Krause, the Lutheran World Federation president.
Image by Frank Imhoff, courtesy ELCA News and Information

In this photo of the audience at the ceremony in Augsburg, the Catholic cardinals are wearing scarlet red and the Catholic bishops are wearing purple. Cardinal Cassidy is in the center with Rev. Krause seated to his left (right in the photo).
	Image by Frank Imhoff, courtesy ELCA News and Information

 

Priests of the Catholic Church regularly wear red vestments on Good Friday, Palm Sunday, Pentecost, Birthday Feasts of the Apostles and Evangelists, and the Feasts of Martyrs. Purple vestments are worn on Advent, Lent, and at Funerals, although other colors are optional on some of those days. Other approved colors are white, green, black and rose and gold. A distinctive shade of bright orange-red designated officially by the Church as "scarlet" is frequently worn by Cardinals of the Catholic Church. Here you see Archbishops and Bishops in purples and Cardinals in scarlet.

Photo by Arturo Mari.

A traditional "Red Mass" is also held for Supreme Court Justices in the United States, on the Sunday prior to the opening of the Supreme Court session. The Red Mass is an English tradition that was instituted about 1310 during the reign of King Edward II.

Red Mass - Ordinarily this relates to the color of the vestment used on the occasion of the Votive Mass in honor of the Holy Spirit, celebrated at the opening of councils, deliberative groups, schools, and such similar occasions when guidance is invoked. Frequently, at the beginning of a judicial year, such as a Mass is attended by judges and court officials for any civil court or legislative assembly with the intention that they might exercise equity and prudence while fulfilling their official capacities.

Source: Dictionary of the Liturgy, by Jovian P. Lang, OFM, copyright 1989 by Catholic Book Publishing Co., N.Y., ISBN 0-89942-273-X, page 541.

  The Cup of Doctrinal Fornication

Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: At left Pope John Paul II, dressed in purple, holds a golden cup, during the Papal Apology Mass on March 12th, 2000. Some Cardinals in attendance wore both prophetic colors of purple and scarlet (see above).

© 2000 by CTV

The cup illustrated on the three Vatican coins at the top of this article, and in the hand of the other symbolic depictions of FIDES, is the golden cup of wine of the Mass. Above it is the host or wafer of the Eucharist, which resembles a sunburst.

   

Below are similar symbols of the Eucharist as seen on the 100 Lire coins:

From the video "666 and the Mark" by James Arrabito, Copyright © LLT Productions - Used by Permission

Here is a photo of the same symbology of the cup and wafer host of the Catholic mass, used in the window of the church  Dominus Flevit on the Mount of Olives, overlooking the temple mount of Jerusalem, online at Christus Rex. Note the wavy sunburst pattern around the cup.

At left is FIDES, the Catholic faith, holding the golden cup of the Mass, portrayed by Lorenzo Sabbatini and his assistants from 1573 -1576 on the vault of the First Sala dei Foconi, the Vatican.  Speaking about His teachings, Jesus Christ said: Mat 9:17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. So the pure teachings of Jesus are symbolized by new wine (non-alcoholic grape juice), but the golden cup of wine in the hand of the woman of Revelation 17 is full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication, which represent apostate doctrine, stupefying corrupted dogma, by which she has made all the nations to become drunken:

From a photo by G. Vasari.

Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. ...  Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:   The Catholic faith is again represented in these paintings as a woman holding a golden cup of wine with the round wafer of the Eucharist.

Ceiling panel painting of FIDES by Francesco Podesti, Immaculate Conception room of the Borgia Tower, the Vatican. From a photo by Spectrum Colour Library.

Chief among the apostate Catholic doctrines is that of transubstantiation, where the priest claims to turn bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ, who is allegedly re-presented at every mass as a continuing sacrifice, worshipped as though it were God Himself, and then consumed by the congregation. Eating the flesh of another human being is defined as cannibalism. In truth, the Lord's supper is merely a symbolic memorial, and not a sacrifice.   At left is a painting of FIDES, a detail from The Theological Virtues, painted from 1596 -1600 by Cherubino Alberti and Baldassare Croce, in the Sala Clementina, the Vatican.

From a photo by G. Vasari.

