The Jews and The AntiChrist

 Cornelius a Lapide, at a time when there was yet no

question of our great discoveries, affirmed that Antichrist 
would have innumerable armies under his command: "Instar arenae 
maris; " (Apocalypse 20) "et numerus equestris exercitus vicies 
millies^ dena millia." (Apocalypse 9:16) According to the 
interpretation of the learned Cornelius, Antichrist's cavalry 
alone will consist of two hundred million men. How much 
greater will be the number of his infantry! (Cornelius a 
Lapide: Commentary on the Epistle to the Thessalonians , p. 

Jews will be the financiers: and the people which possesses the 
most gold will be the one which will soon exercise the 
greatest control over us. 

Now, after fifty centuries of existence, nineteen of 
them in misfortune, a certain people is found everywhere, 
scattered in every- quarter of the globe, meeting on the 
most distant shores, mingling with the whole human family, 
still enduring, still in search of their Messias, dreaming 
of "rebuilding their temple and, despite all changes and 
upheavals, unshakable in their homogeneity and in the 
pursuit of their goal. 

It must be said, in justice to them, that they are an 
active, temperate and hard-working race." If we speak of 
them, we do so in the abstract and solely from the point 
of view of their destiny and of their providential and 
historical mission. We should regret if our words were 
seen as an attack upon this people of illustrious ancest- 
ry, which has given to the world Christ, the Apostles and 
the Immaculate Virgin. 

We, Christians" and children of Israel, are closer to 
one another than we think. As one well-known speaker has 
said: Christianity is Judaism with its apex; Judaism is 
Christianity without its apex. 

Nevertheless, the facts are there, and it is impos- 
sible for the Christian philosopher to ignore or disguise 
them. 

Now, it is less than a century ago since this people 
was emancipated; and, like a flood which has burst through 
every dyke, they are already at the head of human affairs. 
Novices yesterday to civil and political life, they are 
now dominant everywhere, and nothing can be done in the 
world without them. They bribe and have at their command 
all the advertising agencies and the principal organs of 
the press. They are the creditors of the leading states 
of Europe. The railways, the great inventions, the banks 
and theatres belong to them; they are at the head of the 
great socialist movement which is shaking Russia, Germany, 
France...; they rule in the Danubian principalities, and 
have the casting vote in the high councils of Freemasonry, 
directing their operation and inspiration.  



There are 3,338,000 Jews in Europe, Germany alone having 
1,250,000 and Rumania 500,000. Total number of Jews living xn 
the world: six million. In his book La Judaisation des peuples 
Chretiens , Desmousseau quotes innumerable passages taken from 
L ' U nivers and the Archives Israelites , from which it is clear 
that the theology of liberal Judaism is no different from the 
doctrine and symbolism of the secret, Masonic societies. Hence 
this remarkable admission, made only a few years ago, by a 
British prime minister, who was himself born of Jewish blood: 
"The world is governed by very different personages from what 
is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes... and the 
mighty revolution, which is now being prepared in Germany, and 
will shortly become a second Reformation, greater than the 
first and, accordingly, more destructive of Catholicism, is 
gathering strength under the auspices of the Jews." The 
Chevalier Desmousseau, who published his book in 1869, believes 
he has grounds for saying that, out of the nine members forming 
the supreme council of Freemasonry, five were Israelites. 


As we write these lines, what is called the anti- 
Semitic question is setting a formidable problem for the 
state, stirring Germany and Central Europe profoundly; the 
point at issue is the progress and ever-increasing in- 
fluence of Judaism, which at present constitutes a threat 
to the civilization, the security and existence ot 
Christian peoples. The question is causing serious con- 
cern to politicians and statesmen; but, since they obstin- 
ately refuse to be guided by the light of Catholicism and 
revealed religion, they are powerless to find the true 
solution. 

To speak only of Prussia, a recent .computation has 
established that the secondary and higher schools of this 
empire number 87,949 Protestant pupils, 20,147 Catholic 
pupils; and 12,371 Israelites. If we allow for the pro- 
portional figures of the population, there ought to be 
79,000 Protestant pupils, 40,000 Catholic pupils and 1,800 
Israelites. This disproportion gives grounds for serious 
thought. Out of the 1,200 law students at the University 
of Berlin, 600 are Israelites - and it is only six years 
since the doors of the magistracy and civil service were 
opened to Jews. If this advance continues, it is certain 
that, within twenty-five years, three quarters of public 
offices in Germany will be held by Jews. It is a fact 
that, at present, they are already dominant in finance, in 
the press, and are acting like a state within a state. 

