Millennium and Millenarianism
The fundamental idea of millenarianism, as understood by Christian
writers, may be set forth as follows: At the end of time Christ
will return in all His splendour to gather together the just, to
annihilate hostile powers, and to found a glorious kingdom on
earth for the enjoyment of the highest spiritual and material
blessings; He Himself will reign as its king, and all the just,
including the saints recalled to life, will participate in it. At
the close of this kingdom the saints will enter heaven with
Christ, while the wicked, who have also been resuscitated, will be
condemned to eternal damnation. The duration of this glorious
reign of Christ and His saints on earth, is frequently given as
one thousand years. Hence it is commonly known as the
"millennium", while the belief in the future realization of the
kingdom is called "millenarianism" (chiliasm, from the Greek
chilia, scil. ete).
This term of one thousand years, however, is by no means an
essential element of the millennium as conceived by its adherents.
The extent, details of the realization, conditions, the place, of
the millennium were variously described. Essential are the
following points:
� the early return of Christ in all His power and glory,
� the establishment of an earthly kingdom with the just,
� the resuscitation of the deceased saints and their
participation in the glorious reign,
� the destruction of the powers hostile to God, and,
� at the end of the kingdom, the universal resurrection with the
final judgment, after which the just will enter heaven, while the
wicked will be consigned to the eternal fire of hell.
The roots of the belief in a glorious kingdom, partly natural,
partly supernatural, are found in the hopes of the Jews for a
temporal Messiah and in the Jewish apocalyptic. Under the galling
pressure of their political circumstances the expectation of a
Messiah who would free the people of God had in the Jewish mind,
assumed a character that was to a great extent earthly; the Jews
longed above all for a saviour who would free them from their
oppressors and restore the former splendour of Israel. These
expectations generally included the belief that Jehovah would
conquer all powers hostile to Himself and to His chosen people,
and that He would set up a final, glorious kingdom of Israel. The
apocalyptic books, principally the book of Henoch and the fourth
book of Esdras, indicate various details of the arrival of the
Messiah, the defeat of the nations hostile to Israel, and the
union of all the Israelites in the Messianic kingdom followed by
the renovation of the world and the universal resurrection.
The natural and the supernatural are mingled in this conception of
a Messianic kingdom as the closing act of the world's history. The
Jewish hopes of a Messiah, and the descriptions of apocalyptic
writers were blended; it was between the close of the present
world-order and the commencement of the new that this sublime
kingdom of the chosen people was to find its place. That many
details of these conceptions should remain indistinct and confused
was but natural, but the Messianic kingdom is always pictured as
something miraculous, though the colours are at times earthly and
sensuous. The evangelical accounts clearly prove how fervently the
Jews at the time of Christ expected an earthly Messianic kingdom,
but the Saviour came to proclaim the spiritual kingdom of God for
the deliverance of man from his sins and for his sanctification, a
kingdom which actually began with His birth. There is no trace of
chiliasm to be found in the Gospels or in the Epistles of St.
Paul; everything moves in the spiritual and religious sphere; even
the descriptions of the end of the world and of the last judgment
bear this stamp. The victory over the symbolical beast (the enemy
of God and of the saints) and over Antichrist, as well as the
triumph of Christ over the symbolical beast (the enemy of God and
of the saints) and over Antichrist, as well as the triumph of
Christ and His saints, are described in the Apocalypse of St. John
(Apoc., 20-21), in pictures that resemble those of the Jewish
apocalyptic writers, especially of Daniel and Henoch. Satan is
chained in the abyss for a thousand years, the martyrs and the
just rise from the dead and share in the priesthood and kingship
of Christ. Though it is difficult to focus sharply the pictures
used in the Apocalypse and the things expressed by them, yet there
can be no doubt that the whole description refers to the spiritual
combat between Christ and the Church on the one hand and the
malignant powers of hell and the world on the other. Nevertheless,
a large number of Christians of the post-Apostolic era,
particularly in Asia Minor, yielded so far to Jewish apocalyptic
as to put a literal meaning into these descriptions of St. John's
Apocalypse; the result was that millenarianism spread and gained
staunch advocates not only among the heretics but among the
Catholic Christians as well.
