of Fiore, by identifying a hidden Antichrist working inside the church, prepared the way
for the spiritual movements of the later Middle Ages, from the Spiritual Franciscans in
the 13th century to the conciliar movements of the 15th, to view the church as the
seedbed for Antichrist, in some cases identifying a specific pope, such as Boniface VIII,
as Antichrist. The smear became so common that modern historians have a tendency to
dismiss it as a mere topos, a possibly anachronistic elevation, particularly for the period
before the 12th century.
Richard Landes
[See also: FRANCISCAN ORDER; MILLENNIALISM; RAOUL GLABER]
Aichele, Klaus. Das Antichrist-dramas des Mittelalters der Reformation und Gegenreformation.
The Hague: Nijhoff, 1974.
Emmerson, Richard K. Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism in Art
and Literature. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1981.
——, and Bernard McGinn, eds. The Apocalypse in the Middle Ages. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 1993.
Lerner, Robert E. “Refreshment of the Saints: The Time After Antichrist as a Station for Earthly
Progress in Medieval Thought.” Traditio 32(1976):99–144.
——.“Antichrists and Antichrist in Joachim of Fiore.” Speculum 60(1985):553–70.
McGinn, Bernard. Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1979.
Rauh, Hans Dieter. Das Bild des Antichrist im Mittelalter: Von Tyconius zum deutschen
Symbolismus. Münster: Aschendorff, 1973.
Verhelst, Daniel. “La préhistoire des conceptions d’Adson concernant l’Antichrist.” Recherches de
théologie ancienne et médiévale 40(1973):52–103.
ANTIFEMINISM
. Although the classical roots of medieval antifeminism are many, the most important
classical author is St. Jerome, whose Contra Jovinianum (A.D. 393) brings together most
of the Greek and Roman arguments against marriage and against women. Misogyny
pervades medieval ecclesiastical writing—letters, Sermons, theological tracts, discussions
of canon law, scientific works, and philosophy. But antifeminism is an element that can
be found in almost any work, even those generally considered profemale, such as
Aucassin et Nicolette.
In medieval Latin literature, the arguments of St. Jerome were used Héloïse to
dissuade Abélard from marriage and by John of Salisbury in his Policraticus. One model
of antimatrimonial satire is De coniuge non ducenda (ca. 1225–50), a skillfully drafted
discussion of the disadvantages of marriage. The classic 13th-century complaint against
women is the Latin Lamentationes (ca. 1290) of Matheolus, a cleric who lost his source
of income when his ecclesiastical superiors discovered that his wife had previously been
married, which status made Matheolus a bigamist in the eyes of the church. His tirade on
the victimization of men by women was translated into French (1371–72) by Jean Le
Fèvre. Even Andreas Capellanus, whose 12th-century De arte honeste amandi (Art of
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