abyss
The depths of the sea. Because the Hebrews disliked the sea (cf. Rev. 21: 1), deep waters were regarded as the abode of demons. It was the appropriate destiny for the Gadarene swine when the demons ...
Adso of Montier-en-der
(d. 992)*Benedictine abbot and author of Libellus de Antichristo (c.950), which organizes patristic exegesis and legendary beliefs concerning the end of the world into a future ‘life’ of Antichrist ...
alchemy
The medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the transmutation of matter, in particular with attempts to convert base metals into gold or find a universal elixir.The term comes (in late ...
Al-Dajjāl
(Arab.).The perjurer or false accuser, a figure in Islamic eschatology, the ‘anti-Christ’ whose wiles and deceptions ‘cover’ (a root meaning) and resist the truth. He is not mentioned in ...
angelic pope
The papa angelicus, or pastor angelicus, appears in medieval apocalyptic literature as one who will inaugurate a new Church and a new world, of perfect sanctity. The first speculations on ...
Anthiochus
King of Syria and surrounding territories (reigned 175–163 bc); desiring to unify his people and resist Rome, he tried to abolish the Jewish religion, which provoked the revolt of the ...
antipope
A person set up as Bp. of Rome in opposition to the person holding the see or held to be lawfully elected to it.
Apocalypse
The complete final destruction of the world, especially as described in the biblical book of Revelation. The word is recorded from Old English, and comes ultimately, via Old French and ecclesiastical ...
apocalyptic literature
The word ‘apocalypse’ means a ‘revelation’ or ‘unveiling’, so an apocalyptic book claims to reveal things which are normally hidden or to reveal the future. The Jewish Apocalyptic books belong ...
Apocalypticism
Like Christianity itself, the Reformation was spawned in and nurtured by an atmosphere of intense hopes and fears about impending universal upheaval, disaster, transformation, judgment, and the end ...
Ascension of Isaiah
An apocryphal work well known in the early Church. The first part (chs. 1–5) describes the circumstances of Isaiah's martyrdom; the second (chs. 6–11) his ascent in ecstasy through the heavens and ...
Bernardino Ochino
(1487–1564),Italian Protestant reformer, born in Siena, where he entered the austere Order of Observantine Friars, a reformed Franciscan religious order. He became general of his Order, but in 1534 ...
Book of Revelation
The last Book of the NT and the only one that is an Apocalypse. Apart from the letters to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, the Book consists of a series of visions.The author is identified as ‘John’ ...
David Joris
(1501–56),Dutch Anabaptist leader, the son of a shopkeeper and amateur actor at Delft; his father had acted the part of King David, and passed the name to his son ...
Didache
(Greek for ‘teaching’). The elements in primitive Christian apologetic of an instructional kind, as contrasted with kerygma or ‘preaching’.
Elye
The Old Testament prophet. Like Enoch (Ennok) he did not die, but was raised bodily into heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1–18). This is ruefully alluded to by the ...
Epistles to the Thessalonians
Either of two books of the New Testament, the earliest letters of St Paul, written from Corinth to the new Church at Thessalonica.
eschatology
(Greek, eschatos, the last)The formation of ideas about the end of life, or the end of the world, and in Christian theology, the last judgement and resurrection.
fraticelli
Originally a term of contempt for heretical Franciscans, it was applied to two groups, both mainly confined to Italy and extinct by 1500. The Fraticelli de Paupere Vita were followers of Angelo ...
Gerard of Borgo San Donnino
(died 1276/1277)A Franciscan, born at Borgo San Donnino (now Fidenza, in Emilia). In 1248 he came to Paris to finish his studies, in 1252 he was promoted to reader ...
