Full Text for Notes on the History of Chiliasm (Text)

C!tnurnrbitt m~rnln!1itttl 6tut41y Continuing LEHRE UNO VVEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol.xm March, 1942 No.3 CONTENTS Page Verbal Inspiration -a Stumbling-Block to the Jews and Foolish-ness to the Greeks. Th. Engelder ___________________________________ . ______ . ____________ 161 Leading Thoughts on Eschatology in the Epistles to the Thessalonians. L. Fuerbringer ___________________________________________________________ 183 Notes on the History of Chiliasm. V. A. W. Mennicke _____________________ 192 Luther: A Blessing to the English. W. Dallm8lUl _______________________________ 207 Outlines on the Wuerttemberg Epistle Selections _______________________________ 214 Theological Observer. -Kirchlich Zeitgeschichtliches ____________________ 225 Book Review. -Literatur __________ . _______________________________________________________________ 233 Ein Predlger muss nlcht alleln wei­den, abo class er die Schafe unter­weise, wle sle rechte Christen sollen &eln, sondem auch daneben den Woel­fen wehTtm, da88 sie die Schafe nlcht angreifen und mit falscher Lehre ver­fuehren und Irrtum einfuehren. LutheT Es 1st keln Ding. das die Leute mehr bel der Kirche behaelt denn die gute Predigt. -Apologte, Arl. %4 If the trumpet give an uncertain sound. who shall prepare himself to the battle? -1 COT. 14:8 Published for the Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE, St. Louis, Mo. 192 Notes on the History of Chiliasm with His "parusia" and how to be prepared for the same. Matt. 24 and 25; Mark 13; Luke 17 and 21. The apostles follow His lead when they say as with one voice: "The Lord is at hand" -thus st. Paul, Phil. 4: 5; "The Judge standeth before the door" -thus St. James, chapter 5: 8,9; "It is the last time" -thus St. John, 1 John 2: 18; "The end of all things is at hand" -thus St. Peter, 1 Pet. 4: 7; "Behold, the Lord cometh" -thus St. Jude, v.14. The last page of the Bible brings us once more the words of the true and faithful witness: "Surely, I come quickly," Rev. 22: 20. Yet how easily the things of the present cause us to forget about the future and the end! How easily we forget that the day of the Lord will come as a snare upon all who live upon the earth! How slug­gish we are in seeing to it that we be constantly prepared! For that reason it is impossible to remind ourselves too earnestly and too emphatically: The Lord will come again, and that suddenly, as a thief in the night. This article as well as the succeeding ones, was written in German. For certain reasons it is here given in English. Pastor Rudolph Prange of Little Rock, Ark., has kindly done it into English at my request, which is hereby acknowledged with sincere thanks. L. FuERBRINGER Notes on the History of Chiliasm Introduction Amid the international upheavals and universal catastrophes we can expect a large-scale revival of chiliastic teachings. Chiliasm arose among a "have-not" people; it usually enjoyed a wide ac­ceptance when nations had been disappointed economically and become unsound theologically; and whenever confessionalism was at low ebb, emotionalism was substituted for the Scriptural teach­ing on eschatology. The time for a new assault by the forces of chiliasm is ripe. Therewith also the time for a restudy of the history of chiliasm has come. 1. Origin Since the official publications of our Synod have repeatedly and at great length shown that chiliastic opinions are neither taught nor tolerated in Holy Scriptures, we shall in this article dispense with a negative approach and immediately ask, Whence did the Jews (vid. Augustana, Art. XVII) receive the suggestion of chil­iastic doctrines, the revealed Scriptures of the Old Testament being eliminated as a source? In a general way we may answer that the heart of natural man is inclined toward chiliasm. The desire for a heaven upon Notes on the History of Chiliasm 193 earth (Adam and Eve), the demand for honor above others (Cain), the claim that the day of the Lord's wrath is afar off (people in the days of Noah), are innate to the human heart after the Fall and exemplified from the first days of the world's history. The Jews were addicted to the same soul ills as the rest of humanity and hence also to these chiliastic notions. More specifically, how­ever, the Jews adopted their views of a millennium from the pagan Zoroastrians. While also other pagan philosophers, e. g., among the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans, looked for some sort of future happiness,ll their expected blessedness must