Antichrist baby discovered in Iraq

In the 1500s, the Fugger banking house was the biggest company in the world, lending vasts sums to the monarchs of Europe and reaping the profits from gold and silver mines on multiple continents. Running a global financial empire requires up-to-date information, so the Fuggers gathered whatever news they could. Whether it was reports from their agents overseas, newspapers, or just silly gossip, it all got gathered in their library and was preserved to this day. Some of it was translated for a book that apparently was required reading for some college class here in the 1960s because there's a billion used copies floating around.

There's a lot of juicy stuff in there, like the titilating tale of the Queen of Poland's affair with a gigolo. And there's a lot of brushes with the supernatural. There's alchemy, witchcraft, blood rain, apparitions in the sky, all kinds of stuff. Here's my favorite one, the birth of the Antichrist. I've tried to type it out verbatim except adding paragraph breaks. (page 202-203)

From Venice, the 14th day of April 1592.

This week a News-letter has been circulated here which is said to have been written by the Grand Master of Malta and divers other Christian princes. This News-letter reports that in a certain province of Babylon there has been born to a woman of evil repute a child whose father is unknown. The child is reported to be covered in cat's hair and to be a dreadful sight. It began to talk eight days after its birth and to walk after a month. It is said to have intimated that it is the Son of God.

At its birth the sun grew dark at midday and on the previous night a mighty flame of fire appeared above the house. Many mountains opened, and in one of these there was a column covered with Hebrew script reading: "This is the hour of my birth!" On the next day there fell from Heaven a goodly quantity of manna and precious stones; at other places, howsoever, snakes and other horrible creatures. When the child was questioned as to the meaning of this, it made answer: that the precious stones stand for the supreme delight of those who will keep his commandments, the snakes for the martyrdom and castigation of the disobedient.

Adoration of this infant has already begun because it has performed great miracles, awakening the dead and making the blind to see and the lame to walk. The populace is being encouraged by a bare-footed friar, who alleges that this is the true Son of God. For the sake of brevity I must omit further reports which do not sound very credible. It is said that the Rabbis have come to the conclusion that this is the Child of Perdition, the Antichrist.