Judaism is really a confessional faith and doctrine 
grafted on to one nationality and race. All other peoples 
- Frenchmen, Italians, Germans, Spaniards - if they live 
for a certain time subject to the same government and form 
of administration, if they are ruled by the same laws and 
institutions - do not take long to merge, unite their 
interests, mix their blood and acquire the same aspir- 
ations and patriotic spirit. The Jew is unassimilable: he 
is planted among the other peoples in the position of a 
lodger, as a famous writer has said; or, rather, he con- 
siders himself an exile and captive amidst the other 
nations. Instead of a real motherland, he has only an 
ideal motherland, Palestine. Jerusalem is the only per- 
manent city for which he yearns. In his speeches and 
writings, on every page of his newspapers and reviews, he 
manifests the hope which he has never ceased to cherish of 
rebuilding a new, Jewish Kingdom, either at Jerusalem or 
in the surrounding area. 

So, it is not nationality and blood which prevents 
the Jews from being assimilated and sets them in open 
enmity with other peoples, but religion: not the religion 
of Moses, which they forsook and which they no longer 
know, save in name; but their Talmudic, rabbinical re- 
ligion, a medley of absurdities and rambling fables, rest- 
ing, not upon the Gospel foundation of love of neighbour, 
but upon the -obligation, to pledge a profound hatred of all 
that does not spring from . their blood. Thus an axiom 
acknowledged and raised by Israel to the level of a doc- 
trine and revealed symbol is that, each timehe considers 
it useful to his interests, _ a Jew has a duty to feign 
conversion and to participate exteriorly in the customs 
and practices of a religion other than his own. Thus, it 
has been -found that there are Jews in Germany at the 
present time who undergo baptism and accept Christianity in 
order to„ acquire lands, win for themselves titles of nobil- 
ity and the more easily attain public positions, and who 
turn these advantages to account for the enrichment of the 
synagogue and the impoverishment of the peoples amidst 
whom they live. 

Modern liberalism, with its futile sentimentality and 
its false egalitarian principles, has contributed more 
than all other errors towards bringing about this prepond- 
erance and overwhelming tide of Jewish influence, which 
the European peoples with good reason fear. 

In the Middle Ages, the Christian nations and. princes, 
enlightened by the Church, had foreseen this great social 
peril. On the one hand, they knew that they had a duty to 
bear with the Jews, and that it was impossible for them to 
make away with them, since the prophecies announce that 
they will subsist until the end of the times, and that 
only then will they return to the true Faith. On the 
other hand, they knew that they could not live in peace 
and security if they granted unrestricted freedom to such 
a grasping, all-pervading race. It is a fact of exper- 
ience that, wherever the Jews establish themselves and 
predominate, they turn into despots and ravaging tyrants. 
That is why, denying them civil and political rights, 
which they would have abused - and do abuse - wherever 
wealth has made them masters, Canon Law granted them 
tolerance. It watched over them so that they might live 
in peace and go quietly about their activities and their 
commercial affairs without harming the Christians with 
whom they mingled; and through these wise measures the 
Jews were for centuries not only protected, but defended 
against the universal hatred, the ferment and exasperation 
of uncomprehending peoples. 

Such is the Jewish question which, at the moment, is 
deeply stirring opinion in Prussia, Austria and Poland; 
its solution seems fraught with the gloomiest auspices. 
Now, if we take Israel as a whole, leaving aside the men 
of that nation who have fallen into rationalism and un- 
belief, the nucleus of the Jewish race have not ceased to 
nourish the same illusions that we have just indicated: 
still expecting a Messias, whom they continue to see as a 
powerful conqueror who will subdue the earth. Not long 
ago, one of the most authoritative exponents of the Talmud 
dared to say: 



(The Roman review Civilta Cattolica , 1st April 1881, 
quotes the case of a Jew who, in turn, became Protestant, 
Catholic, was ordained priest and, finally, embraced the 
religious life. He himself related that, when he was a child, 
his father had impressed on him the axiom that man "must live 
in accordance with the religion of the country where he dwells, 
so as to spare -himself difficulties and to be less disturbed in 
his person and in his affairs." In fact, the child was able 
marvellously to put this teaching into practice. From being a 
priest and religious, he again became a Protestant and married 
a Protestant woman; not long before, he had had occasion to 
stay in a Mohammedan country, where he had thought it advan- 
tageous to live as an authentic Mohammedan. 

