No single and consistent portrayal of the eschatological figure of “Antichrist” is to be found in Scripture and tradition. It varies alike in the manner in which it is presented and in the characteristics ascribed to it and in the significance attached to it. In the course of the Church’s history the idea has been so much bandied about in ecclesiastical controversies both between hostile sects and between warring factions within the Church itself; under the impulse of hatred or fear it has so of…