not be un­derstood in an eschatological sense.2) We have no proof, nor is there much to suggest, that the Jews were influenced by the peculiar views of these other nations. The Zoroastrian influence was baneful enough. After the Battle of Charchemish, 606 B. C., the vassalage of Judah was transferred to Babylon. This was the beginning of the seventy years' captivity. Daniel, his companions, and many others were taken to Babylon. When the captain of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, had taken Jerusalem, 587 B. C., many of the in­habitants of the land were led into the Babylonian Captivity, there to remain until the decree of Cyrus, 536 B. C., or later. Thereby Israel was brought into the land of Zoroaster's followers and into close contact with his religion. "During the very lifetime of Zoroaster -if we accept the traditional dates -the Jews were carried into captivity in Babylon, and their return from the exile to Jerusalem takes place less than a generation after his death." 3) "The teaching of Zoroaster must have taken deep root in the soil of Iran at the time when the Jews were carried up into captivity at Babylon (586-536), where they became acquainted with the Law of the Medes and Persians which altereth not," 4) or "before Daniel came to interpret the ominous handwriting on the wall which the soothsayers failed to read." We quote a few dates culled from the writings of Zoroastrians. B. C. 660 Zoroaster is born. B. C. 630 Beginning of the 10th millennium. Zoroaster goes forth to his conference with the "sacred beings." B. C. 591 Avesta is written. B. C. 583 Zoroaster is killed at the age of 77. B. C. 573 Arrival of the religion is known in all the regions. 1) The Millennial Hope, Shirley Jackson Case, University of Chicago Press, 1918, p.7. 2) Die Religion des Volkes Israel, R. Kittel, Leipzig, 1921, p.89. 3) Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran, A. V. Wm. Jackson, Mac­millan, N. Y., 1899, p. 11. 4) Op. cit., pp.176 and 140. 13 194 Notes on the History of Chiliasm The teaching of Zoroastrianism is many-sided, but the per­tinent doctrines are expressed by Buch,lil himself evidently a fol­lower of Zoroaster: "All good persons will obtain immortality and a final well-regulated constitution through the instrumentality of the will of the Lord Creator. . .. Along with this belief appear the ideas of final renovation, millennium, and resurrection." According to Zoroaster's teaching "the bad [after death] fall over into the Gulf of Duzahk, where they are tormented by the daevas. The duration of the punishment is fixed by Ormazd, and some are redeemed earlier by means of the prayers and interces­sions of their friends, but many must remain until the resurrection of the dead." 6) This period was to last three millennia. As a result of terrific catyclisms the earth is to be consumed in a general con­flagration. But a thousand years before this, Ormazd will send his prophet (Sosiosch, Messiah) and bring about the conversion of mankind, to be followed by a general resurrection. During this final millennium the righteous will walk about "as in warm milk." They will be "with laughter on their lips, rejoicing over a victory so well won." Upon earth "there would be no more mountains or deserts or wild beasts or savages." 7> While modern Parsees are universalistic, Zoroaster pictures his millennium to be of a national character. This teaching of Zoroaster, especially when established in his home country and sealed by his blood, spread rapidly throughout the neighboring countries. Inasmuch as Zoroaster's activity falls between the closing years of Median rule and the rising wave of Persian power, it was spread far and wide. Within a century after the period of the seven sages of clas­sical antiquity (ca. 600 B. C.) "tradition asserts that the ancient sacred writings of· Iran, the quintessence of all knowledge, were translated into Greek." 8) Hamzah al-Isfahni (eleventh century A. D.) writes: "He (Gushtasp) not only embraced the religion himself but also sent messengers to the Greeks in behalf of this faith and invited them to adopt it." 9) Cyrus (553-529 B. C.), who returned some of the Jews to their homeland, was a follower of Zoroaster. Darius (521-486 B. C.) is called the "pious Mazda-worshiper, Darius." Mazda was the 5) Zoroastrian Ethics, M. A. Buch, p.194. The Gaekwad Studies in Religion and Philosophy, IV. Baroda, 1. V. 1919. This Believ.ing World, L. Browne, Macmillan, 1927, p.206. 6) Ten Great Religions, J. F. Clarke, Boston, 1876, p.200. 7) This Believing World, L. Browne, Macmillan, 1927, p.206. 