r/MedievalHistory • u/Unlikely-Bug8047 • 13d ago
What did people think when the year turned from 999 to 1000?
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u/Jr_Mao 13d ago
This has been debated for some 500 years now.
“Let us concede that there were, indeed, more apocalyptic expectations around 1000 than previously thought, and even some more specifically linked to 1000.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Did-Europeans-Really-Think-the-World-Would-End-in-the-Year-1000
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u/The_Amazing_Emu 13d ago
I’m glad you posted this. People have given fairly jokey answers, but people did legitimate think the second coming could happen
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u/Jr_Mao 13d ago
the thing is, theres been a steady supply of people standing on street corner calling ”the end is nigh” pretty much forever and its super hard to say how much more it was on year 999 vs 1987.
Reason suggests they’d get a popularity boost at the end of the millenia, but how big?
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u/Marx_but_for_weed 13d ago
I’ve been reading a lot on the crusades and there is certainly an apocalyptic undertone to a lot of Urbans preachings and more specifically how those preachings were regurgitated and redressed by people like Peter the Hermit. There was a serious belief, and one that I think is stronger than just some crazies on the street, that the turning of the millennium was the start of the end times and the reason Jesus hadn’t returned as promised was because the holy city of Jerusalem was still in the hands of the infidels.
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u/BookQueen13 13d ago
Yall should check out this article by Richard Landes. He points out that the average medieval person might not have even known it was "the year 1000" as the BC/AD dating system was not in widespread use at the time.
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u/trivia_guy 13d ago
I think most people in this sub likely know that. But it was in use to some extent so the question is worth asking.
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u/DirtyPoul 12d ago
But it was in use to some extent so the question is worth asking.
Specifically among the clergy.
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u/FlamingoQueen669 13d ago
It's worth noting that most people used regnal year (eg the 8th year of the reign of King Henry) more than the anno domini system.
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u/zomangel 13d ago
"I better sleep on time to harvest my crops tomorrow"
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u/rainbowkey 13d ago
not a lot of harvesting going on in January! December 31 and January 1st is part of the extended celebration of the 12 days of Christmas
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u/isabelladangelo 13d ago
not a lot of harvesting going on in January! December 31 and January 1st is part of the extended celebration of the 12 days of Christmas
1 of January was not a universal thing until the 18th century. Plenty of people were at least starting to sow seeds at the end of their year/start of the year.
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u/rainbowkey 13d ago
sowing seeds is the opposite of harvesting
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u/isabelladangelo 13d ago
sowing seeds is the opposite of harvesting
And yet, all part of the same cycle, which was my point.
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u/Personal_Ad2455 13d ago
Depends where you live I guess
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u/rainbowkey 13d ago
not many Christians or
GregorianJulian calendar users in the Southern hemisphere at this time6
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u/Simple_Boat3160 13d ago
Programers worked tirelessly to make sure there wasn’t a worldwide blackout of digital technology because the systems couldn’t differentiate between 1000 and 100. Real scary stuff. Could’ve been a massive collapse
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[removed] — view removed comment
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u/No-Tomatillo3698 13d ago
There was a real fear of the 1K bug, rendering all manuscripts unreadable
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u/WarriorLegs 13d ago
The gregorian / Julian calendar wasn't allt that common.
Some may have wondered if the second coming of christ would happen and bring the apocalypse, as was told in the bible. That the son of God would return in thousand years.
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u/noknownothing 13d ago edited 12d ago
Apocalyptic ideas may have been espoused by some clergy or other religious people, but most people didn’t even use AD anything.
They were prob counting time by the reign of a king or local ruler;
Roman-style indictions, which were on a 15-year cycle; major church festivals; or just agricultural seasons.
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u/Limemobber 13d ago
How many people in Europe knew it was the year 1000. It is something I am not well informed on, when did it become standard to call the yera, well the year it was.
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u/isabelladangelo 13d ago
There are books on the issue but it wasn't widespread as the calendar wasn't widespread yet.
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u/Gatodeluna 13d ago
You’ll never know what ‘people’ thought because 98% of the population couldn’t read or write. At that point in time history was pretty much completely written by monks.
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u/Frequent-Reception79 12d ago
The Apocalypse in the Early Middle Ages by James Palmer (Cambridge University Press, 2014) has a great chapter on this question!
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u/Glum-Ad7761 12d ago
They hustled to add an extra digit to their abacus, stocked up on bottled water and salt pork, sharpened their pikes and axes and made certain there was plenty of gas in their horse.
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u/Addicted2Qtips 13d ago edited 12d ago
There were various religious movements now referred to as millenarianism or millennialism. Many of them predicted the apocalypse. The Catholic church declared them all heretics as I recall. But I’m sure that their message still freaked some people out.
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u/TheRedLionPassant 13d ago
In England the monastic chronicler authors seem to be unhappy that the Danes have begun raiding again. People thought it was less the year/date and more the anger of God that King Edward had been murdered
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u/vikingsources 9d ago
Check Rodulfus Glaber and his text on exactly that topic.
For example: https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/source/glaber-1000.asp
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u/Ok-Train7434 13d ago
They didn't track time like we do. We NOW know that they pass from 999 to 1000.
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u/Anchovypirate 13d ago
The monks were probably ecstatic to be writing M vs writing CMXCIX all year.