THE SUCCESSION OF THE WORLD EMPIRES


The succession of the major world empires Assyrian Empire

Egypt Greek monogram of Christ - Chi-Rho and the letters Alpha and Omega

Le Louvre

Coronation of Napoleon

L'Empire Romain - Caligula

Babylonian winged lion Alexandre-le-Grand et l'Empire Gréc

Le premier était semblable à un lion, et avait des ailes d`aigles; je regardai, jusqu`au moment où ses ailes furent arrachées; il fut enlevé de terre et mis debout sur ses pieds comme un homme, et un coeur d`homme lui fut donné.

- Dan. 7:4

Gloire

Washington Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

- from the US Constitution


POST TENEBRIS LUX


HISTOIRE DE LA FIN DU MONDE

de l'an mil à l'an 2000

par

Jean-Paul Clébert

Belfond
216, Boulevard Saint-Germain
75007 Paris

Imprimé en France
Dépot légal: janvier 1994


TABLE DES MATIÈRES

INTRODUCTION
Les peurs du millénaire:
passé lointain ou proche avenir?

1. Histoire d'une rumeur.

Au commencement, l'Apocalypse
Dies irae ou le jour de Yahvé
L' Apocalypse chrétienne
Un climat eschatologique
La Jérusalem céleste
L' Antéchrist
Les mille ans
Le septième millénaire
Le millénairisme
Un problème de datation
1000 ou 1033 ?

UNE HISTOIRE AVANT L'AN MIL
Fin de siècle

UNE HISTOIRE DE LA FIN DU MONDE APRÈS L'AN MIL
L'Empereur des derniers jours
Fin du XIe siècle
Fin du XIIe siècle
Fin du XIIIe siècle
Fin du XIVe siècle
Fin du XVe siècle
Fin du XVIe siècle
Fin du XVIIe siècle
Fin du XVIIIe siècle
Fin du XIXe siècle
Du mythe romantique au pamphlet politique
Ceux qui y croient encore et ceux qui n'y croient plus.

2. Les vraies et les fausses terreurs de l'an mil.

Témoins et acteurs du drame
L'historien: Raoul Glaber
Un autre historien: le moine Richer
Les figures du pouvoir
L'Empereur: Otton III
Le Pape: Gerbert, dit Sylvestre II
Le roi: Robert le Pieux
Le dérèglement des moeurs monastiques et ecclésiastiques
Le légende de la Papesse Jeanne
Les femmes au pouvoir / Les Papes à la trappe
Des simoniaques aux hérésiarques
Des conséquences fatales
Des dangers du savoir à la vertu de l'ignorance
Un châtiment nouveau: l'excommunication
Un désert surpeuplé
L'enfermement des moines
Cluny - la révolution Clunisienne
Le retirement des laïcs
Il n'y a plus de saisons
Les envahisseurs
Les épidémies
Famine et cannibalisme
Les colporteurs de mauvaises nouvelles
Les hérétiques:
Le soulèvement des paysans normands
Le pèlerinage en Terre sainte
Une morte différente
L'apparation du Diable
Les signes précurseurs de l'Apocalypse
Des prodiges terrestres et célestes
La destruction des Lieux saints
L'Apocalypse illustrée / Une iconographie nouvelle
Babel et la confusion des langues
Vénération et commerce des reliques
Les assemblées de paix / Pacifisme et défense des droits de l'homme
Les donations
L'attente, l'angoisse
Le jour le plus long
De l'an 1000 à l'an 1033
L'an 1033
Une aube nouvelle
L'ordre rétabli
Le blanc manteau des églises neuves
Les bâtisseurs de l'an mil et la naissance de l'art roman.

3. Les peurs de l'an 2000.

Les peurs de l'an 2000
L'éternel retour ... de la peur
Les prophètes de l'an 2000
De l'ère des Poissons à celle du Verseau
Le retour (prévu) des prophètes
Le mot de la fin
La fin de l'histoire
La fin des idéologies
Totalitarianisme et eschatologie
La fin des démocraties
La fin des intellectuels
La fin des valeurs morales
La fin de l'Église Catholique
Les ranchs de l'Apocalypse
The New Age
La faillite de la science
Une fin de siècle épidémique
Une apocalypse nucléaire
Les croisés de l'écologie
Une solitude surpeuplée.


