The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages

by James T. Palmer

This groundbreaking study reveals the distinctive impact of apocalyptic ideas about time, evil and power on church and society in the Latin West, c.400–c.1050. Drawing on evidence from late antiquity, the Frankish kingdoms, Anglo-Saxon England, Spain and Byzantium and sociological models, James Palmer shows that apocalyptic thought was a more powerful part of mainstream political ideologies and religious reform than many historians believe. Moving beyond the standard 'Terrors of the Year 1000', The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages opens up broader perspectives on heresy, the Antichrist and Last World Emperor legends, chronography, and the relationship between eschatology and apocalypticism. In the process, it offers reassessments of the worlds of Augustine, Gregory of Tours, Bede, Charlemagne and the Ottonians, providing a wide-ranging and up-to-date survey of medieval apocalyptic thought. This is the first full-length English-language treatment of a fundamental and controversial part of medieval religion and society.

Genres: History, Religion

270 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[José Simões · Rating 4 out of 5]

Há uns tempos escrevia Frederico Lourenço na sua página de Facebook qualquer coisa como: «prefiro a escrita académica desempoeirada dos ingleses ao hermetismo dos franceses». A citação não é textual porque não vou ver onde li isso. Mas, seja como for, estou certo de que FL não leu este livro, o que, com muita probabilidade o teria feito mudar de ideias. Há aqui muito rigor na análise e na síntese, rodos de erudição a fluir pelas notas de rodapé e algum fulgor juvenil (sabendo que não é jovem o autor) na apresentação de certas noções ('Y6K' para significar «ano seis mil»). Acontece, porém, que mesmo para um livro académico - e ele os há que se conseguem ler de uma penada - não estimula a leitura. Por vários motivos: a escrita não é brilhante nem literária (não tinha de o ser), mas nisso os livros dos historiadores franceses quase sempre são mais eficazes. Não se trata só de passar a mensagem e de deslindar os temas, trata-se de os apresentar de um modo interessante - não apenas útil. (Levanta-se aqui a questão de se nas Humanidades os investigadores devem escrever bem, ou só escrever. Afinal, há sempre alguém que os lê. São outras questões, porém.) Ainda assim, claro, todo o livro é bastante erudito e de um equilibrismo difícil - e eficaz -, que será bastante útil para muitos outros medievalistas. E poderá ser igualmente interessante para quem, não sendo historiador ou medievalista, se interesse pelo tema. E terá toda a razão quem disser o contrário, que o livro se lê bem e tal. Mas vejamos, haverá um motivo para que as grandes celebridades do mundo da História nos cheguem invariavelmente da francofonia...

[Reading Through the Lists · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a course on medieval apocalyptic thought; our professor recommended it to us as a useful guide for the semester, a sort of tour-de-apocalypse. This being my first time studying the subject, I found Palmer's book tremendously helpful in assisting to give a fairly clear overview of changes in eschatology from about 300 to 1000 A.D. As becomes clear in the work, this was a time of enormous change in Christian thought, society, kingship, empire, and apocalyptic expectation. The corpus of source material is massive, but Palmer does an admirable job of keeping things straight and, most importantly, tying the significance of the works back to the main theme which is that "apocalypse made sense of things and conceptualised history. It offered a language which could be used to direct situations."
This mentality is an important one to keep as it enables the reader to see things from the perspectives of the people living at the time, to think their thoughts, rather than to believe that everyone who expected the apocalypse was a religious fanatic expecting the sky to cave in at any second or else a puritanical bishop trying to keep everyone in check. As Palmer shows, the idea of the apocalypse was a very complex one evolving over a long period of time in many different places, each of which brought their own situation and concerns to the table. In short, apocalyptic thought isn't just about how people thought the world would end, it's how they engaged with their world in the present, and that in itself makes for a fascinating study.
The book is a dense one, with lots of footnotes and sources listed, and this combined with my obsessive note-taking made for slow going; there were also times when the thread of Palmer's arguments seemed to disappear and I had to fall back on lectures and seminars to understand the "plot" of the period. The book is still worth a read on its own, but if you are taking a course on apocalyptic thought and can elaborate on the events discussed, then enjoy and certainly keep this one by the bedside table.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite the complicated work. Not just because of the subject matter, which is itself ranks high on difficulty, but because of its style: it appears to be, essentially, a review of the literature which has studied the issue of the Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages in English and German. Considering that I have never heard of any of the modern names involved, much less read their works, the entire book left me feeling a little out of place, but the interest which I possess regarding the theme - as I view it, the irrationality of 'The End is Nigh!' sentimentality - kept me going through a chapter a day.

I do not regret reading it, for it painted an image of the era which seems to be thoroughly overlooked in other works on the age: for instance, I have oh so often read about Pope Gregory seeing the Angles in the slave market in Rome and commenting how they ought rightly be termed "Angels", and that this set in motion the Pope's sponsoring of missionary work into Britannia - HOWEVER, never has it come up that this was an ecclesiological imperative; without this missionary work being done amongst all the people of the world, prophecy could not be fulfilled, which turns the entire notion of early medieval missions on its head for me, from being something relatively altruistic (though, obviously, something which would guarantee more income and power for the Church) to something completely selfish: the desire to bring about the end of the world and found the kingdom of Christ on Earth. Such things like this gave the work an eye-opening quality which makes me glad to have read it, and thus my 4 star rating.

[Hall's Bookshop · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense scholarly work making a very strong case for viewing apocalypticism during the middle ages on a case-by-case basis. Palmer constantly takes pains to avoid broad-brush statements, except to stress that Judgement Day was one of the defining elements of Christianity, and thus always a consideration in the mediaeval mind, if not always politically significant. All this makes for a lively selection of theological anecdotes, but will leave those seeking a narrative unsatisfied.

JM 4/3/16

[Stuart Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and detailed examination of the interplay of apocalyptic thought and politics from the days of the Church Fathers up to, roughly, Y1K. A lot of the time-period covered I know little about (Carolingian Europe), but it nevertheless held my interest (I love all things eschatological, though).