Mille, Legend of the Year

MILLE, LEGEND OF THE YEAR. - According to this legend, as that year drew near, Christian society felt itself pervaded by terror of the end of the world and of the consequent appearance of Jesus Christ as judge, announced for the night of St. Sylvester's day in 999. For this reason the anguished people, neglecting the things of the earth, flocked to the churches and monasteries to offer their goods and treasures in order to obtain forgiveness of their sins. Hence the fabulous riches of the Church, which saw its power and supremacy over the world increased. Once the terror had passed, at the appearance of the dawn of 1 January of the year 1000, the same people, having escaped death, set about building cathedrals, churches and monasteries.

The legend made its first appearance toward the end of the 16th century, 700 years after the supposed events, which would already suffice to render its truthfulness suspect. It was seized upon by anti-clerical writers, who vied with one another in enriching it with romantic and melodramatic circumstances, in deference to the deeply rooted prejudice of a Middle Ages dense with darkness, ignorance and disorder. The first to spread it widely was W. Robertson in the preface to his History of the reign of the emperor Charles V (London 1769), to whom J. Michelet, J. C. Sismondi, C. Flammarion, H. Martin, V. Duruy, J. F. Michaud, P. L. Cinguéné, F. Gregorovius and, among us, G. Carducci, who begins with it the discourses Dello svolgimento della letteratura nazionale (Opere, ed. naz., VII, Bologna 1935, pp. 3-5), echoed in emulation. With less fervour of description the legend is nevertheless admitted by very many other modern historians, e.g., T. Dandolo, C. Cantù (cf. the abundant list in P. Orsi [v. bibl.], pp. 3-5).

The legend, however, is devoid of any historical foundation; this is proved by negative and positive arguments. It is true that from the Hebrew belief in a Messiah, a temporal king, from the false interpretation of the Apocalypse (20, 1-7), whose symbols were explained as a sign of a thousand years, through the heretic Cerinthus and the theories of St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, this erroneous opinion found some resonance here and there; but from the 5th century onward, our millenarianism is no longer discussed, though it had already been refuted by St. Jerome and St. Augustine. It is also certain that there was no lack of phrases by Fathers of the Church and preachers that alluded to the Antichrist as near or already existing, forgetting the saying of Jesus: « of the day and the hour (of the end of the world) no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only the Father » (Mt. 24, 35). But these were fantastic or exalted constructions, not an opinion widespread and effective in instilling broad and deep terror. On the other hand, if the end of the world had truly been expected for the year 1000 in the 10th century, some hint of it would be found in contemporary writers or those of the years shortly after. Instead, nothing is said of it in the 150 bulls of the Popes of the last thirty years, nor in the 20 councils held in the last decade before the fatal date, nor by the historians.

Nor are there lacking positive proofs contrary to the legend. A preacher, for example, of the end of the 10th century announced in a church in Paris the appearance, after the M., of the Antichrist and, shortly afterward, the coming of the Last Judgment; but Abbo of Fleury, who was present, rebuked him on the spot, as he himself attests, « cui predication et Evangelis ac Apocalypse et libro Daniela, qua potui virtute, restiti » (Apologeticum: PL 139, 471). The same Abbo was also given the task of refuting the report that the end of the world would occur when the feast of the Annunciation coincided with Maundy Thursday, and he reassured the Lotharingians « quibus abbas meus me respondere iussit » that such a coincidence occurred two or three times in every century (ibid., 472). On the other hand the Council of Rome of 998 imposes seven years of penance on the king of France, Robert the Pious; Sylvester II succeeds Gregory V in April 999 and on 31 December of the same year confirms the privileges already granted to the monastery of Fulda and to the Church of Reims (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1907-1908); the Venetians take possession of Istria and Dalmatia in 998-99 and at the same time Stephen of Hungary asks the Pope for the title of king and the royal crown (1000). In 990 at Puy, in 1000 at Poitiers the Councils determine the regulations, for the following years, of the Truce and Peace of God. In short, immediately before the year 1000 life in Europe proceeds tranquilly and presupposes that society will continue for a long time still after this deadline.

The arguments adduced by writers favourable to the legend offer no proof: a) in the acts of the Council of Trosly there is talk of the imminent end of the world, but that Council is of 999 (Hefele-Lacereq, IV, 722 ff.). The chronicler Rodulfus Glaber speaks of a great fervour of church building; but this was not due to the danger of the year 1000 having been escaped, but rather to the fear of the end of the world, provoked by the rains, the dearth and the famine so terrible that corpses were eaten; not to mention that he speaks of many other churches, which arose shortly before the M. (Historiarum, I, III, cap. 4: PL 142, 651; I, IV, cap. 4: ibid., 475). W. Godelle, also a chronicler, alludes to a belief about the imminent end of the world; but the allusion concerns the year 1010, when the demolition of the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre greatly shook the minds of the Catholic world (Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, X, 2nd ed., Paris 1868, p. 242 ff.). The phrase, moreover, that is found in many documents of donations to churches and monasteries, in the 10th century: « appropinquante fine mundi » is not used in Germany and almost never in Italy, but very much in France; however it is found as early as 534 and becomes more common afterward; which means that it is a simple formula, as among Italians that of: « pro remedio animae meae », and it is found, in fact, in formularies of common use (cf. Orsi [v. bibl.], pp. 35-36). There remain the frequent allusions of writers and preachers to the end of the world, but this demonstrates only the exhortatory purpose of holding oneself ready for that great day, on which all will have to render account of their actions before the world, which was and is a belief based on the Faith.

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