It is, therefore, by a particular decree of Divine Providence that, at the fall of the Roman Empire and its partition into separate kingdoms,
the Roman Pontiff, whom Christ made the head and center of his entire Church, acquired civil power
.
- Pius IX, Apostolic Letter Cum Catholica Ecclesia, March 26, 1860.


Et il l'a pris et il lui a montré dans un instant toutes les puissance et gloire des royaumes du monde.
And he took him up and he showed him in an instant all the power and glory of the kingdoms of the world.

Il réunira l'Orient et l'Occident.

Il reconquerra les Saints Lieux.

Il établira une monarchie du monde.

Tous ce qui sont sortis de la sixième puissance doivent finalement retourner huitième, et à celle-ci huitième sont l'un des trois finaux.
All that came out of the sixth power must ultimately return to the eighth one, and this eighth one is one of the final three.

Quand le décret est envoyé en avant à tout le monde et l'ensemblage des nations sera complet, alors la période de second sera de finition.
When the decree is sent forth into all the world and the ingathering of the nations shall be complete, then the time of second one shall be finished.

L'Huitième est des sept et les trois sont de celui. Quand les trois deviennent les deux restant, alors le temps sera accompli.
The eighth one is of the seven and the three are of the one. When the three become the two remaining, then shall the time be fulfilled.

Les deux qui viendront sont les finaux. Un sera indiqué et l'autre retournera alors désigné. Alors la justice sera tout accomplie.
The two that shall come are the final ones . One shall be revealed and the other will return at the time appointed. Then shall all justice be fulfilled.

( French uncorrected - rough translation only )


321 AD: Emperor Constantine makes Christianity the state religion in the Roman Empire. Union of the Roman church and state.
330 AD: Removes the seat of the Roman government to Constantinople in the east. The Pope is left as effective temporal as well as spiritual ruler of Rome.
476 AD: The western Empire is divided between the 10 ancient Gothic kingdoms, bringing it to an end. The last Roman emperor in the west, Romulus Augustulus abdicates leaving a political power vacuum which was gradually filled by the Papacy over the next century. The Papacy in effect became the successor of the Roman imperial power, but as a religio-political world power (Church-and-state confederacy).

508 AD: Clovis, king of the Franks defeats the Goths. He converted to Catholic Christianity.
533 AD: Justinian decrees the Papal supremacy of the Bishop of Rome.
538 AD: Justinian defeats the 3 Arian Goth tribes - End of the Arian Controversy. Temporary reunification of the eastern and western empire, but later divided again after Justinian's death. Papal supremacy comes into force.
756 AD: Frankish king Pepin III defeats the Lombards and gives some of their former territory to the Papacy, establishing the Papal States in Italy.
800 AD: Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire in the west.

1054: The Great Schism between the eastern Orthodox Churches and the Roman Church.
1096-1254: Crusades
1099: Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
c. 1200-1300's: Waldenses, Albigenses, John Wycliff
1232: The Holy Roman Inquisition is established.
1299: The Ottoman Empire
1453: Constantinople falls to the Ottomans
1492: Columbus discovers America and opens the way for the European colonization of the New World. The major European colonial empires were: Britain, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Belgium (c. 1500's-1970's).

c. 1500's: The Protestant Reformation begins. Church-state separation (later) in Protestant nations. The Enlightenment, the rise of science, learning, and representative government based on principles of democracy and liberty of conscience.
1540: The Jesuit order (Society of Jesus) is established by command of Pope Paul III and Loyola to destroy the Reformation.
1559: The Papacy issues its Index Librorum Prohibitorum.
1572: Huguenotorum Strages - The slaughter of the Protestant Huguenots in France during and after the St. Bartholomew Day massacre. The French Wars of Religion begin.
1618-48: Thirty Years War
1648: Treaty of Westphalia

1620: Mayflower Compact
1644: Williams' treatise 'The Bloudy Tenent Of Persecution' argues for freedom of conscience and separation of church and state.
1776: Thomas Jefferson and the foundation of America. Separation of the three powers of government enshrined in the Constitution. Freedom of conscience and speech protected in the Bill of Rights.

