Medieval eschatology

In this study, the focus is on the volcano Etna (in Sicily) and the Aeolian volcanoes – Volcano and Stromboli. The first part of the text presents and analyzes the descriptions of the volcanic activity in the Antiquity. The second part briefly outlines the monotheistic theses for the abyss and the connection between the fire and Hell. It has an important role because draws the starting point of view of the medieval monotheistic authors. In the third part the medieval texts about Etna, Volcano and Stromboli are analyzed. It is divided into two sub-parts – Christian descriptions and Islamic (Arabic) descriptions.
The survey contributes to ongoing discussions about the connection between the ancient and the medieval conceptions and perceptions, especially in the volcanic topic. The concrete differences between Christian and Muslim visions on the volcanic activity are marked and discussed. The analyzes make it possible to conclude that there is a selective and modifying adaptation of knowledge and images from the ancient texts in the Medieval period.

(from the Introduction)
Intending only to research medieval conceptions of hell, author Alan Bernstein wanted to investigate postmortem retribution in the ancient world for historical context. This investigation turned into an entire book of its own. In The Formation of Hell, Bernstein seeks to explain how the idea of hell achieved a prominent place in people’s minds. He explicitly states that he intends to accomplish this without any prior concern for whether hell actually exists or any preceding judgement as to the nature or value of hell.  In the end, Bernstein provides a superb example of historical investigation and rigorous scholarship. Though there are certain theological and metaphysical implications omitted from the book, the author successfully demonstrates that the notion of hell originally arose late in Judaism out of a need to explain the injustices in the world and became a rhetorical device designed to elicit conformity to religious and cultural mores.

The “Letter of Love and Concord” is a unique source, which allows us a glimpse into the political and religious aspirations of the Armenian Cilician elite at the end of the twelfth century, alluding to its hopes and expectations from the Crusades and the Church of Rome, as well as its uneasy relationship with the Byzantine Empire. The “Letter” is especially valuable for the wealth of information it contains on the royal ideology nurtured within the highest circles of the ruling Rubenid dynasty. The study provides an analysis of the sources used by its anonymous author, placing them within a historical context. Moreover, this marks the first time that a text based on the study of surviving sixty nine manuscripts along with its English translation has been made available for scholars.

Mémoire présenté par :
Erwan MOREAU
en vue de l'obtention du diplôme de :
MASTER 2 RECHERCHE
Domaine : Sciences humaines et sociales
Mention : Ethnologie-Sociologie
Spécialité : SOCIOLOGIE
Préparé sous la direction de M. Jean Bruno RENARD, professeur de Sociologie
Juin 2014
Mention obtenue : très bien


Abstract (French) :

Le synonyme le plus proche du terme "monstre" est l'expression « contre-nature » (Aristote, Saint Augustin, Canguilhem, Lascault, Cuny Le Callet, Valton, etc.). Sentence paradoxale s'il en est quand on sait qu'au niveau biologique, il est entendu que rien de ce que produit la Nature ne peut voir le jour indépendamment du respect de ses lois et qu'il est le propre de l'imagination de pouvoir y créer des exceptions.

Mais parallèlement à la Nature, objet de la biologie et de la physique, se trouve une autre « nature » : la « connaissance ordinaire » (Aristote employait pour sa part le terme de « cours ordinaire », « ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ » en parlant du statut contre-nature du monstre), cette « chose que l'organisme construit dans le but de créer un ordre dans le flux de l'expérience »

Ainsi, tout monstre peut être traduit comme étant ce qui apparaît contraire à une  « connaissance ordinaire », à une réalité sensible, dans son acception la plus large, c'est-à-dire orientée vers l'esthétique (le plus couramment rattaché à une vision anthropocentrée) et/ou vers l'éthique (intolérance idéologique).

Aussi par le partage des affects que met en œuvre une communauté d'esprits (religieuse, laïque, révolutionnaire, impérialiste, etc.), des éléments « contre-nature » peuvent apparaître à un niveau macrosociologique. Éléments émergeant de l'esprit gnostique et de son succédané l'esprit dogmatique, chacun ayant pour spécificité de mettre en exergue le dualisme entre bien et mal, connaissance et ignorance les entraînant ainsi vers l'ère de la déliquescence, de la décadence, en somme vers les temps eschatologiques et leurs abominations monstrueuses.


Abstract (English) :

The best synonym for the word ‘monster’ is the expression ‘unnatural’’ (Aristote, Saint Augustin, Canguilhem, Lascault, Cuny Le Callet, Valton, etc.). That is a paradoxical sentence - if any - when we know that biologically speaking nothing produced by Nature can exist regardless of the respect of its laws. It is among the characteristics of imagination to create exceptions.

But parallel to the Nature as objet of biology and physic is another kind of ‘nature’: the ‘ordinary knowledge’. (Artistote named it the ‘ordinary course’ (ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ) to mention the unnatural aspect of monster), this ‘thing that is produced by the organism to create an order within the experience’s flow’.

