offers a treatment of the continuous fortunes of the church and the world.125 The three series of plagues are connected; the events of the seventh seal unfold in the descriptions of the seven trumpets and the events of the seventh trumpet in those of the seven bowls. The first six seals cover the years up to the fall of Rome. The first six trumpets describe the destruction of Christian Rome and its subsequent apostasy and division. The Reformation occurs in the course of the sixth trumpet. The bowls