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According to medieval tradition, Antichrist was a thoroughly evil human being (not a devil) who was expected to reign in Jerusalem in a hideous parody of Christ's ministry before the Last Judgment. Since ecclesiastical writers assumed that many evil people were already preparing the way for Antichrist's reign, precursors and ministers of Antichrist could also be called antichrists. A third use of the word was more theological: just as Christ was the mystical head of his body, the church, so Antichrist was the mystical head of the human body of evil.
The ultimate source for medieval Antichrist doctrine was the New Testament. The name Antichrist appears only in the first two epistles of John (1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7), which make a clear distinction between the coming great Antichrist and his precursors - "as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists." Richer sources for the development of subsequent medieval Antichrist lore were passages in Second Thessalonians and the book of Revelation. In 2 Thess. 2:3-8 St. Paul referred to a "man of sin" or "son of perdition" whom medieval commentators understood to be Antichrist. This evil figure would not come until "a falling away" had taken place. Then he would sit in the temple of God until the Lord would destroy him. Revelation's "beast from the sea" and "beast from the earth; (chapter 13) were also widely understood by medieval exegetes to stand for Antichrist. Accordingly, medieval commentators believed that Antichrist would reign for forty-two months (Rev. 13:5), would deceive men by performing "great wonders" (13:13) but would finally be defeated by the power of the Lord and cast into "a lake of fire burning with brimstone" (19:20).
Patristic and early medieval commentators expatiated on these and a few other biblical texts (sometimes rather arbitrarily) to create a full-scale Antichrist myth. Important contributions to the developing lore and theological interpretation of Antichrist's career were made by Hippolytus of Rome, St. Jerome, Pseudo-Methodius, the Venerable Bede, and Haimo of Auxerre. The first Latin writer to assemble all the major prior elements of the Antichrist story into one treatise - virtually a life of Antichrist - was the tenth-century Burgundian monk, Adso of Montier-en-Der. Adso's tract quickly became extremely popular and influential, but it was by no means the only Antichrist tract to gain wide circulation: among numerous other popular ones written in the High Middle Ages were those of Hugh Ripelin (written around 1265 and originally part of Hugh's Compendium of Theological Truth): the "Passauer Anonymous" (mid thirteenth century); John of Paris (1300): and Hugh of Novocastro (1319). Although writers disagreed about particular points of interpretation, the broadest outlines of Antichrist lore remained more of less constant from the time of Adso until the end of the Middle Ages.
Most medieval commentators believed that St. Paul's " falling away" referred to the end of the Roman Empire and that Antichrist would therefore not come until it was destroyed. But since medieval tradition assumed that the Frankish and German empires of the Middle Ages were direct continuations of the Roman Empire, medieval authorities usually concluded that Antichrist's advent would occur only after the reign of a final medieval Western emperor. Often this emperor was expected to be a marvelous messianic hero, who would unite the world and reign in peace before laying down his crown in Jerusalem in expectation of Antichrist's coming.
Around the time of the Roman Empire's decline or fall, Antichrist would be born in Babylon from the incestuous union of a father and daughter: while still in his mother's womb the evil would take possession of his soul. He would be called Antichrist because because he would be contrary to Christ in all things. In his youth he would learn to perform magic, and in his thirtieth year he would appear openly in Jerusalem. Then he would reign triumphantly for three and a half years. He would deceive the Jews by telling them he was the Messiah and would deceive many Christians by saying he was Christ come to judgment. His evil or deluded followers would worship him sacrilegiously, and he would keep them enthralled by performing many bogus miracles.
In order to hearten the faithful and counteract Antichrist's wiles, the Lord would send "two witnesses" clothed in sackcloth (Rev. 11:3-11) to preach against him. Almost all medieval commentators agreed that these witnesses were to be Elijah and Enoch because the Lord had said at the end of the Old Testament, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5), and because both Elijah and Enoch (Gen. 5:24) did not die in the body but were believed to have been transported to the hidden earthly paradise. The two witnesses would preach steadfastly against Antichrist, but finally, after 1,260 days, he would kill them. Their bodies would then lie for three days in the streets of Jerusalem without burial because all would fear to bury them, but the two would be resurrected on the fourth day (Rev. 11:11).
After three and half years of triumph, Antichrist himself would be killed on the Mount of Olives either by Christ direcly or by Christ's power exercised through the agency of the Archangel Michael. But human history would not end immediately. A span of time, usually expected to be short, would follow for the penitence of those who had wavered in their faith during Antichrist's ascendance. In some accounts this final period would also see the conversion of the Jews and heathens, and the renewal or spiritual improvement of the church. Only thereafter would come a final evil onslaught of Gog and Magog (Rev. 20:8), the Last Judgment, and the end of the world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adso Dervensis, De ortu et tempore antichristi, D. Verhelst, ed. (1976): Adso's tract is translated in Beranrd McGinn, Apocalyptic Spirituality (1979), 89-96; Kluas Aichele, Das Antichristdrama des Mittelalters, der Reformation und Gegenreformation (1974); Wilhelm Boussert, The Antichrist Legend, a Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1896); Richard K. Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature (1981); Robert E. Lerner, "Refreshment of the Saints: The Time After Antichrist as a Station for Earthly Progress in Medieval Thought," in Traditio, 32 (1976); Alexander Patschovsky, Der Passauer Anonymus (1968), 157-168; D. Verhelst, "La prehistoire des conceptions d'Adson concernant l'Antichrist," in Recherches de theologie ancienne et medievale, 40 (1973).
Robert E. Lerner
Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol. 1, pgs 321-322 (1982).
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