This oil on canvas of The Triumph of Faith which is in the Vatican collection, is by Gaetano Gandolfi and was painted about 1774. It is the preparatory work for the ceiling of a chapel in Bologna, and was given to Pope Pius X by the Sacra Congregazione di Propaganda Fide, otherwise known as the office of the Inquisition.
	From a photo by Pianeta Immagine.

	At left is FIDES as portrayed over the pulpit of the Benedictine Melk Monastery on the Danube in Austria, built in the early 18th century. In FIDES' left hand is the golden cup (in front of the cross), and behind her right shoulder is the pagan sunburst image.
From a photo by Artephot, Paris (Nimatallah).

At right is a detail of FIDES from The Battle of Lepanto by Giorgio Vasari and assistants from 1572-73, in the Sala Regia, the Vatican.
	From a photo by M. Sarre.

This depiction of FIDES, by Donatello and Michelozzo dates to about 1435, and is carved on the base of the funeral monument of AntiPope John XXIII (1410-1415), which is in the Pietra serena Baptistry in Florence.

On the right is a tempera and oil on wood by Raphael, a part of the predella of the Baglioni Altarpiece, which dates to about 1507.
	From a photo by M. Sarre.

Above is a papal medal of Pope Clemens VIII marking the 13th year of his reign in 1602, and the reverse side is inscribed Unus Deus - Una Fides (One God - One Faith)

This is the title page of a Roman Catholic Missal, published in 1779, which depicts a cup-holding FIDES. The Missal "contains the prayers said by the priest at the altar as well as all that is officially read or sung in connection with the offering of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the ecclesiastical year", according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Can it be any plainer that the Catholic Church has indeed adopted the symbology of a woman holding a golden cup, precisely as described, and in fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation 17? Indeed, and it would seem that no other Christian denomination but the Catholic Church has depicted itself in this manner.

Additional images online

The  Monument of Pope Sixtus IV by Antonio Pollaiolo, in the Vatican, has an image of FIDES in the upper left corner, second panel down from the top.

The  tomb of Pope Innocent VIII also has an image of FIDES with cup raised, in the left top corner of the tomb.

Here is another sculpture of FIDES, titled  The Triumph of Faith over Idolatry by Théodon Jean Baptiste, in Rome's Chiesa del Gesù, the Jesuit Church of Rome. This sculpture is on the left side of the tomb of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

In New Orleans, the  Cathedral of St. Louis has a statue of the Fides holding the golden cup as part of the altar centerpiece.

Note the statue of The Mother of the Eucharist in which Mary holds the golden cup.

In Venice,   St. Mark's Basilica has a statue of Fides holding the golden cup on its west facade.

The earliest image of a cup-holding  FIDES that I have found is on the gilded bronze doors on the south side of the Baptistry in Florence Italy, which date from the early 14th century.

  The "Mother" Church

The woman of Revelation 17 is the mother church, with apostate daughters:

Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Only the Roman Catholic Church claims to be the "mother" Christian church:

10. ... "It must always be clear, when the expression sister churches is used in this proper sense that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic universal church is not sister but mother of all the particular churches."

Source:  Note on the Expression Sister Churches by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, June 30, 2000.

In the recent document Memory and Reconciliation, where the Roman Catholic Church discusses its asking forgiveness for its past sins of persecution, section 3.4 specifically addresses "The Motherhood of the Church":

The conviction that the Church can make herself responsible for the sin of her children by virtue of the solidarity that exists among them through time and space because of their incorporation into Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, is expressed in a particularly effective way in the idea of Mother Church (Mater Ecclesia), ...

The Document: MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION.

---

Furthermore, to check unbridled spirits, it [The Council of Trent] decrees that no one relying on his own judgment shall, in matters of faith and morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doctrine, distorting the Holy Scriptures in accordance with his own conceptions, presume to interpret them contrary to that sense which holy mother Church, to whom it belongs to judge of their true sense and interpretation, has held and holds, or even contrary to the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, even though such interpretations should never at any time be published. Those who act contrary to this shall be made known by the ordinaries and punished in accordance with the penalties prescribed by law.

Source: The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, English Translation, by Rev. H. J. Schroeder, O.P., Copyright 1941 by B. Herder Book Co., Copyright 1978 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 78-66132, ISBN 0-89555-074-1, pages 18-19.