8) Vid. Note 3, p.142. 9) Vid. Note 3, p.199. Notes on the History of Chiliasm 195 god proclaimed by Zoroaster. Artaxerxes Longimanus (466---425 B. C.) "was an ardent Zoroastrian ruler," who "made the religion current in the whole world." Meanwhile the Zoroastrian religion had become the national religion of Iran.10) The tremendous influence exerted, even if for the bad, by Zoroaster upon his contemporaries and subsequent peoples is attested to by ancient pagan as well as Christian writers. That the postexilic eschatological views of the Jews, where they departed from, and went beyond, the Scriptures, were in­fluenced by the prophet of the Land of the Lion and the Sun, is borne out by the extant correspondence carried on between the Jewish Rabbis and the Persian Magi during the closing centuries of the era before Christ,m e. g., Rabbi Hanan Bar Tahlifa wrote Rabbi Josef he had received an epistle from a former Persian laborer. This manuscript had formed part of the Persian archives. Among other things it claimed that God would renew the world, but not until it had existed 7,000 years. According to Parsism the Savior, Ausetar, would appear 7,000 years after the creation of the material world,12) Theopompos (ca. 350 B. C.) calls the postexilic eschatology as current among the Jews "a concept of the Magi." Persian thought shows itself in the extra-Biblical apocalyptical expressions among postexilic Jews. According to the model of the Zoroastrians, Rabbi Eliezer listed twelve ages of man. With the conclusion of the twelfth the Messiah would appear whose kingdom would endure 1,000 years, whereupon the future world would have its inception. Even a twofold resurrection idea some Jews borrowed from Zoroaster's followers. At first they accepted the idea that those who had died first should be raised first; later, to suit the national conditions, they said that the Jews in Palestine should be raised first. The period between the first and second resurrection is variously listed as from 100 to 214 years,13) In the carnal features of the idea of a total renovation of the world as taught by some Jews, Zoroaster's influence can be seen.H) Shortly before the birth of Christ, when Zoroastrianism became universalistic, some Jews followed it, claiming that all Gentiles 10) Vid. Note 3, p.134. 11) Geschichte der Alttestamentlichen Religion, Ed. Koenig, 1912, pp. 439---455. 12) Die Altpersische Religion und das Judentum, J. Scheftelowitz­Koeln, Toepelman in Giessen, 1920, p.178, Note 1. 13) Entdecktes Judentum, Eisenmenger, 1700, Fo!. II, coL 902. 14) Op. cit., p. 208. 196 Notes on the History of Chiliasm would be converted to Judaism and thus be saved, while Abraham would redeem all Israelitish sinners out of hell.15) Medieval tradition,16) Christian as well as Jewish and Moham­medan, identifies Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah, with Zoroaster. Thus they accounted for the prevalence of Zoroastrian doctrine, in­cluding a worldly millennium, in Jewish teachings. Now, while it is true that .during the irrimediate postexilic period also the Persian religion was influenced by certain Jewish views,11) no proof for the fantastic Baruch theory has been produced. So baneful was the teaching of the Prophet of Iran upon Jewish religion that in certain sections early Jewish converts to Chris­tianity had to anathematize both Zoroaster and his prayers. Thus the "Jewish opinions" concerning a "kingdom of un­troubled happiness" did not come by prophetic revelation from Jehovah, but like a miasma from the pit. The rapid absorption of Zoroastrian Chiliasm by some Jews after the Exile into their eschatology is evinced by several quota­tions found in the Apocrypha. 2 Esdras 7: 28 ff. pictures the Messiah as coming into the world with His saints. Together they are to dwell upon the earth 400 years in sublime happiness. After these 400 years Christ is to die and redeem mankind. All shall die thereupon. Resurrection and judg­ment by another divinity are to follow. According to 2 Esdras 14: 11 the world's history is divided into twelve parts. Of the tenth of these a part is passed. Two and a fraction remain. V.16 says: "Yet greater evils than these which thou hast seen happen shall be done hereafter." All these thoughts: a twofold resurrection; twofold appear­ances of Messiahs, the ruler of the millennium being a different one from the final judge; a kingdom of God of this world; a wor~d history divided into twelve parts, of which the tenth had its incep­tion some time earlier; the suppression of the world through evil; all find their counterpart in earlier Zoroastrian eschatology. They were found among the Jews only after their contact with the Magi of Iran, whence they received them. These thoughts are so foreign to Scriptural Old Testament theology that Luther refused to trans­late 1 and 2 Esdras.18) On 2 Esdras 7: 28 the Churfuerstenbibel says: "This does not agree, for the angel Uriel is speaking, ... and that is the Son of God. How can he call himself his own son? These 400 years can in 15) Op. cit., p. 213. 