SEVENTH DIVISION. ESCHATOLOGY. § 202. MILLENNARIANISM. THE APPROACHING END OF THE WORLD. THOUGH Millennarianism (Chiliasm) had been suppressed by the earlier Church, it was nevertheless from time to time revived by the heretical sects of the present age. Millennarian notions were propounded in the prophecies of Joachim, Abbot of Flore, and the Evangelium æternum of the Fratricelli, which was based upon his works.' The dynasty of the Father and the Son was to be followed by the golden age-viz., the dynasty of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, the almost universal expectation of the approaching end of the world, which was to take place about the year 1000, was founded upon a too literal interpretation of Scripture, rather than upon Millennarian enthusiasm. A similar expectation repeatedly manifested itself at other important epochs of the middle ages. It was connected with the expectation of Antichrist, concerning whom several theologians adventured various suggestions, while many of those who were enemies to the Romish hierarchy, thought that he was none other than the Pope himself. This view was transmitted to the age of the Reformation. 'Admiranda Expositio venerabilis Abbatis Joachimi in librum Apocalypsis b. Joannis Apostoli et Evangelistæ.-Liber Concordia Novi ac Veteris Testamenti Psalterium decem Chordarum-Interpretatio in Jeremiam Prophetam. Comp. Engelhardt, kirchenhistor. Abhandlungen, p. 1, 150. Lücke, Einleitung in die Offenbarung Johannis, p. 519.-Gieseler, ii. § 70, p. 433. -On the Fatricelli who originally belonged to the order of the Franciscan monks but were excommunicated in the 14th century, comp, Gieseler, ii. 439, iii. 119, 173. [Friederich on Joachim, and the commentaries on Isaiah and Jerem. in Zeitschrift f. Wiss. Theol., 1859. Communicated by Baur.] 2 ' Compare Engelhardt and Lücke, as above, The first status lasts 5000 years (from Adam to Christ), the second lasts 1000 years, from Christ to the commencement of the last age of the world. This last age is the seventh sabbatical period of a thousand years, Joachim further divided the ages of the world into forty-two generations (ætates) after the forty-two periods in the genealogy of Christ, etc. "It was a prevailing tradition among commentators, that the period of a thousand years, spoken of in Rev. xx., commenced with the manifestation, or the passion of Christ, and that the establishment of the Christian Church was to be regarded as the first resurrection, and the first epoch of the kingdom of a thousand years. This interpretation, which had been adopted in the West, especially from the time of Augustine, had the advantage of precluding the fancies of millennarian enthusiasts, and accustoming the minds of Christians to a more spiritual apprehension of the Apocalypse. But the tradition of the Church had not decided whether the computation of the thousand years was to be founded upon the common system of chronology, or whether that number was to be looked upon as an apocalyptical symbol. Inasmuch as the literal interpretation of the numbers was generally adopted by the common mind, notwithstanding all allegorical conceits, the notion began to spread in the Christian world with the approach of the year 1000—that, in accordance with Scripture, the millennial kingdom would come to a close at the completion of the first period of a thousand years after Christ: that, further, Antichrist would then appear, and the end of the world take place." Lücke, loc. cit. pp. 514, 515. On the commotions which happened at that time in the Church, comp. Trithemii Chronic. Hirsaug, ad ann. 960. Glaber Radulphus, Hist. sui Temp. Lib. iv. c. 6 (in Duchesne, Scriptt. Francorum T. iv. p. 22, ss.) Schmid, Geschichte des Mysticismus im Mittellalter, p. 89. Gieseler, ii. p. 159. The crusades were also connected with millennarian expectations, see Corrodi, ii. p. 522, ss., Schmid, 1. c.-When, in the course of the fourteenth century, the plague, famine, and other divine punishments, reminded men of the uncertainty of all that is earthly, and signs were seen in the heavens, it was especially the Flagellantes who announced that the end of the world was nigh at hand; the same was done by Martin Loquis a native of Moravia, and priest of the Taborites, see Schröckh, xxxiv. p. 687. [Comp. Hecker, Epidemics of Middle Ages, Lond., 1846, and R. D. Hitchcock, in Am. Theol. Review, i. 241, sq.] nun. Comp. John Damascenus De Fide Orthod. iv. 26. Elucidarium c. 68.