---

Extract from Pope Gregory VII's Letter to the Bishop of Metz, 1081 Doeberl, op. cit. iii. 40 sqq. Mirbt, No. 297

The holy fathers, as well in general councils as in their writings and doings, have called the Holy Roman Church the universal mother, accepting and serving with great veneration this institution founded by the divine will, this pledge of a dispensation to the church, this privilege entrusted in the beginning and confirmed to St. Peter the chief of the apostles.

Source: Documents of the Christian Church, Second Edition, selected and Edited by Henry Bettenson, Copyright by Oxford University Press 1963, ISBN 0-19-501293-3, pages 105-106.

---

I acknowledge the holy Catholic and apostolic Roman Church as the mother and teacher of all churches; and to the Roman Pontiff, the successor of the blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles and vicar of Jesus Christ, I promise and swear true obedience.

Source: The Profession of Faith of the Council of Trent, from the Bull of Pius IV, "Iniunctum nobis," Nov. 13, 1565, Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, Thirtieth Edition, translated by Roy J. Deferrari in The Sources of Catholic Dogma, Copyright 1957 by B. Herder Book Co., pg. 303.

Mystery

This self-proclaimed "mother" church is also Mystery Babylon, the apostate church of Mysteries and the purveyor of Babylonian doctrinal confusion. Note this quote of John Paul II from the Vatican Information Service press release dated 17 September, 1997, (emphasis is mine):

Thanks to greater attention to the mystery of the Church and Mary's relationship with her, the Virgin has begun to be invoked more frequently as 'Mother of the Church.'

Mystery is also the term used by the Roman Catholic Church to refer to the Mass, specifically the transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. It is a key part of Catholic dogma. These are the words of the priest in Latin or English (emphasis is mine):

HIC EST ENIM CALIX SANGUINIS MEI, NOVI ET AETERNI TESTAMENTI: MYSTERIUM FIDEI, QUI PRO VOBIS ET PRO MULTIS EFFUNDETUR IN REMISSIONEM PECCATORUM.

 FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL TESTAMENT, THE MYSTERY OF FAITH, WHICH FOR YOU AND FOR MANY SHALL BE SHED UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS.

The Catholic is also well familiar with many "mysteries" through the recitation of their Hail Marys and the rosary. There are 15 decades of prayer (150 recitations) and during each decade of ten recitations, the Catholic contemplates on one of the "mysteries" of the church, which are as follows:

The Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary are divided into three groups: the Joyful, the Sorrowful and the Glorious.

• The 5 Joyful Mysteries
  • The Mystery of the Annunciation
  • The Mystery of the Visitation
  • The Mystery of the Birth of the Lord
  • The Mystery of the Presentation in the Temple
  • The Mystery of Finding Jesus in the Temple
• The 5 Sorrowful Mysteries
  • The Mystery of the Agony in the Garden
  • The Mystery of the Scourging at the Pillar
  • The Mystery of the Crowning with Thorns
  • The Mystery of Jesus carrying his cross
  • The Mystery of the Crucifixion
• The 5 Glorious Mysteries
  • The Mystery of the Resurrection
  • The Mystery of the Ascension of Our Lord
  • The Mystery of the Descent of the Holy Spirit
  • The Mystery of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
  • The Mystery of the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin as Queen of Heaven

  The Persecuting Church Drunken on Blood

The woman of Revelation 17 is drunk with the blood of Christian martyrs:

Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

A harlot drunken on blood:

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
...
From the prayer Anima Christi (Soul of Christ).

The prayer Anima Christi can be found on scores of Catholic web sites, and actually asks for drunkenness from the blood of the golden cup. Web site: Anima Christi. The Roman Catholic Church during the "dark ages" is responsible for the persecution deaths of uncounted thousands of Christians who dared to read the Bible, translate the Bible or preach from the Bible or denied the apostate Catholic doctrines or dogma, such as transubstantiation.

That the Roman Catholic church felt compelled to ask for forgiveness for her persecution sins of the past on March 12th, 2000, only serves to further confirm she is the apostate persecuting mother church responsible for the blood of the saints spoken of in Revelation!

The Document: MEMORY AND RECONCILIATION.