1789: The French Revolution
1797: Treaty of Tolentino between the Papacy and Napoleon.
1798: Napoleonic Wars - General Louis Alexandre Berthier takes Rome, exiles Pope Pius VI and dissolves the Papal Govt. and its territories, the Papal States (Patrimony of Peter). A Roman Republic is declared but destined to be short-lived.
1800: A new Pope is appointed and Pius VII ascends the Papal throne
1801: Concordat between France and the restored Papacy.
1804: Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned Holy Roman Emperor and successor to Charlemagne. Later defeated by the British. Developed the Code Napoleon (Napoleonic legal code).
1806: End of the Holy Roman Empire.
1814-15: The Congress of Vienna restores the Papal States to the Papacy.
1822: The Holy Alliance issue the Secret Treaty of Verona undertaking to destroy or prevent the development of representative democratic governments across the world, especially in those colonial territories under the control of eg. Spain and Portugal.
1848: Revolutions across Europe
1870: The Risorgimento creates the unified Kingdom of Italy absorbing the Papal States into Italy.

1914-18: World War I - c. 15 million killed in the war.
1917: The Russian Revolution and the foundation of the Soviet Union (USSR).
1918: End of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
1922: End of the Ottoman Empire
1926: Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi (of Austria) and the Pan-Europa Movement.
1929: The Lateran Treaty signed by Cardinal Gasparri and Fascist premier Benito Mussolini establishes the Vatican City State in Rome as a sovereign state separate from Italy.
1933: Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) and Reichs Vice-Chancellor Franz Von Papen sign the Concordat between the Nazi state (Third Reich) and the Vatican. It was Hitler's first international treaty. Von Papen and the Catholic Centre Party (Zentrum) had enabled Hitler and the Nazis to consolidate power in Germany through their support. In exchange for this Von Papen got the Vice-Chancellorship and Hitler was made Chancellor and took on dictatorial powers through the annulment of the previous Weimar constitution.

1940: The Tripartite Agreement is signed by Nazi Germany, fascist Japan and Italy. Basically Japan wanted to do in Asia as Hitler wanted to do in Europe - conquer a unified regional empire under their rule, as a means to the Axis plans of a new order of world domination and enslavement.
1942: Declaration by the Allied Powers (United Nations) based on the 1941 Atlantic Charter, after the US and the Soviet Union had been attacked by the Axis powers in 1941, and thus forced into entering the War.
1939-45: World War II - c. 55-60 million die in the war against Fascism, with about 30 million refugees in Europe alone. The Holocaust and the atomic bomb. Stalin, Mao and Hitler were responsible for the deaths of c. 40 million people each (or about 120-140 million in total) during their governments. More people were killed in the 20th Century than in any previous century.
1945: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin attend the Yalta Conference to decide the post-War division of Europe after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Europe is subsequently divided into the Soviet bloc (Warsaw Pact nations of E. Europe) and the western alliance later leading to the WEU/EC and NATO. (c. 1950's-1989: Cold War) The post-War collapse of the European Colonial world empires begins.

1945: The United Nations (UN), World Bank and IMF are established (1944: Bretton Woods Conference), to prevent another war between the major powers and to stabilize the world economy.
1946: Churchill's Zurich speech on a 'united states of Europe' based on continental Europe.
1947+: The post-War collapse of the European colonial world empires as many of these former colonies emerge into independence.
1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) established.
1949: The Council of Europe (CoE) is established with the aim to reunify the nations of Europe.
1950: Robert Schuman Declaration on Europe.
1957: The Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community (EEC).
1964: The Holy See (Vatican state) gains 'Permanent observer status' at the United Nations.
1965: Vatican II Council and the new focus on the unification of Christians (ecumenism) but under Papal primacy.

1973: Britain joins the EEC.

1984: The US Reagan administration establishes formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican State.
1989: Pope John Paul II meets Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
1989-91: End of the Soviet empire in E. Europe paves the way for the enlargement and reunification of Europe.
Ongoing collapse of the former European imperial powers - The British Empire (Commonwealth), the Spanish and Portuguese colonial world empires, France's colonial empire (Alliance fran&caise), Netherlands, Belgium, etc. Sept. 11, 1990: President George H Bush delivers his 'New World Order' speech to Congress.
1993: The EEC/European Community becomes the European Union (EU).