One of the heretics, the Gnostic Cerinthus, who flourished towards
the end of the first century, proclaimed a splendid kingdom of
Christ on earth which He would establish with the risen saints
upon His second advent, and pictured the pleasures of this one
thousand years in gross, sensual colours (Caius in Eusebius, "
Hist. Eccl.", III, 28; Dionysius Alex. in Eusebius, ibid., VII,
25). Later among Catholics, Bishop Papias of Hierapolis, a
disciple of St. John, appeared as an advocate of millenarianism.
He claimed to have received his doctrine from contemporaries of
the Apostles, and Irenaeus narrates that other "Presbyteri", who
had seen and heard the disciple John, learned from him the belief
in millenarianism as part of the Lord's doctrine. According to
Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., 111, 39) Papias in his book asserted that
the resurrection of the dead would be followed by one thousand
years of a visible glorious earthly kingdom of Christ, and
according to Irenaeus (Adv. Haereses, V, 33), he taught that the
saints too would enjoy a superabundance of earthly pleasures.
There will be days in which vines will grow, each with 10,000
branches, and on each branch 10,000 twigs, and on each twig 10,000
shoots, and in each shoot 10,000 clusters, and on each cluster
10,000 grapes, and each grape will produce 216 gallons of wine
etc.
Millenarian ideas are found by most commentators in the Epistle of
St. Barnabas, in the passage treating of the Jewish sabbath; for
the resting of God on the seventh day after the creation is
explained in the following manner. Alter the Son of God has come
and put an end to the era of the wicked and judged them, and after
the sun, the moon, and the stars have been changed, then He will
rest in glory on the seventh day. The author had premised, if it
is said that God created all things in six days, this means that
God will complete all things in six millenniums, for one day
represents one thousand years. It is certain that the writer
advocates the tenet of a re-formation of the world through the
second advent of Christ, but it is not clear from the indications
whether the author of the letter was a millenarian in the strict
sense of the word. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a native of Asia Minor,
influenced by the comp anions of St. Polycarp, adopted millenarian
ideas, discussing and defending them in his works against the
Gnostics (Adv. Haereses, V, 32). He developed this doctrine mainly
in opposition to the Gnostics, who rejected all hopes of the
Christians in a happy future life, and discerned in the glorious
kingdom of Christ on earth principally the prelude to the final,
spiritual kingdom of God, the realm of eternal bliss. St. Justin
of Rome, the martyr, opposes to the Jews in his Dialogue with
Tryphon (ch. 80-1) the tenet of a millennium and asserts that he
and the Christians whose belief is correct in every point know
that there will be a resurrection of the body and that the newly
built and enlarged Jerusalem will last for the space of a thousand
years, but he adds that there are many who, though adhering to the
pure and pious teachings of Christ, do not believe in it. A
witness for the continued belief in millenarianism in the province
of Asia is St. Melito, Bishop of Sardes in the second century. He
develops the same train of thought as did St. Irenaeus.
The Montanistic 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
intimately joined in the minds of the Montanists with the idea of
the millennium. Tertullian, the protagonist of Montanism, expounds
the doctrine (in his work now lost, "De Spe Fidelium" and in "Adv.
Marcionem", IV) that at the end of time the great Kingdom of
promise, the new Jerusalem, would be established and last for the
space of one thousand years. All these millenarian authors appeal
to various passages in the prophetic books of the Old Testament,
to a few passages in the Letters of St. Paul and to the Apocalypse
of St. John. Though millenarianism had found numerous adherents
among the Christians and had been upheld by several ecclesiastical
theologians, neither in the post-Apostolic period nor in the
course of the second century, does it appear as a universal
doctrine of the Church or as a part of the Apostolic tradition.
