1000 AD The Year Of The Apocalypse

Many of the Letters of Paul or the Apocalypse – supposedly of John, in the New Testament – convey the feeling of the near culmination of time. After the Ascension of Christ, an surely early coming would begin the Final Judgment. The truth is that the biblical times of God are not those of men, and of course in our eyes the end of all things was not so imminent.

Throughout history there are many who, supported by these texts, have assured a near Apocalypse, but perhaps none with as much predicament as those who announced it around the year Thousand. Perhaps its popularity was due to the superstition of the round number, perhaps to the perception of an increase in evils and dangers, perhaps to political and religious change, surely because of all these things at once.

Christendom, ravaged by its enemies

One of the tests of the end of the world would be the extermination and persecution of the flock of God. Many would be in charge of this at the end of the 10th century. Of all the pagan peoples that still ravaged Christendom, those who could most evoke the Apocalypse were, without a doubt, the invincible Magyar horsemen in Hungary. Nor were the bloodthirsty Vikings who ravaged England, ignoring the Peace of God, any less terrifying.

Mohammedan apocalypse?

While some areas of Europe were vulnerable to these two pagan peoples, there was a pervasive evil that posed the greatest threat to the Church. Muslim was the Egyptian Fatimid caliph who ordered the destruction of hundreds of Coptic temples in his domains, once fertile for Christ. Muslims were the Bedouins who looted churches in Palestine and attacked pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem. Holy Land dominated by the enemies of the cross, difficult to find better proof of the coming Apocalypse.

Above all else, Muslims were the kingdoms of southern Hispania that rose victorious against the Christian kings. A proper name, Almanzor, resonated in the Umayyad caliphate. In 985 Almanzor defeated Charlemagne’s successors in Barcelona. In 997 he sacked Santiago de Compostela, not even the Apostle’s protection prevented the tragedy. Many more  raids occurred on the part of “The Victorious”, what would not assault in the year Thousand?

The Propagandists of the Apocalypse

Many echoed these suspicions, linking wars to famines or epidemics. The most famous text would be the Libellus  de Adso de Montier-en-Der, which warned of Carolingian decline and the consequent End of Times.

Other opportunists, such as the Count of Sens, decided to blame the nearby Apocalypse for the poor harvests, thus avoiding any revolt. The prophets were not slow to warn the people.

Among all the proposals, the most popular was Millennialism. This proposed that what would come was not the End, but a Coming of Christ to rule the world for a thousand years. Condemned as heresy, it became a valve for certain popular frustrations. Undoubtedly, a monarch like the Master would suppose a deep spiritual and social renewal that would walk towards greater equality.

Of all the changes that the inhabitants of the late first millennium anticipated, at least one did occur. It is in these times when the so-called feudal revolution takes place.

Hugo Capet, count of Paris who takes the throne of France, is a paradigmatic example. Throughout Christendom , feudal lords succeeded each other, accumulating royal powers and de facto political independence . 

The Church, unwilling to surrender its power to the system of noble values, organized the assemblies of peace and truce of God, key in Catalonia. The Full Middle Ages began.

And life went on

The fearsome Scandinavians converted to Roman Christianity precisely in the year 1000. Not long ago the father of Stephen I of Hungary had united his people with Rome. Just two years later, Almanzor leaves this world, leaving as a legacy a caliphate in crisis that is advancing, inexorably, towards its atomization and progressive northern conquest.

The massive misinterpretation, both by cultured and laypersons, of historical events should not surprise us. Even today we fall into the same methodical error: interpreting the concatenation of historical events as a progressive succession towards a point. History does not present a univocal gradual evolution towards good or evil, towards the end or progress, towards freedom or tyranny, towards equality or any other value.

* As a legacy are the astonishing apocalyptic pictorial and literary works begun by the Beatus of Liébana.