  The City of Seven Mountains

The woman of Revelation 17 sits on seven mountains:

Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Now, some Roman Catholic apologists will likely try to apply this passage to the city of Jerusalem. However, this verse tells us that the woman of Revelation 17, an apostate persecuting Christian church, sits, or headquarters itself, in a city of seven mountains. No such Christian church has its administrative headquarters in Jerusalem, so it can be easily dismissed as a possibility. John the Revelator further amplifies and defines the harlot as follows:

Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

So we need to look for an apostate persecuting Christian church, that attempts to rule over the kings of the earth from a great city, known for having seven mountains. So let's consider the great Eternal City of Rome, headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. Look in most any encyclopedia and you will find that Rome is known as the city of seven hills, or seven mountains. These seven hills are the Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Cælian (Coelian/Celio), Aventine and Palatine.

Here is a an ancient Roman coin (a Sestertius) in the collection of the British Museum, minted at Tarraco in 71 A.D. during the reign of Vespasian (69-79 A.D.), declaring him to be the Pontifex Maximus (a title assumed by the papacy), which depicts the city of Rome as both the goddess Dea-Roma seated on 7 hills, and a she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus (just above the R in ROMA).

See also: Coins of the Roman Empire in the British Museum, Volume 2, Vespasian To Domitian, by Harold Mattingly and R.A.G. Carson, published in London by the British Museum, 1966, 187 [no. 774, plate 34.5].

The Catholic Encyclopedia

It is within the city of Rome, called the city of seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined. By treaty with the Italian Government certain other properties apart from the Vatican State are considered as territorial parts of the state of Vatican City. Since the founding of the Church there by St. Peter, the city of Rome has been the center of Christendom. The city itself is the diocese of the pope as bishop of Rome.

Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by Robert C. Broderick, Imprimatur of the Most Reverend William E. Cousins, Archbishop of Milwaukee, Nihil Obstat of the Reverend Richard J. Sklba, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, copyright 1976, entry on Rome, pg. 529.

Catholic Attempts at Rebuttal

The Roman Catholic apologist will likely respond in a manner similar to this, from Patrick Madrid:

Most people don't realize that Vatican City, built squarely on Vatican Hill, isn't one of the seven hills for which Rome is famous! Unfortunately for the fevered anti-Catholic theories that Dave Hunt and others traffic in, the Catholic Church's headquarters Vatican City sits on the other side of the Tiber river, and not on any of the seven hills. The Tiber formed a natural boundary for the city limits of ancient Rome. The seven hills were on one side, snug inside the city walls. Vatican Hill sat across the river, in sight of the old city, but not technically part of it so close but yet so far. Source: Pope Fiction, by Patrick Madrid, (Fiction #7), ISBN 0-9642610-0-6, copyright 1999 Basilica Press, page 103.

Rome, like many European cities, has fortified city walls around its perimeter. The original walls of the city of the Caesars, built between 272 and 279 by Aurelian, did not include the area of the Vatican hill on the west bank of the Tiber, so it is true, as Patrick Madrid says, that Vatican hill was outside the city limits of the pagan Rome of the Caesars.

"Between 848 and 852 Leo IV surrounded the whole [Vatican] settlement with a wall, which included it within the city boundaries. Until the pontificate of Sixtus V [1585-1590] this section of Rome remained a private papal possession and was entrusted to a special administration. Sixtus, however, placed it under the jurisdiction of the urban authorities as the fourteenth region."

Source:: I. Introduction, of the Catholic Encyclopedia online article on the Vatican

So as can be seen, Patrick Madrid in his book Pope Fiction is not telling the whole story to his readers. He is leaving out pertinent facts, since the Vatican has been within the city limits of Rome for well over 1000 years. That the papacy, the Bishop of Rome, attempts to rule the world from Rome hardly seems to call for any documentation, but we will let a recent pope be heard on this issue:

67. ... the hand of God, who guides the course of history, has set down the Chair of His Vicar on earth, in this city of Rome which, from being the capital of the wonderful Roman Empire, was made by Him the capital of the whole world, because He made it the seat of a sovereignty which, since it extends beyond the confines of nations and states, embraces within itself all the peoples of the whole world. The very origin and divine nature of this sovereignty demands, the inviolable rights of conscience of millions of the faithful of the whole world demand that this sacred sovereignty must not be, neither must it ever appear to be, subject to any human authority or law whatsoever, even though that law be one which proclaims certain guaranties for the liberty of the Roman Pontiff.

Source: Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter UBI ARCANO DEI CONSILIO (On the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ), December 23, 1922.

Note the remarkable wording used by Pius XI. He claims sovereignty over all the people of the world from his "seat" in the city of Rome!

Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. ...
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The Lateran Basilica: The Cathedra (Seat) of the Bishop of Rome

Rev 13:2 ... and the dragon (pagan Rome) gave him (papal Rome) his power, and his seat (cathedra), and great authority.

A few minutes of researching in most any library will reveal that the official "cathedra" or seat of authority for the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, is not St. Peter's Basilica, but it is actually the Cathedral of St. John Lateran, which is a short distance to the southeast of the Coliseum and Roman Forum, on the opposite side of Rome from the Vatican. Located on the Coelian (Celio/Cælian) Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome (Rev 17:9), St. John Lateran dates back to Rome's emperor Constantine, who donated the building to the Bishop of Rome in the 4th century. It is the oldest church in Christendom and so lays claim to the title of the "mother church of the world".

The Catholic Encyclopedia

Cathedra
   The chair-throne of a bishop is always located in the sanctuary against the left wall on the gospel side in the cathedral church of the diocese. Cathedra is the Greek word for a chair or throne, from which is derived the word cathedral.

Lateran Church
   Officially, the Church of our Most Holy Savior, called St. John Lateran, is the Cathedral of the bishop of Rome, the pope. It is considered the mother church of the Christian world. The basilica, part of a donation of the Laterani family, was presented to the Church in 311. It is the oldest of the Christian basilicas and from historic times was known as Constantine's basilica.

Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia, edited by Robert C. Broderick, Imprimatur of the Most Reverend William E. Cousins, Archbishop of Milwaukee, Nihil Obstat of the Reverend Richard J. Sklba, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, copyright 1976, pages 98, 340.

 

St. John Lateran Cathedral
©  Instituto Geographico De Agostini S.p.A. - Novara - 1962

Constantine must have given it [the Lateran] to the Church in the time of Miltiades, not later than about 311, for we find council against the Donatists meeting within its walls as early as 313. From that time onwards it was always the centre of Christian life within the city; the residence of the popes and the cathedral of Rome. The latter distinction it still holds, though it has long lost the former.

Source: 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, article on St. John Lateran.

Since 1377, upon the return to Rome from Avignon, Church administration has been located in the Vatican, rather than the Lateran. However, as the cathedra (official seat) of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, the Lateran is today still considered to be extra territorially a part of the Vatican City-State, as is the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore (St. Mary Major), which is located on Esquiline Hill. This is the result of a treaty (Concordat) signed with the Italian state in 1929 at the Lateran, which restored the diplomatic status of the Vatican as an independent city-state, which had been lost in 1870 when Italy seized all papal territories. See Lateran Treaty - Article 13.

Also seized in 1870 by Italy but not returned, was the grand Quirinal papal palace built on Quirinal hill beginning in 1574. It was the official residence for some 30 Popes until its seizure by Italy, when it became the official residence of the kings of Italy, and since 1947 the residence of the presidents of Italy.

Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano
Santa Maria Maggiore
Quirinal Palace
Rome's General Map

So even today, official Vatican territorial sovereignty extends across the Tiber into various parts of the city of Rome. It can even be said that the Vatican literally straddles, or sits over the seven-hilled city of Rome (Rev 17:9)! In fact, the term Holy See, which refers to the universal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, is derived from the Latin Sancta Sedes, which means Holy Chair. Synonymous terms are Apostolic See, Roman Church, or Roman Curia. Holy See

Here is a link to the original large version of the above  Map of Rome (600K). The city walls of Rome are plainly seen in this old tourist map. The Vatican is in the upper left corner (#1-4 in red), the Lateran is in the lower right corner (#40 in red) and St. Mary Major is to the right center (#15 in red).

Also see this current map of Rome online. The Lateran is in section C3, in the lower right-hand corner. On both the older and this newer map, the name of the hill, in this case spelled Celio, appears to the upper left of the Lateran, between it and the Coliseum.

