177. Cohn, Norman. "Medieval Millenarism: Its Bearing on the Comparative Study of Millenarian Movements." In Millennial Dreams in Action edited by Sylvia L. Thrupp. The Hague: Mouton, 1962: 31-43.

Cohn is opposed to "quasi-teleological" views which see these ideas as "contributing to cultural evolution." The decisive factors are: the traditional promise of a future golden age; a prophet adapting it to a current ideology; novel frustrations and humiliations leading to "collective emotional agitation," which gives the prophet his opportunity. [Does "strengthening of the ego" militate against such movements?]

Cohn points out that the Free Spirit "heresy" flourished among middle- and upper-middle-class women. They had "the one thoroughly revolutionary social doctrine known to the Middle Ages … that [people] had at first lived as a community of equals holding all things in common" (p. 30.) Millennialism labels a type of salvationism: it must be collective, terrestrial, imminent (i.e., to be expected soon and suddenly) total (embodying perfection, not mere improvement) and brought on by a recognized supernatural agency.

178. ---. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Messianism in Medieval and Reformation Europe and Its Bearing on Modern Totalitarian Movements. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, Third edn. 1970a.

Among the most often quoted studies which are also "most comforting" to the "North Atlantic ecumene" (H. Schwartz, 1987: item 602). "The outstanding contribution … [shows] how it was amongst the lowest strata … that millenarian fantasies took strongest root." (Worsley, 1968: item 769). Claims (falsely, in Schwartz's (1976: item 601) view) "that European movements which are stimulated by visions of an imminent, drastic end to the world are based upon identical social mechanisms or theologies." "Among the most useful references on causation" (Burridge, 1969: item 143).

Cohn's survey of these medieval movements deals with "the rootless poor" who foresaw massacres of their evil oppressors-Jews, priests, the rich-before setting up their own kingdoms of innocence. In his view the context for these movements is invariably one of "mass disorientation and anxiety." His sources are generally hostile to these movements, though he says he found some surviving prophecies that substantiate their claims.

179. ---. "The Ranters: The 'Underground' in the England of 1650." Encounter 34, April 1970: 15-25.

A curious article. Cohn begins with a brief sketch of the medieval antinomian Brethren of the Free Spirit, a little-understood group which he claims can be comprehended in view of the historical record of the Ranters in seventeenth-century England. He then goes on to uncritically accept as valid the report of an obviously hostile parliamentary investigation committee and recantations by former Ranters but never mentions the Brethren again. However, on the way he presents some beautifully written passages from the work of Joseph Salmon, Lawrence Clarkson, and Abiezer Coppe [whose prophetic career is sociologically typical: in his youth he was a dedicated ascetic, failed repeatedly at the ministry in various Protestant sects, and finally found his charismatic calling following visionary experiences and a period of extreme despair and poverty: his parents had disowned him, his house burned, his wife loathed him, his reputation was lost, and he was "utterly plagued, consumed, damned, rammed and sunk into nothing, into the bowels of the still Eternity" p. 21].

Ranter doctrine as set forth in these works is beautifully coherent and reasonable. The millennium is at hand and will be perfect. Consequently good and evil as distinct categories have ceased to exist. Both God and the Devil will be overthrown by a yet higher power, an "Infinite Being" (p. 18). [In this doctrine at least the Ranters seem to be following an ancient gnostic tradition; see item 301.] All acts-fornication, theft, murder-are morally equivalent; "to the pure all things are pure" (p. 19), so any act is acceptable, since all powers are from God. Sin is imaginary, and until you wallow in sin you cannot be free from it. Ranters are angels, that is they have already transcended the categories of good and evil and passed into the millennial state. A special mark of this grace was fluent ability at eloquent, drawn-out cursing, and the ability to "force" others to do so. This is more pure in them than the holiest preaching in others. In this state one fuses with God and all socialization is lost [this is a description of the purest and most extreme kind of communitas.] Accordingly, society is to be radically transformed by God, "the great leveller" who will bring total equality and community, not with a battle but by changing hearts. Coppe showed great compassion for the poor.

[This seems to me to prefigure the nineteenth-century Noyesian doctrine of Perfectionism. I do not claim that Noyes would have known of any of these obscure works, most copies of which were burnt at the time of publication but that this logic is inherent in Christian doctrine and could easily be rediscovered at any time; indeed, Cohn points to the example of Charles Manson as an instance of exactly that occurrence.]

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