Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages

Matthew Gabriele, James T. Palmer, Matthew Gabriele, James T. Palmer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138684027
• eBook ISBN: 9780429950414
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages provides a range of perspectives on what reformist apocalypticism meant for the formation of Medieval Europe, from the Fall of Rome to the twelfth century. It explores and challenges accepted narratives about both the development of apocalyptic thought and the way it intersected with cultures of reform to influence major transformations in the medieval world.

Bringing together a wealth of knowledge from academics in Britain, Europe and the USA this book offers the latest scholarship in apocalypse studies. It consolidates a paradigm shift, away from seeing apocalypse as a radical force for a suppressed minority, and towards a fuller understanding of apocalypse as a mainstream cultural force in history. Together, the chapters and case studies capture and contextualise the variety of ideas present across Europe in the Middle Ages and set out points for further comparative study of apocalypse across time and space.

Offering new perspectives on what ideas of 'reform' and 'apocalypse' meant in Medieval Europe, Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages provides students with the ideal introduction to the study of apocalypse during this period.

1
The Chronicle of Hydatius

A historical guidebook to the last days of the Western Roman Empire

Veronika Wieser

This chapter will reexamine the different layers of the Chronicle of Hydatius – bishop of the bustling Galician town of Aquae Flaviae for more than 40 years (427–ca. 469)¹ – and the apocalyptic thinking of the author visible in them. Building on the seminal works of Richard Burgess and Carmen Cardelle de Hartmann, we need to pay attention to the chronicle’s specific political and ecclesiastical context and connect it to late antique traditions of historical writing and apocalyptic discourse. Although Hydatius’ approach to the end of history seems to be quite straightforward, given that it was primarily founded on the calculation of the end and the nightmarish visions that would accompany it, the added value of the Chronicle’s lies in the intertextual approach the author takes to his work. His apocalyptic rhetoric was not solely connected to the interpretation of specific, outstanding political events, but formed a commentary to the historical account – in the process creating a dialogue between bible, historiography and a radically changing present. Hydatius explained the fundamental political changes of his time in the light of prophecies from the Old Testament, interpreting the destruction of all worldly powers, Roman Empire and barbarian kingdoms alike, as a process of transformation. In doing so, he also incorporates the idea of renewal and renovation into his chronicle: in the end, these kingdoms would give way to God’s promised eternal empire, old structures would perish and new ones arise (Rev 21). Hydatius’ chronicle thus allows us to gain a deeper understanding into the way one observer in the middle of the fifth century thought the end of the Roman Empire and the arrival of God’s kingdom would unfold.

Hydatius started working on his chronicle sometime in the middle of the fifth century. This account, which is the only known and extant text written by him,² was from the outset intended to be a direct continuation of Eusebius-Jerome’s chronicle, creating a monolithic compendium of about 5,670 years of world history. Starting in the year 379, with the first year of Theodosius’ consulate, Hydatius picked up exactly where Jerome had left off.³ After a short preface, which is preceded by a copy of Jerome’s calculation of world years from the birth of Abraham down to the sixth consulate of Valens, and an introduction explaining the intentions of his endeavour, Hydatius continued the chronicle until his own days, with the entries for the years 468 and 469 being its last. In his detailed account of the history of the Western Roman Empire, Hydatius connected Roman political history, vignettes of church history, biblical prophecies and different systems of reckoning with each other.⁴