More Catholic Attempts at Rebuttal

Note what a Catholic "expert" at EWTN has said on this subject, to refute Protestant claims that the Catholic Church is described in the book of Revelation:

Mr. Donovan needs to investigate one of those lesser bumps (the Cælian), and the history of the Lateran, a bit more closely. Just where Mr. Donovan thinks the Bishop of Rome's official cathedra actually is, he does not say, but I dare say that most any encyclopedia's articles on Rome and the Lateran will reveal the error of his statement. With that kind of "expert" answer on a prominent Catholic web site, it is no wonder that most Catholics don't know the truth on this subject. But the truth is available even on EWTN's own site:

CHURCHES OF ROME: CHRISTIANITY'S FIRST CATHEDRAL June Hager Christendom's earliest basilica and home of the Popes for a thousand years St. John Lateran on the Caelian Hill. St. John Lateran is Christendom's earliest basilica. Ordered by Rome's first Christian Emperor, Constantine the Great, it became the Popes' own cathedral and official residence for the first millennium of Christian history. ... ... Henceforth, the Lateran palace, known as the Patriarchate, was the Pope's official residence until the fifteenth century. ... Source: February 1996 issue of Inside the Vatican.

Now back to Patrick Madrid's book Pope Fiction, which makes this attempt at rebuttal on this point:

Some desperate to salvage this argument, claim that because the cathedral church and official seat of the bishop of Rome is St. John Lateran (which does fall within the bounds of Old Rome), the Catholic Church still fits the bill as being based in Rome.    You've got to give these folks an "A" for effort. Even though this variation on the theme fails, too, the people who promote it are nothing if not tenacious. The problem with this argument is that a cathedral is a church building, not a city. You can't mix and match biblical symbols to make them fit your own particular interpretive system; that does violence to the text. And, of course, even this last claim still fails to account for the leap from a city to a religion (which the identification of Catholicism with the Whore of Babylon must make, for it to work). Source: Pope Fiction, by Patrick Madrid, (Fiction #7), ISBN 0-9642610-0-6, copyright 1999 Basilica Press, page 103.

I am not desperate, and don't feel the need to try and salvage anything. I am quite confident and willing let the reader judge the weight of the facts presented in this article, and who gets the "A", and who fails completely in their arguments which are composed of half truths and misinformation.

As mentioned above, St. John Lateran, the cathedra (seat of authority) of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, has been formally recognized by the 1929 treaty with Italy to be extra territorially a part of the Vatican City-State. Consequently, the Pope officially reigns from St. John Lateran, which is on one of the famous seven hills of Rome, the Cælian, and it is also a part of the Vatican City-State.

From a City to a Religion

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Can a city represent a religion? How difficult is it to see that the city of Jerusalem did not literally kill the prophets of God? As the city of old Jerusalem was used to symbolize Judaism, the New Jerusalem is used symbolically to represent the faithful saints of God:

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

In opposition to the New Jerusalem, the eternal city of the saints, scripture describes a great city of seven hills, Rome. Rome is also symbolically called Babylon in prophecy, representing apostate religion:

Roman Catholics Admit
Babylon Is A New Testament Symbol For Rome

1 Pet 5:13 The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.

Babylon in the above verse is widely recognized as a code word meaning Rome, not Babylon, since there is no evidence that Peter ever ministered in Babylon. Roman Catholics have even acknowledged this association:

"Babylon," from which Peter addresses his first Epistle, is understood by learned annotators, Protestant and Catholic, to refer to Rome - the word Babylon being symbolic of the corruption then prevailing in the city of the Caesars.

Source: Faith of Our Fathers, by James Cardinal Gibbons, 111th printing, Published by  TAN Books and Publishers, INC., P.O. Box 424, Rockford, Illinois 61105, Copyright 1980, page 87.

"But the Bible never says Peter was in Rome."

   But the Bible does. While there were many things that happened connected with Jesus and the Apostles that are not written in the Bible (see Jn 21:25), Peter's presence in Rome is confirmed by it. In his first epistle Peter closes by saying "She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings; so does my son Mark" (5:13). "She who is chosen" refers to the Church in Rome. "Babylon is a Christian code word for Rome and the Roman Empire. Examine Revelation 17:5 where the author uses Babylon mother of harlots and the earth's abomination, drunk on the blood of Christian martyrs in this sense. At the time Peter was writing, Babylon was no longer a great city but a deserted relic of mud huts.

Source: Answering a Fundamentalist, by Albert J. Nevins, published by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., copyright 1990, ISBN 0-87973-433-7, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 90-60644, page 46.

