The Pope and The AntichristCardinal Manning's 1861 study of the papacy as the obstacle to Antichrist has never been more topical. The learned convert seems to have foreseen many details of the present crisis: religious liberty, ecumenism, national apostasy, apparent defeat of the Church. Manning argues that the apostasy of the nations of christendom and the eclipse of the papacy will usher in the reign of Antichrist.