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The 'renovatio imperii Romanorum' of Emperor Otto III and the Eschatological Expectations of His Contemporaries Around the Year 1000

PD Dr. Hannes Möring
Bayreuth University, Medieval History
Research stay: April – September 2010

Lectures at the IKGF:

  • Die Renovatio Imperii Ottos III. und die Endzeiterwartungen um 1000, Tuesday lecture, July 13, 2010.
  • Round Table Feature, Annual Conference 2010: Die Renovatio Imperii Ottos III. und die Endzeiterwartungen um 1000.

The 'renovatio imperii Romanorum' of Emperor Otto III and the Eschatological Expectations of His Contemporaries Around the Year 1000

Since the nineteenth century, historians of the European Middle Ages have repeatedly debated whether many or only a few Christians of western and southern Europe were, in the period shortly before and after the year 1000, strongly influenced and frightened by the expectation of the coming of Antichrist and his reign of terror – to be followed by the return and triumph of Christ, the end of the world and the Last Judgment. Most historians still doubt, and in many cases even deny, any widespread eschatological excitement at the turn of the millennium 1000/1001.

However, in the widely read Revelations, the only prophecy of the New Testament, St John tells us that the devil will be imprisoned for a thousand years and then, having regained his freedom, will terrorize mankind until he is thrown into a lake of burning sulphur. In a departure from the historical and theological mainstream, Johannes Fried recently has shown that St Augustine, the most influential of the western Church Fathers, understood the number 1000 literally and not symbolically, although he denied the possibility to determine the date of the coming of Antichrist or the following return of Christ (and, in turn, the end of the world and the Last Judgment) with exactitude.

It is remarkable that, despite the fact that the point relates to a well-established historical debate, scholars have thus far failed to make any connection between Emperor Otto III's announcement of a 'renovatio imperii Romanorum', and the widespread Christian belief that the Antichrist would not appear as long as the Roman Empire existed: the Roman Empire was commonly seen as the last obstacle or katechon restraining the Antichrist, as described by St Paul (2 Thess. 2:6–7). Thus, it is apparently no coincidence that the seals of Otto III show the inscription 'renovatio imperii Romanorum' only in the three years (998, 999 and 1000) immediately before the turn of the millennium, and not in subsequent years. This makes at least one thing quite clear: Otto III did not believe that the Antichrist was about to be made manifest, and world was nearing its end. Furthermore, it seems that Otto III deliberately tried to suppress or at least allay eschatological expectations (above all the fear of the Antichrist) by propagating the 'renovatio imperii Romanorum' as an antidote. Perhaps his aim was to prevent mass hysteria and/or to protect his rule against any incalculable disturbances. Possibly, too, the scarcity of surviving sources about eschatological expectations in the years around 1000 is, similarly, not coincidental, but a result of the measures taken by Otto III and his advisers.

None of the previous attempts to explain the intentions behind the 'renovatio imperii Romanorum' is satisfying. Certainly, it cannot be seen as a political and/or religious program, because there were no apparent results, and no evidence has survived of relevant actions or orders. However, no previous attempts at a scholarly explanation contradict the eschatological interpretation proposed here.

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