   But Boettner is wrong when he claims "there is no allusion to Rome in either of [Peter's] epistles". There is, in the greeting at the end of the first epistle. The church here in Babylon, united with you by God's election, sends you her greeting, and so does my son, Mark." (1 Peter 5:13). Babylon is a code word for Rome. It is used that way six times in the last book of the Bible ... Eusebius Pamphilius, writing about 303, noted that "it is said that Peter's first epistle, in which he makes mention of Mark, was composed at Rome itself; and he himself indicates this, referring to the city figuratively as Babylon. [Historia ecclesiastica  2, 15, 4.]

Source: Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by Karl Keating, copyright 1988, published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco, ISBN 0-89870-195-3, library of Congress number 87-82939, page 200.

So anxious are the Catholics to place Peter in Rome, that they are willing to permanently brand Rome with the symbolic title of Babylon in the New Testament. Indeed, I would venture to say that every Roman Catholic Bible published has a footnote identifying Babylon in 1 Peter 5:13 as actually meaning Rome. Regarding references to Babylon in Revelation 14:8, 16:19, 17:5, 18:2, 10, and 21; note the following:

"These references cannot be to the onetime capital of the Babylonian Empire. That Babylon had been reduced to an inconsequential status by the march of years, military defeat, and political subjugation; it was no longer a 'great city'. It played no important part in the recent history of the ancient world. The only truly 'great city' in New Testament times was Rome."

Source: Ibid, page 201.

The city of seven hills, Rome, symbolically called Babylon in the New Testament, is where a harlot woman (apostate Christian church) rules (sits) over many people.

The Universal Church.

The woman of Revelation 17 sits on many waters, representing authority over many people:

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The word Catholic means Universal. So the Roman Catholic Church is claiming to be the Universal or Worldwide Christian Church, a claim of authority over all the Christians of the world.

The significance of Rome lies primarily in the fact that it is the city of the pope. The Bishop of Rome, as the successor of St. Peter, is the Vicar of Christ on earth and the visible head of the Catholic Church. Rome is consequently the centre of unity in belief, the source of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the seat of the supreme authority which can bind by its enactments the faithful throughout the world.

Source: Rome, The Catholic Encyclopedia Online.

The above papal medal of Pius XII, minted in the 11th year of his reign, symbolizes the Catholic church as a queen, pompously seated on her throne, from which she claims to uphold truth and justice. This depiction bears a remarkable resemblance to the following verse describing Mystery Babylon:

Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Reigning Over the Kings of the Earth.

 The woman of Revelation 17 claims authority over all the kings of the earth:

Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

The Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church historically claims authority over all secular rulers, and has exercised that assumed authority by deposing kings or queens who did not acknowledge the Pope's superior secular and ecclesiastical authority.

 Here are just a few examples of this claimed authority over Kings:

There are two powers, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled, namely, the sacred authority of the priests and the royal power. Of these that of the priests is the more weighty, since they have to render an account for even the kings of men in the divine judgment. You are also aware, dear son, that while you are permitted honorably to rule over human kind, yet in things divine you bow your head humbly before the leaders of the clergy and await from their hands the means of your salvation. In the reception and proper disposition of the heavenly mysteries you recognize that you should be subordinate rather than superior to the religious order, and that in these matters you depend on their judgment rather than wish to force them to follow your will.

Letter of Pope Gelasius I to Emperor Anastasius on the superiority of the spiritual over temporal power, 494 A.D.

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From Pope Gregory VII, Dictatus Papae, 1090 A.D.  

  9. That of the pope alone all princes shall kiss the feet.
12. That it may be permitted to him to depose emperors.

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Pope Innocent III on Empire and Papacy  
'The Moon and the Sun' Sicut universitatis conditor.
Ep. i, 401, October 1198  P.L. ccxiv. 337. Mirbt, no. 326

The creator of the universe set up two great luminaries in the firmament of heaven; the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. In the same way for the firmament of the universal Church, which is spoken of as heaven, he appointed two great dignities; the greater to bear rule over souls (these being, as it were, days), the lesser to bear rule over bodies (those being, as it were, nights). These dignities are the pontifical authority and the royal power. Furthermore, the moon derives her light from the sun, and is in truth inferior to the sun in both size and quality, in position as well as effect. In the same way the royal power derives its dignity from the pontifical authority: and the more closely it cleaves to the sphere of that authority the less is the light with which it is adorned; the further it is removed, the more it increases in splendor.

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THE POPE AND IMPERIAL ELECTIONS
The Statement of the Papal Claim by Innocent III

Decretal Venerabilem, March 1202, Corpus Iuris Canonici, (Friedberg) II. 80. Mirbt, 323

 [A letter from Innocent to the Duke of Zähringen justifying his intervention in a disputed election of the kingship of the Romans.]

