St. Pachomius Library

The Year 1000

Biblical references to the Millennium and ideas left over from the Chiliast heresy suggested to some people in the X Century that the end of the world was at hand. Some widely-read historians have said that this resulted in mass hysteria; other writers have denied this, even suggesting that it is anti-Christian propaganda. Perhaps the truth was in between.
It is interesting that some proponents of the "mass panic" idea have suggested that the failure of 1000 to bring anything too untoward may have contributed to the extraordinary social transformations of the West in the XI Century, of some of which the Orthodox reader need not be reminded.
Norman Hugh Redington

ABOUT:
- Edward P. Wallner: The Year 1000 AD and the Millennial Panic. Argues there was no widespread panic. From New England Journal of Skepticism, Summer 1998. --- NESS
- The Apocalyptic Dossier: 967 - 1033. Compilation of a large number of Western primary sources. --- Center for Millennial Studies
- St. Abbo of Fleury: Apologeticus, (excerpt). Famous passage describing how Abbo as a young man refuted a preacher at the cathedral of Paris who taught that the world would end soon after 1000. McGinn translation. --- Apocalyptic Theories

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