The Antichrist

The Antichrist, a charismatic person who would appear prior to the end times and become ruler of the world despite his inherent evil, was "identified" more than once in the Middle Ages.

Joachim Fiore, the "Man Who Invented the Future," declared Rome as Babylon and the pope as the Antichrist. Emperor Constantius II was declared the Antichrist in 365 because he was a semi-Arian. Constantius' response ultimately "returned the favor" by creating the first antipope. When the year 1000 was upon them, the Carolingians exhumed the body of Charlemagne, thinking they would need him to fight against the imminent appearance of the Antichrist.

Arius was called a harbinger of the Antichrist. Martin of Tours believed the world would end by 400, and stated "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power."

The term Antichrist came from the first and second epistles of John, where it is mentioned four times and described as someone "who denies the Father and Son." Matthew and Mark each refer to a "false Christ," when Jesus advises his followers not to be deceived by false prophets who will perform "signs and wonders" and claim to be Jesus. The "beast of the sea" in the Book of Revelation is assumed to refer to the same figure.

It is from John's description of the beast that the culture assumes the specifics of the Antichrist: buying and selling will require its mark on the forehead, it will blaspheme God, rule for 42 months, and will receive a wound in the head that will miraculously heal leaving no mark. It will be supported by the Dragon.

According to the Elucidarium of Honorius Augustodunensis, the end for the Antichrist will come:

Finally he will extend his forces to conquer the righteous at the Mount of Olives and there he will be found suddenly dead by the spirit of the mouth of the Lord, that is, slain by the command of God, as the saying goes, "The Lord will destroy at his holy mountain the man renowned through the whole earth.” [link; note that the source of this "saying" has not survived to the modern era]

The Reformation was clear on the identity of the Antichrist. Luther, Calvin, Knox all saw the pope as the position that matched the Antichrist, no matter which pope sat the seat at the time.

The illustration of the Antichrist riding Leviathan is from the Liber Floridus ("Book of Flowers") by Lambert de Saint-Omer. Let's take a closer look at him and it tomorrow.

The Elucidarium, Part 3

Book Three of the Elucidarium of Honorius Augustodunensis was called De futura vita, "Concerning future life." By "future life" he meant the afterlife.

There are seven chapters to Book Three: The Elect, The Damned, State of Souls Before the Judgement, The Antichrist, The Resurrection, The Judgement, Eternal Bliss.

It begins with an explanation of the moment of death of "The Elect"; that is, those who will go to Heaven:

Just as a bridegroom comes with a crowd of soldiers to fetch his bride and then, happily singing, leads her off, so when a righteous man comes to his end, his guardian angel comes with a crowd of angels and raises his soul, the bride of Christ, from the bodily prison and leads it into spiritual paradise and, with loud singing of the sweetest song and with bright light and the most pleasant odor, arrives at the heavenly palace.*

For those on the other end of the spectrum:

When the wicked reach their end, a great noisy throng of demons, awful to see and dreadful in their actions, comes to get them. They drive the soul from the body with terrible torment and lead it cruelly to the prisons of Hell.

Honorius describes nine tortures, and now I'm wondering if Dante got the idea of nine circles from the Elucidarium. A lot of time is spent on details of how much and how the damned will suffer. He also makes clear that no one in the afterlife who is no damned will care a bit for the suffering of those who deserve it.

The master explains how the Antichrist will come to power:

He will command the whole world and will subjugate the whole human race to himself in four ways: First, he will gain the noble by wealth, ... Second, he will subdue the common people by terror because he will rage with great savagery ... Third, he will win over the clergy by wisdom and unbelievable eloquence, ... Fourth, he will deceive those who have contempt for the world, ....

The Elucidarium became enormously popular, translated into several languages across Europe for centuries. (The illustration is the title page of a German edition.) What Honorius produced influenced the day-to-day understanding of Christianity for generations, and no doubt led to several of the common ideas people have even today about the afterlife.

The idea of the Antichrist started early in Christianity, and the Middle Ages was very wary of him, always on the lookout for whomever might be the one who subjugates the world in three and a half years and fools the faithful. Tomorrow we'll look at the evolution of this idea in the Middle Ages, and at some of the people who were accused of being the Antichrist. See you then.

*Nota bene: translated passages are from a 1979 translation made for a dissertation that can be found here.