MILLE, LEGEND OF THE YEAR. — According to this legend, as the year approached, Christian society was seized with terror at the thought of the end of the world and the consequent appearance of Jesus Christ as judge, announced for the night of St. Sylvester in the year 999. For this reason, the anguished people, neglecting earthly matters, flocked to churches and monasteries to offer their goods and treasures in order to obtain forgiveness for their sins. Hence the fabulous wealth of the Church, which saw its power and supremacy over the world increase. Once the terror had passed, with the dawn of January 19, 1000, the same people, having escaped death, set about building cathedrals, churches, and monasteries.
The legend first appeared around the end of the 16th century, 700 years after the supposed events, which alone should already cast doubt on its veracity. Anticlerical writers seized upon it, embellishing it with romantic and melodramatic details in keeping with the deeply rooted prejudice of a Middle Ages steeped in darkness, ignorance, and disorder. The first to widely disseminate it was W. Robertson in the preface to his *History of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V* (London, 1769), followed in turn by J. Michelet, J. C. Sismondi, C. Flammarion, H. Martin, V. Duruy, J. F. Michaud, P. L. Cinguené, F. Gregorovius, and in Italy by G. Carducci, who opens his *Discorsi dello svolgimento della letteratura nazionale* with it (Opere, ed. naz., VII, Bologna, 1935, pp. 3-5). Though less vividly described, the legend is nonetheless accepted by many other modern historians, e.g., T. Dandolo and C. Cantù (cf. the abandonment of *con* in P. Orsi [V. BIBLICA.], pp. 3-5).
The legend, however, lacks any historical foundation; this is proven by both negative and positive arguments. It is true that from Jewish belief in a temporal Messiah, from the false interpretation of the Apocalypse (20:1-7), whose symbols were explained as a sign of a thousand years, through the inherited errors of Cerinthus and the theories of St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, this erroneous opinion found some resonance here and there; but from the 5th century onward, no more is heard of this millenarianism, which had already been refuted by St. Jerome and St. Augustine. It is also certain that there were not lacking phrases from Church Fathers and preachers that hinted at the Antichrist as imminent or already present, forgetting the words of Jesus: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but only the Father” (Matt. 24:36). Yet these were fantastic or exaggerated constructions, not widespread opinions capable of instilling broad and deep fear. Moreover, if in the 10th century there had truly been an expectation of the end of the world in the year 1000, some mention of it would be found in contemporary writers or those shortly thereafter. Yet nothing of the sort appears in the 150 papal bulls of the last thirty years, nor in the 20 councils held in the decade before the fateful date, nor in the historians.
There is also positive evidence against the legend. A preacher at the end of the 10th century, for example, announced in a Paris church the appearance of the Antichrist after the year 1000 and shortly thereafter the Last Judgment; but Abbo of Fleury, who was present, reproved him on the spot, as he himself attests: “I resisted his preaching with all the strength I could muster, drawing on the Gospel, the Apocalypse, and the Book of Daniel” (*Apologeticum*: PL 139, 471). The same Abbo was also tasked with refuting the rumor that the end of the world would occur when the feast of the Annunciation coincided with Holy Thursday, and he reassured the people of Lotharingia, “whom my abbot ordered me to answer,” that such a coincidence occurs two or three times every century (ibid., 472). Furthermore, the Council of Rome in 998 imposed seven years of penance on King Robert the Pious of France; Sylvester II succeeded Gregory V in April 999, and on December 31 of that same year confirmed the privileges already granted to the monastery of Fulda and the Church of Reims (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 1907-1908); the Venetians seized Istria and Dalmatia in 998-99, and at the same time Stephen of Hungary requested from the Pope the title of king and a royal crown (1000). In 990 at Puy and in 1000 at Poitiers, councils established regulations for the following years regarding the Truce and Peace of God. In short, immediately before the year 1000, life in Europe proceeded calmly, and it was assumed that society would continue for a long time after that date.
The arguments put forward by writers in favor of the legend offer no proof: a) the acts of the Council of Trosly speak of the imminent end of the world, but that council dates to 900 (Hefele-Leclecrq, IV, 722 ff.). The chronicler Rodulfus Glaber speaks of a great fervor for building churches; but this was not due to the danger averted in the year 1000, but rather to the fear of the end of the world provoked by rains, famine, and a hunger so terrible that corpses were eaten; not to mention that he speaks of many other churches built shortly before the year 1000 (Historiarum, I. III, cap. 4: PL 142, 651; I. IV, cap. 4: ibid., 475). W. Godelle, also a chronicler, refers to a belief in the imminent end of the world; but this reference concerns the year 1010, when the destruction of the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher deeply shook the minds of the Catholic world (Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, X, 2nd ed., Paris, 1868, pp. 242 ff.). The phrase 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 frequently in France; yet it is found as early as 534 and becomes more common thereafter, indicating that it was merely a formula, like the Italian phrase “pro remedio animae meae,” and indeed it appears in common formularies (cf. Orsi [V. BIBLICA.], pp. 35-36). There remain the frequent allusions by writers and preachers to the end of the world, but this only demonstrates the exhortative purpose of being ready for that great day, when all must render an account of their actions before God—a belief based on faith, which has always existed and continues to exist.