The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). (original) (raw)
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This thesis examines how apocalyptic thought was understood, interpreted and portrayed in late-medieval England. Apocalypticism in this area and time has been underexplored compared to on the continent, where responses to anxieties regarding the end of time resulted in violence. In addressing this historiographical gap, this thesis draws on a multitude of source materials, including biblical commentaries, prophecies, illuminations, wall paintings, stonework, and stained glass. The thesis considers a series of case studies which reveal a variety of experiences and engagements with apocalyptic thought. The first chapter examines the Westminster Apocalypse to see how the apocalypse was portrayed within the Latin commentary tradition and how it may have been understood by its aristocratic audience. The second chapter discusses three prophetic texts to examine how prophecy intersected with apocalyptic thought, particularly among the clergy. The third chapter traces the circulation of the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius throughout late medieval England, assessing how it was adapted for new and varying audiences. The final chapter considers a range of visual material about the end of the world, providing a glimpse into how communities, particularly poorer, uneducated and illiterate ones, engaged with apocalyptic thought. This research shows that apocalyptic thought involved both the reshaping of older texts for new audiences and the creation of new materials. Such creations often provided a means for people to examine the world around them, as well as a way of improving their chance of reaching salvation. This thesis also demonstrates that the end of the world often intersected with how people viewed contemporary politics, religion and societal issues. In turn, it provided a basis in which individuals could understand their place in the history of both England and Christianity.
WAITING FOR THE END? APOCALYPTICISM, HERESIES, PAX DEI AND INVASIONS AROUND ANNO DOMINI 1000
The article discusses mass millenarian and apocalyptic attitudes and expectations around Anno Domini 1000. Despite the fact that a number of written sources have painted a vivid picture of apocalyptic and millenarian sentiments, no answer has been provided to the question of the root cause of such sentiments, that is, the factors that gave rise to them on the eve of, and following, Anno Domini 1000. The author argues that the outburst of millenarian and apocalyptic moods was just " the tip of the iceberg " of the mass insecurity and fear which had been around for generations and were recorded by some chroniclers. The uncertainty and fear resulted from foreign invasions, rising anarchy and the lack of strong authority and order in most of western Europe. Therefore the question of apocalyptic sentiments can be approached not in terms of spiritual and religious attitudes only, but as a desperate outburst of fear. The author concludes that instead of the popular name " Time of The End, " the decades around 1000 AD could be defined as " Time of Fear. " The fear in question operated at both the personal and social levels and affected souls and bodies alike.
Revising the Revelation: Early Modern Appropriations of Medieval Apocalypticism
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by New England Congregationalist minister Michael Wigglesworth, a Calvinist representation of Judgment Day. First published in Boston in 1662, The Day of Doom went through multiple editions (the first two of which are extant only in fragments, described as being literally read to
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This essay considers scholarly typologies and definitions of apocalyptic in the light of the evidence of emergent Christ religion of the first five centuries, as well as their intersections with emergent Jewish literature. It argues that this literature represents a diverse body of literature that can understood well by application of Deleuze and Guattari's notion of the rhizome. What scholars today call apocalyptic represents a diverse field of possibilities, institutional configurations, applications of tradition, reuse and cannibalization of earlier texts, as well as diverse material productions. In short, the essay rehearses a wide spectrum of evidence considered under various aspects and cultural situations in order to champion interpretation that moves beyond scholarly strictures to consider the multiple lives of apocalyptic in antiquity.
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In medieval Europe manuscripts circulated widely a fact well studied by philologists and palaeographers. However, the case of illustrated manuscripts has been much examined less often, especially in view of their longterm development. In the following this question will be discussed using the examples of illustrated Apocalypses and Apocalypse commentaries. Explicit Apocalypse images first turn up in fifthcentury monumental art in Rome, as for instance in the apse mosaic of Santa Pudenziana, showing the enthroned Christ in the midst of the Apostles against the panorama of the Heavenly Jerusalem with the four Living Crea tures and a huge triumphal cross. 1 This emergence of Apocalypse images seems to have been facilitated by the spiritualisticallegorical exegesis of Tyconius and Augustine which had neutralized the apocalyptical message of the imminent arrival of the end of times. 2 Probably not much later, Apocalypse manuscripts also started to be illustrated. Though none of these