Millenarism

MILLENARISM. - An eschatological error, according to which Jesus Christ is to reign visibly for a thousand years on this earth, at the end of the world. It was also called chiliasm (from the Greek χιλιάς: thousand). According to the different forms the error assumed, the events of the end of the world would have a somewhat different succession. For the most ancient proponents of millenarianism, the earthly reign of Christ would be inserted between the first resurrection, that of the just (the only participants in the joys of the millennial kingdom), and the second, reserved for the damned, which would be followed by the universal judgment and the eternal assignment of punishments (hell) and of enjoyments (paradise). Among later millenarians there prevails a certain uncertainty about the chronology of the kingdom: some hold it to be antecedent to the universal judgment, others subsequent to it. But the capital point, on which millenarians divide, is constituted by the enjoyments, which according to some would be of a sensual nature (carnal millenarianism), according to others of a spiritual order (spiritual millenarianism).

I. CARNAL MILLENARISM

Carnal M. is of Jewish origin. According to an ancient rabbinic tradition, the history of the world must conclude within the span of seven thousand years, of which the first six would represent the first part of the Mosaic week (the pre-Messianic age), and the last, the Sabbath, the millennium of rest and festivity, in which the Messianic kingdom would be established, in the peaceful enjoyment of all temporal goods (riches, subjection of all peoples, triumph of Israel). In the 2nd century A.D. Cerinthus (v.) applied this theory to chapter 20 of the Apocalypse of St. John and, worsening the Jewish exegesis, asserted: « post resurrectionem regnum Christi in terra futurum ac rursus homines Hierosolymis degentes cupiditatibus et voluptati corporis obnoxios fore » (Caius Romanus, in Eusebius, Hist. eccl., III, 28: PG 20, 274-75). The error, taken up again, with slight nuances, in the 3rd century by Nepos bishop of Arsinoe and by Coracius (Eusebius, op. cit., 7, 27: ibid., 691), in the 4th century by Apollinaris of Laodicea (v.), was refuted by the Fathers and the scholastics; in the 16th century it reappeared among certain Protestants and was widely spread by the Pietists and by other sects (Mennonites, Mormons, Trivigni, Adventists).

II. SPIRITUAL MILLENARISM

Spiritual m. originated with Papias, who, in opposition to Cerinthus, understood chapter 20 of the Apocalypse as a kingdom full of spiritual joys even though rich in temporal goods (Eusebius, op. cit., III, 39: ibid., 374). St. Irenaeus, a follower of Papias, announced that a day would come when "vinese nascentur singulae decem millia palmitum habentes et in uno palmite dena millia brachiorum... et cum apprehenderit aliquia sanctorum botrum, alius clamabit: botrus ego melior sum, me sume, per me Dominum benedictum" (Adv. Haeres., 5, 33: PG 7, 1213). This form of m., more or less tempered, appears in St. Justin, Tertullian, Commodianus, Victorinus of Pettau, Hilarion, Methodius of Olympus, Zeno of Verona, and also in St. Jerome and St. Augustine, who later in maturity rejected this conception (cf. F. Alcañiz, Ecclesia patristica et millenarismus, Granada 1933: the author sympathizes with spiritual m.). In the Middle Ages a fanatical return to this ideology occurred in Joachim of Fiore (v.), Gerard Segarelli (d. 1260), Fra Dolcino (cf. Dante, Inferno, XXVIII, 55-60) and Ubertino da Casale (cf. F. Callaey, L'idéalisme franciscain spirituel au XIVe siècle: Etude sur Ubertin da Casale, Louvain 1911, pp. 121-31). From the end of the 18th century there has been no lack of theologians and exegetes who have looked favorably upon a mitigated m.: for example, M. Lacunza (cf. A. F. Vaucher, Une célébrité oubliée: Le p. M. Lacunza y Diaz [1731-1801], Collonges-sous-Salève 1941), R. Eizaguirre (Apocalipsis interpretatio litteralis, Rome 1911), C. Morondo (Estudios millenarios, Isén 1922), I. Ramos (Summa isagogico-exegetica in libros N. T., II, Rome 1940, pp. 340-77), B. Ughi (La via, 2nd ed., Florence 1949, passim: placed on the Index 20 July 1950).

