The essays in this book challenge prevailing views on the way in which
apocalyptic concerns contributed to larger processes of social change
at the first millennium. Several basic questions unify the essays: What
chronological and theological assumptions underlay apocalyptic and
millennial speculations around the Year 1000? How broadly disseminated
were those speculations? Can we speak of a mentality of apocalyptic
hopes and anxieties on the eve of the millennium? If so, how did
authorities respond to or even contribute to the formation of this
mentality? What were the social ramifications of apocalyptic hopes and
anxieties, and of any efforts to suppress or redirect the more radical
impulses that bred them? How did contemporaries conceptualize and then
historicize the passing of the millennial date of 1000? Including the
work of British, French, German, Dutch, and American scholars, this
book will be the definitive resource on this fascinating topic, and
should at the same time provoke new interest in and debate on the
nature and causes of social change in early medieval Europe.