16) Vid. Note 3, pp.165 and 166. 17) Christologie des Alten Testaments, E. W. Hengstenberg, ed. II, Vol. I, Berlin, 1854, p.8. 18) Vorrede auf das Buch Baruch, Luther, st. L. ed., Vol. XIV: 81. Notes on the History of Chiliasm 197 no manner be calculated correctly, and you can find neither begin­ning nor end thereof." On 2 Esdras 14: 11 it says: "Also this division has no basis in Holy Scriptures." Nor are these isolated instances. Throughout the postexilic literature of the Jews as contained in the non-canonical writings the hope is expressed that a new kingdom of the Jews is to be estab­lished on earth. While the prophets of old had spoken of the spiritual kingdom of Christ as being without end, the apocryphal authors presented the Messianic kingdom as of limited duration-400 to 1,000 years. In the Book of the Secrets of Enoch the doctrine of the millennium is crystallized and distinctly formulated. The Haggadist commentary on Genesis, The Book of Jubilees, which followed it, assumed that the new age had even then begun. Members thereof were to live a thousand years. The new age was to be inaugurated with a wide-spread study of the Law. It was to be an age free from the influence of Satan, and judgment was to come at the end of this Messianic period.l9l Zoroastrian chiliasm may have been an important factor in leading many postexilic Jews to misinterpret the great spiritual prophecies of the Old Testament. By giving these prophecies a temporal meaning, the Jews looked for a Messiah who would free them from foreign domination and finally extend their· kingdom over all the earth in a reign of peace and glory. When Jesus did not fall in with their notions, great numbers of those who had fol­lowed Him turned against Him, and the rulers of the Jews caused Him to be crucified. People may say what they will about the sublime ideas of chiliasm, the fact remains incontrovertible that chiliasm, gross or fine, "Christian" or otherwise, has had its origin not in the merciful councils of our loving Father in heaven but is and remains the product of Satan. Born in the soul of pagan fanatics, chiliasm was absorbed by certain Jews and molded so that even today it is preeminently a "Jewish opinion." 2. Development of Chiliasm a. Pastristic Period Chiliasm as it developed through the centuries has this one characteristic that it regularly has been held in common with other religious errors. A survey of the teachings propounded by chiliasts will bear out this fact. It proves, generally speaking, that those teaching chiliastic doctrines either did so out of weakness and, 19) The Messianic Hope in the New Testament, Shailer Mathews, Chicago, 1905, p. 40 if. 10S Notes on the History of Chiliasm when they were better instructed, disavowed them or were en­meshed in other serious errors, which even many chiliasts do not like to follow. The Epistle of Barnabas seems to accept the doctrine of a millennium.20) The author is not Barnabas, the coworker of Paul. Eusebius says: "Among the rejected writings must be reckoned also the' extant Epistle of Barnabas." 21) The epistle is so extreme in allegorizing and so cabalistic in its method of interpretation that it is altogether an unsafe guide.22) The so-called Second Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 12: 5 says the millennium is to be expected when all sexual desire has been suppressed so that, "when a man looks upon a woman, he does not see the female in her and she not the male in him.",23) Papias (d. 170), of whose writings only quotations remain, is listed as a chiliast. This Papias had not received his teaching directly from the apostles,24) but only by hearsay.25) His chiliasm boarders on the grotesque and is materialistic in the extreme. He claimed: "The days will come in which vines shall grow, each having 10,000 branches and in each branch 10,000 twigs and in each (true) twig 10,000 shoots and on each shoot 10,000 clusters and on every cluster 10,000 grapes, and every grape, when pressed, will give five and twenty metretes of wine." 26) Eusebius says: "He appears to have been of very limited understanding." 