The primitive Apostolic symbol mentions indeed the resurrection of
the body and the return of Christ to judge the living and the
dead, but it says not a word of the millennium. It was the second
century that produced not only defenders of the millennium but
pronounced adversaries of the chiliastic ideas. Gnosticism
rejected millenarianism. In Asia Minor, the principal seat of
millenarian teachings, the so-called Alogi rose up against
millenarianism as well as against Montanism, but they went too far
in their opposition, rejecting not only the Apocalypse of St.
John, alleging Cerinthus as its author, but his Gospel also. The
opposition to millenarianism became more general towards the end
of the second century, going hand in hand with the struggle
against Montanism. The Roman presbyter Caius (end of the second
and beginning of the third century) attacked the millenarians. On
the other hand, Hippolytus of Rome defended them and attempted a
proof, basing his arguments on the allegorical explanation of the
six days of creation as six thousand years, as he had been taught
by tradition. The most powerful adversary of millenarianism was
Origen of Alexandria. In view of the Neo-Platonism on which his
doctrines were founded and of his spiritual-allegorical method of
explaining the Holy Scriptures, he could not side with the
millenarians. He combatted them expressly, and, owing to the great
influence which his writings exerted on ecclesiastical theology
especially in Oriental countries, millenarianism gradually
disappeared from the idea of Oriental Christians. Only a few later
advocates are known to us, principally theological adversaries of
Origen. About the middle of the third century, Nepos, bishop in
Egypt, who entered the lists against the allegorism of Origen,
also propounded millenarian ideas and gained some adherents in the
vicinity of Arsino . A schism threatened; but the prudent and
moderate policy of Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, preserved
unity; the chiliasts abandoned their views (Eusebius "Hist.
Eccl.", VII, 14). Egypt seems to have harboured adherents of
millenarianism in still later times Methodius, Bishop of Olympus,
one of the principal opponents of Origen at the beginning of the
fourth century, upheld chiliasm in his Symposion (IX, 1, 5). In
the second half of the fourth century, these doctrines found their
last defender in Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea and founder of
Apollinarism (q.v.). His writings on this subject, have been lost;
but St. Basil of Caesarea (Epist. CCLXIII, 4), Epiphanius (Haeres.
LXX, 36) and Jerome (In Isai. XVIII) testify to his having been a
chiliast. Jerome also adds that many Christians of that time
shared the same beliefs; but after that millenarianism found no
outspoken champion among the theologians of the Greek Church.
In the West, the millenarian expectations of a glorious kingdom of
Christ and His just, found adherents for a long time. The poet
Commodian (Instructiones, 41, 42, 44) as well as Lactantius
(Institutiones, VIII) proclaim the millennial realm and describe
its splendour, partly drawing on the earlier chiliasts and the
Sybilline prophecies, partly borrowing their colours from the
"golden age" of the pagan poets; but the idea of the six thousand
years for the duration of the world is ever conspicuous.
Victorinus of Pettau also was a millenarian though in the extant
copy of his commentary on the Apocalypse no allusions to it can be
detected. St. Jerome, himself a decided opponent of the millenial
ideas, brands Sulpicius Severus as adhering to them, but in the
writings of this author in their present form nothing can be found
to support this charge. St. Ambrose indeed teaches a twofold
resurrection, but millenarian doctrines do not stand out clearly.
On the other hand; St. Augustine was for a time, as he himself
testifies (De Civitate Dei, XX, 7), a pronounced champion of
millenarianism; but he places the millennium after the universal
resurrection and regards it in a more spiritual light (Sermo,
CCLIX). When, however, he accepted the doctrine of only one
universal resurrection and a final judgment immediately following,
he could no longer cling to the principal tenet of early chiliasm.
