The Pursuit of the Millennium REVOLUTIONARY MILLENARIANS AND MYSTICAL ANARCHISTS OF THE MIDDLE AGES Revised and expanded edition Norman Cohn OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORKseappestng ya ma of evdcce. Int min i san saben candi besa dal terse ea Wh st ra fe wo nd ech ‘have of course been indicated. eee 1 The Tradition of Apocalyptic Prophecy Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic ‘The raw material out of which a revolutionary eschatology was ‘gradually bul up dusing he later Middle Ages consisted of a mis- Ecllmeous collection of prophecies inherited fom the ancient ‘world. Originally all these prophecies were devices by which Teligious groups, at fest Jewish and later Christin, consoled, foriied and asserted themslves when confronted by the test oF the responsibilty oa them, an obligation to chow juice and mere ia thet dealings with ll men. In tee view Ina’ cvinely appointed fae was oenghten the Genes and so carry the ends ofthe earth. But alongside this etc i feted soother which became ever more arcative asthe fervour ‘of an ancient nationalism was subjected to the shock and strain of| repeated defeats, deporations and disper. Preiely because ‘ey were so utterly certin of being the Chosen People, Jews pprescion and hardship by pantaies of ‘he total cmp and boundless prosperity which Yabwel, out 96, Denothing ls thane new Eden, Paradise re eel of Yahweh the Chosen People snes, 4. Boca eed aden sdby aDay of Yatwel, wea, changed wiaen inthe second century 2c, Palestine passed into the hands ofthe dynasty ofthe Seleucid. Tse Jews thern- ish apocalypic exercised, through is upon the discontented and frustrated ofaterages~and contiaued 0 do so long afer the Jews themselves dad forgoren its very existence. ‘From the annexation of Palestine by Pompey in 63 .¢. dowa to the war of ap. 6672 the sugges of the Jews against thls newBustimic Kingdom on earch. And they conden expected that Kingdom to la, whether fora thoysaad years or for a inion etiod. [Like the Jews, che Christians sufered oppression and 10 keby affrmiag ever more vigorouly, we te selves their uth in the imminence of the mentees {Beir wrongs would be sighted and their enemies cast'lowa We fats provincial priesthood which demanded dine hesor's forthe Emperor: coming ofthe Kingdom: the New Jena from the heavens on 19 Phrygian sol, wh gly summoaed all Chistias to Phrygia, there to await the Second Coming, in ang snd prayer and biter repentance. Spi Lou emetic eng sta before hi, wish whic he decved oe be mack ofthe het and dam she wentie i persecution; and when, from the year 277 onwards, Christians ‘were being once again perveaned in many pro Empire, Montanism suddenly ceaved to be me of the New Jerusalem wat unchaken; and this was ‘Tecllia, the most famous theologian inthe Westsubapostolic age expected — and ‘what moreover they could Delewe Chaist himself ro have expected: wr Toni dont oda th te vison whch (te dal) Se ya ‘Show oft Peoples Cries lay tosh ‘owe nine centres te ‘key tld tad Jruslem, 1 epctng te Seon wel the Monaaise on this earth, forthe benefit both ofthe sightoous dea, who are o be resunecied, and ofthe rightous living, And the reson which he gives for his great interests showe any rate some educated and earnest Christians of he reinforce the a ‘a bloody vengeance on theed morning ad everg, and te exh t's labour. Honey in abundance sll of mle and wine shal burst fork The yd nen wd bec ue. blooded. For God shall sappy randant ad gules food oe I's inthe pages of Commodiams, a very inferior Latin poet of (probably) the Sth ent o usual fregace Ages. For according beat the bead not of the favours thu lavished upon Bees 0 the morther parts and remus at the head of an ary of fllowess ly those colleevely a8 Gog and sid co have imprison by the angels of God and cast into bell his capraine are reduced the slaves of the Holy People and eo, ite, imaging, marrying and begening, uaaificed by rain or cold, while all round them a perpenlly rejuvenated ear pours for iis fie. The apocalyptic tradition in medieval Europe ‘The tied conary sw the first atempt to diss ‘when Origen, peshaps the most infvential ofa of believers. Fora collective, rallenavin eschatology Origen sub- stimted an eschatology of the individval soul. Wit stirred bis Hellenic imagination was the prospect of spisitual ia this world and continued in the next; and 10 this theme theologians were henceforth 29 give