The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages

25 Pages·2017·0.9 MB·English

PIMLICO
646
THE PURSUIT OF THE MILLENNIUM
Norman Cohn was born in London in 1915 and
educated at Gresham's School and Christ Church,
Oxford. Scholar and research scholar at Christ
Church between 1933 and 1939, after the war he
taught in universities in England, Scotland, Ireland,
America and Canada. In 1966 he became a
Professorial Fellow in the University of Sussex and
director of an international research project on the
preconditions for persecutions and genocides. From
1973 to 1980 he was Astor-Wolfson Professor at
Sussex and is now Professor Emeritus. He is a
Fellow of the British Academy and the author of
~rrant for Gmocide and Europe's Inner Demons (also
in Pimlico).

THE PURSUIT OF THE
MILLENNIUM
Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical
Anarchists of the Middle Ages
NORMAN COHN
PIMLICO
Published by Pimlico 2004
8 10 9 7
Copyright© Norman Cohn 1957, 1961, 1970
Foreword Copyright © Norman Cohn 2004
Norman Cohn has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out,
or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior
consent in any form of binding or cover other than that
in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
First published in Great Britain by
Seeker & Warburg Ltd 1957
Revised 1961, 1970
Pimlico editions 1993, 2004
Pimlico
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Contents
Foreword 9
Introduction: The scope of this book 13
1le Tradition ofA pocalyptic Propltecy
I
Jewish and early Christian apocalyptic 19
The apocalyptic tradition in medieval Europe 2.9
Tlte Tra.Jition of Religious Dissent
2
The ideal of the apostolic life 37
Some early messiahs 41
Tlte Messianism of tlte Disoriented Poor
3
The impact of rapid social change n
The poor in the first crusades 61
Tlte Saints Against tlte Hosts ofA nticltrist
4
Saviours in the Last Days 71
The demonic hosts 74
Phantasy, anxiety and social myth 84
s In tlte Baclcwaslt of tlte Crusades
The Pseudo-Baldwin and the 'Master of Hungary' 89
The last crusades of the poor 98
6 Tlte Emperor Fretlericlc as Messialt
Joachite prophecy and Frederick II 108
The resurrection of Frederick 113
Manifestos for a future Frederick 118
7 An Elite ofS elf-immolating Retleemers
The genesis of the flagellant movement 12.7
Revolutionary flagellants 136
The secret flagellants of Thuringia 142.
8 An Elite ofA moral Supertnen. (i)
The heresy of the Free Spirit I 48
The Amaurians I 52
The sociology of the Free Spirit 156
9 An Elite ofA moral Supermen (ii)
The spread of the movement 163
The way to self-deification 172
The doctrine of mystical anarchism 176
10 Tlte Egalitarian State ofN ature
In the thought of Antiquity 187
In patristic and medieval thought 191
II Tke Egalitarian Millennium (i)
Marginalia to the English Peasants' Revolt 198
The Taborite Apocalypse 205
Anarcho-communism in Bohemia 214
12 Tlae Egalitarian Millennium (ii)
The Drummer of Niklashausen 223
Thomas Miintzer 234
13 Tlae Egalitarian Millennium (iii)
Anabaptism and social unrest 2 51
Munster as the New Jerusalem 161
The messianic reign of John of Leyden 271
Conclusion 18 I
Appendix. The 'Free Spirit' in Cromwell's England:
the Ranters and their literature 187
Notes 333
Bibliography 372
Index 401
Illustrations
I The story of Antichrist.
From the Liher cronicarum of Hartmann Schedel, with
woodcuts by Michel Wohlgemuth and Wilhelm
Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg, 1493· (British Museum)
2. Melchoir Lorch: the Pope as Satan-Antichrist. 1545.
(Courtauld Institute of Art)
3 Albrecht Di.irer: The Day of Wrath.
From the Apocalypse series, 1498. (British Museum)
4 A medieval version of the ritual murder of a Christian boy by
Jews. From Schedel's Liher cronicarum. (British Museum)
5 Dives and Lazarus. Twelfth-century sculpture in the south
porch of the church of Saint-Pierre, Moissac, Tart-et-Garonne.
(Courtauld Institute of Art, copyright Mrs J.P. Sumner)
6 (a) and (b) A flagellant procession and a burning of Jews, I349·
From a manuscript of the Chronica of Gilles li Muisis in the
Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, Brussels (MS 13076-77) .
7 The Drummer of Niklashausen.
From Schedel's Liber cronicarum. (British Museum)
8 The Ranters as imagined by their contemporaries. From The
Ranters Declaration, 165o. (British Museum)
9 Heinrich Aldegrever: John of Leyden as King. I 536.
(British Museum)

Foreword
The reissue of the Pimlico edition of The Pursuit of the
Millennium almost coincides with the book's half-centenary.
When the first edition appeared in 1957, its reception surprised
me, and it still does. I had directed the work, as I thought,
to a small, scholarly readership. In the event it was widely and
enthusiastically reviewed, and in due course translated into a
dozen languages. The English version has never been out of
print for more than a few months.
The book has been criticized for presenting a
very one-sided version of the apocalyptic tradition in Europe. So
it does - but then, I was not concerned with that tradition as
such. My main concern was to show how again and again, from
the eleventh to the sixteenth century, some freelance prophet
would proclaim that, in preparation for the Second Coming of
Christ and the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth,
the Jews, the clergy, or else all the property-owners, must be
exterminated; and to describe what happened then. I also
suggested, in the Conclusion, what bearing that story might
have on the terrible fanaticisms which ravaged Europe in the first
half of the twentieth century.
When The Pursuit of the Millennium was written (1946-
1956) systematic study of the apocalyptic tradition was at a very
early stage. Since then it has flourished mightily - and what a
vast and variegated tradition it has uncovered! Nonetheless, it
would seem that this old book still has something to offer; for it
continues to sell, and to be read, and even on occasion to be
discussed at conferences. In my ninetieth year, I find this to be a
cheering thought; and I hope that this reissue may keep things
that way for a time to come.
N.C.
Wood End
Hertfordshire