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Verses 12-17 have, as we believe, a threefold application:

1. To the fall of the pagan Empire of Rome.

2. To the time of Antichrist.

3. To the end of the world.

In the first two applications the words of the prophecy must bear a symbolic meaning. They were thus interpreted by the early Christians. In the acts of the martyrs the persecution under Diocletian and the internal troubles of the Empire which followed were compared to an earthquake, an evident allusion to this passage of the Apocalypse.

12. Hence the earthquakes may be interpreted as the great disturbances in society that preceded the fall of the Roman Empire. Like disorders shall foreshadow the coming of Antichrist. The darkening of the sun is a symbol of the weakening of Catholic Faith by the spread of the Arian heresy. A similar weakening of Faith will occur before the days of Antichrist.

The blood color of the moon caused by the darkening of the sun is an omen of wars and persecutions which follow these internal troubles of the Church. This prophecy was fulfilled at the time of the Arian heresy,