Jerome : Verse 11. "I looked on because of the sound of the lofty words which that horn was uttering." The judgment of God descends for the humbling of pride. Hence the Roman Empire also will be destroyed, because the horn was uttering the lofty words. "...And I saw that the beast was slain and its body perished." In the one empire of the Romans, all the kingdoms at once are to be destroyed, because of the blasphemy of the Antichrist. And the empire shall not be an earthly empire at all, but it is simply the abode of the saints which is spoken of here, and the advent of the conquering Son of God. — St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER SEVEN Theodoret of Cyrus : Because of the madness of that beast, he says that it was judged, and the fourth kingdom was destroyed, "and the body of the beast was given over for the fire to consume." We ought to take note that he did not simply say "the beast was handed over" but "the body of the beast" was handed over for the fire to consume. Since he portrays every kingdom through a beast, and in every kingdom some are pupils of godliness and others are servants of wickedness (the former being commonly called "spiritual," the latter "carnal," in accordance with the usage of the divine Scripture), he rightly said that the beast was not handed over to be burned but the body of the beast, that is, the cruder sorts of people and those who are fleshly and those who do not think spiritually at all. — COMMENTARY ON Daniel 7:11