[85] Gambetta is the son of a baptized Jew; Reinach, his secre- 
tary, is an Israelite from Frankfurt. The deputies Naquet and 
See are related to Gambetta by the bond of race, that is, by 
their common Jewish origin. ( Civilta Cattolica , 1st January, 

"A new messianism must be born, a Jerusalem of a new 
order, set reverently between East and West, must replace 
the twofold city of Caesars and Popes. " Furthermore, 
it is an established fact that the majority of orthodox 
believers have retained, as their slogan and watchword, 
the remark once uttered by a famous rabbi: "Jerusalem is 
still the pivot of our hopes and of our faith." 

Now, is it improbable that, in social conditions like 
ours, in which the most dreadful and unforeseen events 
loom up with the rapidity of steam and lightning, there 
may live a man who will take advantage of the chaos into 
which our revolutions will have cast us, and succeed in 
beguiling the masses and gaining mastery over minds and 
hearts; then, pledging himself to regenerate mankind, will 
send out a rallying cry to which all his co-religionists 
will respond, thus achieving the conquest of universal 
power, a stupendous dominion over minds and bodies, a 
dominion accepted enthusiastically by the universality of 
misled, seduced peoples? 

Lastly, may we not believe that this powerful and 
wicked man, who will imprison the world in the iron grip 
of an indescribable, unrestrained despotism and unify the 
human race through the enslavement of consciences and the 
humbling of spirits, will be the personage portrayed and 
predicted by Saint John as Antichrist, and that he will be 
the man whom Divine Providence has desired to use in order 
to undeceive Israel, who will at first have acclaimed him 
as her Messias and King? 

Finally, what will be the characteristic marks of the 
persecution of Antichrist? Its main features have been 
described by Cornelius a Lapide and Suarez , in accordance 
with Scripture and the Fathers. 

In the first place, what is certain and almost "of 
faith" is that, of all the persecutions which the Church 
has had to suffer, that of Antichrist will be the most 
terrible and the most violent. 

First, because this persecution will be general, and 
will extend over the whole earth. It is written: "And 
they came upon the breadth of the earth, and encompassed 
the camp of the saints, and the beloved city.

St. Augustine, in book 20 of the City of God , explains 
this text from St. John by saying that all the infidels, 
heretics, sectarians and depraved men, scattered over the 
surface of the earth, will unite with Antichrist to make 
war on the saints and to persecute those who are faithful 
to God. 

Secondly, this persecution will be the most severe 
and violent of all - because it will be inspired neither by 
superstition and fanaticism, nor by a blind attachment to 
the worship of idols, as were the persecutions unleashed 
by the pagan emperors. Its purpose will^not be to assuage 
pride, nor to satisfy an unbridled lust for power, like 
the persecution of Mohammed. Nor will it be aroused by 
the unrestrained cupidities of the flesh and by the lure 
of plunder, like the one to which the German princes 
subjected the Church under Protestantism and in the life- 
time of Luther, 

 
Tiberius, Nero and the most frightful tyrants of paganism 
at least acknowledged an apprehension and, as it were, a 
distant reflection of the divinity in the idols, which 
they sought to compel the Christians to adore; but, in the 
times of which we are speaking, it will no longer be 
permissible to accord even a modified and corrupted ador- 
ation to any divinity. All men without exception will be 
forced to honour and render a cult of latria to Satan 
himself, personified in Antichrist, that is, in the most 
evil and abominable man that humanity has ever produced. 

Thirdly, this persecution, which will mark the last 
ages, will be waged with a well-nigh irresistible seduct- 
iveness, ut in errorem inducantur, si fieri potest, etiam 
electi. Co~rnTlius a Lapide says: Omnes politicorum artes, 
dolos et praxes callebit . At first Antichrist will con- 
^IHce" the JiwT" that he is the Messias. In order to de- 
ceive them the more successfully, he will hide behind a 
mask of moderation and feigned holiness. When St. Paul 
tells us that he will have himself worshipped in the 
temple of God, [88] he seems to imply that he will rebuild 
the temple" Jerusalem, utterly destroyed by Titus; 
consequently, he will prescribe circumcision and, for a 
time, restore the bloody sacrifices and the other rites o£ 
the Judaic religion. 

As for those who are foreign to the Jewish religion, 
he will draw them to himself, first, by persuasion and 
eloquence. He will be skilled in artifice, and will be 
taught by the Devil himself all knowledge useful for the 
ends for which the evil spirit destines him. St. Anselm 
tells us that he will be acquainted with all the natural 
sciences and will know all the sacred texts by heart. 
In the second place, he will win men over by lavishing 
gold and riches. He will be the wealthiest person on 
earth. Satan will deliver to him all the treasures con- 
cealed in the bowels of the sea and in the hidden depths 
of the earth. 

