St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274)

a. "Antichrist will pervert some in his day by exterior persuasion ... He is the head of all the wicked because in him wickedness is perfect ... As in Christ dwells the fulness of the Godhead so in Antichrist the fulness of all wickedness. Not indeed in the sense that his humanity is to be assumed by the devil into unity of person . . ., but that the devil by suggestion infuses his wickedness more copiously into him than into all others. In this way all the wicked that have gone before are signs of Antichrist." (Summa 111:8:8)

b. "Infidels and even Antichrist are not deprived ... of the guardianship of angels. Although this help . . . does not result in . . . eternal life by good works, it does none the less . . . protect them from certain evils which would hurt themselves and others. Even the demons are checked by good angels lest they harm as much as they would. In like manner Antichrist will not do as much harm as he would wish." (Summa 1:113:4)

c. "The works of Antichrist may be called lying wonders cither because he will deceive men's senses by means of phantoms, so that he will not really do what he seems to do ; or because if he works real prodigies they will lead those into falsehood who believe in Him." (Summa 1:114:4)

d. "(His miracles may be) said to be real just as Pharaoh's magicians made real frogs, but they will not be real miracles because they will be done by the power of natural causes." (Summa 11-11:178:1)

e. "Although men be terrified by the signs appearing about the judgment day yet before those signs begin to appear the wicked will think themselves to be in peace and security after the death of Antichrist and before the coming of Christ seeing that the world is not at once destroyed as they thought hitherto." (Sum ma. Sup. 73:1)

f . "Some say that Enoch and Elias still dwell in paradise (Eden)/' (Summa 1:102:2)

g. "Elias was taken up into the atmospheric but not the empyrean heaven . . . and likewise Enoch was translated into the earthly paradise, where he is believed to live with Elias until the coming of Antichrist." (Summa 111:49:5)

h. "There are two things: The revolt which preceeds Antichrist and the coming of Antichrist. The faith must first be receved in all the world and afterwards many are to abandon it. Others speak of a revolt against the Roman Empire to which all the world was subjected; but the nations rejected the empire and Antichrist has not come. Others have it that the Roman Empire did not really cease but merely changed from a temporal into a spiritual kingdom. In this sense the predicted revolt must be against the Catholic Faith of the Roman Church. This is logical enough. Christ came when all were subject to Rome; therefore, a proper sign of the coming of Antichrist is the revolt against Rome.

"As to Antichrist himself, as Christ abounded in a plenitude of virtue Antichrist will abound in a multitude of all sins and as Christ is better than all holy persons so Antichrist is to be worse than all evil men. For this reason he is called Man of Sin. He is called, too, Son of Perdition, meaning that he is destined to the extreme of perdition. As all the good and the virtues of the holy ones who preceeded Christ were figures of Christ so in all the persecutions of the Church the tyrants were and shall be figures of Antichrist and all the malice which lay hidden in them will be revealed at that time.

i. "The crime of Antichrist is duplex: He is against God and he puts himself before Christ. In opposing God, he puts himself above the true God, in place of all false gods and even denies the participassion of humans in the Godhead. The pride of Antichrist surpassed that cf all his predecessors and like Caesar and the King of Tyre, he will say he is God and man and so represented he will sit in the temple.

j. "Some say Antichrist is of the tribe of Dan and that, therefore, the Jews will first receive him and will rebuild the temple of Jerusalem and it will be in this temple that he will sit. Others, however, maintain that never will Jerusalem or the temple be rebuilt and that he will sit in the Church in the sense that many from the Church will receive him. St. Augustine says that he with his adherents will form a Church just as Christ and his followers are a Church.

k. "Antichrist will come in God's good time. Those who now work evil pretending it is good do the work of Antichrist. The devil, in whose power Antichrist comes, already in the time of St. Paul was working his iniquity in a hidden manner through tyrants and seducers because the persecutions of times past are figures of that ultimate persecution against all good persons and are imperfect when compared to it.

"Antichrist will be destroyed by the spirit of the mouth of Christ. That is, by the Holy Ghost or by Christ's command in that Michael will kill him on Mt. Olivet whence Christ ascended into Heaven just as Julian (the Apostate) was extinguished by the divine hand.

m. "Antichrist will enjoy the use of free will on which the devil will operate as it was said of Judas : 'Satan entered into him,' that is, by instigating him. He shall deceive both by worldly power and the operation of miracles. In the matter of worldly power, St. John (Apoc. XIII) says, 'He will control the treasures of gold and silver and all the precious things of Egypt.' The power cf miracles will be simulated. 'He will do wondrous signs and even make fire come upon the earth' (Dan. XI) and thus, he will 'lead many into error even, were it possible, the elect' (Math. 24).

n. "But his miracles will be lies (as explained above in c and d). No one can perform a true miracle against the faith, because God is not a witness of falsity. Hence, no one preaching a false doctrine can work Miracles, whereas one leading a bad life could." (Comment, in II Thess. II, Lee. l-III).