His humble self-characterisation in the preface of being only ‘an uneducated servant of God’ is betrayed by his thorough understanding of history writing. Hydatius’ reflection on historical methods, sources and his awareness of his choices are reasons for Richard Burgess to praise him even as the ‘best Latin historian’⁵ writing between Ammianus Marcellinus and Gregory of Tours. However, Hydatius was not the first to continue Eusebius-Jerome, as already at the beginning of the century its first continuations had been composed.⁶ Although, in these continuations, the authors sought to follow the guidelines of their predecessors closely, their works represented independent texts all the same, with sometimes striking differences in method, structure and emphasis.⁷ Prosper of Aquitaine for instance, who composed the first known continuation in 433, removed Jerome’s calculations of Olympiads, regnal years and the years from the birth of Abraham, thus creating a new chronological structure based on the consularia tradition.⁸ Similar to earlier examples, Hydatius kept closely to the visual structure of his predecessors, which was laid out to document history as the rise and fall of mighty world empires.⁹ Adapting their chronographical models, he managed at the same time to present a different, individual approach towards history and time.¹⁰ Although in his continuation, he had copied Jerome’s calculations, which would leave 421 years from the sixth consulate of Valens until the completion of 6,000 years, Hydatius did not heed the church father’s authority on that specific matter.¹¹ Instead, Hydatius was convinced that the end of the world would take place much sooner, namely 450 years after Christ’s resurrection, 5,579 years from the creation of the world, on 27 May in 482.¹² Using Jubilees, a Jewish calculation countdown of 50 year-cycles, and another calculation system, which he derived from an apocryphal text, the apocalypse of Thomas, Hydatius was able to support his argumentation for an earlier date of the end of time.¹³ This revelation to Thomas was presented in the form of a letter from Christ to the apostle. It announced the end of the world nine jubilees after Christ’s resurrection and included a list describing the portents that would accompany this event. Eight jubilees had already passed and the end of the ninth and final one would coincide with the year 482.¹⁴

Using chronological argumentation, Hydatius’ aim was not only to provide an accurate account of the Roman Empire’s recent past, but also of the world’s last days, which he expected were drawing closer. Having closely read the prophetical books of the Old Testament canon and having studied the apocalyptic passages in the New Testament, Hydatius concluded that God’s judgement was at hand and various portents would prove its imminence.¹⁵ Against the backdrop of the politically disintegrating empire, Hydatius set a stage on which emperors, ambitious generals and their armies, bishops and heretics would act as the cast of an apocalyptic drama, which gradually unfolded hand-in-hand with the chronicle’s progress. He vividly illustrated the many tribulations the community of believers had to endure, when barbarians were ‘running wild through Spain’,¹⁶ thus painting a bleak picture of his time. The invasions of the Spanish provinces in 409, the ensuing conflicts between Roman and barbarian troops, the disunity of the Christian community in Galicia, fractioned by doctrinal disputes and ecclesiastical rivalries, and portentous astronomical phenomena, were in particular to be interpreted as apocalyptic signs.

Hydatius’ chronicle is permeated by a discourse of apocalyptic thinking, which had spread and gained in both importance and urgency over the preceding decades.¹⁷ In the increasingly Christianised world of Late Antiquity, different notions of eschatology had found their way into late Roman society. Hand-in-hand with deliberations about the future of the Christian community, apocalyptic interpretations were integrated into Late Roman political discourse, in which the end of the empire became a plausible scenario gradually taking shape in the minds of contemporaries. Earlier anti-Roman apocalyptic interpretations, which antagonised the empire and its rulers, were reappraised in late antique discussions about its stability and in its perception of its enemies.¹⁸ Already at the beginning of the fourth century, in the seventh book of his The Divine Institutes, Lactantius had engaged with various topics of apocalypse. For his detailed descriptions and explanations of end time scenarios, he worked not only with the biblical prophecies of the Book of Daniel and Revelation but also integrated Romans myths and other prophetic traditions like the Sibylline oracles, trying to ‘resolve the tension… between the providence of God and the fact of Roman power’.¹⁹ Writing under the impression of the Great Persecution of 303–313, Lactantius argued that although the Roman Empire was Christianity’s worst enemy, its end should not be desired but feared as the End Times would bring even more dreadful tribulations to the Christian community than the Roman persecutions ever had.²⁰