Fourthly, he will fill all men with admiration by his 
genius, and by the amazing rapidity of his elevation to 
the height of fortune and omnipotence. As for the 
ignorant and the multitude, he will fascinate them by 
marvels, cujus est adventus secundum operationem Satanae , 
in omni virtute et prodigiis mendacibus . [92] St. Thomas 
says that, just as Christ worked miracles in confirmation 
of His doctrine, so also the man of sin will work false 
miracles in confirmation of his errors; and just as the 
true Christ worked wonders by the power of* God, the author 
of all truth, so too His adversary will work, as we have 
indicated above, by the power of Satan, the father of 
fraud and lies. 

Thus, the man of sin will not perform true miracles, 
like Jesus Christ, but will perform false and apparent 
ones. All his wonderful works will be, in reality, mere 
illusions and works of fantasy; so that, as St. Athanasius 
says, when he appears to resurrect a dead man, either the 
man whom he resurrects will not really be dead, or else, 
if he is dead, he will not really be restored to life. 
Lastly, the same saint continues, the works performed by 
Antichrist which appear to transcend the laws of nature 
will not be miracles in the true sense, but effects and 
phenomena of the physical order, performed through the 
intermediary of certain secret, hidden and natural causes. 
The better to beguile men, Antichrist will permit licent- 
iousness and the dissipations of the flesh, and will 
stimulate the most intoxicating pleasures, totus erit in 
libidinibus et concupiscentiis feminarum .  

Fifthly, the persecution of Antichrist will be the 
bloodiest and most barbarous of all those which Christian- 
ity has ever suffered. Jesus Christ so assures us, when 
He says: "For there shall be then great tribulation, such 
as hath not been from the beginning of the world until 
now, neither shall be. "[94] This can be surmised if we 
refer back to two causes. The first is the vast power and 
the stupendous instruments of force and destruction which 
Antichrist will have at his disposal and, with these, the 
evil and fury of the men appointed to execute his commands. 
The second will be the terrifying wickedness of the devil 
for, says Saint John, in those days God will allow him to 
leave the fiery prison where he is chained, and will give 
him full permission to seduce and satisfy his hatred of 
the human race. [95] Whence it follows, says _St. Cyril, 
that there will then be multitudes of martyrs, more glor- 
ious and admirable than those .who formerly fought with 
lions, in the amphitheatres of Rome and Gaul. 

These had to struggle against mere agents of the 
devil, but the confessors, of the last ages will have to 
struggle against him who is a murderer from the beginning . 
To torment them, the old enemy will practise monstrous 
tortures with unheard-of refinements, unparalleled in past 
centuries, which the human mind could never have contrived 
to invent by itself. 

Finally - the last feature of the persecution of 
Antichrist - it will be so violent that it will succeed in 
making almost the entirety of Christians apostatize. "And 
it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to 
overcome them. "[96] "I beheld, and lo, that horn made war 
against the saints and prevailed over them. "[97] St. Paul 
informs us that Christ will not return until the great 
apostasy has come. [98] Interpreting these words of the 
Apostle, St. Augustine [99] tells us that if, in every age, 
we have seen believers renounce Christ on account of the 
wiles of heretics and the fear of persecutors and tyrants, 
nevertheless the defection which will take place under 
Antichrist is called the apostasy, properly speaking - 
because, in number and extension, this apostasy will ex- 
ceed all that has been seen in previous times. 

However, it would not be correct to conclude from 
this testimony that there will be none of the elect left 
on earth, and that the Son of God will fail to keep the 
promise made to His Church, when He said: Propter electos , 
dies bre viabuntur , because of the elect the days will be 
shortened. Moreover, St. John, in his Apocalypse adds: 
"And all that dwell upon the earth adored him, whose names 
are not written in the book of life. "

 St. Augustine 
tells us that, in the reign of Antichrist, there will be 
multitudes of martyrs who will display a heroic constancy, 
and also a number, more or less large, of confessors who 
will manage to escape into caves and high or sheer moun- 
tains, and God will see to it that these sanctuaries shall 
elude the vigilance and investigations of the persecutors, 
and will not permit the devil to point them out to them. 

Daniel tells us that, at the time when this terrible 
persecution breaks out, the abomination of desolation will 
openly sit enthroned in the holy place. "The king shall 
do according to his will," says Daniel. "He shall be 
lifted up and shall magnify himself against every god: and 
he shall speak great things against the God of gods... and 
he shall make no account of the God of his fathers. . .and 
he shall not regard any gods." 

