This image is perhaps the most scandalous of the Cranach woodcuts, because for the first time in Lutheran imagery, the pope is explicitly equated with the legendary Antichrist, cast down into Hell by a host of inventive demons. These evil beings resemble the hybrid creatures invented during this period by numerous artists, most notoriously by Hieronymus Bosch for his Hell scenes and images of the devilish torments of saints (Silver 2006). The pope is still wearing his tiara and his luxurious robes as he falls through the air. Underneath him at the bottom of the image figures of tormented souls appear as heads emerging from their surrounding flames of eternal punishment. Cranach had already anticipated this outcome in his image of the Pope on horseback behind infantry soldiers (Plate 18). The associated text from Revelation (19) describes how the apocalyptic beast was captured together with his “false prophet who worked signs in his presence,” here deemed to be the pope. Their final punishment will be meted out by the Lord “with the brightness of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8).