Geronimo de Mendieta died on July 9, 1604. He was a Franciscan
missionary, working in Mexico and South America, who believed that
native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel and that King Philip II
of Spain was the "Last World Emperor".
The concept of a Last
World Emperor may be unfamiliar today, but it was a popular notion
dating to the early Middle Ages (its first use has been traced to the
7th-century "Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius"). Although a normal human,
the Last World Emperor was expected to reunite the Roman Empire and
oppose the rising forces of Satan on Earth. These events would prepare
for the appearance of the Antichrist and his defeat by the returned
Jesus.