The empire’s continuity was no longer connected solely to military successes or failures, but could also be regarded as a portent of the consummation of the world. Goths and Huns could be understood as the apocalyptic peoples of Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38/39, or questions about the duration of the empire could be answered according to the interpretations of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in the Book of Daniel.²¹ These interpretations can especially be found in the late antique exegetical commentaries on the prophetical books of the Old Testament. Around the year 400, there was an increased interest in these specific works, which was not only reflected in the composition of new texts, including Jerome’s commentaries on Daniel and Ezekiel, but also in the re-editing, correction and updating of earlier ones, such as Victorinus of Petovio’s third-century-apocalypse commentary and Tyconius’ late fourth-century one.²² The Book of Revelation, with its dark, enigmatic visions and radical messages, had represented a considerable challenge for many renowned Christian intellectuals.²³ Augustine’s criticisms against attempts to understand this text too literally, and to use it to calculate the date of the end of the world, encapsulated one central aspect of the controversy over Revelation. His edition of Tyconius’ moral-typological reading offered an opportunity to an alternative interpretation.²⁴

A large part of late antique discussions of apocalypse, salvation and the Last Judgement, however, appears not in commentaries, but as fragments and in a variety of other genres, ranging from sermons and letters to chronicles and hagiography. Interpretations were expressed as spontaneous reactions to alarming events, like Hesychius of Salona’s questions to Augustine after the appearance of a comet in 418; as deliberations about political change, as Salvian of Marseille’s admonishments concerning God’s impending Judgement, prompted by the devastating wars and conflicts in Gaul; or as conjunction of prophetic visions and ascetic ideals as in Sulpicius Severus’ works on Martin of Tours.²⁵ Additionally, in the late fourth century, as members of Rome’s aristocracy started to embrace ascetic ideals, questions of wealth and salvation as well as fear of the Last Judgement were openly expressed as reasons for conversion and moral reform.²⁶ The examples of Paulinus, later bishop of Nola, and Melania the Elder are particularly reflective of this debate, taking place among the converted Roman upper classes over their new Christian identities. Their examples accentuate the connection between asceticism, questions about the redemption of the soul and apocalyptic expectations.

In contrast to these vignettes of apocalyptic thought, Hydatius’ chronicle is a single coherent and lengthy historical account discussing God’s presence in the world. Arguing from a historical perspective, Hydatius drafted a Christian history from its beginning to what he believed would be its eventual, biblical end. Embedding apocalyptic messages into Christian historiography, especially the chronicle’s entries from 450 onwards can be read as a real-time manifestation of biblical prophecies. According to the passage in the preface where he instructed his ‘successors’ to continue his task of documenting the Last Days ‘at that time at which they encounter them’,²⁷ Hydatius was not only expecting the End Times, he was already living in ‘the time of the end’.²⁸ He had come to this realisation gradually, as he observed political events unfold around him.

Comparing Hydatius’ continuation with Eusebius’ and Jerome’s works, their different outlooks on the future of the empire become apparent. Whereas, at the beginning of the fourth century, Eusebius’ chronicle ends with a vision of a triumphant Christian church, shortly after what would be perceived as the last persecution of Christians under a Roman emperor, Jerome’s choice of ending appears to be more ambivalent.²⁹ Writing in 380/1, shortly after Valens’ disastrous defeat at the battle of Adrianople, Jerome’s outlook for the future is suffused with doubts about the successful development of the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Abbreviations
• Notes on contributors
• Introduction: reform and the beginning of the end
• 1 The chronicle of Hydatius: a historical guidebook to the last days of the Western Roman Empire
• 2 To be found prepared: eschatology and reform rhetoric ca. 570–ca. 640
• 3 The final countdown and the reform of the liturgical calendar in the early Middle Ages
• 4 Apocalypse and reform in Bede’s De die iudicii
• 5 Creating futures through the lens of revelation in the rhetoric of the Carolingian Reform ca. 750 to ca. 900
• 6 Eschatology and reform in early Irish law: the evidence of Sunday legislation
• 7 Apocalypse, eschatology and the interim in England and Byzantium in the tenth and eleventh centuries
• 8 Apocalypticism and the rhetoric of reform in Italy around the year 1000
• 9 This time. Maybe this time. Biblical commentary, monastic historiography, and Lost Cause-ism at the turn of the first millennium
• 10 Against the silence: twelfth-century Augustinian reformers confront apocalypse
• 11 Afterword
• Index