Antichrist as a Model for Constructing the Image of a False Ruler in the Chronicles of the 13th — 14th Centuries

The article deals with the features of constructing the image of a false ruler in German chronicles of the late 13th and early 14th centuries. Describing modus operandi of the false emperor Frederick II of Staufen (acted in the Lower Rhine in 1284—1285) and giving characteristics the social groups that sympathized with him medieval historiographers looked for an image, which could serve for them as a prototype in their description of medieval reality. The author found out that this prototype was Antichrist, the character of Apocalypse as an ideal imitatior, i.e. a person, which claims were totally false. The medieval exegetics this character acquired characteristic properties and attributes. The medieval exegetists created to this character various features and attributes. Medieval chroniclers, resynthesized the idea of “imitator” creating the image of the false emperor, reworked such “signs” of the Antichrist’s “repetition” as some details of the Christ’s biography, convincing eloquence, generosity, creation of miracles.