* It was a current opinion during the middle ages, that Antichrist would either be brought forth by a virgin, or be the offspring of a bishop and a About the year 950, Adso, a monk in a monastery of western Franconia, wrote a treatise on Antichrist, in which he assigned a later time to his coming, and also to the end of the world (see Schröckh, Kirchengesch. xxi. p. 243.) He did not distinctly state whom he understood by Antichrist. For a time it was thought that Mohammed was the Antichrist. He was thus designated by Pope Innocent III. (A. D. 1213.) The numeral 666 indicated the period of his dominion, which was therefore now about to come to an end. The antichristian prophets spoken of in the book of Revelation, were thought to denote the heresy which spread, with increased rapidity, from the close of the twelfth century. On the other hand, during the strug * Concerning this work, which was formerly ascribed to Anselm, see Schrōckh, xxviii. p. 427. gles of the German emperors with the popes, it happened more than once that the former applied the title Antichrist to the latter; we find instances of this as early as the times of the Hohenstaufen. Emperor Lewis, surnamed the Bavarian, also called Pope John XXII. the mystical Antichrist (Schröckh xxxi. p. 108). The fanatical secs of the middle ages agreed, for the most part, in giving that name to the popes. Thus Amalrich of Bena taught: Quia Papa esset Antichristus et Roma Babylon et ipse sedet in monte Oliveti, i. e. in pinguedine potestatis (according to Cæsarius of Heisterbach), comp. Engelhardt, kirchenhistorische Abhandlungen, p. 256. The same was done by the Spirituales, etc., see Engelhardt, l. c. pp. 4, 56, 78, 88; Lücke, 1. c. pp. 520, 521. Even Wycliffe agreed with them (Trialogus, quoted by Schröckh, xxxiv. p. 509), as well as his disciples, Lewis Cobham (ibid. p. 557), and Janow: Liber de Antichristo et membrorum eius anatomia (in Historia et Monumento Joh. Huss. P. i. p. 423-464, quoted by Schröckh, 1. c. p. 572).-Most of the orthodox theologians, e. g., Thomas Aquinas, were opposed to all literal interpretation of the Apocalypse. On the other hand, there were some, such as Roger Bacon, who delighted in apocalyptical interpretations, and calculations of the time of Antichrist; see his Opus Majus ed. Jebb. p. 169. Lücke, 1. c. p. 522. § 203. THE INFLUENCE OF MEDIEVAL TENDENCIES AND OF CHRISTIAN ART UPON ESCHATOLOGY. The tendency of the age manifested itself in the works of Christian art,' in which those subjects were preferred which had reference to the doctrine of the last things. While the hymn "Dies ira," sounded the terrors of the general judgment into the ears and heart of Christendom, painters were employed in keeping alive a remembrance of the end of all things, by their representations of the dances of death, and of the general judgment;' and Dante disclosed in his Divina Commedia the worlds of hell, purgatory,. and paradise." There was an evident action and reaction between these works of imagination on the one hand, and the subtle reasonings and definitions of the scholastics on the other, so that the one may be explained by the other. 1 Thus most of the magnificent cathedrals on the continent were built at that very time, when the end of all things was supposed to be nigh at hand; see Gieseler, ii. § 27, note 8. The author of it was Thomas of Cellano; see Lisco, Dies Iræ, Hymnus auf das Weltgericht, Berlin, 1840. 4. [See Gieseler, ii. 416, notes 4, 5; 506, note 3. A collection of different versions by Dr. Coles, published in New York, 1860. Mohnike, kirchen-und literarhist. Studien. Stralsund. 1834.] ⚫ Grüneisen, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Beurtheilung der Todtentänze (im Kunstblatte zum Morgenblatt. 1830, No. 22-26,) and his Nicholas Manuel, p. 73. Dante Alighieri was born A. D. 1265, and died A. D. 1321. (As a theologian he belonged to the school of Thomas Aquinas.) There are German translations of his Divina Comedia by Streckfuss, Philalethes, Gusek, Kopisch, and others. [The Vision, or Hell, Pugatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri. Translated by the Rev. H. T. Cary, A.M., Lond., a new edit., 1847. F. X. Wegele, Dante's Leben, Jena, 1852. E. Magnier, Dante et le moyen âge, Paris, 1860. M. Fauriel, Dante, etc., 2, Paris, 1854. Recent Translations of D., Christ. Remembrancer, April, 1857; Westminster Review, Jan., 1861, (sixteen English versions noticed). R. de Vericour, Life and Times of Dante, Lond., 1858. Count Cesare Balbo, Life and Times of Dante, transl. by J. F. Bunbury, 2. 8vo., Lond., 1852. Besides the above version of Cary, there have been published in English, translations of the Commedia by C. B. Cayley, 1854; P. Bannerman (Edinburgh), 1850; J. C. Wright, 1845; H. C. Jennings; F. Pollock, 1854; E. O'Donnell, 1852; T. Brooksbank, 1854; H. Boyd, 1802; J. W. Thomas, 1850. The Inferno was translated by J. Dayman, 1843; C. A. Carlyle, 1840; T. W. Parsons, Boston, 1843; Bruce Whyte, 1859.] § 204. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. The resurrection of the human body, with all its component parts, was, from the time of Jerome and Augustine, regarded as the orthodox doctrine of the Catholic Church. John Scotus Erigena adopted the earlier notions of Origen,' but his views did not obtain the approbation of the Catholic Church. On the other hand, the Bogomiles, Cathari, and other heretical sects, revived the erroneous notion of the Gnostics, who, looking upon matter as the seat of sin, rejected the resurrection of the body. Moneta, a Dominican monk, defended the ecclesiastical doctrine in opposition to the Cathari.' It was then further developed into particulars by the scholastics, especially by Thomas Aquinas, with many strange conjectures respecting the nature of the resurrection-body.' The theologians of the Greek Church held more closely to Scripture and the received tradition of the Church. 1 4 ' De Div. Nat. iv. 12, 13, p. 193: Omne siquidem quod in mundo ex mundo compositum incipit esse, necesse est resolvi et cum mundo interire. Necessarium erat exterius ac materiale corpus solvi in ea elementa, ex quibus assumtum est: non autem necessarium perire, quoniam ex Deo erat, manente semper interiori illo et incommutabiliter stante in suis rationibus, secundum quas cum anima et in anima et per animam et propter animam constitutum est. Quoniam vero illius corporis materialis atque solubilis manet in anima species, non solum illo vivente, verum etiam post ejus solutionem et in elementa mundi reditum...... Est enim exterius et materiale corpus signaculum interioris, in quo forma animæ exprimitur, et per hoc forma ejus rationabiliter appellatur. Et ne me existimes duo corpora naturalia in uno homine docere: verum enim est corpus, quo connaturaliter et consubstantialiter animæ compacto homo conficitur. Illud siquidem materiale quod est superadditum, rectius vestimentum quoddam mutabile et corruptibile veri ac naturalis corporis accipitur, quam verum corpus: non enim verum est, quod semper non manet (Aug.)...... Inde fit, quod semper non simpliciter, sed cum additamento aliquo ponitur corpus mortale vel corruptibile vel terrenum vel animale, ad discretionem ipsius simplicis corporis, quod primitus in homine editum est, et quod futurum est.-Compare ii. 23, p. 71: Semel enim et simul animas nostras et corpora in Paradiso conditor creavit, corpora dico cœlestia, spiritualia, qualia post resurrectionem futura sunt. Tumida namque corpora, mortalia, corruptibilia, quibus nunc opprimimur, non ex natura, sed ex delicto occasionem ducere, non est dubitandum. Quod ergo naturæ ex peccato adolevit, eo profecto renovata in Christo, et in pristinum statum restituta, carebit. Non enim potest naturæ esse coæternum, quod ei adhæret propter peccatum. ร The Beguines are said to have asserted, quod mortuo corpore hominis solus spiritus vel anima hominis redibit ad eum, unde exivit, et cum eo sic reunietur, quod nihil remanebit, nisi quod ab æterno fuit Deus; quoted by Mosheim, pp. 257, 258, compare § 206, note 9.-On the notions of the Bogomiles, see Engelhardt, kirchenhistorische Abhandlungen, pp. 187, 188. Summa adv. Catharos, Lib. iv. Cap. 7, § 1. • Peter Lombard, Sent. Lib. iv. Dist. 43, ss. (he follows for the most part Augustine's Enchiridion), and Hugo of St. Victor de Sacram. ii. 1, 19. The former still modestly expresses himself as follows: Omnibus quæstionibus, quæ de hac re moveri solent, satisfacere non valeo. • These definitions are also for the most part founded upon Augustine (comp. vol. i. § 140.) All men will die previous to the general resurrection (on account of original sin).; the resurrection will probably take place towards evening, for the heavenly bodies which rule over all earthly matter must first cease to move. Sun and moon will then meet again in that point where they were probably created. The resurrection will take place suddenly in relation to the effects produced by the divine power; it will be gradual in relation to the part the angels will have in it. Thomas Aquinas denied that dust and ashes have a natural tendency to re-unite themselves to the souls to which they were united in this world (a kind of pre established harmony), but supposed that no other matter would rise from the grave, than what existed at the moment of death. If that substance were to rise again which has been consumed during the present life, it would form a most unshapely mass.-According to Qu. 81, those who are raised from the dead, will be in the ætas juvenilis, quæ inter decrementum et incrementum constituitur. The difference of sexes will continue to exist, but without sensual appetites. All the organs of sense will still be active, with the exception of the sense of taste. It is, however, possible that even the latter |