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

by Norman Cohn (Author) "The raw materials out of which a revolutionary eschatology was gradually built up during the Middle Ages consisted of a miscellaneous collection of prophecies inherited..." (more)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 414 pages
  • Publisher: Pimlico; New edition edition (3 Jun 1993)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0712656642
  • ISBN-13: 978-0712656641
  • Product Dimensions: 21.2 x 13.4 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 209,770 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

The Middle Ages inherited from Antiquity a tradition of prophesy which, during those centuries took on fresh and exuberant vitality. This tradition foretold a millennium - in which the world would be inhabited by people at once perfectly good and perfectly happy. Humanity would enjoy a new paradise on earth, free of suffering and sin. Generation after generation was seized, at least intermittently, by a tense expectation of some sudden, miraculous event in which the world would be utterly transformed. Often these expectations become emmeshed with social unrest - with the desire of the poor to improve their material conditions. And when that happened movements were apt to arise which not only send tremors through the massive structure of medieval society but which also bear a startling resemblance to the great totalitaian movements of today. Drawing on a variety of contemporary resources, this book tells the story of those millennarian fanaticism of the Middle Ages and points to their persistence in the modern world.


From the Publisher

'Great learning and an admirably lively style-Professor Cohn's work throws a flood of light into unexplored corners-A most stimulating book.' Christopher Hill
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The raw materials out of which a revolutionary eschatology was gradually built up during the Middle Ages consisted of a miscellaneous collection of prophecies inherited from the ancient world. Read the first page
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Insanity and insurgency in the Dark Ages, 11 Jan 2008
I have a special place in my heart for books which combine the utmost intellectual rigour in their research and method, with the most off the wall subject matter imaginable. Perhaps it is the contrast between form and content, perhaps it is the breadth and depth of the conclusions reached by the microscopic examination of insanity.

Whatever the reason, Pursuit of the Millenium is brilliant example of the kind. I suppose you can tell that a book has reached a certain stature when it is referenced in later classics, and that the book must be especially wonderful of its kind if it attains this status despite pertaining largely to the arcane matter of medieval religious sectarianism. If this is true, then the reference to Cohn's opus in On Chesil Beech by Ian McEwan (in which principle male character is reading the book) is some sort of validation - especially given McEwan's predilection for using his novels to drop unsubtle hints about the sort of activities he considers culturally worthwhile.

The book is a succession of remarkable stories, interlaced with the development of the ideas which informed each instance of revolutionary eschatology. Similar motifs and patterns crop up again and again with such surprising reguality over periods of centuries that it is hard not to think that the commonalities must point to some sort of underlying human or structural bias. What it is though, is hard to say. Because it deals with revolutionary movements in the dark ages, it is also a fascinating comparative text for anyone interested in the revolutionary and social movements of the recent past - though Cohn does arguably lay that on a little thick at times.

No real prior knowledge of the subject is necessary to read the book, though I personally needed to make occasional recourse to Wikipedia to remind me of what some theological terms mean.

This, in case you haven't noticed, is a glowing review. Read this book!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read - honestly!, 10 Oct 2007
By B. Blatt (Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Many would not expect a book on medieval religion to be 'unputdownable', but this really is a riveting read. Professor Cohn introduces us to a lost world of heretics and heroes, and the revolutions and massacres they inspired. Chillingly the crazed theologies he describes are far from dead; some have mutated into secular versions like Nazism and Communism, some appear to have been rediscovered by modern religious extremists; David Koresh would not be out of place in this book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly seminal work, 22 Sep 2009
By Rowland Nelken (Nottingham, England, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This was one of the most helpful books I have ever read. I had the misfortune to be reared, in part, as a Jehovah's Witness. Whereas most Christian contemporaries celebrated the moral tales and miracles of Jesus, and St. Paul's evangelism, JWs were obsessed with the imminent End of the World. Part of their prophetic scenario involved the chaining of Satan by St. Michael, and his 1000 year banishment, as related in the Book of Revelation. This banishment is the Millennium to which the title refers.

It was quite salutary to discover, in Cohn's book, that apocalyptic obsessions had, for centuries, been central to Christian belief, and not merely the province of whacko fringe movements. This is hardly surprising, given the content of so much of the Bible. The Crusades, and all their bloodshed, we read, were an attempt to fulfil Biblical prophecy.

Cohn describes a whole range of desperate and credulous people, across several centuries, who were persuaded to follow a range of Christian Revolutionaries, who railed against private property and privilege and claimed thereby to be ushering in a New age of Christian purity and Piety.

There are legends also, of the return of the King, not always Jesus, sometimes the Emperor Frederick II. 'Respectable' clerics, like St. Francis of Assisi and Joachim of Fiore, are also highlighted as stirring up apocalyptic fervour.

Some of the prophets, with their ravings against Jews and private property, foreshadow those two evils of the 20th century, Fascism and Communism. Indeed, it was the righteous certainty of members of both those movements that were the book's inspiration. As an Intelligence Officer in the British Army in WW2 Cohn came face to face with true believers in both those destructive movements. 50 years on this book has not dated. Although Islamic Fundamentalism is beyond this book's scope, it is easy to see the parallels with its mediaeval Christian equivalent.
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