 ... We acknowledge, as we are bound, that the right and authority to elect a king (later to be elevated to the Imperial throne) belongs to those princes to whom it is known to belong by right and ancient custom; especially at this right and authority came to them from the Apostolic See, which transferred the Empire from the Greeks to the Germans in the person of Charles the Great. But the princes should recognize, and assuredly do recognize, that the right and authority to examine the person so elected king (to be elevated to the Empire) belongs to us who annoint, consecrate and crown him. For it is a generally observed rule that the examination of a person belongs to him who has the duty of the laying-on of hands. For suppose that the princes elected a sacrilegious man or an excommunicate, a tyrant or an imbecile, a heretic or a pagan; and that not just by a majority, but unanimously, are we bound to annoint, consecrate and crown such a person? Of course not....
    And it is evident from law and custom that when in an election the votes of the princes are divided we may, after due warning and a fitting interval, favour one of the parties.... For if after such due notice the princes cannot or will not agree, will not the Apostolic See be without an advocate and defender, and thus be punished for their fault?

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Extract from Gregory VII's Letter to the Bishop of Metz,
1081 Doeberl, op. cit. iii. 40 sqq. Mirbt, No. 297

... who can doubt but that the priests of Christ are to be considered the fathers and masters of kings and princes and of all the faithful? ...

 ... For, indeed, one can see how the necks of kings and princes are bowed before the knees of priests; and how, having kissed their right hands, they believe themselves strengthened by their prayers. ...

     Furthermore every Christian King, when he comes to die, seeks as a pitiful supplicant the aid of a priest, that he may escape hell's prison, may pass from the darkness into the light, and at the judgment of God may appear absolved from the bondage of his sins. Who, in his last hour (what layman, not to speak of priests), has ever implored the aid of an earthly king for the salvation of his soul? And what king or emperor is able, by reason of the office he holds, to rescue a Christian from the power of the devil through holy baptism, to number him among the sons of God, and to fortify him with the divine unction? Who of them can by his own words make the body and blood of our Lord, - the greatest act in the Christian religion? Or who of them possesses the power of binding and loosing in heaven and on earth? From all of these considerations it is clear how greatly the priestly office excels in power.
    Who of them can ordain a single clerk in the holy Church, much less depose him for any fault? For in the orders of the Church a greater power is needed to depose than to ordain. Bishops may ordain other bishops, but can by no means depose them without the authority of the apostolic see. Who, therefore, or even moderate understanding, can hesitate to give priests the precedence over kings? Then, if kings are to be judged by priests for their sins, by whom can they be judged with better right than by the Roman Pontiff?

The source for the above examples of papal claims of authority over kings is from Documents of the Christian Church, Second Edition, selected and Edited by Henry Bettenson, Copyright by Oxford University Press 1963, ISBN 0-19-501293-3, pages 106-108, 112-113.

Above photo from The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Volume II, page 556, by Le Roy E. Froom,
published by Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington D.C., Copyright 1948.

On the above papal medal issued by Pope Callistus III (1455-58), the reverse side reads OMNES REGES SERVIENT EI, a quote of Daniel 7:27 from the Latin Vulgate, which when translated in the Catholic Douay Rheims reads "ALL KINGS SHALL SERVE HIM". The scripture refers to God, but the papal triple-tiered tiara portrayed above the cross clearly symbolizes papal authority, that the papacy is God's designated representative, having authority even over the kings of the earth, just as the above excerpts show.

Jezebel

Now note this passage in Revelation 2:

Rev 2:20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
Rev 2:21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Rev 2:22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
Rev 2:23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

In prophecy a woman represents a church, and Jezebel here represents the apostate church, who has taught corrupted doctrine, which is described as fornication, just as in Revelation 17:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

Now, pay close attention to this ...
The apostate church in Revelation 2:20 (Jezebel) calls herself a prophetess ... so by her own admission she is linked with prophecy!

  Conclusion

The Vatican (STATO DELLA CITTÁ DEL VATICANO), which means City-State of prophecy, is the woman of Revelation 17, Jezebel, the apostate harlot, the mother universal church, the persecuter, that sits on seven hills in Rome and claims authority over the kings of the earth.