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EUROPE: CATASTROPHE ANO
REVIVAL~~~
Part5:
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by
Paul W. Kroll
During the Middle Ages, Euro–
peans expected the appear–
ance of Antichrist. And this
expectat ion filled them with
terror. Antichrist was thought
to be a great antagonist of
Christ and was expected to
spread uni versal evil across
the earth. Onl y one power, Eu–
ropeans thought, was holding
back Antichrist: the Holy Ro–
man Empire.
1
T
w
AS
God, not men, who called
Germany to the imperial office
of the revived Reman Empire
- at least this was the claim of Jor–
dan of Osnabrueck.
During the reign of Rudolph of
Habsburg (1273-129 1), Jordan of
Osnabrueck wrote a book about the
"translation" of the old Roman Ero–
pire to the care of Germany. The
new empire was the Holy Roman
Empire of the German nation. Jor–
dan was not the only one to advance
this idea; it was common in the
Middle Ages.
This West European empire, orig-
inally begun by the Franks under
CharJemagne, was considered an
offshoot of the old Roman Empire.
Otto of Freising, a mystic writing in
bis twelfth century
Chronica,
summed up the thinking of his day:
" Temporal power passed from
Babylon to the Medes, then to the
Persians, afterwards to the Greeks,
lastly to the Romans and in the
name of the Romans transmitted to
the Franks. Finally the Franks
... were divided among th em–
selves ... and had a presentiment
that the kingdom ... would be de–
stroyed according to the Gospel."