27) To this statement A. C. McGiffert remarks: "A perusal of the extant frag­ments of Papias's writings will lead anyone to think that Eusebius was not far wrong in his estimate of the man." 28) Justin Martyr (d.166) was an outspoken chiliast.29) Here chiliasm was in suitable company. Justin was more philosopher than theologian. According to his notion Socrates, Heraclitus, et al., were Christians in fact, if not in name. To him Christianity was essentially a new law. Of sin and grace he had no proper conception.30) Nepos, the spiritual father of Coracion, was a chiliast. He 20) Die Schriften der Apostolischen Vaeter, tr. by Scholz, Guetersloh, 1865, p. 22 f. Die Epistel St. Barnabae, chap. 15. 21) Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, N. Y., 1890, Vol. I, p.156. Eusebius, Church History, III, 25, 4. For detailed argument cf. Lehre und Wehre, xvm, 1872, p. 69 fl. 22) Vid. Note 20, chap. 9, p.14. 23) Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, ed. Edgar Hennecke, Tuebingen, 1904, p.177. 24) Eus., Ch. H., nI, 39, 170. 25) Op. cit., p.172. 26) The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Tr., Vol. I, p.563. New York, Scrib­ners, 1899. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, V, 33, 3. 27) Eus., Ch. H., nI, 39, 13. 28) Ibid. 29) Vid. Note 26, p.239. 30) Concordia Cyclopedia, St. Louis, 1927, sub voc. Justin Martyr. Notes on the History of Chiliasm 199 fostered a loveless and schismatic religion.3l) He caused entire congregations to separate from other Christians in a most un­brotherly manner. In the latter part of the third century the foremost defender of chiliasm was Coracion, a bishop in Egypt. As a follower of Nepos, he was drawn into a debate with Dionysius of Alexandria, who showed him the error of chiliasm. Then "Coracion, in the hearing of all the brethren that were present, acknowledged and testified to us that he would no longer hold this opinion or discuss it nor mention nor teach it, as he was fully convinced by the argu­ments against it." 32) Irenaeus, the soundest theologian among the ante-Nicene fathers, has been accused of being a crass chiliast.33) A casual read­ing of the closing chapters (31-36) of his fifth book of Against Heresies 34) would seem to substantiate that claim. A critical in­vestigation, however, leads us to believe that the chiliastic state­ments ascribed to Irenaeus are nothing more than free quotations from Papias and Justin Martyr,35) some of whose Christological ideas he used against the Gnostics, without necessarily endorsing their chiliasm. Those passages which can be proved to be his own 36) contain no trace of chiliasm.37> Tertullian (d.220) accepted the theory of a millennium. He looked for a mundane kingdom of God. This was to last for a thousand years and be centered in a new Jerusalem let down from heaven. During these thousand years the saints are to be raised, some earlier, some later, according to their works. As one of the leading proofs for his notion he mentions a series of evident fata morganas seen by pagans in Palestine; as another proof he gives "a special revelation." 38) This same Tertullian denied original sin,39) and as an advocate of Montanism, which stood for the rankest chiliasm, he was a schismatic enthusiast.40) 31) Allgemeine Geschichte der Christlichen Religion und Kirche, Neander, Hamburg, 1843, n, 1126. 32) Eus., Ch. H., vn, 24, 309. 33) Lehre und Wehre, St. Louis, 1857, 3, p.300. 34) Vid. Note 26, p.563 if. 35) Theophilus von Antiochien adversus Marcionem, etc., Fr. Loofs, 1930, Leipzig, p, 334. 36) Vid. Note 14, p. 341. 37) Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Guericke, 8th ed., Berlin, 1855, Vol. I, p.299. Cf. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., In,4. Vid. Note 25, p.416. Cf. Irenaeus, Adv. Haer., 1,10. Vid. Note 25, p. 323. 38) Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, 1, m, c.17; opp. per Rhenanum, ed. Basil., 1539, fol. 243. 39) Lectures by Dr. E. A. W. Krauss, St. Louis, 1920, in manuscript fonn, p.38. 40) Repetitorium der christlichen Kirchen-und Dogmengeschichte, Fuerth, 1847, p.10. 