Roman Catholic Doctrine of Antichrist, The general opinion in the early Church was that Antichrist was a man of Satanic spirit endowed with Satanic power who should appear before the second coming of Christ. Jerome says, in his Commentary on Daniel : " Let us say what all ecclesiastical writers have handed down, namely, that at the end of the world, when the Roman empire is destroyed, there will be ten kings who will divide the Roman world amongst them ; and there will arise an eleventh little king, who will subdue three of the ten kings, that is, the king of Egypt, of Africa, and of Ethiopia, as we shall hereafter show. And on these being slain the seven others will also submit. 'And behold,' he says, ' in the ram were the eyes of a man.' This is said that we may not suppose him to be a devil or demon, as some have thought, but a man in whom Satan will dwell utterly and bodily. « And a mouth speaking great things,' for he is * the man of sin, the son of perdition, who sitteth in the temple of God, making himself as God.' " 1
Substantially the same view prevailed during the Middle Ages. Some however of the theologians of the Latin Church saw that the development of the Man of Sin was to take place in the Church itself and be connected with a general apostasy from the faith. They were therefore sufficiently bold to teach that the Church of Rome was to fall away, and that the Papacy or some in- dividual pontiff was to become the Antichrist spoken of in Scrip- ture. The abbot Joachim of Floris (died 1202), a Franciscan, put himself in opposition to the worldly spirit of the Church of his time, and his followers, called " Spirituales," came to de- nounce the Church of Rome as the mystical Babylon of the Apocalypse. This was done with great boldness by John Peter of Oliva (died 1297), whose works were formally condemned as 41 blasphemous and heretical." Among the passages thus con- demned are the following : " The woman here stands for the people and empire of Rome, both as she existed formerly in a
1 "Dicamus quod omnes scriptores ecclesiastici tradiderunt : in consummations mundi, quando regnum destruendum est Romanorum, decern futuros reges, qui orbem Romanum inter se dividant, et undecimum surrecturum esse regem parvulum, qui tres reges de decern regibus superaturus -sit, id est, JSgyptiorum regem, et Africae et JSthiopiae, sicut in con- sequentibus manifestius dicemus. Quibus interfectus, etiam septem alii reges victori colla submittent. ' Et ecce,' ait, ' oculi quasi oculi hominis erant in cornu isto.' Ne eum pute- mus juxta quorumdam opinionem, vel diabolum esse, vel daemonem : sed unum de homini- bus, in quo totus satanas habitaturus sit corporaliter. ' Et os loquens ingentia (2 Thess. ii.).' Est enim homo peccati, filius perditionis, ita ut in templo Dei sedere audeat, faci- ens se quasi Deum." In Danielem, vii. 8; Works, edit. Migne, vol. v. p. 531, a, b [667, H68].
832 PART IV. Ch. III. — THE SECOND ADVENT.
state of Paganism, and as she has since existed, holding the faith of Christ, though by many crimes committing harlotry with this world. And, therefore, she is called a great harlot ; for, depart- ing from the faithful worship, the true love and delights of her Bridegroom, even Christ her God, she cleaves to this world, its riches and delights ; yea, for their sake she cleaves to the devil, also to kings, nobles, and prelates, and to all other lovers of this world." " She saith in her heart, that is, in her pride, I sit a queen : — I am at rest ; I rule over my kingdom with great dominion and glory. And I am no widow: — I am not destitute of glorious bishops and kings." 1
Not only the poets Dante and Petrarch denounced the corrup- tions of the Church of Rome, but down to the time of the Reformation that Church was held up by a succession of theo- logians or ecclesiastics, as the Babylon of the Apocalypse which was to be overthrown and rendered desolate.
When the Reformers with one voice pronounced the same judgment, and, making little distinction between Babylon and Antichrist, held up the Papacy as the antichristian power pre- dicted by Daniel, by St. Paul, and by St. John, the Romanists laid out their strength in defending their Church from this denunci- ation. Bellarmin, the great advocate of the cause of Romanism, devotes an extended dissertation to the discussion of this subject, which constitutes the third book of his work, " De Romano Pon- tifice." The points that he assumes are : First, that the word "Antichrist" cannot mean, as some Protestants thought, "sub- stitute or vicar " of Christ, but an opponent of Christ. In this all parties are now agreed. Second, that Antichrist is "unus homo," and not " genus hominum." The Magdeburg Centuri- ators2 said: " Docent [Apostoli] Antichristum non fore unam aliquam tantum personam, sed integrum regnum, per falsos doc- tores in templo Dei, hoc est in Ecclesia Dei praesidentes, in urba magna, quae habet regnum super reges terrae id est, in Romana civitate, et imperio Romano, opera diaboli, et fraude, et decep- tione comparatum." This view Bellarmin undertakes to refute, controverting the arguments of Calvin and Beza in its support. In this opinion also the leading Protestant interpreters of the present day, as above stated, agree. According to the views already advanced, there may be hereafter a great antichristian
1 Maitland, The Apostles' School of Prophetic Interpretation, p. 340 ; see also Guericke, Kirchengeschichte, 6th edit., Leipzig, 1846, vol. ii. pp. 223-226.
2 De Antichristo, cent. I. lib. ii. cap. iv.; Basle, 1562, vol. i. pp. 434, 435, of second set.