"Once the man of sin has cowed the human race by his 
threats and entangled it in the meshes of his lies and 
wiles, he will observe no restraint, show his hand and act 
openly. He will not permit anyone to worship or invoke 
any other god than himself, and will proclaim himself sole 
lord of Heaven and earth. Wherever he is not present in 
person, men will be obliged to pay homage to his image or 
statue: Et elevabitur , maqnif icabitur ad versus omnem Deum . 

He will tolerate neither the Mosaic religion, nor natural 
religion itself. He will persecute with equal thorough- 
ness Jews, schismatics, heretics, deists and every sect 
that recognizes the existence of a supreme being and the 
immortality of the life to come. Yet God, in His wisdom, 
will draw good from evil. The horrible . tempest which His 
justice has allowed to be unleashed upon the earth will 
result in the disappearance of false religions. Along 
with Judaism, it will abolish the remains of Mohammedan- 
ism, idolatrous superstitions and every religion hostile 
to the Church. 

"It will deal the finishing blow to the sects of 
darkness. Freemasonry, Carbonari sm, Illuminism and all 
subversive societies will vanish in the vortex of wicked- 
ness which will be their work, and which they had prepared 
for centuries in the belief that it would be their defin- 
itive, supreme triumph. They will have assisted unintent- 
ionally in the establishment of the reign of unity fore- 
told by Our Lord: erit unum ovile et unus pastor . (John 
(Daniel 11:37) It is true that the 
prophet also intends, by these words, to depict the persecution 
of Antiochus and the fury against the Lord's people which_will 
fill this prince. Nevertheless, as Suarez observes, Antiochus 
was only the image of Antichrist, and the evils to which he 
subjected the faithful Jews are meant to be a brief outline of 
those which the Christians of the last days will endure. 


The triumph of the wicked one will be of short dur- 
ation; but the consolations which follow will be uni- 
versal, abundant, proportionate to the extent of the 
tribulations which the Church will have suffered. 

A son of Israel, converted not long ago, and today a 
priest and doctor, captivated by the grand spectacle which 
the Church of God will present in" that fortunate era when- 
Jews and Gentiles, seated .. at one and the same banquet, 
have become one and the same family, under the crook of a 
single shepherd, exclaims in a transport of joy: 

"In the life of Christ on earth, there were two great 
days of triumph when He was acknowledged as Messias and 
King: the feast of the Epiphany, which was a kind of morn- 
ing feast, which the assembled nations, represented in the 
persons of the Magi, gave to Jesus Christ; and Palm Sunday, 
which was the evening feast, given belatedly to Christ by 
Jerusalem: Palm Sunday, the day of Israel's acclamations. 

"Now today, after nineteen centuries of fidelity, 
the great feast of the Epiphany is forgotten by the 
nations and their leaders, who have rejected Christ and 
His Church. Let me then, in the eventide of the Church's 
life, salute the great Palm Sunday and the unexpected 
outburst of acclamation from the old race of Jacob. Let 
me salute and sing of this day, when the doors of the 
synagogue will be opened, amidst wild rejoicing, for the 
triumphal entry of the Messias, whom she has so long 
awaited but not acknowledged. Let me sing of the day when 
the remnant of Israel will strew their garments upon the 
path of Christ and His Church, and the air will be fra- 
grant with perfume from that blood which, this time, will 
fall as a stream of love upon Israel and her children. 
feast of Palms, rise forth over the Church... Jerusalem, 
Jerusalem, . how often would I have gathered together thy 
children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her 
wings; but this time, Jerusalem, you will have desired 
it, you will have flung yourself beneath the wings. 
Hosanna and everlasting glory to Jesus Christ in the 
highest, and to the Church wherein Israel, after a long 
absence, has found again her Messias and King. "[102] 

However, the final consummation will not come yet, as 
it is written (Apocalypse, chapter 11) : 

"And the seventh angel soUnded the trumpet, and there 
were great voices in heaven" - voices of angels and of 
virgins, together with the voices of confessors and holy 
martyrs, will hail Christ with praise and acclamations, 
giving thanks for His victory over Antichrist, and for the 
extermination of the wicked. All men, now become wor- 
shippers of one and the same God, all professing the same 
faith, united in the same adoration, sharing the same 
table, will exclaim in chorus: "The kingdom of this world 
is become . Our Lord's and his Christ's... We give thee 
thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who art and who wast and who 
art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great 
power, and thou hast reigned. " [103]