Fighting The Dragon

Qui custodiunt mandata Dei  Mandata Dei in fide Jesu Christi custodire, hoc est pugnare cum dracone, et ipsum provocare in praelium. Et gratias Deo, qui saevi draconis evacuavit incoeptus. Ecce enim, Dominum in carne natum exstinguere molitus, ejus resurrectione frustratur. Post apostolis fiduciam docendi refringere laborans, quasi mulierem, id est, totam Ecclesiam de rebus humanis auferre satagebat. Sed et hoc frustra nisus passim nunc singulas fidelium impugnat aetates. Unde et sequitur:   Et stetit super arenam maris. Id est, super multitudinem populi, quem projicit ventus a facie terrae. Illius, sine dubio, qui hostis machinas absorbere solet, idem hostis insidias et bella excitaturus insistit.  Sanctus Beda, Explanatio Apocalyspsis, Caput XII

'Those who keep the commandments of God...' 1 To keep the commandments of God in the faith of Jesus Christ, this is to fight with the dragon and to challenge him in battle. And thanks be to God, who foiled the raging dragon at the beginning. For indeed he who laboured to destroy the Lord born in the flesh, is frustrated by the resurrection. 2 Then exerting himself after to undermine the confidence of the Apostles' teaching, he strove to carry off, like the woman, 3 the whole Church from the sphere of human affairs, but as his attacks have everywhere been in vain, he now fights against each of the ages of the faithful. Whence it follows: And he stood on the sand of the sea 4 That is, over that multitude of people 'whom the wind throws forth from the face of the earth.' 5 Whence without doubt he who is accustomed to devour with hostile contrivances, the same enemy stands so that he raise up plots and wars. St Bede, from Commentary On Revelation, Chapter 12 1 Rev 12.17  2 Rev 12.4  3 Rev 12.6 4 Rev 12.18 5 Ps 1.4