Matthew Poole and continuators on Revelation 12:16

16 And the earth helped the woman , and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth .

There are divers Notions here of the Earth; to me theirs seemeth most probable, who understand by the Earth, the Goths and Vandals, &c. who, Anno 410, invaded the Roman Empire, and gave it continual Trouble, till they had put an end to the Western Empire, 480. By whose continual Contests with the Subjects of the Roman Empire, the Church enjoyed some quiet in the Exercises of Religion; and tho all this while they were troubled by the Broods of Arrians, Pelagians, Nestorians, and Eutychians, yet they could do them no great hurt; and the Church had a Liberty to condemn them by the second and third General Councils; in which, it is probable, there were many too that deserved no better Name than the Earth.

But yet they served, in a great measure, to swallow up that Flood of Heresies which the Devil threw out of his Mouth by these Hereticks.