200 Notes on the History of Chiliasm L. Coelius Lactantius Firmianus (d, 330-),· private instructor of one of Constantine's sons, taught a chiliasm worthy of a Mussul­man's heaven.41) Appropriately, the edition of his works we con­sulted was dedicated to the Baron von Muenchhausen.42) Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, taught "Jewish ideas concern­ing the resurrection," expected a millennium centered at Jerusalem and the Christians to be converted to Judaism.43) This same bishop impaired the doctrine of the humanity of Christ by denying. Him a rational soul,44) and in his views on the Trinity he approximated those of Sabellius.45) Victorin of Pettau (ca.290) is said to have expected a heav­enly Jerusalem to come down on earth at the beginning of the millennium. A critical examination shows that, like Irenaeus, he is presenting quotations from Papias.46) The Ebionites, who rejected the epistles of Paul and denied the deity of Christ, were rather crass chiliasts.47) In our catalog of patristic chiliasts we have included those who are commonly appealed to by present-day chiliasts to prove the orthodoxy of their views. These brief remarks establish that during the early centuries of the Christian Church chiliasm was ever in poor company. Even in those early days it was a char­acteristic of chiliasm that it seldom appeared except in the company of other errors. Before we conclude this chapter, two remarks may be allowed. Chiliasm was definitely condemned in the testimonies of Dionysius (Bishop of Alexandria, d.265), HieronYmus (d. 420), Gregory of Nyssa (d. 400), John of Damascus (d.760), and Theophylact (d. 1107). Epiphanius (Bishop of Salamis on Cyprus, d.403) and Philastrius (Bishop of Brixia, d.390) list the chiliasts as heretics. At the synod of Rome, 373, the Bishop Damasus condemned the error of chiliasm.48) Then, too, chili.asm became discredited more and more when the Church had been recognized by the state through Constantine.49) 41) C. Lactantii Firmiani Opera Ommia (Lib. Baroni de Mvnchhavsen devotissime consecrat 1. L. BVNEMANNVS) Lipsiae, 1738. Divin. institut. VII, 24: "Terra vero aperiet fecunditatem suam, et uberrimas fruges sua sponte generabit; rupes montium mella sudabunt; mundus denique ipse gaudebit, et omnis rerum natura laetabitur." 42) Vid. Note 37, p.340. 43) Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, N. Y., 1895, Vol. VIII, St. Basil, p. 302 f., Letter CCLXIII,4. 44) Op. cit., p. 276, Letter CCXXXVI, Note 5. 45) Op. cit., p. 266, Letter CCXXIV, 2. 46) Vid. Note 35, p. 337. 47) Vid. Note 39, p.34. 48) Gerhardi, Loci Theologici, Berlin, 1863, ed. Preuss, Vol. IX, c. VII, p.186. 49) Christian Dogmatics, C. E. Lindberg, Rock Island, 1922, p.536. Notes on the History of Chiliasm 201 Augustine of Hippo wrote: "Let us not expect anything temporal or transitory in the divine promises of grace. . .. Let us not hope for a kingdom of Christ upon earth for 1,000 years in which the saints are to rule in sensuality." 50) Over against chiliasm Augus­tine taught that "Satan was bound at the first advent of Christ; by the first resurrection is meant the spiritual resurrection; the thousand years are the Kingdom of Grace upon earth." 51) And yet even Leo the Great (440-461), the great champion of papal primacy, in writing to the Emperor Theodosius, expressed the hope that the kingdom of Christ supplant the kingdom of this world to the end that universal mundane peace be established on earth. 52) h. The Mystics of the Middle Ages During the scholastic period, theologians did not greatly occupy themselves with investigations concerning the millennium. The Church of Rome had its "kingdom of God" on earth in the visible form of its ecclesiasticism and for that reason was hostile to any future kingdom to be founded here. The whole system of the Romanists was centered in bringing people into the Roman Catholic Church, and not into any other economy. Those, moreover, in the Church who were dissatisfied because of its corruption were equally disinclined to look for a millennium. Bernhard of Clairveaux, e. g., expressed serious concern that the Gospel was not being spread out like in former days. 53) Together with others, he felt that wickedness and corruption had so far gained the upper hand that the end of the world would come immediately. The frightful Black Death (1347-1353), wiping out two thirds of Europe's population, served to leave this same impression. Yet, also during this period chiliasm showed itself on various occasions. The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us: "The monastic movement had its origin in Asia Minor. The expectation of an early advent of the celestial Jerusalem upon earth, which it was thought would appear in Phrygia, was immediately joined in the minds of the Montanists with the idea of a millennium." 54) During the earlier part of the Middle Ages we frequently find the former chiliastic expectations embodied in new visions of those eschatalogical hopes and apocalyptic fancies expressed by the 50) De Eccl. Dogm., quoted in Lehre un