in en son. Such a shift in inceest was indeed sdnsirably suited to wht ‘was now sn organized Church, enjoying almost uninterrupted ‘peace and an acknowledged posiion in the world. When in the fourth century Christianity stained a position the Mediterranean world and became the oficisl Empire, ecclesiastical disapproval of aillenaiaism became em pati. Tie Catholic Church was now 3 ‘and prosperous isimation, funeiouing according to a welhesablished routines ‘and the men responsible for governing it had no with 10 soe (Cristian clinging 0 out-dsted and inappropriate dreams of new cantly Paradise. Easy in the fifth cenzury St Augustine pro- pounded the docuine which the new conditions demanded. According to The City of God the Book of Revelation was to be ‘nderstod asa spictual allegory; as for tbe Millennium, tht had Dbegun with the bir of Christy and was fully realized inthe Church. This st once became orthodox docrze. Now the very fact that the eminendy respectable Irenaeus could have regarded such a belief as an indispensable pare of oxthodony was fst to be intolerble, Determined efforts were made to suppress the mall trian chapters of his tresise gains Herenix, sad 10 such good fect that it was only in 1575 that they were rediscovered in a 3figure of the Roman Eraperor. Thanks to them, in the imagina- tion of Christians for more saa a thousand year’ che gure ofthe ‘warrior-Crist was doubled by another, tha of the Exper of the Last "The oldest of the Sibylines known to madieval Europe was the ‘Tikwring, which in its Christian form dates ftom the middle of the Empire war divided Decween the two surviving sons of Constantines Consass L who ‘who ruled in the East, Sees the cal ulumph of Chrisdsnity. ‘The lays waste the cices of the heschen and destoys the . He summons the heathen themselves heathen who refuse 10 be conversed sre converted and when this happens forth in glory. The twenty-two ke hmudinous es the a ecime. Te was therefore Christianity sys and sends the Archangel 60 at las the way lies open for ic, Ce sod proc Se Gan Sante a the mee Lng Ate any te ‘he Sigae of the Emper of he Last Day node forthe Styilines continued to attach an eschatological to the ‘Set time by the Tiurzing, looms sill larger inthe Sibyline known » a8 the Peeudo- Meads, This prophecy, which al pry ‘rin 2 to Syrian Chestians in their galing and sll uae as a minority under Saari Moslem rule. Te opens with a surey of from the dictated the pronouncements of dominant Sgures ia the Church, Gardea of Eden to Alexander and then pases atone bound co the tuthor’s own time. Under the guise of prophecy of things ell {0 cowe itdeserbes how the Ishmaslies, once deflated by Gideon, snoas and guns sch a0 St Bomard aad ounce even popes and exper reguded ws vinta, Noreover ty proved innly adap cosy ete! an rmerpreted St he condone and ape to the preoespations cf the omeat, they exered a all ines forthe cenvng of tao ‘moral fran uaqucsiosbl foes of tie re, Aedy wien iowa tothe West werein Lain and theiore = iy desks, some Inowiedge of thir papert, Feoetaed evento the lowes sous ofthe hy. From the fee {eso cetiry onwards estos began o appa ate various European languge, and wen pening war irene thse a Indore were amongst the Sst books tobe pnted. Atte very close ofthe Middle Ags, wen the fare and hopes which Sot Shaped ke Sine popes lays thousand yes acd more the pass thse books were beng seal and saded eery= wes. The Johanne wadiion* tele of one wae saviour wis 0 snd here the prophecy forthe first tine realy venrures {sto th furore ~ just when the simation is worse dan fas ever ules, ourishes as never before. But thea the hosts of Gog and Magog bretk out, bringing universal devastation and txzon unl God sends a ceptan ofthe heavenly hose who destroys them ia a Sash, The Emperor journeys to Jerusalem, there to await the ‘appearance of Antichrist. When ‘worshipped; so hat he as God showing himself tat he is Godwonders which the fie Sauan be will deoeive the wer aed and disgust, had been troubling Europeans for many censuses before, ver any lack of monarchs Segres of sincerity or eynicim, to these pers ‘West both French and German dynasies exploited the Sibylline ‘prophecies to support ther claims to primacy, at Se Byoutine ‘Emperors had dose before them inthe Has. sigs’ locked bad rulers, el dscord, ‘ru, doughs fing plague, comes, sudden dea of prominent {eons and tn incense in general fulnes there was aver sy