Aquinas, the physiological influence of the celestial bodies, and
regarded the planets as signs telling us what God has decreed from
eternity to come to pass either by natural processes or by acts of
human will or directly at his own good pleasure. Deluges, plagues,
and earthquakes were capable of being predicted; political and
religious revolutions were set in the starry rubric. The existence
of six principal religions was determined by the combinations of
Jupiter with the other six planets. Bacon seriously expected the
extinction of the Mohammedan religion before the end of the
thirteenth century, on the ground of a prediction by an Arab
astrologer. [Footnote: Ib. iv. p. 266; vii. p. 389.]

One of the greatest advantages that the study of astrological lore
will bring to humanity is that by its means the date of the coming
of Anti-Christ may be fixed with certainty, and the Church may be
prepared to face the perils and trials of that terrible time. Now
the arrival of Anti-Christ meant the end of the world, and Bacon
accepted the view, which he says was held by all wise men, that "we
are not far from the times of Anti-Christ." Thus the intellectual
reforms which he urged would have the effect, and no more, of
preparing Christendom to resist more successfully the corruption in
which the rule of Anti-Christ would involve the world. "Truth will
prevail," by which he meant science will make advances, "though with
difficulty, until Anti-Christ and his forerunners appear;" and on
his own showing the interval would probably be short.

The frequency with which Bacon recurs to this subject, and the
emphasis he lays on it, show that the appearance of Anti-Christ was
a fixed point in his mental horizon. When he looked forward into the
future, the vision which confronted him was a scene of corruption,