Then any monster can be understood as what appears in contrary to an ‘ordinary knowledge’, a ‘sensitive reality’ in every sense, that is to say aesthetics- (mostly associated to an anthropocentred vision) and/or ethicspositioned (ideological intolerance).

And the sharing of affections made by a minds’ community (religious, lay, revolutionary or imperialist, etc.) can reveal some ‘unnatural’ elements at the level of macrosociology. Elements that are emerging from the Gnostic spirit and its substitute: the dogmatic spirit. Each specifically brings out the dualism between good and evil, knowledge and ignorance that leads towards the decay, decline age - in other words towards eschatological times and their monstrous abominations.

Verso l'anno 1220, il priore del monastero cistercense di Eberbach realizzò una compilazione di diversi scritti della mistica Ildegarde di Bingen riferiti ai tempi futuri, con l'intenzione di rifutare la dottrina pseudo-gioachimita che considerava imminente il momento della nascita dell'Anticristo. Questa opera, intitolata Speculum futurorum temporum, ebbe un grande successo, come dimostra l'elevato numero di manoscritti che la tramandano (più di 100); il testo, però, non ha avuto mai una edizione a stampa. Oltre a uno studio della tradizione manoscritta e della fortuna dell'opera di Gebenone, che evidenzia, in particolare, l'importante ruolo che il testo ebbe per la reputazione di Ildegarde come profetessa, il volume offre l'edizione critica della prima redazione dell'opera, basata su un gruppo di manoscritti che, per la loro provenienza, datazione e contenuto presentano la versione più vicina all'originale.

The author of this article tried to trace the evolution of the Mongols’ perception in Latin sources based on information about their military expansion in the Middle East.
The first mention of the Mongols appear in Latin sources in 1221. According to these sources, the Mongol army, which accomplished a number of conquests in Central Asia, Persia, and Transcaucasia, consisted of baptized nomads. Latin authors asserted that at the head of this army stood a certain David, “king of the Indies”, which sought to help the Middle Eastern Christians and “liberate” Jerusalem from Muslim rule. Undoubtedly, the Latin sources meant by the “deeds of king David” the first western campaign of the Mongols led by Genghis Khan, which began in 1219 and was directed against the Central Asian sultanate of Khwarezm. These Latin sources were written at the time, when the troops of Genghis Khan had already conquered Khwarezmian territory in Central Asia and began military actions in Khorasan, while the separate divisions of the Mongols led by Jebe and Subedei invaded Transcaucasia and inflicted the first serious defeat to the Christian kingdom of Georgia. 
Later, however, a positive Mongols’ perception in the West began to gradually change. First of all, this change was affected by reports of the Georgian rulers expressing obvious doubts about former confidence that the Mongol army was entirely composed of Christians. Even greater impact had information about beginning of the Mongol re-conquest of Transcaucasia. An early report of the Patriarch of Jerusalem about the Mongol units’ appearance in Transcaucasia headed by Chormaqan noyan still reflected the hope for the Mongols’ adherence to the Christian faith. However, subsequent reports on the beginning of the Mongol conquest of Great Armenia radically changed European perceptions of the Mongols.
Starting from 1236, Latin sources began to represent the Mongols as fiends trying to interpret their appearance in accordance with apocalyptic scenarios of popular eschatological writings.

On the evening of 6 April 1580, an earthquake struck the coast of Dover, and was felt throughout the south-east of England. The quake had a limited physical impact, given that it “lasted not the fulle of half a minute” – the damage to buildings was slight, and only two fatalities were reported. Despite this, within twenty four hours, a printer had already registered ‘a godly new ballad, moving us to repent of the Earthquake’, and over a dozen more titles on the subject had been registered by the end of June. This piece of work will look at that impact, through the responses given in some of these printed works. The focus will be on the pamphlets written by Thomas Twyne and Thomas Churchyard. The ‘official’ response, namely, an order of prayer published by the Church of England, “to avert and turne Gods wrath from us, threatened by the late terrible earthquake” will therefore also be considered. This event will be considered in the context of a newly Protestant society, early modern apocalypticism, the doctrine of divine providence, and how the early modern populace attempted to control and make sense of the world around them.

This article discusses the complex relationship between the cosmology, the philosophy of history, and the political ideology of the Pantheon, a ponderous universal chronicle written in prosimetrum (prose and verse) in the twelfth century by Godfrey of Viterbo (Goffredo da Viterbo).

Call for papers (versión español e inglés) para el Congreso Internacional "La escatología medieval", un evento de vocación interdisciplinar sobre la teoría y práctica de los conceptos escatológicos en la cultura medieval. El encuentro tendrá lugar entre los días 28 y 29 de julio de 2021. Recepción de propuestas abierta hasta el  1 de abril de 2021.


Call for paper for the International Conference "The Medieval Eschatology" (Spanish and English version), an interdisciplinary meeting on the theory and practise of eschatological concepts through medieval culture. Conference will be celebrated on 28-29 July 2021. Submission of proposals until 1 April 2021.