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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 1609: Apocalypticism and Prognostication in the Early and High Medieval West, II: Around the Year 1000

Thursday 12 July 2012, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg
Organiser:Levi Roach, St John's College, University of Cambridge
Moderator/Chair:Peter Darby, School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester
Paper 1609-aGerbert of Aurillac and Gregorian Eschatology
(Language: English)
George David House, Department of History, University of Exeter
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin, Mentalities
Paper 1609-bThe Whore of the Apocalypse and Kaiserkritik around the Year 1000
(Language: English)
Joanna Thornborough, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Historiography - Medieval, Political Thought
Paper 1609-cNew Approaches to an Old Problem: Otto III and the End of Time
(Language: English)
Levi Roach, St John's College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Lay Piety, Mentalities, Political Thought, Religious Life
Abstract

Apocalypticism and prognostication, though essential aspects of medieval religious belief, have not generally received the attention they deserve from modern historians. The reasons for this seem to be twofold: firstly, already in the Middle Ages contemporaries were wary about such beliefs, which were often dangerously heterodox and tended to be treated with suspicion by the ecclesiastical hierarchy; and secondly, scholars have often been reluctant to admit that the objects of their study may have been influenced by what seem to us to be such 'irrational' beliefs. These sessions seek to challenge such presumptions by re-examining the central role of apocalyptic thought and prognostication in Western Europe in the early and high Middle Ages.