We read of Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, etc. Protestant commentators agree that this "mother" is the Catholic church,
Q: and if so, who are the "harlot daughters," but the various Protestant sects?
A: If "the woman" singular [Revelation 17:4] be a symbol of one church, (Catholic) then, "women" plural, are symbols of CHURCHES. The Catholic church is a unit the world over. But when we consider the hundreds of Protestant sects, with all their discordant theories, we cannot avoid the conclusion that they belong to the Babylon of the Apocalypse."
M.E. Cornell