1996: Russia joins the Council of Europe.
1997: NATO-Russia Council established a consultative partnership (non-voting) role for Russia with NATO.
2000: The EU Nice Treaty sets the course for enlargement of the bloc.
Pope John Paul II meets Jorg Haider of the far-right neo-Nazi Austria Freedom Party. Meets Russia's President Vladimir Putin. The Vatican releases its document 'Memory and Reconciliation for the Faults of the Past' apologising for its persecutions.
Sept. 11, 2001: The US terrorist attacks and the subsequent 'War on Terror'. 2003: Pre-emptive military action commences against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
1 Jan 2002: Launch of the Euro Single Currency in 12 of the current 15 EU nation states, replacing their old national currencies.

28 May 2002: NATO Rome Summit, attended by US President George W Bush, Blair and NATO heads of government. NATO-Russia Council established. Bush meets the Pope in Rome after the summit.
2003: 10 countries sign their Accession Treaties to join the EU in 2004.
Former French President Valery Giscard D'Estang and the Convention on the Future of Europe draft an EU Constitution. This is yet to be finalized but is expected to be presented for ratification by the 25 EU member states around June 2004, soon after enlargement.
Pope John Paul II calls for an explicit formal recognition of Europe's Christian (Catholic) roots and heritage in the EU Constitution. The issue of 'God' in the EU constitution?
22 February 2003: UK PM Tony Blair meets with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

1 Jan 2004: Pope John Paul II calls for a 'new international order' in his 2004 World Day of Peace Message.
2 April 2004: The 7 NATO accession countries from the former Soviet bloc nations of E. Europe join the strategic alliance ahead of EU enlargement in May. NATO currently has 26 member states including the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Italy along with others in Europe.
1 May 2004: The 10 accession countries, most from the former Soviet bloc in E. Europe, join the EU bringing its enlarged membership to 25 states. Bulgaria and Romania joined later, bringing the members to 27 so far, with others, eg. the Balkan states, set to join in the near future. ( Russia to join the EU eventually ?)
1 July 2004: The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution giving the Holy See an 'enhanced status' in UN work and policy making.
29 October 2004: The 25 heads of government of the enlarged Union sign the EU constitution in Rome, but the treaty remains yet to be ratified by all 25 EU member states. (Russia to join the EU in the near future?)

24 April 2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as Pope Benedict XVI following his appointment by the College of Cardinals, after the death of Pope John Paul II. Reiterates calls for the unification of all Christians.
2006: Pope Benedict XVI repeats the Vatican call for a 'new world order'. Meets separately with the UN General Assembly president and UK PM Tony Blair at the Vatican. Meetings with other world leaders in subsequent years, including US President George W Bush, UK PM Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, among others.

2007: Berlin Declaration on the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and the aggreement of the new EU Reform Treaty (Lisbon Treaty) to replace the EU Constitutional treaty which had been rejected in referendums previously. The Lisbon Treaty essentially kept the same provisions about the distribution of legislative and executive powers in the EU as the EU Constitution, but only Ireland was to have a referendum. Ratification of this Treaty is to be mostly by parliamentary decree instead. Extension of the Holy See's diplomatic privileges and immunities at the UN.

2008: Papal trip to the US. Pope Benedict XVI meets President Bush at the White House and speaks at the UN and before a public audience in New York. Later meets President Nicolas Sarkozy in France and speaks at the Elysée Palais. Attacks the constitutional separation of Church and State.

2008/9: US President Barak Obama replaces George W Bush. Global financial crisis prompts calls for a new financial governance regime to replace the post-War Bretton-Woods system. Possible scenarios include a strengthened regulatory mandate for the IMF. Ongoing ratification of the EU Lisbon Treaty. NATO and the EU renew formal association consultations with Russia. There are approximately 192 nations currently represented in the UN, and the Holy See (Vatican State) has formal diplomatic relations with most of them, but not yet all. Switzerland joins the EU Schengen Area borderless zone.


Those who know what Rome has once been, are best able to appreciate what she is.
- Hallam, quoted in Ecclesiastical Empire


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