The Pincer of Past and Future in the Early Middle Ages: Odo of Cluny and Adso of Montier-en-Der

Sometime during the tenth century, the Latin West began to think about the future again.  In a sense, sacred history seemed to have restarted.  This did not necessarily mean, however, that the prophesized end would arrive soon but it did mean that tenth-century authors began to think about prophecy, and whether anything they saw in the world around them foretold what was to come.  This paper will look at the work of two prolific tenth-century monastic authors, Abbot Odo of Cluny (d. 942) and Abbot Adso of Montier-en-Der (d. 992).  Both were concerned (although to varying degrees) about the proximity of the End but both were conservative – if not downright reactionary – in their thinking, speaking only obliquely about the future and arguing forcefully for a return to the past.  For example, Odo’s Collationum libri tres deplored the violence he saw in society around him and warned his readers that the time of antichrist might be at hand.  Yet, he made no reference to Revelation and to the suffering of Christians to come.  Instead, he likened their tribulations to the Israelites of old, in one case even selectively quoting a passage from Ezekiel to strip out the prophetic character of the verse.   Likewise, Adso’s De antichristo did indeed discuss the time of antichrist but argued against its nearness, relying upon a particular understanding of the past to show how time now ticked backwards, away from the events of Revelation.  Ultimately, these authors were caught in a kind of limbo, between past and future, their traditional understanding of history now being upset by the invasion of prophecy into the contemporary world.