St. Augustine finally held to the conviction that there will be no
millennium. The struggle between Christ and His saints on the one
hand and the wicked world and Satan on the other, is waged in the
Church on earth; so the great Doctor describes it in his work De
Civitate Dei. In the same book he gives us an allegorical
explanation of Chap. 20 of the Apocalypse. The first resurrection,
of which this chapter treats, he tells us, refers to the spiritual
rebirth in baptism; the sabbath of one thousand years after the
six thousand years of history is the whole of eternal life-or in
other words, the number one thousand is intended to express
perfection, and the last space of one thousand years must be
understood as referring to the end of the world; at all events,
the kingdom of Christ, of which the Apocalypse speaks, can only be
applied to the Church (De Civitate Dei, XX 5-7). This explanation
of the illustrious Doctor was adopted by succeeding Western
theologians, and millenarianism in its earlier shape no longer
received support. Cerinthus and the Ebionites are mentioned in
later writings against the heretics as defenders of the
millennium, it is true, but as cut-off from the Church. Moreover,
the attitude of the Church towards the secular power had undergone
a change with closer connection between her and the Roman empire.
There is no doubt that this turn of events did much towards
weaning the Christians from the old millenarianism, which during
the time of persecution had been the expression of their hopes
that Christ would soon reappear and overthrow the foes of His
elect. Chiliastic views disappeared all the more rapidly, because,
as was remarked above, in spite of their wide diffusion even among
sincere Christians, and in spite of their defence by prominent
Fathers of the early Church, millenarianism was never held in the
universal Church as an article of faith based on Apostolic
traditions.
The Middle Ages were never tainted with millenarianism; it was
foreign both to the theology of that period and to the religious
ideas of the people. The fantastic views of the apocalyptic
writers (Joachim of Floris, the Franciscan-Spirituals, the
Apostolici), referred only to a particular form of spiritual
renovation of the Church, but did not include a second advent of
Christ. The "emperor myths," which prophesied the establishment of
a happy, universal kingdom by the great emperor of the future,
contain indeed descriptions that remind one of the ancient
Sybilline and millenarian writings, but an essential trait is
again missing, the return of Christ and the connection of the
blissful reign with the resurrection of the just. Hence the
millennium proper is unknown to them. The Protestantism of the
sixteenth century ushered in a new epoch of millenarian doctrines.
Protestant fanatics of the earlier years, particularly the
Anabaptists, believed in a new, golden age under the sceptre of
Christ, after the overthrow of the papacy and secular empires. In
1534 the Anabaptists set up in M�nster (Westphalia) the new
Kingdom of Zion, which advocated sharing property and women in
common, as a prelude to the new kingdom of Christ. Their excesses
were opposed and their millenarianism disowned by both the
Augsberg (art. 17) and the Helvetian Confession (ch. 11), so that
it found no admission into the Lutheran and Reformed theologies.
Nevertheless, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries produced
new apocalyptic fanatics and mystics who expected the millennium
in one form or another: in Germany, the Bohemian and Moravian
Brethren (Comenius); in France, Pierre Jurien (L'Accomplissement
des Propheties, 1686); in England at the time of Cromwell, the
Independents and Jane Leade. A new phase in the development of
millenarian views among the Protestants commenced with Pietism.
One of the chief champions of the millennium in Germany was I.A.
Bengel and his disciple Crusius, who were afterwards joined by
Rothe, Volch, Thiersch, Lange and others. Protestants from
Wurtemberg emigrated to Palestine (Temple Communities) in order to
be closer to Christ at His second advent. Certain fantastical
sects of England and North America, such as the Irvingites,
Mormons, Adventists, adopted both apocalyptic and millenarian
views, expecting the return of Christ and the establishment of His
kingdom at an early date. Some Catholic theologians of the
nineteenth century championed a moderate, modified millenarianism,
especially in connection with their explanations of the
Apocalypse; as Pagani (The End of the World, 1856), Schneider (Die
chiliastische Doktrin, 1859), Rohling (Erklarung der Apokalypse
des hl. lohannes, 1895; Auf nach Sion, 1901), Rougeyron Chabauty
(Avenir de l'Eglise catholique selon le Plan Divin, 1890).
J.P. KIRSCH
Transcribed by Donald J. Boon
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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