III. EVALUATION

Carnal millenarianism, being diametrically opposed to the Christian spirit (cf. Mt. 22:30; Rom. 14:17; I Cor. 15:50), was rejected from its very birth as a heresy. Cerinthus was refuted by Caius the Roman and by Origen (De principiis, 2, 11: PG 11, 241). Nepos and Coracius were convinced of error by St. Dionysius of Alexandria (Eusebius, op. cit., VII, 24: ibid., 20, 691). Apollinaris of Laodicea was combated, in this error too, by the greatest Christian writers of the 4th and 5th centuries (Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Jerome, Epiphanius, Theodoret). Spiritual millenarianism too, which fascinated so many minds, enjoys no proof whatsoever; indeed it is directly opposed to the teaching of the symbols of the faith (cf. Denz-U, 423), in which mention is made only of two comings of Christ, the one in humilitate and the one in gloria, for the purpose of carrying out the universal judgment, which will be immediately followed by the final retribution for each one: Mt. 16:27: "Filius hominis venturus est in gloria Patris sui cum Angelis, tunc reddet unicuique secundum opera sua." In this perspective the millennium cannot take place.

These and other biblical and patristic arguments have led the most serious theologians (St. Thomas, IV Sent., d. 43, q. 1, a. 3, qc. 1; St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice, 1, 3, ch. 17) to regard mitigated millenarianism as rash, indeed erroneous. Recently the Holy Office (June 21, 1944) declared: "Systema millenarismi mitigati tuto doceri non potest" (AAS, 36, [1944], p. 212; cf. G. Gilleman, Condamnation du millénarisme mitigé, in Nouvelle revue théologique, 67 [1945], pp. 239-41).

IV. CONNECTED ERRORS

Connected with millenarianism is the theory of the golden age of the Church. According to an anonymous Anglican (Of the State of the Church to future age, London 1864), a time must come when, with the papacy and the arrogance of absolute governments removed, a universal civil-religious democracy will be established, in which citizens will enjoy a lasting peace, undisturbed by any physical or moral evil, all striving toward the enjoyment of the benefits brought by the progress of the sciences and the arts. This "sun of the future" attracted the attention of many figures of Anglicanism (for example, Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol) and in the 19th century was widely spread in England by Waughan and in France by Agier (cf. E. Mèric, L'altra vita, II, Italian trans., Turin 1927, pp. 303-11). At the end of the same century the rosy conception was espoused, with various modifications (especially as regards the fate of the papacy) by various Catholic authors (for example, Callegari, Courtrai, Bigou, Schneider, Caballero Infante, Alvarez Navarro). Somewhat different is the system of eschatological renewal, advocated by Canon E. A. Chaubaty in three weighty volumes (Etudes... sur l'avenir de l'Eglise catholique selon le plan divin ou la régénération de l'humanité et la rénovation de l'univers, Poitiers 1890-93). At the end of the world the men present at the cataclysms foretold by Sacred Scripture will survive the universal conflagration and will give rise to a pure progeny, without original sin, destined to constitute the new Jerusalem, in which Jesus Christ will reign visibly, assisted by his vicar, the Pope.

Such conceptions are fundamentally erroneous because they are contrary to the evangelical concept of the kingdom of God on earth, in which there will always be sufferings (Mt. 5, 11; Lk. 9, 23; Jn. 15, 20; Acts 14, 25; Rom. 8, 29) and imperfect ones (Mt. 13, 24-30, 47; Lk. 10, 3). The opinion of Chaubaty is to be regarded as a grave error, since it denies what is defined in the Council of Trent concerning original sin, which will taint all generations descended from Adam (Denz-U, 792). Moreover, the work of the canon of Angers was placed on the Index on 18 Dec. 1896.

Antonio Piolanti